This is a very very nice looking game, and if I had more free time I would probably power through it, but unfortunately I do not. After 1 hour I could not stop getting hit by the basic enemies who have seemingly no or inconsistent hit stun, and mastered the parry by tappin my toe in time not with the visual cues, which are not nearly clear enough when the characters are so small on the screen. If Blasphemous is your favorite game this is at least worth a try, and maybe I'll buy a poster or osmething down the line.

Adoraria jogar mais, só que a paleta de cores é muito, mas MUITO merda, tudo é cinzento demais e atrapalha minha visão e leitura dos inimigos em muitos momentos, isso junto a eles serem pequenos demais ocasionaram diversos momentos em que eu me sentia frustada e acabar não me divertindo muito com o jogo, eu não pretendo droppar o jogo, mas devo jogar ele de forma muito lenta e com várias pausas porque realmente não tem me agradado; espero felizmente por melhora, porque a movimentação do jogo e também as animações da personagem são bem bonitas. Eu entendo as cores mais cinzentas serem a proposta do jogo pra representar um ambiente mais caótico, sem alma e vida, mas falta um trabalho um pouco melhor com as tonalidades aqui, é algo infeliz, mas que atrapalhou bastante minha experiência até então.

every time an indie dev makes a 2d soulslike, it always looks like the most promising thing ever, and then they fill the game with the most unfun, tedious mechanics, damage sponge enemies that kill you in two hits as the only semblance of "difficulty", annoying platformer elements that never feel fun, and an incomprehensible story with random meaningless jargon thrown here and there to substitute for dark souls terms
moonscars has the potential to be a 10/10 game, like every other 2d soulslike I've played, but it makes sure so hard that you are too busy wrestling with tedious mechanics and poorly thought out game design to ever feel like you are having fun
The art is so pretty but every area looks identical to eachother with extremely minimal changes in hue and extremely minimal changes in architecture
The music is barely noticeable and not memorable in the slightest
At least the animations are really well made

This.

This is what I wanted. This is what I've craved for.
This is what dreams are made of.

Moonscars sets the bar for the niche 2D grim-fantasy Metroidvania genre so high that it's on another galaxy.
It fits together all the great elements not only within it's genre, but as a standalone game as well.

It's got marvelous graphic-design, using a waterpainted look, almost like we are playing within a painting. The music is soothing to the atmosphere of the places you visit and adds to the apocalyptic and hopeless vibe of it's "inhabitants". The Lore is amazingly detailed, yet it demands care from the player to be unvailed. The socratic dialogues between the characters are really well written and they carry a great deal of nihilism and materialism, questioning you as a person and not only the protagonist of the game.

Nonetheless, I can't wait to grab my hands onto a deluxe-physical version of this game. With all due respect to other great games I've played this year, Moonscars is definitely my personal GOTY.

Do yourself a favour and play it.

Moonscars is a fun and challenging Metroidvania with some soulslike influences as well. With unique boss fights, good level design, and fantastic sprite animations, I enjoyed the game quite a bit. But several minor shortfalls like a lack of score, bland monochromatic environments, subpar voice acting, a weird wall jumping glitch, and very occasionally lost inputs make it feel like the devs just got bored of working on it and keep it from being a genuinely great game. In short, Moonscars really wants to be a soulslike Hollow Knight and comes close, but just barely misses the mark.

Gameplay ★★★★
Moonscars features a protagonist with a sword. Tried and true and always a good choice. Your core abilities include your regular attack, power attack, special attack, two spell slots to equip multiple "witcheries" to choose from, jumping, dodging, countering, and healing.

