I’m impressed by how Lunacid captured me. Not entirely, but the sheer passion created by Kira and others is worthy of note. For a dark fantasy first-person dungeon crawler. Inspired heavily by FromSoftware’s Kingsfield and Shadow Tower IPs. While I haven’t played those games in particular, I know the style and gameplay enough from videos I’ve seen. Other influences I feel worth mentioning are Zelda, Castlevania and another franchise I love, but I can't say or else it'll spoil a major thing. I'll give you a hint though. The person most famous for creating this IP is from Square Enix. Even those with no experience may find something worthy of note to be found. Bonus points for those who love/like Souls entries I would say it's enough to tickle your soul's interest into overdrive. I know it did for me.
Nonetheless, the dark fantasy tag is apt, but I want to highlight one element here and that is horror. And though I have limited experience in the genre, I feel there was enough stuff here to warrant it because I had plenty of spine-chilling moments crawling up my back. Facing off close to a dozen truly nightmarish creatures I wish I didn’t have to face since I was constantly yelling “Nope! nope! nope!” Slowly making my way through grayish stygian corridors with none other than my handy torch or ghostlight magic to illuminate my surroundings during my inkiest of days. While fearfully at times investigating corners or empty rooms for any hidden surprises. Phew… Be that as it may. Lunacid doesn’t boast a must-play in the story-telling department nor does it captivate me with thrilling combat mechanics. Instead, the music captured my heart, and the dungeon exploring fueled my sense of curiosity like a cat where I could not stop delving deeper into the Great Well. A fresh and diverse chunk of enemy variety, spells, weapons, and level design consistently kept my fun factor decently high against several heart-pumping segments and concerns I found. I'll talk about the enjoyable parts first and discuss several alarm bells later.
Story-wise, a short exposition begins detailing how a great beast brought an age of death and how the inhabitants throw the wretched, criminals, and ill into the Great Well. And you, the main player character are one of those unfortunate souls thrown in. Escape, fight, learn, what lies beneath. That’s the main gist to get started. And after completing everything in the game in eighteen hours I can only say the narrative isn’t the strongest to entice players. Instead, the freedom to explore, level up, and find what lurks in the shadows and caves! And more kept my intrigue! The fascinating NPCs you encounter every time during Wing’s Rest(the main hub) were enough of a reason for me to come back. Listening to new stories I didn’t expect would be delightful. Imagine sitting on a campfire listening to the storyteller. Kinda feels like that. Except in reality, I'm listening to a forgetful skeleton by the name of Clive casually drinking HP potions like no tomorrow. I’m still in disbelief where it all goes…
Moreover, the gameplay loop of exploring, fighting, and healing is a formula I found oddly satisfying. Though, I admit early on about 30 minutes in I was not particularly enthused. Only took an hour plus before I slightly became enthralled. I cautiously explored the first area to find another entrance to a dimmer zone called the temple of silence. From here, I was hooked. This lightless section filled with mummies and a haunting atmosphere sped up my heartbeat beyond the average. I found myself beset with anxiety, fear and reckless courage to brave gloomy corridors. A trusty sword, torch, and my low levels kept me slowly progressing until I achieved victory by finding a crystal shard. Shards can become sites of rest to heal, teleport you to past crystal locations, and most importantly level up your stats. These can range from increasing health, mana, melee & spell damage. Most unique in these stats is the inclusion of jump and running speed which are essential for newcomers. Don’t doubt the speed at which you run. By upgrading the stat value you can run away from enemies and whittle down their vitality until their demise. By the same token adding points to your jump stat allows you to jump across obstacles you wouldn’t otherwise reach. Both horizontally and vertically. Ties well enough into the level design. So the gameplay loop of fighting enemies, gaining enough experience, leveling up, completing sidequests, and healing, returning to new grounds is a fun cycle.
The world of Lunacid is as free as you can muster. And as deep as you can bravely master. Don’t see constant boring walking simulators here. Levels are intricate and provide multiple pathways through interconnectivity. I almost hesitate to say this is a Metroidvania except I'm not forced to have essential abilities to progress. Certainly, several keys are needed to progress, but for the most part, the varied amount of dungeons are carefully constructed to induce a wide spread of biomes to venture. With enough secrets, clever wall positioning for hidden valuables, verticality for platforming(not a lot, but a decent number), and multiple zones within. I saw filthy sewers, stood in awe of a red sea, held my controller tightly upon entering a deep tomb, and became mesmerized finding greenery! As if Nintendo decided to swing by and whisper in Kira’s ear “Hey! We want a forest dimension!” And voila there it is. I gorged the countless books in the library archives, tackled the looming castle, and sought the throne within. Even undertook the challenging abyssal tower for the greatest of all treasures shining under the pale moonlight. Yes, my wanderlust was satiated. Conversely, more than half a dozen, I dreaded due to the enemies I found to be horrifying, but regardless of the nightmarish creatures, I breathed a sigh of relief upon realizing each locale I visited. I think we're carefully balanced not to the brim filled with mobs of baddies. The placement of each of them throughout my playthrough felt balanced and not too sparse. I even found kawaii inhabitants in the most uncommon of sectors. To embrace or for those with murderous tendencies, you can eliminate them if you wish.
Simplicity in mechanics is a core focus. I didn’t find anything complex in the systems. And I would say it is a strength to keep it simple. Jump, attack, guard, use spell 1, spell 2, activate item 1, item 2, etc. These are all you need while paying attention to your health, mana, and charge gauge(This determines how hard to hit opponents). Aside from the easy-to-learn stats. You can equip any weapon without any stat requirement. The rule applies to magic as well. However, you can only have two slots to equip. And both of these categories have a great wealth of equipment and arcane to discover. Use ranged weaponry like a bow and arrow or any manner of swords to the smallest of daggers and unconventional arms like clubs or hammers and lance. Additionally, quite a decent sum of these melee armaments can be upgraded once you accrue enough experience for the equipped arm! Great way to evolve a weapon granting better stats, and a new look, and perhaps may give you the edge unexpectedly. I found a broken hilt and turned it into a fire-sword! Not gonna lie, it looks like a fantasy red lightsaber. No need to use a torch anymore in shadowy regions heh. Doesn’t take all that long to fill up the experience bar. Although, a decent chunk of endgame weapons can take a bit. Do yourself a favor and wack breakable objects or cheese the method by whacking a dead enemy, raising the values faster than you can ordinarily fight mobs. Sadly spells can’t be upgraded, but there’s a plethora to choose from. My favorites were healing magic, a god-tier moonbeam, lightning, and summoning a classic companion from the good old days. Won’t say the name, but if you played any of the franchises I mentioned above you’re in for a good time, not a bad time. Naturally defensive, utility, and support are available. Move faster, barrier, create coffins, rockbridges, fire, dark, light, wind, ice, and blood elements are at your disposal. Go mad you crazy wizard. Weaponry can be found in various ways through NPC’s, enemy drops, and by mere searching on the path ahead. A good incentive to explore every inch. Hell, you may come across a hidden door revealing good loot or a new shortcut.
The soundwork is stunning. I felt a wide range of feelings upon hearing the music. I felt the sorrow and hatred of realms giving off plenty of melancholy and sadness. I nodded vigorously upon hearing uplifting instruments turning my sad soul into one of light. Full of brightness and joy. I have to hand it to Kira, ThorHighHeels, and others. Holy. Black Magic! They manage to keep me invested. Notwithstanding becoming unsettling, yet oddly enough some tracks were atmospheric and tranquil. Also, super love how entering a new location will show the track name listed in the bottom left corner. With author credit on who composed it. Wish more devs included the feature. Thereby, we can properly credit the composer/s and see what track occurs when entering a new zone. Seriously underrated aspect, while I listened to pleasant sounds! Soft instrumentals like pianos and percussions are used to great effect to give off peaceful melodies. Accompanied by a diverse amount of tracks to hit specific spectrums like anxiety when you’re lurking in a dim tomb or inside a desolate area full of forgotten criminals. Even sewers are given lots of love to be eerie and kinda desolate. By far my favorite is Serence which is the main hub theme you go back to. Much like Firelink Shrine from Dark Souls. A place of rest and quiet comfort amid constant fighting. I was lured by the gentle sounds and stayed in it for countless hours. It’s not as heavenly to the Nier lengths of a certain franchise. For what it's worth, the ambiance and soothing rhythm beats while trekking, battling, and healing left me with a feeling of contentment.
Despite all the praise I’ve been sprouting I have to talk about my mixed feelings. Not a positive or a negative, just stuff I felt during my playthrough that could be improved or tweaked.
First, my biggest disgruntlement is the lack of a lore archive or database. As a lore-nut I always wish games had a menu option, you can constantly reference and go back to the documents you found or significant objects during your travels. Especially for those who like to litter the ground with papers of scattered entries. A prudent feature, you don’t need to reference user print screen images or steam’s handy screenshot key like I did where I stored countless notes I found during my ventures into the deep. Providing a reference point or allowing the player to go “Hmmm I see” like a smart fella where you can see all the cards falling into place. Connecting pieces of documents by process of elimination and linking them to the worldbuilding if I see a common pattern or core thread to tie knots. Here my knots are fraying at the seams at the frustration I have since there isn’t enough of a focus to properly identify half of the notes I found to a person. The papers I found only give a quote that ties into the locale, but the missing person’s identity leaves me befuddled at the meaning beyond a random person’s woes to give off a false illusion of being careful of what lies ahead. Thankfully, not all the notes are like this. More often than not the books I found say who wrote the message like Sir Garrat, Bonnard(random tangent, but I'm speechless at what this guy did), Jusztina, & Ophelia. Everything else? Nothing, I can’t connect the person to the vicinity or race, only allocate their message to the residing location where I found the quote. Still not a big deal, since my boney dude Clive was lore dripping me with lore stories. They more than makeup for this transgression. Highly recommend checking them out. Always love what they have to say to me every time I return to the main hub.
Second, the alchemy system feels underutilized due to the pitiful volume of drops you may gain from random chance and perhaps no materials at all. Making the early to mid part of my playthrough somewhat of a struggle for resources. But not necessary to scavenge. For example, I didn't have enough of the exact materials to create a mana potion, I had to rely on destructible objects and be careful of how many health potions I had on hand. There is a shop, but you can only gain money from destroying objects and defeating enemies. You don’t gain a lot during your playthrough. This becomes hampered by a plethora of usable items that the game teases you often by showing the formulas but doesn’t fully express itself to the fullest extent by again a lack of materials. Maybe I played in a weird format and that’s why the required ingredients didn’t show. But I thoroughly explored every inch and crevice, and something clearly went awry. I think giving more monsters and flora you find of the common ingredients would be a better alternative. Additionally, instead of dropping one measly morsel per enemy death. Or none at all. Make it double or triple if it's a common rarity we need for consumables. Thankfully, you don’t need to use the alchemy system, I only used it after the final boss to see what recipes I was missing. Feels like a supplementary system attached to give players extra breathing room.
