Moonless Knight Review: A Grim Pixel Art Masterpiece?

Skautfold: Moonless Knight drops you into a dark, semi-open world where the only way forward is to poke at the level and feel your way through. It is a moody action-adventure that blends a 3D world with 2D movement, creating a vibe that feels like a lost 90s classic. You aren’t given a massive setup or explanation; instead, you are just chucked into a world and expected to learn it yourself as you explore the shadows.

Skautfold: Moonless Knight Quick Data

Developer: Pugware
Publisher: Red Art Games
Genre: Metroidvania / Action RPG
Release Date: April 9, 2026
Website: redartgames.com
UK Store: Nintendo eShop

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Specs |
Gameplay |
Performance |
Settings

Skautfold: Moonless Knight Nintendo Switch 2 Review: Specs & HUD

• Interactive prompts show when you are close to interactions.
• The map fills in as you explore and will show doorways and any points of interest.
• Full stats screen that shows zen, kills, pugs found, etc.
• The briefing on the main menu shows a brief story prologue.
• The map doesn’t show where you are exactly in a room, so a fair amount of guesswork is needed in bigger rooms.
• The damage numbers show guard break and health damage numbers.
• The tutorials menu in the pause screen acts as a manual with text and images.
• Radial menu used to select found relics and new abilities.

Gameplay Review & Mechanics Breakdown

It’s a weird game as it gives you a set-up or explanation, instead, you are just chucked into a world and expected to learn it yourself. I do actually like the flow of the game, as I don’t know what I’m doing, and it’s kind of fun in a way to work it out and learn as I go. It’s a game where you will poke at parts of the level and feel your way into an adventure. Top down the 3D game world, and you are moving around 2D. Action-adventure gameplay where combat requires you to learn patterns, roll, and block attacks and then, by countering, you can go all out swinging, but it’s not effective, and you can parry. You have a guard meter that goes down as you block, and can break your blocking. It also acts like stamina, going down as you attack and dash.

You have a health bar system, and you have a limited amount of heal potions. You can go back to your hub town and use the crystal to save, and it will heal you, replenish health injections and respawn enemies. Breakable objects can be hacked down in the world, like barrels, chairs, some walls, even bushes, trees, some signs and fire pits, etc. They can contain secrets or zen. Earn Zen from enemies and find them in chests to spend them in the shop for new items and weapon upgrades. There are five different types of weapons in the game: Great sword, Spear, Sword, Dual blades, and Dagger. Collect Yth stones and Zen to upgrade weapons and unlock new abilities and buffs to them. Use weapons and level them up to increase them and find banners to greatly increase them; this includes improving blocks. Weapon upgrades increase damage by 5 percent and weapon skill increases damage by 2 per cent for each level. You have a familiar with you, and you can set if he fights automatically or if you command him. Find and enter secret rooms, loot chests, and find active fast travel teleports. Examine bodies and points of interest for close-up art and text descriptions that help tell the story. Find relics, which then give you new abilities and power-ups.

Skautfold: Moonless Knight Nintendo Switch 2 Review: Performance & Fidelity

• Awesome modern pixel art graphics.
• Small download size.
• There is blood in the game, but it’s not a gory game; it’s just puddles of red ketchup.
• Coins disappear into the background as the colours clash.

Settings, Customisation & Control Details

• Video settings, text draw speed, and Kanji on special actions.
• Game settings include in-game time scale, damage numbers, automatic lock on, input buffer, hit stop, attack direction lock, and vibration.
• Audio settings: enemy alert sound, footstep sound effect volume, text sound, ambient, sound effects, and background music volume.
• In-game cutscenes and character interactions, you can fast click through the conversations.
• Five save slots, and you have a separate auto save slot.
• You can remap the controls and do it whenever you want from the pause menu, though some menus say you cannot remap the controls.
• No accessibility options at all.
• In the in-game text conversations, you cannot set it to auto-scroll.
• All in-game conversations are text-based and have no voice work or anything.
• Bit of a niche complaint, but you cannot exit a conversation, it’s annoying when you click to talk and realise you have heard the chat before, and they can be long.
• You have a dedicated taunt button, which is brilliant, as so many taunts make no sense.
• You cannot undo an upgrade on weapons, which bugged me as it didn’t make clear which weapon I had to start with, and I did the wrong one.

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