Healing and spells both use "ichor" similar to Hollow Knight's soul with one key difference that I really liked. Your ichor bar is basically double-layered. Using spells "corrupts" your ichor, turning part of your ichor bar a darker color. Corrupted ichor cannot be used to cast spells but can still be used to heal. Healing uses whatever ichor is there, corrupted or not. This really allows you to use the spells as much as you like. In HK I was always very conservative with the spells because I knew I would need the soul for healing. This caused me to exclusively use the nail for 90% of encounters even though the spells are way stronger, and having varied gameplay is more fun. Believe me, I never would have thought that a fairly unknown, low-budget game would have anything on HK, but here we are. This one slight change in mechanics was great for me.
The only problem here is that I didn't find most of the spells to be terribly useful. I think I cycled between 4-5 spells out of around 10 or so. But the ones that I did use were cool. Additionally, pretty much all the spells lock you in place longer than I feel you should be so I got hit a lot when trying to use spells, especially during boss fights.

Besides the regular attack you also have a power attack that you occasionally can switch out after beating tougher enemies and bosses. The power attack takes a long time to pull off but does a lot of damage and applies some sort of status effect, depending on the attack you have equipped. These range from a ranged disc attack, a hammer, pinwheel, or an even bigger sword than your regular one. These power attacks are very useful and give you super armor, but they are so slow that it's very difficult to pull them off without getting hurt in the process.

Defensively, you have the dodge and the counterattack. Not much to say about the dodge but I did really enjoy the inclusion of the counter. It was not terribly difficult to pull off but also not trivially easy. Especially since a lot of enemies telegraph their attacks but delay the actually damaging swing, or begin to move toward you before actually attacking. These tricky movements keep you focused and on your toes.

Early on there was a moment that really sold me on the combat system where I was surrounded by two enemies on either side, plus two in the air. The encounter went as such (roughly): dodge, attack, counter, jump-attack, counter, jump-dodge, counter, spell, special attack. Those types of moments make you feel like a badass action hero and Moonscars has them.

Lastly, the game also features spikes littered all over the place. Sticking out of walls, on the floor just sitting there or triggered by movement, or a switch. You can use the power attack to push enemies into spikes, or lure them on top of triggered spikes to do your work for you. This was not only a very satisfying way to dispatch enemies but also a great way to balance the scales when you're in over your head, which happens frequently even against regular enemies.

Story ★★★
The story is very soulslike in that it is about a corrupted and dying world and there is not very much that is told to you outright. Everything that is told to you outright just kinda says "here are all these lore-related words, you'll figure it out".
That being said, what I did understand of it was interesting.
This is just my understanding of the background, I could be totally wrong about some of it
A guy called the Sculptor created Clayborn which are living beings crafted from clay and brought to life by an ichor gland. They seem to have been serving humanity until they started to go mad at which point a war broke out and basically all the humans were killed. There are a lot of cool story concepts tied to gameplay mechanics that utilize this background, including the explanation as to why your character comes back to life (you are controlling a shell of yourself) as well as a key part of the penultimate boss.

Characters ★★★★
Moonscars has a very small cast of characters but I liked them all. They have unique personalities and quirks that make them interesting. Not much to say about this. It's best to just experience them as you play the game.

Art ★★★★★
The art design is both Moonscars' biggest strength and its biggest weakness. The character and enemies models all look great and are animated beautifully. There is an amazing sense of motion and power behind attacks and even something as simple as healing is animated with lots of frames of movement. Though there aren't a large number of different enemy types, they all have really good designs and are also animated in a fantastic way.
The weakness here comes from the environments. While the level design is great and there are a lot of cool concepts behind the setpieces that you encounter, they are all just so bland. Everything is white, grey, red, brown, or black. With such a limited pallet you just aren't drawn into things as much as you could be and the areas don't differentiate themselves in any way except in basic color hues. Kind of like how when you played a Gameboy game on the Gameboy Color and it just gave a bluish hue to all the ground tiles in one area and a greenish one to another area. If you look up a full gameplay video on Youtube and scrub through the progress bar looking at the thumbnail I bet you will hardly be able to tell that the game ever goes anywhere new.