Third, a multitude of factors: more bosses. I can count on one hand, the exact number including to a lesser extent mini-bosses. I get it’s not supposed to be souls-like and more of a Kingsfield-like. However, I feel it's a missed opportunity since there were plenty of open spaces in various biomes I visited that could’ve been used to test the player. Granted, less than a handful of major bosses do a great job of testing me to my limit. And the sick art models and artificial intelligence made fights visually interesting. Kinda weird to expect more, when there isn’t. Additionally, I abhor the fact there is an enemy in the game that steals your money. I lost over 500 bucks. I was devastated. Needed the money to buy a very expensive weapon. And I’ve been saving in bulk since the start only to lose it all in the 80% mark. Couldn’t regain my wallet after defeating them either. So beware! Happens when you’re in a sandy region. Keep an eye on your vitality. And don’t get hit. I paid dearly for it. Don’t be a fool like me! I was arrogant to think I could defeat this dastardly foe. Furthermore, there is a bit of obscurity in certain areas like not knowing how to use elemental spells to open doors and how to achieve one of the endings clearly. Consequently, I highly recommend looking up a guide for those. I’ll post links below to help players in case they're in a slump. No shame in finding the solution instead of spending 'x' hours struggling. I used them only when I combed every new field blind and then checked a map guide to see if I missed any.
Finally, I think more NPCs could’ve been added to make a handful of spaces filled with more life in spite of the apparent and purposeful design to keep it somewhat sparse. Inducing a sense of anxiety and fear ramping up. Certainly, there are NPCs in various sectors, but these are only used more than a handful of times and don’t offer much besides several sidequests. I’m not asking for a new person per new biome. Feel it is a 50/50 chance of there being one and perhaps gives me something to do other than finding/fighting new enemies and discovering new loot. Along with the occasional minor puzzle here and there by pulling or destroying mechanisms. The game does a good enough job with the existing characters inside that you can help each of them during a level to complete their side quest. So extra individuals to spice up locations. A tiny bundle would suffice. Doesn’t even have to be friendly… Could be a rival or murderous individual who hates us. I think that would’ve been a nice twist.
Overall, there’s a decent sum I appreciate from trying my first-person dungeon crawler. With no bugs, crashes, or major framerate dips encountered to my utter relief. Took me over a week to consolidate my final thoughts. Nevertheless, my mixed feelings don’t affect the overall game too much. The biggest hurdle I think is the fact the beginning may not be the most enticing and it takes a decent effort to sift through beyond the mundanity, yet for those patient enough. For an indie-Kingsfield-like, Lunacid shines once you familiarize yourself with the simplistic core mechanics and express courage and genuine interest into crawling into the unknown. The accompanying sound work deserves special praise, and I cannot for the life of me wait until the soundtrack is available to purchase. It is not the next must-hear for unheard composers, but for an indie, I am awe-inspired at the sheer quality of most music tracks. The nuance in level structure by not adhering to a copy-paste in every single pathway kept things fresh and new throughout my eighteen hours. Becoming more complex as you progress further with no big difficulty spikes. A nice way to raise the challenge once I reach the endgame. Not too insurmountable while taking a fine line to be not a cakewalk even for my level 92 cleric. Ok, maybe I was too over-leveled… Well... it's okay. Going overpowered is good in my books hah! In the end, I hesitate to say this is a must-play to try for newcomers in the genre due to its shortcomings. Rather it is merely a valid choice to consider. So if you’re interested in this type of game I would suggest checking videos of the gameplay and reviews to get a broader idea of what you’re looking into. For fourteen USD I think it's a fair price for what you’re getting. Better on a sale. Anyway! Excuse me while I fill up my backlog on dungeon crawler games I missed out on! While keeping a close eye on whatever else Kira is cooking up.
7.5/10
Additional Material:
Adventurer’s Guide & Before I play - All around guide and other helpful tips to keep in mind.
100% checklist - To help those trying for 100%
Maps, Secrets, Items - Need a map?
WIP Alchemy list - Alchemy recipes
Other reviews on Lunacid - Other reviews to read
Curse’s review - touches on a lot of points I like. Not to discourage others, but to give a circumspect view.
Nonetheless, the dark fantasy tag is apt, but I want to highlight one element here and that is horror. And though I have limited experience in the genre, I feel there was enough stuff here to warrant it because I had plenty of spine-chilling moments crawling up my back. Facing off close to a dozen truly nightmarish creatures I wish I didn’t have to face since I was constantly yelling “Nope! nope! nope!” Slowly making my way through grayish stygian corridors with none other than my handy torch or ghostlight magic to illuminate my surroundings during my inkiest of days. While fearfully at times investigating corners or empty rooms for any hidden surprises. Phew… Be that as it may. Lunacid doesn’t boast a must-play in the story-telling department nor does it captivate me with thrilling combat mechanics. Instead, the music captured my heart, and the dungeon exploring fueled my sense of curiosity like a cat where I could not stop delving deeper into the Great Well. A fresh and diverse chunk of enemy variety, spells, weapons, and level design consistently kept my fun factor decently high against several heart-pumping segments and concerns I found. I'll talk about the enjoyable parts first and discuss several alarm bells later.
Story-wise, a short exposition begins detailing how a great beast brought an age of death and how the inhabitants throw the wretched, criminals, and ill into the Great Well. And you, the main player character are one of those unfortunate souls thrown in. Escape, fight, learn, what lies beneath. That’s the main gist to get started. And after completing everything in the game in eighteen hours I can only say the narrative isn’t the strongest to entice players. Instead, the freedom to explore, level up, and find what lurks in the shadows and caves! And more kept my intrigue! The fascinating NPCs you encounter every time during Wing’s Rest(the main hub) were enough of a reason for me to come back. Listening to new stories I didn’t expect would be delightful. Imagine sitting on a campfire listening to the storyteller. Kinda feels like that. Except in reality, I'm listening to a forgetful skeleton by the name of Clive casually drinking HP potions like no tomorrow. I’m still in disbelief where it all goes…
Moreover, the gameplay loop of exploring, fighting, and healing is a formula I found oddly satisfying. Though, I admit early on about 30 minutes in I was not particularly enthused. Only took an hour plus before I slightly became enthralled. I cautiously explored the first area to find another entrance to a dimmer zone called the temple of silence. From here, I was hooked. This lightless section filled with mummies and a haunting atmosphere sped up my heartbeat beyond the average. I found myself beset with anxiety, fear and reckless courage to brave gloomy corridors. A trusty sword, torch, and my low levels kept me slowly progressing until I achieved victory by finding a crystal shard. Shards can become sites of rest to heal, teleport you to past crystal locations, and most importantly level up your stats. These can range from increasing health, mana, melee & spell damage. Most unique in these stats is the inclusion of jump and running speed which are essential for newcomers. Don’t doubt the speed at which you run. By upgrading the stat value you can run away from enemies and whittle down their vitality until their demise. By the same token adding points to your jump stat allows you to jump across obstacles you wouldn’t otherwise reach. Both horizontally and vertically. Ties well enough into the level design. So the gameplay loop of fighting enemies, gaining enough experience, leveling up, completing sidequests, and healing, returning to new grounds is a fun cycle.
The world of Lunacid is as free as you can muster. And as deep as you can bravely master. Don’t see constant boring walking simulators here. Levels are intricate and provide multiple pathways through interconnectivity. I almost hesitate to say this is a Metroidvania except I'm not forced to have essential abilities to progress. Certainly, several keys are needed to progress, but for the most part, the varied amount of dungeons are carefully constructed to induce a wide spread of biomes to venture. With enough secrets, clever wall positioning for hidden valuables, verticality for platforming(not a lot, but a decent number), and multiple zones within. I saw filthy sewers, stood in awe of a red sea, held my controller tightly upon entering a deep tomb, and became mesmerized finding greenery! As if Nintendo decided to swing by and whisper in Kira’s ear “Hey! We want a forest dimension!” And voila there it is. I gorged the countless books in the library archives, tackled the looming castle, and sought the throne within. Even undertook the challenging abyssal tower for the greatest of all treasures shining under the pale moonlight. Yes, my wanderlust was satiated. Conversely, more than half a dozen, I dreaded due to the enemies I found to be horrifying, but regardless of the nightmarish creatures, I breathed a sigh of relief upon realizing each locale I visited. I think we're carefully balanced not to the brim filled with mobs of baddies. The placement of each of them throughout my playthrough felt balanced and not too sparse. I even found kawaii inhabitants in the most uncommon of sectors. To embrace or for those with murderous tendencies, you can eliminate them if you wish.
Simplicity in mechanics is a core focus. I didn’t find anything complex in the systems. And I would say it is a strength to keep it simple. Jump, attack, guard, use spell 1, spell 2, activate item 1, item 2, etc. These are all you need while paying attention to your health, mana, and charge gauge(This determines how hard to hit opponents). Aside from the easy-to-learn stats. You can equip any weapon without any stat requirement. The rule applies to magic as well. However, you can only have two slots to equip. And both of these categories have a great wealth of equipment and arcane to discover. Use ranged weaponry like a bow and arrow or any manner of swords to the smallest of daggers and unconventional arms like clubs or hammers and lance. Additionally, quite a decent sum of these melee armaments can be upgraded once you accrue enough experience for the equipped arm! Great way to evolve a weapon granting better stats, and a new look, and perhaps may give you the edge unexpectedly. I found a broken hilt and turned it into a fire-sword! Not gonna lie, it looks like a fantasy red lightsaber. No need to use a torch anymore in shadowy regions heh. Doesn’t take all that long to fill up the experience bar. Although, a decent chunk of endgame weapons can take a bit. Do yourself a favor and wack breakable objects or cheese the method by whacking a dead enemy, raising the values faster than you can ordinarily fight mobs. Sadly spells can’t be upgraded, but there’s a plethora to choose from. My favorites were healing magic, a god-tier moonbeam, lightning, and summoning a classic companion from the good old days. Won’t say the name, but if you played any of the franchises I mentioned above you’re in for a good time, not a bad time. Naturally defensive, utility, and support are available. Move faster, barrier, create coffins, rockbridges, fire, dark, light, wind, ice, and blood elements are at your disposal. Go mad you crazy wizard. Weaponry can be found in various ways through NPC’s, enemy drops, and by mere searching on the path ahead. A good incentive to explore every inch. Hell, you may come across a hidden door revealing good loot or a new shortcut.
The soundwork is stunning. I felt a wide range of feelings upon hearing the music. I felt the sorrow and hatred of realms giving off plenty of melancholy and sadness. I nodded vigorously upon hearing uplifting instruments turning my sad soul into one of light. Full of brightness and joy. I have to hand it to Kira, ThorHighHeels, and others. Holy. Black Magic! They manage to keep me invested. Notwithstanding becoming unsettling, yet oddly enough some tracks were atmospheric and tranquil. Also, super love how entering a new location will show the track name listed in the bottom left corner. With author credit on who composed it. Wish more devs included the feature. Thereby, we can properly credit the composer/s and see what track occurs when entering a new zone. Seriously underrated aspect, while I listened to pleasant sounds! Soft instrumentals like pianos and percussions are used to great effect to give off peaceful melodies. Accompanied by a diverse amount of tracks to hit specific spectrums like anxiety when you’re lurking in a dim tomb or inside a desolate area full of forgotten criminals. Even sewers are given lots of love to be eerie and kinda desolate. By far my favorite is Serence which is the main hub theme you go back to. Much like Firelink Shrine from Dark Souls. A place of rest and quiet comfort amid constant fighting. I was lured by the gentle sounds and stayed in it for countless hours. It’s not as heavenly to the Nier lengths of a certain franchise. For what it's worth, the ambiance and soothing rhythm beats while trekking, battling, and healing left me with a feeling of contentment.
