Rainbow Moon Breakdown: Is It Still Worth Your Time in 2025?
Rainbow Moon Review Pros:
- Cheerful, bright graphics.
- simple menu layout.
- Action RPG gameplay.
- Random encounters are a choice, not a must.
- ability to “craft” weapons with materials gathered.
- hours and hours of gameplay.
- Full Platinum trophy.
- Earn exp and level up.
- Huge open areas, and you can explore freely.
- Day/night cycle.
- Team attacks can be unlocked.
- Earn power tokens to upgrade weapons and add new abilities.
- Massive game world taking in many terrain types and weather effects.
- Boss fights aplenty.
- Save whenever you like from the menu.
- Optional side quests.
- Unlock and use battle plans. Battle plans determine where your party lines up in battle.
- DLC is bought more to be used as shortcuts as opposed to adding any new actual content.
- Food mechanic where you need to keep eating, otherwise you start losing health.
- Unlock warp gates to make traversing the land quicker.
- Random encounters are a choice, so you can have as many or as few as you like. Thanks to being able to see the enemies walking about, so basically not random but optional encounters.
- easy controls
- The game changes a lot, meaning tactics will have to be used.
Rainbow Moon Review Cons:
- Music is bad and really begins to grate.
- The story and dialogue are a bit naff.
- Navigating some areas can be awkward, as the trees can obscure your view.
- No autosave, but you can manually save if you remember!
- A lot of grinding needed, More so later on.
- DLC is basically a shortcut to microtransactions.
- Food mechanic is more of an annoyance than a move forward.
- The story is a bit cliché and tired in places.
- The map is too small in the menu, making it difficult to see icons, and navigation is restrictive.
- Parts of the menu, text in particular, look a bit smushed up.
- DLC=buying it basically makes the whole game easier.
- The first hour of gameplay is slow and boring as you level your character up
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Rainbow Moon:
Developer: SideQuest Studios
Publisher: Eastasiasoft
Store Link:
Rainbow Moon Review
Summary
Rainbow Moon – The Thrills and Highlights of Gameplay:
Rainbow Moon is a sprawling strategy RPG that thrives on freedom, customisation, and satisfying tactical depth. With turn-based battles, visible overworld enemies, and optional random encounters, the game puts pacing in the player’s hands. You can explore diverse environments, upgrade weapons using materials and power tokens, unlock team attacks, and even define battle formations through Battle Plans. A generous amount of side quests, a day/night cycle, warp gates, and a full Platinum trophy round out the core experience, offering hours of grinding, exploration, and progression for those who enjoy long-form, deliberate play.
Rainbow Moon – Where It Falls Short: Key Negatives:
Rainbow Moon isn’t without its frustrations. The food mechanic feels more like a tedious burden than an immersive survival element, and while combat can be tactical, grinding becomes excessive, especially in later chapters. The game’s map and menu systems feel cramped and outdated, with key icons hard to see and UI text looking smushed. There’s no autosave, and early hours can be slow and uninviting. The DLC, offering paid shortcuts, walks a fine line between convenience and undermining progression. Weak storytelling and forgettable music don’t help its case.
Rainbow Moon – Immersive Story and Narrative Elements:
Narratively, Rainbow Moon plays it safe and leans heavily into genre tropes. Its story and dialogue rarely rise above “serviceable,” functioning more as a backdrop than an emotional driver. While the core journey is present, it lacks character depth or dramatic stakes, relying on its systems and world design rather than a compelling plot to keep players engaged.
Rainbow Moon – Visual and Performance Aspects:
Visually, Rainbow Moon holds up surprisingly well thanks to its bright colour palette and cheerful aesthetic. The game leans into its indie charm with clear sprites, oversized environments, and varied weather effects. Performance is stable, and easy-to-use controls support the game’s slower pace. That said, the game can suffer from obstructive visuals (like tree cover) during exploration, and some graphical elements, including parts of the UI, feel cramped and hard to parse on smaller displays.
Rainbow Moon – Overall Verdict: Is It Worth Playing?:
In 2025, Rainbow Moon is a cult favourite for a reason. It’s not for everyone, especially those seeking rich storytelling or fast-paced progression, but its generous content, charming art style, and tactical flexibility make it a rewarding journey for those who can embrace the grind. With updated eyes, it reveals both its ambition and its ageing design, but for strategy RPG fans, it still shines with retro brilliance.
Back of the Box Quotes:
“Rainbow Moon proves that cheerful colours can hide a deceptively deep challenge.”