Music ★
Lastly, the most disappointing part of the game. 90% of it features no music at all, just maybe a pedal tone with some ambiance on top of it. This is really sad for two reasons. First, music is often one of the best parts of a game. Games like Hollow Knight, Death's Door, and basically anything by Supergiant use music to fully immerse you in the game and help you to feel the tone of the area your in.
The second reason that it is sad is because the boss fights do feature music and what is there is quite good! They aren't Christopher Larkin for sure but they are very good! I would have liked to see what could have been done if just a bit more time had been spent to improve the score they have and add more to other areas.

In closing, Moonscars was very enjoyable and I would absolutely recommend it to you if you're a fan of metroidvanias. I'm settling on 3.5 stars, but it's really really close to being 4. If the devs had waited just a bit longer and polished up some of the aforementioned complaints we would have had a truly amazing experience with this one.

Played on Gamepass

A slightly clunkily sculpted but enjoyable metroidvania.

When it comes to a game like this the three most important things to me are 1. fluid combat 2. good exploration 3. fun abilities/platforming. Moonscars does it all decently well. Albeit there is quite a bit of jank to it with animations and fluidity to things like healing or spells midair as well as the wall jumps or ladders always being a bit weird to use.

The bosses overall were a good mix of chaotic but manageable, only thing I had a problem with was that some bosses essentially forced you into certain build types. The final two bosses while cool, were just a bit too easy as well.

Best part of the game is the art but even that has its issues. Mainly with the overall drab looking palette the game has. The music side of things was also just a bit meh.

Worth checking it out if you don't mind a bit of a convoluted and slightly jank metroidvania. Its full of good and bad aspects but wins out on the enjoyable side for me.

Pro
>Top-tier sprite animation
>Really hard
>Decent world size for a MV

Cons
>LOTS of bugs and glitches
>Glitched inputs (using a Dinput controller)
>Kind of bad map for a Metridvania (you can not see clearly if an area is completed)
>No remap for dash button (really WTF?)
>Monotone background, its like you're always on the same place.
>Regular to bad OST
>Magics and special attacks do not visually change when upgraded (lame)

Overall the game feels like an unpolish copy of Blasphemous, go play that instead.

Ok eu tinha boas expectativas, no trailer o estilo visual e combate me chamaram até mais atenção que o Blasphemous. No geral eu esperava um ótimo souls like metroidvania com combate divertido e uma boa história. Não chega a ser tudo isso, mas ainda é um bom jogo.

Sobre a arte não tem muito que eu possa comentar além de que É BONITA PRA CARALHO, e adiciona ao mundo aqui criado, que consiste de cinza, preto e amarelo que até pode parecer uma escolha de cores não muito interessante, mas que casa com o universo de Moonscars. A trilha sonora é bem foda-se quando não está em boss battle. Já a gameplay é muito boa, mas eu gostaria que o combate tivesse uma progressão maior, que houvesse uma evolução maior em suas mecânicas, mas a gameplay é quase a mesma do começo ao fim, e nesse sentido me decepcionei um pouco. Mas claro isso é uma opção que os próprios desenvolvedores tomaram e que me desagradou, há uma razão pra esse aspecto não estar presente e é interessante como o personagem não upa de nível, mas sim dependendo de quantos inimigos você matar, são liberados pequenos buffs que somem quando você morre ou alcança outro espelho(bonfire do game), entretanto tem uma grande repetição de inimigos e os bosses até tem uma boa trilha sonora mas são fáceis demais, com poucos movesets, fazendo com que você pegue a manha logo de primeira. Como falei, é divertido e me prendeu mas poderia ser um pouco melhor. Já a ligação entre mecânicas de gameplay e a lore é uma das coisas que mais gostei em Moonscars, com toda uma relação entre A Lua, uma espécie de Deusa, e uma dicotomia entre Pristines e Clayborns, que fundamenta toda a história do jogo e o sistema de renascimento.