Despite all the praise I’ve been sprouting I have to talk about my mixed feelings. Not a positive or a negative, just stuff I felt during my playthrough that could be improved or tweaked.
First, my biggest disgruntlement is the lack of a lore archive or database. As a lore-nut I always wish games had a menu option, you can constantly reference and go back to the documents you found or significant objects during your travels. Especially for those who like to litter the ground with papers of scattered entries. A prudent feature, you don’t need to reference user print screen images or steam’s handy screenshot key like I did where I stored countless notes I found during my ventures into the deep. Providing a reference point or allowing the player to go “Hmmm I see” like a smart fella where you can see all the cards falling into place. Connecting pieces of documents by process of elimination and linking them to the worldbuilding if I see a common pattern or core thread to tie knots. Here my knots are fraying at the seams at the frustration I have since there isn’t enough of a focus to properly identify half of the notes I found to a person. The papers I found only give a quote that ties into the locale, but the missing person’s identity leaves me befuddled at the meaning beyond a random person’s woes to give off a false illusion of being careful of what lies ahead. Thankfully, not all the notes are like this. More often than not the books I found say who wrote the message like Sir Garrat, Bonnard(random tangent, but I'm speechless at what this guy did), Jusztina, & Ophelia. Everything else? Nothing, I can’t connect the person to the vicinity or race, only allocate their message to the residing location where I found the quote. Still not a big deal, since my boney dude Clive was lore dripping me with lore stories. They more than makeup for this transgression. Highly recommend checking them out. Always love what they have to say to me every time I return to the main hub.
Second, the alchemy system feels underutilized due to the pitiful volume of drops you may gain from random chance and perhaps no materials at all. Making the early to mid part of my playthrough somewhat of a struggle for resources. But not necessary to scavenge. For example, I didn't have enough of the exact materials to create a mana potion, I had to rely on destructible objects and be careful of how many health potions I had on hand. There is a shop, but you can only gain money from destroying objects and defeating enemies. You don’t gain a lot during your playthrough. This becomes hampered by a plethora of usable items that the game teases you often by showing the formulas but doesn’t fully express itself to the fullest extent by again a lack of materials. Maybe I played in a weird format and that’s why the required ingredients didn’t show. But I thoroughly explored every inch and crevice, and something clearly went awry. I think giving more monsters and flora you find of the common ingredients would be a better alternative. Additionally, instead of dropping one measly morsel per enemy death. Or none at all. Make it double or triple if it's a common rarity we need for consumables. Thankfully, you don’t need to use the alchemy system, I only used it after the final boss to see what recipes I was missing. Feels like a supplementary system attached to give players extra breathing room.
Third, a multitude of factors: more bosses. I can count on one hand, the exact number including to a lesser extent mini-bosses. I get it’s not supposed to be souls-like and more of a Kingsfield-like. However, I feel it's a missed opportunity since there were plenty of open spaces in various biomes I visited that could’ve been used to test the player. Granted, less than a handful of major bosses do a great job of testing me to my limit. And the sick art models and artificial intelligence made fights visually interesting. Kinda weird to expect more, when there isn’t. Additionally, I abhor the fact there is an enemy in the game that steals your money. I lost over 500 bucks. I was devastated. Needed the money to buy a very expensive weapon. And I’ve been saving in bulk since the start only to lose it all in the 80% mark. Couldn’t regain my wallet after defeating them either. So beware! Happens when you’re in a sandy region. Keep an eye on your vitality. And don’t get hit. I paid dearly for it. Don’t be a fool like me! I was arrogant to think I could defeat this dastardly foe. Furthermore, there is a bit of obscurity in certain areas like not knowing how to use elemental spells to open doors and how to achieve one of the endings clearly. Consequently, I highly recommend looking up a guide for those. I’ll post links below to help players in case they're in a slump. No shame in finding the solution instead of spending 'x' hours struggling. I used them only when I combed every new field blind and then checked a map guide to see if I missed any.
Finally, I think more NPCs could’ve been added to make a handful of spaces filled with more life in spite of the apparent and purposeful design to keep it somewhat sparse. Inducing a sense of anxiety and fear ramping up. Certainly, there are NPCs in various sectors, but these are only used more than a handful of times and don’t offer much besides several sidequests. I’m not asking for a new person per new biome. Feel it is a 50/50 chance of there being one and perhaps gives me something to do other than finding/fighting new enemies and discovering new loot. Along with the occasional minor puzzle here and there by pulling or destroying mechanisms. The game does a good enough job with the existing characters inside that you can help each of them during a level to complete their side quest. So extra individuals to spice up locations. A tiny bundle would suffice. Doesn’t even have to be friendly… Could be a rival or murderous individual who hates us. I think that would’ve been a nice twist.
Overall, there’s a decent sum I appreciate from trying my first-person dungeon crawler. With no bugs, crashes, or major framerate dips encountered to my utter relief. Took me over a week to consolidate my final thoughts. Nevertheless, my mixed feelings don’t affect the overall game too much. The biggest hurdle I think is the fact the beginning may not be the most enticing and it takes a decent effort to sift through beyond the mundanity, yet for those patient enough. For an indie-Kingsfield-like, Lunacid shines once you familiarize yourself with the simplistic core mechanics and express courage and genuine interest into crawling into the unknown. The accompanying sound work deserves special praise, and I cannot for the life of me wait until the soundtrack is available to purchase. It is not the next must-hear for unheard composers, but for an indie, I am awe-inspired at the sheer quality of most music tracks. The nuance in level structure by not adhering to a copy-paste in every single pathway kept things fresh and new throughout my eighteen hours. Becoming more complex as you progress further with no big difficulty spikes. A nice way to raise the challenge once I reach the endgame. Not too insurmountable while taking a fine line to be not a cakewalk even for my level 92 cleric. Ok, maybe I was too over-leveled… Well... it's okay. Going overpowered is good in my books hah! In the end, I hesitate to say this is a must-play to try for newcomers in the genre due to its shortcomings. Rather it is merely a valid choice to consider. So if you’re interested in this type of game I would suggest checking videos of the gameplay and reviews to get a broader idea of what you’re looking into. For fourteen USD I think it's a fair price for what you’re getting. Better on a sale. Anyway! Excuse me while I fill up my backlog on dungeon crawler games I missed out on! While keeping a close eye on whatever else Kira is cooking up.
7.5/10
Additional Material:
Adventurer’s Guide & Before I play - All around guide and other helpful tips to keep in mind.
100% checklist - To help those trying for 100%
Maps, Secrets, Items - Need a map?
WIP Alchemy list - Alchemy recipes
Other reviews on Lunacid - Other reviews to read
Curse’s review - touches on a lot of points I like. Not to discourage others, but to give a circumspect view.
I was a big fan of Kira's games before this one came out, so it was quite the pleasant surprise to learn they too were King's Field and Shadow Tower pilled. Lunacid not only does a beautiful job emulating the charm of its spiritual predecessors, it also modernizes and iterates on them in a clearly very passionate, loving, and respectful sort of way. Of course, it also has no shortage of its own ideas, and they really do give it a fresh, endearing identity. And goddamn is this game sweet— if I fell down its well I don't think I'd want to return either.
It's such a vibe to do some old school dungeon crawling to the tune of lo-fi, listen to the Banjo-Kazooie speak of an adorable little cast of characters, then shit myself when moments of this game are lowkey scarier than any horror game I've ever played. There's also not really a speed or jump height cap so far as I know, so if you wanna grind and turn the game into Quake, the world is your oyster. And don't get me started on all the cute little nods to some of my favorite game series, King's Field and Shadow Tower obviously, but off the top of my head, also Castlevania, Drakengard, Zelda, and Kira's other games of course! Shit, even the real life moon cycle buffs your in game magic, if that doesn't sell it I dunno what will.
I've always wanted to make a game like Lunacid, and seeing someone inspired by all the same shit I like honestly really inspires me. Given aspects of it can be a little obtuse I'm sure it won't be for everyone, but maybe give it a shot if it's a rainy day (or preferably, full moon) and looks like your thing!
It's such a vibe to do some old school dungeon crawling to the tune of lo-fi, listen to the Banjo-Kazooie speak of an adorable little cast of characters, then shit myself when moments of this game are lowkey scarier than any horror game I've ever played. There's also not really a speed or jump height cap so far as I know, so if you wanna grind and turn the game into Quake, the world is your oyster. And don't get me started on all the cute little nods to some of my favorite game series, King's Field and Shadow Tower obviously, but off the top of my head, also Castlevania, Drakengard, Zelda, and Kira's other games of course! Shit, even the real life moon cycle buffs your in game magic, if that doesn't sell it I dunno what will.
I've always wanted to make a game like Lunacid, and seeing someone inspired by all the same shit I like honestly really inspires me. Given aspects of it can be a little obtuse I'm sure it won't be for everyone, but maybe give it a shot if it's a rainy day (or preferably, full moon) and looks like your thing!
Lunacid is exactly what I wanted in my mind of "Man I wish I could play Fromsoft's early First Person works". This does not speak to the accuracy (because I cannot vouch for that), but to what I envisioned in my head. This game is probably way easier than those games, and I kind of think it is because this is playable on a PC with mouse controls and the movement is crazy.
A lot of basic enemies feel like they were made for slow King's Field combat, but you can move at fucking Turok speed so they are fodder. Early game is probably the hardest, but there are multiple weapons you can find that will trivialize stuff. The only thing I had difficulty with was the final mandatory boss because he actually moves around to match you. The only thing about bosses if they have insane health pools, but whatever, they are the only difficult parts.
I don't really care about the difficulty because I think I can also feel inspirated from not only Fromsoft, but also speedier boomer shooters, and also Igavanias. Its Fromsoft in the vibes and general construction of the gameplay. It can feel boomer shooter depending on what enemies you are fighting and if you are using ranged weapons; cause sometimes I was just circle strafing the beefier enemies and jumping around and I felt Turok-ish. Igavania's in the way of 100%ing weapons and spells. Enemies dropping weapons/spells, upgrading weapons, felt at home with Aria of Sorrow and such. You can even get a weapon from those games that attacks as fast as you tap the attack button.
Overall, it rules. Great vibes, the music kicks ass (ThorHighHeels goes insane). It may be easier than people wish, but idgaf.
A lot of basic enemies feel like they were made for slow King's Field combat, but you can move at fucking Turok speed so they are fodder. Early game is probably the hardest, but there are multiple weapons you can find that will trivialize stuff. The only thing I had difficulty with was the final mandatory boss because he actually moves around to match you. The only thing about bosses if they have insane health pools, but whatever, they are the only difficult parts.
I don't really care about the difficulty because I think I can also feel inspirated from not only Fromsoft, but also speedier boomer shooters, and also Igavanias. Its Fromsoft in the vibes and general construction of the gameplay. It can feel boomer shooter depending on what enemies you are fighting and if you are using ranged weapons; cause sometimes I was just circle strafing the beefier enemies and jumping around and I felt Turok-ish. Igavania's in the way of 100%ing weapons and spells. Enemies dropping weapons/spells, upgrading weapons, felt at home with Aria of Sorrow and such. You can even get a weapon from those games that attacks as fast as you tap the attack button.
Overall, it rules. Great vibes, the music kicks ass (ThorHighHeels goes insane). It may be easier than people wish, but idgaf.
