If you love the mind-bending 'Groundhog's Day'-style storytelling of Majora's Mask, and if the idea of a quick-and-fun Diablo-like action RPG sounds like your thing, and if gorgeous world creation and art is your thing, this is the game for you. I didn't really know what to expect from it, but it hits every note it aims for flawlessly.
I think a lot of people have struggled with 'getting' the game - the idea of playing the same 5 days in the game work's ancient history over and over again as different characters throws some people ('wtf the game is only 45 minutes long' - noooo, you play that sequence again and again, and it changes as you play!), but for me it was a revelation. The exploring/fighting gameplay is simple, fun, and accessible - although I definitely recommend a controller. Mouse/keyboard work great for some classes, but for others not so well.
Kitfox has been supporting the game post-launch, and have promised new content. For me, this one's going in my favorites list. It's the friendliest rogue-like I've ever played (if that's even a fair comparison), and I'm a long way from done with it!
Moon Hunters is actually a very interesting and good game. This game, as I understand it, is based on Sumerian-Akkadian mythology with Greek elements, and it allows you to open new heroes for almost similar walkthroughs from different angles on a common story. This game is very beautiful visually, very cute in style, atmosphere, and very interesting in general story with it's secret. And just interesting in all matters of developing a common pool of things and the achievements of all the heroes together. But there are, of course, some cons... And the most important thing is that very repetition. It is tiring. The game, although it gives a very sheathed web of options for mini-locations(a dozen starting villages from which there is a branch with numerous locations that are scattered in a web and randomly generated) after going through the main story, reaching the result in most random events of the game, there comes a moment when you understand that for the sake of the remaining events you are too lazy to constantly re-pass the game again. The moment when the game-play stagnation comes: Constantly start with a new hero and re-develop the same skills, and even if you need to restart the game again, if in random locations there is no remaining events which you need to catch.
And in the game there are ideas that "shot empty", such as completely useless fighting pets that do almost nothing corny, or may get lost somewhere on the map, or, in general trying to be at the same point, on which the character stands so they begin to spin around themselves. Or an apostate hero, all of whose fire skills inflict damage on himself. Or a completely useless bard-support, which is good to play in a co-op only, but to pass the game independently is a torture. Or you need to be a pianist with a good reaction. Moon Hunters is a good game, which I, nevertheless, will advise you to try playing, as it is interesting and beautiful, and the "repeat system" should not cause displeasure for several days until the moment of satiety and laziness comes to get achievements already by excessive gaming.
There's something to be said for a game that lets you elope with the final boss, but otherwise Moon Hunters' light wanes a little more quickly than we'd expected. [May 2016, p.123]
Moon Hunters is an artistic game that fails almost completely in delivering an interesting and fun gameplay. Maybe too ambitious, it may have a good story to tell but it’s deeply buried in too much time of uninspired gameplay.
Too much ambition send Moon Hunters to mere mediocrity. The graphics will probably charm you, but procedurally generated gameplay will not. [Issue#264]
Moon Hunters is a fairly intriguing, story based indie game, with several RPG and rogue-like elements. It is, however, a fairly short game but it makes up for it in the fact that is has a lot of replay value. You take on the role of a member of the Moon Cult who worship the Pale Dancer, the goddess of the moon. However, the moon has mysteriously disappeared and you are tasked with finding it. Alongside this you discover the Sun Cult, your enemies, are trying to take over the world. And so you are tasked with defeating the leader of the Sun Cult, "King" Mardokh, as well as recovering the moon. There are four classes to choose from when you first start the game, however there are two more which can be acquired via certain events in the story. The four classes are; Druid, Occultist, Witch and Spellblade. Each of these classes have their own unique skills, the Druid can transform into a wolf, the Occultist can create small worm holes, the Witch can shoot lasers and the Spellblade can use whirlwind attacks. These skills can also be upgraded stats like damage, stamina cost or ability duration. There are also several stats that can be upgraded, depending on how you approach certain situations and how you choose to spend the night. To name a few, you’ve got; endurance, which increases the amount of health you have, there’s also strength, which increases your physical damage and charm, which increases your leadership, making it so people will listen to you can fall for your charms, and yes flirting is also an option at some points. These are to just name a few and it’s fairly obvious how they help you out in the fray. Speaking of which, combat in Moon Hunters is fairly simple. Face the direction you wish to attack in and press the attack button, dodge with the designated key and use your special ability with the other. Enemies are also unique per area, with giant lion beasts in the desert to tiny beetle creatures in the forest. They all have different attack patterns and sometimes require you to take a different approach in order to take them out.
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Graphically the game has a beautiful pixel art style combined with the wonderfully hand drawn characters shown in dialogue sections. The colour scheme used is bright and pleasing to the eye, providing a clear distinction between each setting. Which fits nicely alongside the fantastic soundtrack, which wonderfully expresses the fantasy vibe.
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Overall Moon Hunters is a lovingly crafted fantasy experience with distinct RPG and rogue-like elements which can be played in both Single player and Co-op. Despite the short story it still has a lot of replay value and each time you replay you’ll discover something completely different. I’d highly recommend this game to anyone, if you love RPG games then it’s a must. But whatever the case it’s a game that’s clearly has had a lot of effort and time put into it and well worth a look. Good Day!
Admittedly I only played an hour of this game, which actually amounts to one playthrough. The combat is bland, the story in the one playthrough feels extremly barebones and incomplete though you are meant to play it multiple times from different perspectives to get a full picture. However I simply don't feel like continuing to play it to find out more so that's where I stopped.
Unfortunatly the best things the pseudo roguelike game has going for itself are the good graphics (nice art design) and the soundtrack.
Otherwise the gameplay seems enjoyable at first, but the game is WAY too easy! It doesn't scale with player count and your characters will be super OP after no time and then you will almost fall asleep until the end. Procedual generation has almost no meaning as enemy variety does not change much only the visuals of the surrounding areas.
Could be a great game with more elements, more spells per class, more challenge, and more significance in the "procedural generation. In it's current state it is unfortunately just pretty boring.
SummaryMoon Hunters is a cooperative action personality test RPG in a rich, ancient world that’s different every time you play. Build your mythology as every action and choice contributes to how you’re remembered, as a constellation in the night sky.