A história foi algo que de início dei pouca importância por estar achando meio qualquer coisa, mas aos poucos vi ela ganhando certa complexidade, dando um grande foco em temas relativos a religião, humanidade e poder, sim uma listinha básica de famosos Dark Fantasy, mas que nesse mundo sublunar é trazido de forma que me cativou bastante. Pois a lore aqui é contada através dos NPCs, nossa personagem perdeu a memória e busca seu criador a procura de respostas, a cada evento dentro do jogo recebemos um item que nos recobra memórias, esses itens podem ser entregues a uma NPC e com isso podemos discutir a respeito de determinado assunto. No geral têm vários elementos batidos, que já vimos em outras obras, mas nem sempre é algo ruim quando trazido de forma diferente e intuitiva.

Portanto, é mais um nesses gêneros que amo tanto, então se assim como eu você curte metroidvania, souls like ou dark fantasy, não é algo inovador nesses meios, mas que pega vários desses elementos e apresenta á sua maneira, então tá aí mais um título pra se aproveitar.

And here we go again, another metroidvania with souls-like features in it, everything could go well, but it doesn't.... not being pessimistic, moonscars has good things like the gameplay, animations, sound, scenarios and an interesting lore but unfortunately it also have a lot of bad things.
Starting with the lore, it is good but the game doesn't know how to tell it to the players, it's very confusing and poorly wroted. The amulets and powers are another problem, you have a lot of them, but 90% are useless or just useful in specific situations, so when you reach 40% of the game you'll have the build that you'll use the rest of the game.
The last problem for me is the roguelite system...it doesn't work at all, its too simple to be something in the gameplay, you kill some guys, up 4 or 5 levels, select some basic upgrades like "more 10% of critical chance" and when you die or use a checkpoint for the first time it resets...simple and useless.
Moonscars has a good gameplay and universe but basically all elements that compound it are poorly made, but if you want something to have a quick fun and like this style of game, give it a chance ( gamepass..)

One of my favorite games that I have played in the last couple of years.
I love the art style of the game and the gameplay as well. The game looks and feels super smooth especially during combat.
I like how this game doesn't just carry you along the story, yeah sure you can just go along the game and pick up some clues about what is going on, but if you really want to know what exactly is going on deep down and just how some characters are connect to one another then you are going to have to read between the lines of characters dialogues. As well as read some item descriptions and seek out npcs to learn more about the world and its characters.
This being a metroidvania I also enjoyed the roguelite aspects of the game as I liked the challenge that it added on to an already fairly difficult game.
Definitely a game I would play again down the line.

BX#17
Gothic / Dark-fantasy Metroidvania

- Art direction, setting and music are just incredible;
- The combat is fast and responsive, special moves and parries are risky and satisfying;
- Enemies and bosses have very cool designs and are cool to fight;
- At times it's very difficult...
- The lore is deep and there are tons of secrets and quests...

BUT

- Exploration at times feel useless (= countless of hidden items are just "souls" to spend);
- I encountered a few bugs and glitches, even if I'm 100% sure the devs will work on them;
- QOL features are missing (= the map is one of the worst I've ever seen);
- ...so it's not for everyone;
- ...but sometimes it's way too cryptic even for soulslike fans.

I tricked myself into playing another 2D Souls-like again. Moonscars is similar to Blasphemous but I enjoyed Moonscars more. Snappy and fast combat, I liked parrying, and there is a good variety to the magic spells. During boss fights however the bosses would move off camera and I had to play a guessing game till they were back on screen. The areas were also well designed because there wasn't a jack of all trades build I could use so I had to change my loadout for encounters and that is genuinely good game design.

Este juego recuerda principalmente a Blasphemous, y a ratos, un poco a Death's Gambit (ambos metroidvanias soulslikes) y la historia quizás un poco tirando a Nier. Aún así, teniendo un combate muy frenético, un arte MUY bonito y una historia que te mantiene intrigado hasta el final, no consigue destacar y acabar siendo un juego memorable. Sufre de algunas cosas, como repetición constante de enemigos. A pesar de que recomiende cualquiera de los títulos anteriormente dichos antes que este, sigue siendo un buen juego al que deberías echar un vistazo si te gustan los metroidvanias como un enfermo (como yo) y los soulslikes (como yo también)