Lunacid is inspired heavily by From Software's King's Field and Shadow Tower series (with references to other things thrown in). I think it delivers in a few ways and I don't dislike it, but fell far short of bringing enough of interest for me.
Lunacid is visually stunning and has incredible music throughout. The heavily pixelated aesthetic does a ton of work to make this game call back to From's old series and I really enjoy the way this game's environments look. Evocative color choices also help to give the game a unique look, so though it is clearly inspired by KF, you wouldn't mistake the two.
The enemy and NPC designs don't work as well for me. When the enemies aren't straight callbacks to From games (skeletons, slimes, lizard men), they are mostly uninspired or feel strangely out of place. Many of the NPCs have an anime aesthetic that is extremely discordant and just isn't as well done as most of the other art in the game.
The exception is Sheryl the Crow, who looks great and plays a flute. A+.
Gameplay is first person (mostly) melee combat but misses some of the systems that make this style of game work really well. Attacks are somewhat spammable, you are able to move very quickly, and enemies don't have large reactions when hit. Rather than a game of dodging, exploiting opportunities, and interrupting opponents, this feels like Skyrim hack and slash. There are a lot of ranged options that are powerful and, when combined with your speed, means you can also trivialize most enemies anyway.
Enemy design tends to be simple -- most of them simply rush towards you and spam attacks that if you aren't already moving away, will always land. Enemy difficulty seems to be purely tuned by number of hitpoints -- until you outlevel an area, enemies take an extreme amount of damage to kill.
The most egregious example of this is the final boss, who has a truly ridiculous amount of hitpoints, regenerates and has attacks that are mostly not worth trying to dodge. My strategy (which worked flawlessly and was incredibly dumb) was to just stand next to him and spam uncharged attacks, healing when necessary.
It all feels both unsatisfyingly easy and also unsatisfyingly cheap.
The advancement systems at play here have some cool parts, with weapons you can use to gain experience and then change their form. Mostly these are strictly worse than what you find, but it is a cool idea.
Magic works through spell rings (Shadow Tower? Eternal Ring!?) you find in the environment that you equip to cast spells. There are a ton of these and beyond your regular lightning, fire, and ice spells, many of them have quirky effects that feel useless in a way I appreciated. I didn't find a ton of reason to experiment with them but this is probably the place where you can see the personality of the developer the most.
There are also quite a few arbitrary puzzle-ish mechanics or random things you can do to progress or unlock things (advancing weapons is one of these). It feels very thrown together without a ton of consideration for what makes a puzzle or discovery engaging to a player.
Unfortunately most of the content of the game seems to be gesturing at some other game or property. There isn't much that truly feels like Lunacid itself here.
The game has the Moonlight Greatsword because King's Field and you get to it by riding a long boat ride because Shadow Tower. There is a level that is almost a copy of Prison of Hope from Demon's Souls and a level that is Cainhurst from Bloodborne with a bit of Castlevania flavor added into it. All of these things are strictly referential and don't have any real connection to the game or world of Lunacid.
From Software themselves take motifs, mechanics, and environments from previous games and remix them into their newer things, but always do so with a purpose, turning the reference into a part of this new world with something new to say or offer. Lunacid isn't interested in that -- this is a repository of hollow references.
Narratively, Lunacid is sort of a mess. The throughline initially has to do with escaping the pit you have been thrown into, though halfway through the game it is revealed that there isn't really anything to escape to, so you go to the bottom of the hole and kill some monster that hasn't been mentioned in order to wake up the creature in the opening cutscene with help from friends whose camaraderie hasn't been established. Your reward is an erudite-seeming, poetry-ish, reading that doesn't really have much to do with your journey or even any of the identifiable themes in the game.
Like its content, the side narratives of Lunacid are all gesturing at other properties and there is nothing really holding any of it together. There is some attempt to tell small vignettes within some of the levels, but none of it seems to have anything to do with anything else and just comes off as random or pointless.
The games it takes inspiration from go to lengths to explore character stories in line with the major themes of the games, bringing it all together into a cohesive, resonant experience. Lunacid doesn't have it.
This review reads as pretty negative, and though most of the systems, narrative, and core design prevents me from liking this game much, I definitely don't hate it. It plays well enough and exploring the levels can be fun, with the aesthetics and audio design doing most of the heavy lifting to pull you through the experience.
Strangely, I don't think this one is really for the King's Field fans -- if you haven't played the games it is cribbing from, maybe it hits a bit closer to the mark and you would end up having a better time with it.
Lunacid is visually stunning and has incredible music throughout. The heavily pixelated aesthetic does a ton of work to make this game call back to From's old series and I really enjoy the way this game's environments look. Evocative color choices also help to give the game a unique look, so though it is clearly inspired by KF, you wouldn't mistake the two.
The enemy and NPC designs don't work as well for me. When the enemies aren't straight callbacks to From games (skeletons, slimes, lizard men), they are mostly uninspired or feel strangely out of place. Many of the NPCs have an anime aesthetic that is extremely discordant and just isn't as well done as most of the other art in the game.
The exception is Sheryl the Crow, who looks great and plays a flute. A+.
Gameplay is first person (mostly) melee combat but misses some of the systems that make this style of game work really well. Attacks are somewhat spammable, you are able to move very quickly, and enemies don't have large reactions when hit. Rather than a game of dodging, exploiting opportunities, and interrupting opponents, this feels like Skyrim hack and slash. There are a lot of ranged options that are powerful and, when combined with your speed, means you can also trivialize most enemies anyway.
Enemy design tends to be simple -- most of them simply rush towards you and spam attacks that if you aren't already moving away, will always land. Enemy difficulty seems to be purely tuned by number of hitpoints -- until you outlevel an area, enemies take an extreme amount of damage to kill.
The most egregious example of this is the final boss, who has a truly ridiculous amount of hitpoints, regenerates and has attacks that are mostly not worth trying to dodge. My strategy (which worked flawlessly and was incredibly dumb) was to just stand next to him and spam uncharged attacks, healing when necessary.
It all feels both unsatisfyingly easy and also unsatisfyingly cheap.
The advancement systems at play here have some cool parts, with weapons you can use to gain experience and then change their form. Mostly these are strictly worse than what you find, but it is a cool idea.
Magic works through spell rings (Shadow Tower? Eternal Ring!?) you find in the environment that you equip to cast spells. There are a ton of these and beyond your regular lightning, fire, and ice spells, many of them have quirky effects that feel useless in a way I appreciated. I didn't find a ton of reason to experiment with them but this is probably the place where you can see the personality of the developer the most.
There are also quite a few arbitrary puzzle-ish mechanics or random things you can do to progress or unlock things (advancing weapons is one of these). It feels very thrown together without a ton of consideration for what makes a puzzle or discovery engaging to a player.
Unfortunately most of the content of the game seems to be gesturing at some other game or property. There isn't much that truly feels like Lunacid itself here.
The game has the Moonlight Greatsword because King's Field and you get to it by riding a long boat ride because Shadow Tower. There is a level that is almost a copy of Prison of Hope from Demon's Souls and a level that is Cainhurst from Bloodborne with a bit of Castlevania flavor added into it. All of these things are strictly referential and don't have any real connection to the game or world of Lunacid.
From Software themselves take motifs, mechanics, and environments from previous games and remix them into their newer things, but always do so with a purpose, turning the reference into a part of this new world with something new to say or offer. Lunacid isn't interested in that -- this is a repository of hollow references.
Narratively, Lunacid is sort of a mess. The throughline initially has to do with escaping the pit you have been thrown into, though halfway through the game it is revealed that there isn't really anything to escape to, so you go to the bottom of the hole and kill some monster that hasn't been mentioned in order to wake up the creature in the opening cutscene with help from friends whose camaraderie hasn't been established. Your reward is an erudite-seeming, poetry-ish, reading that doesn't really have much to do with your journey or even any of the identifiable themes in the game.
Like its content, the side narratives of Lunacid are all gesturing at other properties and there is nothing really holding any of it together. There is some attempt to tell small vignettes within some of the levels, but none of it seems to have anything to do with anything else and just comes off as random or pointless.
The games it takes inspiration from go to lengths to explore character stories in line with the major themes of the games, bringing it all together into a cohesive, resonant experience. Lunacid doesn't have it.
This review reads as pretty negative, and though most of the systems, narrative, and core design prevents me from liking this game much, I definitely don't hate it. It plays well enough and exploring the levels can be fun, with the aesthetics and audio design doing most of the heavy lifting to pull you through the experience.
Strangely, I don't think this one is really for the King's Field fans -- if you haven't played the games it is cribbing from, maybe it hits a bit closer to the mark and you would end up having a better time with it.
Update from Nov 15th 2023
Finished 1.0, got what was labelled the "true ending", but I know there is still more to discover. But yeah, my original thoughts still hold up, I would highly recommend Lunacid!
Original Post from Jan 11th 2023
In my eight hour playtime, I have had multiple moments where I have said to myself "Maybe [insert silly solution here] might work?" with little to no confidence. To then immediately call myself a Gamer God Genius™ when it totally actually worked.
So much cool stuff going on in this game, and I want to detail none of it. Lunacid is walking the fine line of wearing all its influences on its sleeve, while also being its own thing. Going into the game knowing any more than "inspired by King's Field/Shadow Tower " is too much.
Not only is Lunacid a strong and easy recommendation to everyone who has touched any FromSoftware game (or game inspired by one) in the last 30 years. But also I would recommend Lunacid to anyone even mildly interested in the look of it.
Currently the game is still early access (Sep 2022 Castle Update), which means I would normally not score it yet and tell people to wait for a 1.0 release. But with the level of quality already on display, Lunacid would have to shit in my bed and infect my PC with malware for me to lower my 5 star score at a later date. (Also the games full price is $10 AUD, that's like only $3 real dollars!)
Finished 1.0, got what was labelled the "true ending", but I know there is still more to discover. But yeah, my original thoughts still hold up, I would highly recommend Lunacid!
Original Post from Jan 11th 2023
In my eight hour playtime, I have had multiple moments where I have said to myself "Maybe [insert silly solution here] might work?" with little to no confidence. To then immediately call myself a Gamer God Genius™ when it totally actually worked.
So much cool stuff going on in this game, and I want to detail none of it. Lunacid is walking the fine line of wearing all its influences on its sleeve, while also being its own thing. Going into the game knowing any more than "inspired by King's Field/Shadow Tower " is too much.
Not only is Lunacid a strong and easy recommendation to everyone who has touched any FromSoftware game (or game inspired by one) in the last 30 years. But also I would recommend Lunacid to anyone even mildly interested in the look of it.
Currently the game is still early access (Sep 2022 Castle Update), which means I would normally not score it yet and tell people to wait for a 1.0 release. But with the level of quality already on display, Lunacid would have to shit in my bed and infect my PC with malware for me to lower my 5 star score at a later date. (Also the games full price is $10 AUD, that's like only $3 real dollars!)
"When the dreamer awakens, what happens to the inhabitants of the dream, and the world that was traveled?"
KIRA's labor of love to the games of Fromsoft's Kings Field & Shadow Tower is more then just an homage. It is a beautifully haunting dream I didn't want to wake up from. One of the years very best and underappreciated works of art.
KIRA's labor of love to the games of Fromsoft's Kings Field & Shadow Tower is more then just an homage. It is a beautifully haunting dream I didn't want to wake up from. One of the years very best and underappreciated works of art.
