Moonscars Review (PlayStation 5)

For our Moonscars Review we play under grim moonlight, the fierce Clayborne warrior Grey Irma battles, driven by a lonesome purpose: Find the Sculptor, and unravel the mystery of her existence. Push the limits of your combat skills, and master new abilities to progress through an unforgiving nonlinear 2D world. Face off against the relentless darkness that seeks to destroy you. In Moonscars, every death is a lesson learned—and as you overcome each challenge, new truths will be revealed.

Moonscars Review Pros:

  • Beautiful pixel art graphics.
  • 364.4MB download size.
  • Platinum trophy.
  • You get the PlayStation 4 and the PlayStation 5 versions.
  • Action RPG souls like gameplay.
  • Tutorial prompts as you play.
  • Hack and slash combat.
  • 3 save slots.
  • Dark and grim locations that look fantastic.
  • Dark Mirrors are used to Warp (fast travel), learn new abilities, Moon Rite, Clay rite, and weapon rite.
  • Moon Rite is where you can offer Glands in order to change the Moon between Ravenous (more rewards but harder enemies) and Full moon (easier enemies but fewer rewards).
  • The witchery skill tree is where you choose your upgrades and abilities.
  • The map fills in as you play.
  • Metroidvania elements.
  • A lot of platforming.
  • 2D side scroller perspective.
  • Your loadout can house 3 amulet stones, 2 abilities, and a special attack.
  • Full drag and drop inventory system.
  • Brutally difficult.
  • Parry notifications bang-up and successful hits will knock the enemies back.
  • Graves are left behind when you die and you have the next life to recover them.
  • Environmental hazards that you can use to kill enemies.
  • Solid tight combat.
  • Spite is built up as you kill enemies and when you fill the bar you get a choice of 3 random bonuses, you can build up as many as you like but lose them all if you die, even if you recover the grave.
  • Special weapons can be obtained and these are different types like hammers, harpoons,s and that. Each type will also have a unique build-up effect like stun or Hex.
  • Doppelgangers of yourself can be created when sacrificing to mirrors, they will take your special weapon and you must defeat them to get it back.
  • Enemies are a mixture of ground-based and airborne.
  • Satisfying once you string your parries.
  • The Mould workshop is your main hub that can be accessed from any mirror, here you can open up new areas, talk with characters, etc.
  • Fast healing.
  • The game oozes a tense atmosphere.
  • Doppelgangers are basically mini-boss encounters.
  • The controller vibrates with movement.
  • Full aerial movement and juggling attacks.
  • The touchpad is used for the map shortcut.
  • You can put up to five personal markers on the map.
  • Wall jumping is used for climbing.
  • The map design is really intricate with many shortcuts and alternative routes.
  • You can move the camera around.
  • Clay statues can be broken and they will house either another enemy or an Ai partner that will fight with you until death.

Moonscars Review Cons:

  • Brutally difficult.
  • A lot to take in with many rites and systems at play.
  • Learning to parry is very difficult.
  • Any more than one enemy at a time and you have problems.
  • Recovering graves is a case of pressing and holding up which is less than ideal.
  • So much going on.
  • No voice work, just loads of text.
  • The combat is not as fluid as it needs to be.
  • The map doesn’t show where you are exactly.
  • When an enemy charges it is all about timing the parry otherwise you get hit a huge knockback.

Related Post: Blood Waves Review (PlayStation 5)

Moonscars:

Official website.

Developer: Black Mermaid

Publisher: Humble Games

Store Links – 

PlayStation

  • 8/10
    Graphics - 8/10
  • 7/10
    Sound - 7/10
  • 7/10
    Accessibility - 7/10
  • 8/10
    Length - 8/10
  • 8/10
    Fun Factor - 8/10
7.6/10

Summary

Moonscars is indeed a Soulslike game with a Metroidvania twist. The combat is brutally tough with a huge emphasis on parry and dodging mechanics. The game is presented in a gorgeous pixel art way that is a visual treat, it does make some characters look a bit blocky but overall the animated backdrop is really nice, I was going to say inviting but come on it’s a game about killing people and blood splattering everywhere! Moonscars has said is difficult and unlike Souls games I feel Moonscars is that when you die you feel like it’s the game and not you, they chuck so many enemies in a small space and have a very stubborn parry system that doesn’t scale well at all with enemy counts. Boss battles are OK but again they make it harder by having normal attacks do less damage so you have to use Witchery abilities more that are not as spammable. I do like the game and it does feel good when you chain your combos and parries but it’s just not as fluid as it needs to be, the clunk Ruins the smackdown funk and makes what could be a manageable situation a pain in the ass sweaty palm moment, sounds like that’s right but what I forgot to mention was the sheer frustration of pulling off everything. The system where you can get one of three spites is a good idea but again it’s the same three things over and over, it just again stops the flow of the game and this could be avoided. The Witchery abilities are seriously cool once you get a fair way down the skill tree but even then it’s like the game doesn’t really like to give up a y of its toys and you are fighting a system aswel as the game. Moonscars is good and it does a lot of things well one shout-out it needs is how it basically brings back the whole light and dark world tenancies that we last saw in the original Demons souls game, this is where you sacrifice items to change how enemies and rewards work. Souls players will enjoy the challenge and new players will love the world but it just has a lot of little niggles that stifle the otherwise great experience. Moonscars is not terrible but it has some odd design choices mixed in with some excellent choices. Inconsistent is the takeaway here.

Jim Smale

Gaming since the Atari 2600, I enjoy the weirdness in games counting Densha De Go and RC De Go as my favourite titles of all time. I prefer gaming of old where buying games from a shop was a thing, Being social in person was a thing. Join me as I attempt to adapt to this new digital age!