This review contains spoilers
The game tries to do a power of friendship thing during the final fight but it also killed off the only friend you make during your travels so at the end the final boss just get jumped by all the shopkeepers 💀
99% of things created by people with hearts all filled up with nostalgia are at best boring, and at worst, genuinely malicious.
Lunacid uses nostalgia in service to the creation of new wonder rather than the recycling of wonder already felt. I felt like a little kid again, not because of the idiosyncratic visuals or the gameplay similarities to King's Field, but because the product as a whole centers mystery and inviting obscurity.
I love it. Play it completely blind.
Lunacid uses nostalgia in service to the creation of new wonder rather than the recycling of wonder already felt. I felt like a little kid again, not because of the idiosyncratic visuals or the gameplay similarities to King's Field, but because the product as a whole centers mystery and inviting obscurity.
I love it. Play it completely blind.
THE king's field successor
eu to namorando com uma slime e ninguém me avisou
Lunacid was a fantastic game and the first time I've ever played a game in the Kingsfield style. I really enjoyed the style of game, getting lost (literally) in the world and soaking in the atmosphere. The music was amazing, a lofi kind of feel but still matched the tone of the game. The exploration and the music were the shining parts of this game, I always felt rewarded when exploring every nook and cranny, looking for secrets. One thing I wish there was more of is boss fights, but honestly, some of the encounters alone were harder than the boss fights, so I can't complain too much. Overall a great experience and I highly recommend it if you like Dark Souls in any capacity!
sintesi perfetta del vivere in brianza, scherzi a parte è un mondo tremendo che per qualche oscuro motivo ti fa continuamente dire "ok ti voglio esplorare". L'esplorazione di per sé è semplice seppur tutto possa presentarsi come "duro" e questo gli permette un altro tasso di giocabilità, con in più un ottimo lavoro per quel che riguarda il design. I paragoni con kingsfield non devono essere solo su un piano estetico perché lunacid per me merita di entrare nei discorsi dei grandissimi titoli usciti quest'anno e di sempre avendo perfezionato modernizzando per l'appunto la formula dei kingsfield.
Ganhei esse jogo de presente de aniversário de um amigo meu e imaginei que ele estivesse me "trollando" com um jogo ruim qualquer com gráficos duvidosos que são lançados de tempos em tempos na Steam pra ganhar dinheiro fácil. Nunca fiquei tão feliz em estar enganado. Lunacid me proporcionou uma das melhores experiências em vídeo-games que eu tive em muito tempo. Mas um aviso: O JOGO AINDA NÃO ESTÁ PRONTO! É um acesso antecipado com muitíssimo conteúdo, mas não está completo. Isso pode frustrar quem tiver um certo nível de envolvimento com o jogo e perceber que não tem como atingir um final.
Nunca joguei nenhum King's Field ou Shadow Tower, jogos pioneiros da From Software que formaram a base para o grande sucesso da fórmula Souls e serviram de inspiração para Lunacid. Porém, acredito que a imersão proporcionada por esse mundo se assemelha bastante ao que esses títulos ofereciam na época, mas com uma gameplay modernizada e beeeem mais fluida. Os elementos dungeon crawler misturados com um universo medieval, visuais retrô inspirados em jogos de PS1, e até mesmo uma pitada de terror, formam uma mistura extremamente agradável!
Lunacid é aquele tipo de jogo gostosinho que não segura sua mão te dizendo quais são os objetivos e o que você tem que fazer, e que te força a prestar atenção em cada detalhe pra ter noção do que fazer para progredir. Às vezes, mesmo com o máximo de atenção possível, ainda é bem possível ficar perdido. E não me entenda mal, eu não acho isso ruim, eu acho MARAVILHOSO! Grande parte do segredo da atmosfera e imersão do jogo está nesse detalhe. Sem mapas, minimapas ou indicadores na tela de onde você deve ir, não lhe restam muitas opções a não ser mergulhar de cabeça neste mundo!
Embora isso seja um dos seus principais trunfos para a imersão, entendo que a falta de um mapa pode ser frustrante para algumas pessoas, especialmente as que não estão acostumadas a esse estilo de jogos que vem ficando cada vez mais no passado ou que não tenham uma boa memória espacial (meu caso). Mesmo com os estandartes que servem para ajudar a se localizar e marcar o caminho por conta própria, esses só vem em uma área mais avançada no jogo. Então, o sentimento de estar perdido vai ser beeeem constante ao longo da jogatina. Dei sorte que eu meio que gosto dessa sensação.
Uma coisa que não gostei mesmo foi o balanceamento. Depois de certo tempo evoluindo equipamentos, upando meu nível e progredindo no jogo, senti que estava ficando forte demais para os desafios que o jogo me proporcionou. Até experimentei aumentar a dificuldade, e na opção mais difícil consegui ter um pouco de desafio, porém nada tão desafiador assim. O lado bom é que eu chegar nesse nível "apelão" foi mais uma recompensa de ter explorado e prestado bastante atenção no mundo, e não algo dado de mão beijada.
Resumo de tudo: joguem Lunacid, principalmente se vocês gostam de jogos com estilo retrô, de King's Field ou Shadow Tower, ou se gostam de Dungeon Crawlers em geral. É uma maravilha, juro de coração! Apenas atentem-se para o fato de que é uma versão de acesso antecipado, e não sua versão completa.
Nunca joguei nenhum King's Field ou Shadow Tower, jogos pioneiros da From Software que formaram a base para o grande sucesso da fórmula Souls e serviram de inspiração para Lunacid. Porém, acredito que a imersão proporcionada por esse mundo se assemelha bastante ao que esses títulos ofereciam na época, mas com uma gameplay modernizada e beeeem mais fluida. Os elementos dungeon crawler misturados com um universo medieval, visuais retrô inspirados em jogos de PS1, e até mesmo uma pitada de terror, formam uma mistura extremamente agradável!
Lunacid é aquele tipo de jogo gostosinho que não segura sua mão te dizendo quais são os objetivos e o que você tem que fazer, e que te força a prestar atenção em cada detalhe pra ter noção do que fazer para progredir. Às vezes, mesmo com o máximo de atenção possível, ainda é bem possível ficar perdido. E não me entenda mal, eu não acho isso ruim, eu acho MARAVILHOSO! Grande parte do segredo da atmosfera e imersão do jogo está nesse detalhe. Sem mapas, minimapas ou indicadores na tela de onde você deve ir, não lhe restam muitas opções a não ser mergulhar de cabeça neste mundo!
Embora isso seja um dos seus principais trunfos para a imersão, entendo que a falta de um mapa pode ser frustrante para algumas pessoas, especialmente as que não estão acostumadas a esse estilo de jogos que vem ficando cada vez mais no passado ou que não tenham uma boa memória espacial (meu caso). Mesmo com os estandartes que servem para ajudar a se localizar e marcar o caminho por conta própria, esses só vem em uma área mais avançada no jogo. Então, o sentimento de estar perdido vai ser beeeem constante ao longo da jogatina. Dei sorte que eu meio que gosto dessa sensação.
Uma coisa que não gostei mesmo foi o balanceamento. Depois de certo tempo evoluindo equipamentos, upando meu nível e progredindo no jogo, senti que estava ficando forte demais para os desafios que o jogo me proporcionou. Até experimentei aumentar a dificuldade, e na opção mais difícil consegui ter um pouco de desafio, porém nada tão desafiador assim. O lado bom é que eu chegar nesse nível "apelão" foi mais uma recompensa de ter explorado e prestado bastante atenção no mundo, e não algo dado de mão beijada.
Resumo de tudo: joguem Lunacid, principalmente se vocês gostam de jogos com estilo retrô, de King's Field ou Shadow Tower, ou se gostam de Dungeon Crawlers em geral. É uma maravilha, juro de coração! Apenas atentem-se para o fato de que é uma versão de acesso antecipado, e não sua versão completa.
Note: Completed every level available in the game at this point except for one small zone.
This is easily one of the best RPG experiences I've ever had. Lunacid wears its influences on its sleeve; inspiration from Silent Hill, Castlevania, and King's Field is present in everything from the soundtrack to the level design. KIRA clearly understands how to craft a retro ambience and that's what really carries the game. The Great Well is such a cool environment to explore, and while some levels are more interesting than others, they are all distinct, memorable, and well-developed. Books and plaques that hold important lore are strategically placed throughout zones, weapons and spells are found in abundance both in the open and in hidden rooms, and the enemies are consistently creepy and unnerving.
I only have two major issues with the game. The first problem is that I NEED more. Lunacid is brilliant and if KIRA can keep this quality up through the rest of the planned levels for the game, I will blitz through those, replay the entire game two or three times, and eagerly anticipate a sequel. My second issue is slightly more serious though, and that is with the difficulty. By halfway through the game, I was stupidly powerful compared to enemies around me, and I only ever got in trouble when I would get stuck between an enemy and a wall. By the time I got to the Accursed Tomb, I bumped the game difficulty up to the max and I was still breezing through every enemy encounter. Part of this could be because I had a mainly ranged build, but that leads me to a deeper problem, which is the combat. To me, there is no good reason to play anything other than a ranged character. Aside from a couple instances where you need specific weapons, you can use the double crossbow and twisted staff to make nearly every encounter a footnote in your journey. Melee combat on the other hand feels very clunky, as most enemies have some kind of effect or damage that they inflict if your body touches them, which is almost a guarantee given how many weapons thrust you forward into the enemy. I may just be playing wrong, but I wish the combat was more refined and that the game's difficulty was better balanced.
Despite this somewhat glaring issue, Lunacid is still phenomenal. The exploration alone makes it worth buying as travelling through the dreamy scenery to a mix of ethereal, ominous, and melancholy tunes is an experience I would've gladly paid twice the price to enjoy. I honestly am a little disappointed because I fear no DRPG will impress me this much again.
This is easily one of the best RPG experiences I've ever had. Lunacid wears its influences on its sleeve; inspiration from Silent Hill, Castlevania, and King's Field is present in everything from the soundtrack to the level design. KIRA clearly understands how to craft a retro ambience and that's what really carries the game. The Great Well is such a cool environment to explore, and while some levels are more interesting than others, they are all distinct, memorable, and well-developed. Books and plaques that hold important lore are strategically placed throughout zones, weapons and spells are found in abundance both in the open and in hidden rooms, and the enemies are consistently creepy and unnerving.
I only have two major issues with the game. The first problem is that I NEED more. Lunacid is brilliant and if KIRA can keep this quality up through the rest of the planned levels for the game, I will blitz through those, replay the entire game two or three times, and eagerly anticipate a sequel. My second issue is slightly more serious though, and that is with the difficulty. By halfway through the game, I was stupidly powerful compared to enemies around me, and I only ever got in trouble when I would get stuck between an enemy and a wall. By the time I got to the Accursed Tomb, I bumped the game difficulty up to the max and I was still breezing through every enemy encounter. Part of this could be because I had a mainly ranged build, but that leads me to a deeper problem, which is the combat. To me, there is no good reason to play anything other than a ranged character. Aside from a couple instances where you need specific weapons, you can use the double crossbow and twisted staff to make nearly every encounter a footnote in your journey. Melee combat on the other hand feels very clunky, as most enemies have some kind of effect or damage that they inflict if your body touches them, which is almost a guarantee given how many weapons thrust you forward into the enemy. I may just be playing wrong, but I wish the combat was more refined and that the game's difficulty was better balanced.
Despite this somewhat glaring issue, Lunacid is still phenomenal. The exploration alone makes it worth buying as travelling through the dreamy scenery to a mix of ethereal, ominous, and melancholy tunes is an experience I would've gladly paid twice the price to enjoy. I honestly am a little disappointed because I fear no DRPG will impress me this much again.
At first I was super into the fact that there's an indie King's Field-like, but it left me disappointed. The atmosphere is fantastic horror-adjacent stuff, but the difficulty is busted. It feels more like Symphony of the Night in that first few enemies can steamroll you, but after an hour you just don't encounter any issues.
In a game with this kind of emphasis on atmosphere and secrets, its difficulty completely betrays it. What's the point of being scared if nothing can kill you? Why should I care about secrets if most it can give me is an HP up? The only boss was the only thing that gave me SOME trouble before I realized leaving little fire farts around him would sap his HP in a second.
I've beaten most of the content, and gotten the strongest weapon by clearing the hardest combat challenge by walking into it unprepared at like level 50 despite the fact that I leveled basically nothing but jumping and walking speed.
I'd recommend it, but hoping the author refines the difficulty.
In a game with this kind of emphasis on atmosphere and secrets, its difficulty completely betrays it. What's the point of being scared if nothing can kill you? Why should I care about secrets if most it can give me is an HP up? The only boss was the only thing that gave me SOME trouble before I realized leaving little fire farts around him would sap his HP in a second.
I've beaten most of the content, and gotten the strongest weapon by clearing the hardest combat challenge by walking into it unprepared at like level 50 despite the fact that I leveled basically nothing but jumping and walking speed.
I'd recommend it, but hoping the author refines the difficulty.
creating tension requires uncertainty, whether it's about where to go, what to do, what you might stumble into — whatever. it requires that there's some chance you might not make it through the next encounter, you might not have the resources to get to the next safe area, or that your victories might be pyrrhic. there has to be some reason to believe you have something to fear, and that has to be based on something of consequence
lunacid does a few things right, but it lacks that uncertainty. it's too generous, too tidy, and too easy to ever push you out of your comfort zone. despite ostensibly drawing heavily from king's field and shadow tower it lacks the backbone necessary to make a dungeon crawler work. to do these things right you have to be willing to give and take from the player in equal measure, you can't just coddle them
the design should be holistic: each component working in tandem with one another to accomplish the same goal. wear you out. run you down. disorient. disarm. overwhelm. the bread and butter of all these games, regardless of subgenre. combat, attrition, and navigation being individual threats that ebb and flow at different rates, but always in the same direction
this feels like a game where that wasn't considered at all. or if it was, it wasn't considered particularly thoughtfully. everything's weaker than you, and everything loses to kiting. the math is too player favoured, the environments are never leveraged meaningfully, and enemies can't compete with your movement or options. that you'll defeat your opponent is a foregone conclusion; it's practically deterministic. there's no threat of loss, no threat of failure, and no lingering doubt that you might not be prepared for what comes next
naturally this affects attrition because if there's no pushback there's no worry about dwindling resources. status effects could've helped a bit if they didn't disappear on their own, antidotes weren't 6 coins — three snails worth of cash — and bleed wasn't solved by kiting like everything else, but here we are. enemies won't hit you much anyway, so it doesn't really matter, but it's another bizarre decision in a game loaded with them
barely any traps, ambushes, unavoidable enemies, long uncertain treks, environmental damage, or anything. I walk from one pink crystal to another, I tear ass the entire way. I get to choose what enemies I engage with, I get to choose how I engage with them, and I'm always at an advantage. it's bewildering, and while I don't expect this to be some hard bone crunching experience, I do expect a pulse
the interconnected world is neat, and the levels are alright, but with everything inside them being so compromised it's just not enough to maintain my interest. hope king griffith, patches, siegmeyer, the moonlight greatsword, and the titanite demon do ok against the old one without me
love the soundtrakc tho
lunacid does a few things right, but it lacks that uncertainty. it's too generous, too tidy, and too easy to ever push you out of your comfort zone. despite ostensibly drawing heavily from king's field and shadow tower it lacks the backbone necessary to make a dungeon crawler work. to do these things right you have to be willing to give and take from the player in equal measure, you can't just coddle them
the design should be holistic: each component working in tandem with one another to accomplish the same goal. wear you out. run you down. disorient. disarm. overwhelm. the bread and butter of all these games, regardless of subgenre. combat, attrition, and navigation being individual threats that ebb and flow at different rates, but always in the same direction
this feels like a game where that wasn't considered at all. or if it was, it wasn't considered particularly thoughtfully. everything's weaker than you, and everything loses to kiting. the math is too player favoured, the environments are never leveraged meaningfully, and enemies can't compete with your movement or options. that you'll defeat your opponent is a foregone conclusion; it's practically deterministic. there's no threat of loss, no threat of failure, and no lingering doubt that you might not be prepared for what comes next
naturally this affects attrition because if there's no pushback there's no worry about dwindling resources. status effects could've helped a bit if they didn't disappear on their own, antidotes weren't 6 coins — three snails worth of cash — and bleed wasn't solved by kiting like everything else, but here we are. enemies won't hit you much anyway, so it doesn't really matter, but it's another bizarre decision in a game loaded with them
barely any traps, ambushes, unavoidable enemies, long uncertain treks, environmental damage, or anything. I walk from one pink crystal to another, I tear ass the entire way. I get to choose what enemies I engage with, I get to choose how I engage with them, and I'm always at an advantage. it's bewildering, and while I don't expect this to be some hard bone crunching experience, I do expect a pulse
the interconnected world is neat, and the levels are alright, but with everything inside them being so compromised it's just not enough to maintain my interest. hope king griffith, patches, siegmeyer, the moonlight greatsword, and the titanite demon do ok against the old one without me
love the soundtrakc tho
Some ingame events are based on the moon phase
Not some ingame moon
The fucking real life moon
Such an utterly deranged schizo mechanic deserves 4 stars
Thank you Kira Miyazaki truely Kino Field
Not some ingame moon
The fucking real life moon
Such an utterly deranged schizo mechanic deserves 4 stars
Thank you Kira Miyazaki truely Kino Field
KIRA has a finger perfectly on the pulse of 90s PSX nostalgia. Basilisk & Basilisk 2000 were entertainingly meta, but I was curious what the longform of that kinda game looked like. Was the stamina there?
Lunacid is 10 hours of tight adventure. Within its labryinths, nearly every dead-end has a purpose: a new item or weapon, a journal entry, a secret door. Level ups are brisk and correspond to easily observed changes in ability, not just increased attack but higher jumping and quicker walking. Weapon upgrades happen only for a few weapons but when they do, the entire appearance and sometimes material makeup of the weapon changes.
Nothing is wasted, so in the end Lunacid does not feel like a watered down King's Field, or worse cropped out, but something just as filling in a smaller package.
My only issues with Lunacid is how it becomes a nexus of 90s standard definition nostalgia buried underneath a mountain of referential nods to important games, especially Demon's Souls. KIRA is talented enough that one day people will be referencing them in their own indie games, but for now the winking and nodding breaks a little of the magic.
Lunacid is 10 hours of tight adventure. Within its labryinths, nearly every dead-end has a purpose: a new item or weapon, a journal entry, a secret door. Level ups are brisk and correspond to easily observed changes in ability, not just increased attack but higher jumping and quicker walking. Weapon upgrades happen only for a few weapons but when they do, the entire appearance and sometimes material makeup of the weapon changes.
Nothing is wasted, so in the end Lunacid does not feel like a watered down King's Field, or worse cropped out, but something just as filling in a smaller package.
My only issues with Lunacid is how it becomes a nexus of 90s standard definition nostalgia buried underneath a mountain of referential nods to important games, especially Demon's Souls. KIRA is talented enough that one day people will be referencing them in their own indie games, but for now the winking and nodding breaks a little of the magic.
i dont think anyone thats saying this is better than kings field has ever actually played kings field
I really like Lunacid, but it's a game that's strangely difficult to try to hype up.
You rotate it in your head, dissect it in the manner of a typical review, and analyze the components, and you can't really point to any individual aspect of it that's much better than Decent. The combat and RPG mechanics work well enough, but they're pretty basic and not exactly finely balanced. The level design is maze-y in a way that I'd usually hate, but I don't here. The characters are immediately endearing, but dialogue and interactions with them are very sparse. The story is a cliffnotes version of an actual Fromsoft game, and yes, I know that's saying a lot. The atmosphere is probably the most consistently on point thing, but even then, there's a lot of competition on that front in the Spooky Indie Game space.
None of these aspects are bad, either, mind, especially for a game made by a team of one. It's objectively very impressive on that merit, but I didn't really have that in the forefront of my mind while playing. It's not why I like it. So why do I like it?
I don't know if I've ever played a game that (successfully) coasted more on Vibes. I'm not the first person to say it, but Lunacid really does evoke a sense of nostalgia, and not because it's a tribute to an older series. I've never played King's Field (though considering other holes I've fallen into recently it's probably only a matter of time).
The game is tapping into something more primal and less specific than that. It makes you feel the way it felt, as a child, to play a weird exploration-heavy game you didn't really understand. Occasionally I've seen people attribute this quality to Souls games, but as much as I love them, I don't really get this feeling from them, or certainly not this extent.
There's a cryptic but more importantly inviting surrealism to Lunacid. The world is dark and desolate, but the core NPCs are upbeat and adorable. The music is spooky, but often oddly soothing. Several minor mechanics are tied to the real-world phase of the moon. The story gives you enough information to understand it pretty easily on reflection, but withholds just enough to create some delightfully baffling sequences in the moment.
The game is also shockingly reactive to experimentation--not in the Baldur's Gate way, but specifically to the type of strange, kind-of-logical-kind-of-not shit you might throw at a wall to unlock secrets in a retro game. You find spells with strange effects but no clear practical application, consumables that exist just to trick you, tiny interactions unique to specific starting classes. Considering the game's humble scope, there's an impressively strong sense that anything can happen.
It must be said that surprisingly, given its cited inspirations, Lunacid is not a hard game. I suppose it depends on your build, but the combat mechanics are simple enough that it doesn't take a genius to see what works. I'm not complaining, as a lifelong fan of being overpowered in games, but there's a reason most action RPGs don't tie your actual movement speed to a stat you can increase as much as you want. Level up Speed and get a decent way of dealing ranged damage, and there are very few enemies in the game that can do basically anything to you unless they catch you by surprise.
But to be fair, the game is pretty good at surprises; some enemies have massive resistance or even immunity to certain damage types, status effects can be brutal, and if you took my advice and specced into magic or ranged weapons you might be pretty fragile when you do take a hit. Add to that the game sometimes being very stingy with save points, and exploring a new area can still be decently tense.
Lunacid is a game that's more than the sum of its parts, and, I think, a game that really needs to be met on its own terms. Approached skeptically, it'd be very easy to write the whole thing off very quickly. If you're like me and you're charmed right from the character creation screen, it's just as easy to ride that feeling all the way to the end.
You rotate it in your head, dissect it in the manner of a typical review, and analyze the components, and you can't really point to any individual aspect of it that's much better than Decent. The combat and RPG mechanics work well enough, but they're pretty basic and not exactly finely balanced. The level design is maze-y in a way that I'd usually hate, but I don't here. The characters are immediately endearing, but dialogue and interactions with them are very sparse. The story is a cliffnotes version of an actual Fromsoft game, and yes, I know that's saying a lot. The atmosphere is probably the most consistently on point thing, but even then, there's a lot of competition on that front in the Spooky Indie Game space.
None of these aspects are bad, either, mind, especially for a game made by a team of one. It's objectively very impressive on that merit, but I didn't really have that in the forefront of my mind while playing. It's not why I like it. So why do I like it?
I don't know if I've ever played a game that (successfully) coasted more on Vibes. I'm not the first person to say it, but Lunacid really does evoke a sense of nostalgia, and not because it's a tribute to an older series. I've never played King's Field (though considering other holes I've fallen into recently it's probably only a matter of time).
The game is tapping into something more primal and less specific than that. It makes you feel the way it felt, as a child, to play a weird exploration-heavy game you didn't really understand. Occasionally I've seen people attribute this quality to Souls games, but as much as I love them, I don't really get this feeling from them, or certainly not this extent.
There's a cryptic but more importantly inviting surrealism to Lunacid. The world is dark and desolate, but the core NPCs are upbeat and adorable. The music is spooky, but often oddly soothing. Several minor mechanics are tied to the real-world phase of the moon. The story gives you enough information to understand it pretty easily on reflection, but withholds just enough to create some delightfully baffling sequences in the moment.
The game is also shockingly reactive to experimentation--not in the Baldur's Gate way, but specifically to the type of strange, kind-of-logical-kind-of-not shit you might throw at a wall to unlock secrets in a retro game. You find spells with strange effects but no clear practical application, consumables that exist just to trick you, tiny interactions unique to specific starting classes. Considering the game's humble scope, there's an impressively strong sense that anything can happen.
It must be said that surprisingly, given its cited inspirations, Lunacid is not a hard game. I suppose it depends on your build, but the combat mechanics are simple enough that it doesn't take a genius to see what works. I'm not complaining, as a lifelong fan of being overpowered in games, but there's a reason most action RPGs don't tie your actual movement speed to a stat you can increase as much as you want. Level up Speed and get a decent way of dealing ranged damage, and there are very few enemies in the game that can do basically anything to you unless they catch you by surprise.
But to be fair, the game is pretty good at surprises; some enemies have massive resistance or even immunity to certain damage types, status effects can be brutal, and if you took my advice and specced into magic or ranged weapons you might be pretty fragile when you do take a hit. Add to that the game sometimes being very stingy with save points, and exploring a new area can still be decently tense.
Lunacid is a game that's more than the sum of its parts, and, I think, a game that really needs to be met on its own terms. Approached skeptically, it'd be very easy to write the whole thing off very quickly. If you're like me and you're charmed right from the character creation screen, it's just as easy to ride that feeling all the way to the end.
I'll be honest; I've always loved King's Field and Shadow Tower and I find them amazing games but having played them recently, they are very old, clunky and slow games which naturally ends up in an outdated game of a genre already dead nowadays, and the truth is a shame, since FROMSOFTWARE doesn't feel like making more King's Field either, and it's understandable.
Several years later and in the middle of FROMSOFTWARE's golden age, it's normal that many people want to revisit their pre-Miyazaki titles, but again, they are not very accessible and go at 10 fps most of them, so they are games that I never recommend to play, despite liking them so much.
Lunacid on the other hand... changes this, offering all the good stuff these games offer with everything they needed, like showing a small icon when you're near a fake wall so you don't have to spam the interact button on every wall, The story is just as awesome and interesting, there are several enemies that are direct references to King's Field and Shadow Tower. hell, in the trailer you see 2 areas that literally look like they are taken from the first King's Field and the "hub" of Shadow Tower, and I think it's perfect.
I don't know, it's literally everything I would have asked for from a new King's Field and more. I'm really glad to see it out, and I hope it becomes popular soon or the genre wakes up, because I really love the unique feel of real-time first-person dungeon crawlers.
To buy it on Early Access from day one, it's pretty polished and has a lot of content.
Something I love about King's Field and also Lunacid, is the ability to use magic at the same time you melee, ie; do both attacks at the same time instead of just one at a time. Some weapons have their own experience levels, and most of the time they are worth having, even if you don't plan to use them, it's just fun.
Actually the difficulty of the game is pretty--- "bland"? like, for now the only maze-like levels translate to a lot of darkness only,there are no things like multiple doors and keys in each level that open different paths (the castle update changed this), which made me a bit disappointed by the simplicity of the levels, but it doesn't take away from the fact that they're fun, they're just pretty short and the only reason to revisit an old area is the totally optional and unnecessary grinding.
That said, Lunacid has a lot of potential and I can't wait to see which way it goes.
Several years later and in the middle of FROMSOFTWARE's golden age, it's normal that many people want to revisit their pre-Miyazaki titles, but again, they are not very accessible and go at 10 fps most of them, so they are games that I never recommend to play, despite liking them so much.
Lunacid on the other hand... changes this, offering all the good stuff these games offer with everything they needed, like showing a small icon when you're near a fake wall so you don't have to spam the interact button on every wall, The story is just as awesome and interesting, there are several enemies that are direct references to King's Field and Shadow Tower. hell, in the trailer you see 2 areas that literally look like they are taken from the first King's Field and the "hub" of Shadow Tower, and I think it's perfect.
I don't know, it's literally everything I would have asked for from a new King's Field and more. I'm really glad to see it out, and I hope it becomes popular soon or the genre wakes up, because I really love the unique feel of real-time first-person dungeon crawlers.
To buy it on Early Access from day one, it's pretty polished and has a lot of content.
Something I love about King's Field and also Lunacid, is the ability to use magic at the same time you melee, ie; do both attacks at the same time instead of just one at a time. Some weapons have their own experience levels, and most of the time they are worth having, even if you don't plan to use them, it's just fun.
Actually the difficulty of the game is pretty--- "bland"? like, for now the only maze-like levels translate to a lot of darkness only,
That said, Lunacid has a lot of potential and I can't wait to see which way it goes.
This is one of my most anticipated games of recent years, and it held up to every expectation I had for it. I was so enthralled by the world and the music and the sense of discovery and all the esoteric secrets. I think a lot of people came into it with the wrong expectations, same with thinking Dread Delusion is "supposed to be the new Oblivion" or whatever, but honestly I don't think a lot of the complaints are founded, especially towards an indie passion project like this, and it's damn near perfect in my eyes. I genuinely couldn't put it down the first day I played it and it ate up my entire week afterwards too. Even my friends got into it, and had the same experience with everyone playing in call together for a solid 4-5 hours, even canceling previous plans to keep going.
EDIT: Just found all the secrets and got the 100% ending and this get's a full 5/5 now instead
__
I just want y'all to know how much respect I have for Kira. Rarely does a game leave me with this accute sense of "I've missed so much, there are so many secrets and things I can't figure out on my own" like this one. I felt out of my depth for most of it's runtime, lost, confused, unsafe.
After getting into Lost in Vivo and loving it to bits, Lunacid feels like the another signature Kira game - greatly inspired by specific games, but definitely not just a 1:1 replication. It's not King's Field but Indie, it's Lunacid.
And it's not an experience I'll forget.
__
I just want y'all to know how much respect I have for Kira. Rarely does a game leave me with this accute sense of "I've missed so much, there are so many secrets and things I can't figure out on my own" like this one. I felt out of my depth for most of it's runtime, lost, confused, unsafe.
After getting into Lost in Vivo and loving it to bits, Lunacid feels like the another signature Kira game - greatly inspired by specific games, but definitely not just a 1:1 replication. It's not King's Field but Indie, it's Lunacid.
And it's not an experience I'll forget.
Never played a dungeon crawler like this before but I had my fun; it's more of an experience than an actually well-designed game, but this isn't to say that it's not well-made, rather that it feels much more than the sum of its parts to the extent that trying to single out aspects is somewhat disingenuous. Like I enjoyed the combat but it's pretty simple, and the exploration isn't too extensive, but it's still pretty fun to go through. It's more in conjunction where this shines and makes the game addicting to explore and play through with some great aesthetics and decent level of difficulty.
This review is totally not biased in anyway.
Anyways no I love Lunacid, I already considered it one of my all time favorites games before I got the ability to work on music for it in October of 2022.
Kira is a developer I have an extreme ammount of respect for. I love their story telling through notes only, their atmosphere and areas they create, their characters, and worlds. The only thing that I was never a fan of was the genre. I hate horror, this of course hasn't stopped lost in vivo being one of my favorite games of all time and just an overall extremely important piece of media to me. But I do not like them, so in 2019ish when Kira started teasing a new project inspired by Castlevania that was a spiritual successor to lost in vivos midnight mode I was extremely excited.
Lunacid takes what Kira is the absolute best at and puts it in an ambient exploration game and it works so so well. The thing this game less succeeds at is in difficulty and combat but, in my completely honest opinion. In depth combat has ruined exploration games for me, as it oftent slows down combat in general, and games like that very often force you into combat arenas which slow down exploration even more. See games like castlevania lament of innocence or Hollow Knight.
Games like castlevania symphony of the night I don't think were unfocused on combat because of the time they were made but because exploration is the actual important and fun part of these games.
I think lunacid has the perfect ammount of exploration mixed with some combat, it's a chill, relaxing, and atmospheric game.
That still has horror in it Kira why :(
Anyways no I love Lunacid, I already considered it one of my all time favorites games before I got the ability to work on music for it in October of 2022.
Kira is a developer I have an extreme ammount of respect for. I love their story telling through notes only, their atmosphere and areas they create, their characters, and worlds. The only thing that I was never a fan of was the genre. I hate horror, this of course hasn't stopped lost in vivo being one of my favorite games of all time and just an overall extremely important piece of media to me. But I do not like them, so in 2019ish when Kira started teasing a new project inspired by Castlevania that was a spiritual successor to lost in vivos midnight mode I was extremely excited.
Lunacid takes what Kira is the absolute best at and puts it in an ambient exploration game and it works so so well. The thing this game less succeeds at is in difficulty and combat but, in my completely honest opinion. In depth combat has ruined exploration games for me, as it oftent slows down combat in general, and games like that very often force you into combat arenas which slow down exploration even more. See games like castlevania lament of innocence or Hollow Knight.
Games like castlevania symphony of the night I don't think were unfocused on combat because of the time they were made but because exploration is the actual important and fun part of these games.
I think lunacid has the perfect ammount of exploration mixed with some combat, it's a chill, relaxing, and atmospheric game.
That still has horror in it Kira why :(
Great lil dungeon crawler, but the ambiguous plot and ending feel a little derivative of FromSoft and a little weak in my opinion.
The enemy AI is mega jank and easy to abuse, and certain weapons break the games difficulty in half.
The visuals are spot on for a game like this, but I feel some of the NPCs are a little out of place tonally. Demi and Patchouli are pretty anime.
I loved the Super Metroid inspired final boss tho
The enemy AI is mega jank and easy to abuse, and certain weapons break the games difficulty in half.
The visuals are spot on for a game like this, but I feel some of the NPCs are a little out of place tonally. Demi and Patchouli are pretty anime.
I loved the Super Metroid inspired final boss tho
Over the past few years we've seen the first wave of what is looking to be a deluge of early-3D throwback games released. Lunacid stands among the top of the pile, wearing its inspirations on its sleeves and producing a real time dungeon crawler that can comfortably sit with the better half of From Software's PS1 and PS2 catalogue.
Still, one can't help but wonder if a decade from now this game won't be looked upon in the same way many of the mid-late 2000s indie games are. Projects that in hindsight were praised more for their novelty than their innate qualities.
That's a question for future me to ponder though. Right now it's time to discuss Lunacid fresh after completing it and riding high on that novelty factor.
Exploration is incredibly rewarding with countless secrets around every corner ensuring that even the most bumbling player is bound to stumble on a few. And in those moments when you stumble upon something hidden in the darkest depths of the game's dungeons you can almost feel the sensation that you're the only person to have ever been here.
While secrets are well-hidden the core progression path is usually well signposted enough that (with perhaps a single exception) you can comfortably play without feeling the need to pull up a guide.
The wide variety of environments ensures that adventuring never gets tedious. Levels have a charming style that sits snugly between PS1 and PS2 fidelity and with great art direction. Texture and model quality are consistent such that nothing ever stands out as not belonging with the rest of the presentation.
Everything comes together cohesively save for the game's UI elements which seem awkwardly out of place. And the actual interface is awkward to navigate and frequently doesn't execute commands on the first attempt. The bubble headed NPCs in the game's hub with their Animal Crossing-like voices also stand out stylistically and don't quite jive with the rest of the game. One could argue that they do help prevent the game from feeling overly grimdark and self-serious, but I think I'd still rather do without them.
Combat is simplistic, but it is not the core draw of the game and so only does what it needs to so that it can remain engaging. I wouldn't have minded something a bit more energetic. The game's rudimentary locational damage system begs to be expanded upon and enemy attack patterns could be much more varied. It's a pretty easy game all-in-all, but that's alright.
The soundtrack is almost uniformly excellent but occasionally overpowering in volume and in rare instances outright unfitting to what's taking place on-screen. Though these out-of-place tracks can work to suit the dreamlike atmosphere Lunacid tries to evoke.
Maybe Lunacid's greatest weakness is that it takes so much from its inspirations that at times it feels like it lacks its own identity. This isn't to say it has none at all, but the homages are a little too on point. If a future game in this style is ever handled by the same developer I'd like to see them put more of themselves into it.
Still, one can't help but wonder if a decade from now this game won't be looked upon in the same way many of the mid-late 2000s indie games are. Projects that in hindsight were praised more for their novelty than their innate qualities.
That's a question for future me to ponder though. Right now it's time to discuss Lunacid fresh after completing it and riding high on that novelty factor.
Exploration is incredibly rewarding with countless secrets around every corner ensuring that even the most bumbling player is bound to stumble on a few. And in those moments when you stumble upon something hidden in the darkest depths of the game's dungeons you can almost feel the sensation that you're the only person to have ever been here.
While secrets are well-hidden the core progression path is usually well signposted enough that (with perhaps a single exception) you can comfortably play without feeling the need to pull up a guide.
The wide variety of environments ensures that adventuring never gets tedious. Levels have a charming style that sits snugly between PS1 and PS2 fidelity and with great art direction. Texture and model quality are consistent such that nothing ever stands out as not belonging with the rest of the presentation.
Everything comes together cohesively save for the game's UI elements which seem awkwardly out of place. And the actual interface is awkward to navigate and frequently doesn't execute commands on the first attempt. The bubble headed NPCs in the game's hub with their Animal Crossing-like voices also stand out stylistically and don't quite jive with the rest of the game. One could argue that they do help prevent the game from feeling overly grimdark and self-serious, but I think I'd still rather do without them.
Combat is simplistic, but it is not the core draw of the game and so only does what it needs to so that it can remain engaging. I wouldn't have minded something a bit more energetic. The game's rudimentary locational damage system begs to be expanded upon and enemy attack patterns could be much more varied. It's a pretty easy game all-in-all, but that's alright.
The soundtrack is almost uniformly excellent but occasionally overpowering in volume and in rare instances outright unfitting to what's taking place on-screen. Though these out-of-place tracks can work to suit the dreamlike atmosphere Lunacid tries to evoke.
Maybe Lunacid's greatest weakness is that it takes so much from its inspirations that at times it feels like it lacks its own identity. This isn't to say it has none at all, but the homages are a little too on point. If a future game in this style is ever handled by the same developer I'd like to see them put more of themselves into it.
Really fun game. Has a great gameplay loop of exploring and finding new ways to get more powerful and progress. It excels at the rpg dungeon crawling aspect. The environments are gorgeous and there are so many that really pulled me in. The music is amazing and overall this games strongest point for me is the atmosphere. I’ve been looking for a game outside of survival horror games that can capture serious atmosphere. This game does that but in its own way. And sometimes it’s genuinely creepy.
I don’t have much to complain about. All the stuff that annoyed me is mainly the traversal. Having entire maps in between the main ones with crystals is really frustrating. It can be hard to go back to explore more when it feels like the second you step away from a warp stone you can get lost at any moment. This game doesn’t have a map and that’s the other main problem. Almost every place I went I had such a good time until I realized I was stuck running in circles or missing some random corner or something. Would be nice to know where I’ve gone and have a visual for where I am at least. The game has banners to leave behind as you explore like bread crumbs. But that doesn’t do shit. It literally just makes you confused on an extra level when you end up looping no matter what. All these things were annoying but they weren’t enough to stop me from playing the rest of the game.
Btw the game is in early access. There’s still so much content to explore but just know that you’ll reach the end of what there is to do and you’ll just kinda have to realize that there’s no real ending. It’s more like you have to experience everything there is so far. Hopefully the game gets even bigger.
The game is just vibes. Like literally buy it and just walk around… kill some enemies (except for the snails and rabbits) find some secret walls and weapons. If that sounds like your type of thing you’ll love it.
I don’t have much to complain about. All the stuff that annoyed me is mainly the traversal. Having entire maps in between the main ones with crystals is really frustrating. It can be hard to go back to explore more when it feels like the second you step away from a warp stone you can get lost at any moment. This game doesn’t have a map and that’s the other main problem. Almost every place I went I had such a good time until I realized I was stuck running in circles or missing some random corner or something. Would be nice to know where I’ve gone and have a visual for where I am at least. The game has banners to leave behind as you explore like bread crumbs. But that doesn’t do shit. It literally just makes you confused on an extra level when you end up looping no matter what. All these things were annoying but they weren’t enough to stop me from playing the rest of the game.
Btw the game is in early access. There’s still so much content to explore but just know that you’ll reach the end of what there is to do and you’ll just kinda have to realize that there’s no real ending. It’s more like you have to experience everything there is so far. Hopefully the game gets even bigger.
The game is just vibes. Like literally buy it and just walk around… kill some enemies (except for the snails and rabbits) find some secret walls and weapons. If that sounds like your type of thing you’ll love it.
Waited for the full release to play this and im glad I did, this game is brilliant
This review contains spoilers
What I love about Lunacid, like everyone who played this game, is it's atmosphere and the aesthetic of it's environments. I loved discovering new spells, new weapons, and new enemies just because I wanted to see what was in this world, and I rather liked exploring (most) of the environments in which these things were embedded. This game inflamed my curiosity and that compelled me to literally 100% it. And, overdone as they are, I am a huge sucker for meta-textual narratives about the video game format itself. One really get the impression that this guy played Moon Remix RPG.
But the game IS flawed. As everyone has noted, this game is heavily inspired by King's Field, the FromSoftware dungeon crawler franchise which started on the PSX, and which Demon's Souls was a thematic offshoot and spiritual successor. In many ways, this game is an unholy union of King's Field and sleek, smooth, "modern" game design sensibilities. King's Field is extremely slow and plodding, with sluggish combat and languid movement. The whole world feels very hostile to you, and that hostility is instantiated in the very mechanics, with Tomb Raidery controls aggravating anyone who was born after 1998 that deigns to boot a fan-patched english translation on Duckstation. Lunacid, however, makes the player too strong and too fast. The environments achieve their aesthetic goals, but in terms of gameplay, they're rather safe and boring. There is an occasional trap, or some easily-avoided lava, but the environments should be more hazardous in ways outside of just the enemies which litter the screen.
Those same enemies, by the way, become trivially easy to beat, especially if you're a magic user, and regardless of the difficulty slider, by about the 4th area. The game cannot scale its challenge with the capabilities which it gives the player for speed and damage. i loved the spells, I loved the design and the environmental resistances and I could see the possibilities, but I beat about 3/4 of the game with literally the very first fire spell I ever equipped and nothing else. Which is not in itself bad -- I still used the other spells, just because I thought they were fun, whether or not a given combat situation called for them. That is a fine feature, but it cannot be the case that my own exploratory instincts and penchant for fun is the only thing apprehending my available choices -- the game should force me to make more decisions more often than it does.
Overall, I actually kind of love this game for what it is, but it doesn't feel finished. Yeah, there are some traps, and some environmental hazards, and some unique spell-environment interactions, and some interesting combat situations, but there are not enough of any of those categories. This game is the embodiment of an oft-quoted admonition to be careful what one wishes for. Many people clamor for updated and modernized versions of classic games, with better QoL, better controls, more intuitive mechanics and menus, and so on. The barriers to entry for the average game player to actually go back and play those archaic masterpieces seem onerous. Be careful not to lock yourself in the Iron Cage of Weberian rationalization for the games you design, especially if the thematic point of the game is to be unnavigable!
But the game IS flawed. As everyone has noted, this game is heavily inspired by King's Field, the FromSoftware dungeon crawler franchise which started on the PSX, and which Demon's Souls was a thematic offshoot and spiritual successor. In many ways, this game is an unholy union of King's Field and sleek, smooth, "modern" game design sensibilities. King's Field is extremely slow and plodding, with sluggish combat and languid movement. The whole world feels very hostile to you, and that hostility is instantiated in the very mechanics, with Tomb Raidery controls aggravating anyone who was born after 1998 that deigns to boot a fan-patched english translation on Duckstation. Lunacid, however, makes the player too strong and too fast. The environments achieve their aesthetic goals, but in terms of gameplay, they're rather safe and boring. There is an occasional trap, or some easily-avoided lava, but the environments should be more hazardous in ways outside of just the enemies which litter the screen.
Those same enemies, by the way, become trivially easy to beat, especially if you're a magic user, and regardless of the difficulty slider, by about the 4th area. The game cannot scale its challenge with the capabilities which it gives the player for speed and damage. i loved the spells, I loved the design and the environmental resistances and I could see the possibilities, but I beat about 3/4 of the game with literally the very first fire spell I ever equipped and nothing else. Which is not in itself bad -- I still used the other spells, just because I thought they were fun, whether or not a given combat situation called for them. That is a fine feature, but it cannot be the case that my own exploratory instincts and penchant for fun is the only thing apprehending my available choices -- the game should force me to make more decisions more often than it does.
Overall, I actually kind of love this game for what it is, but it doesn't feel finished. Yeah, there are some traps, and some environmental hazards, and some unique spell-environment interactions, and some interesting combat situations, but there are not enough of any of those categories. This game is the embodiment of an oft-quoted admonition to be careful what one wishes for. Many people clamor for updated and modernized versions of classic games, with better QoL, better controls, more intuitive mechanics and menus, and so on. The barriers to entry for the average game player to actually go back and play those archaic masterpieces seem onerous. Be careful not to lock yourself in the Iron Cage of Weberian rationalization for the games you design, especially if the thematic point of the game is to be unnavigable!