I always find it particularly interesting when I find a piece of media that doesn't do anything novel, but is wholly unique all the same. Momodora: Moonlit Farewell is that. It has made a clean, inviting home in its niche, and it is inviting you to come visit for a nice chat.

Momodora as a series does not bring any wild ideas to the metroidvania genre, but you do play as a priestess with a maple leaf for a weapon, and I'm fairly confident in saying it's the only metroidvania like that. These are games whose strengths are in how they tailored a set of existing gameplay ideas to the developers particular tastes. The appeal is less in discovering some new place to explore, but in exploring a familiar place in a different way. It's something fresh, but not something that requires you to learn a whole new way of living.

Moonlit Farewell is a what you'd expect from the genre, but it's not everything you'd expect from the genre. It's a carefully chosen subset of elements that are a result of the developer's limits and experience—having already released several games of this style and learning what they do and don't like to do.

This is a long-winded way of saying the game is a lightweight, streamlined, and polished metroidvania, and I quite like it for those qualities. Compared to Reverie Under the Moonlight, the previous in the series, it feels better to play, is more satisfying to play, sits at a perfect length, and maintained a pleasant experience for almost the entire runtime—though I'm sure my familiarities with the quirks of Reverie may have biased me a bit in that aspect.

Oh, and above all of that, this game is gorgeous and I adore the art style. I played it on a Steam Deck OLED and made sure to show it off to all my friends and family and they all quite agreed. The scenery, the effects, Momo's animations. It is all very pretty. The artist(s) should be proud.

From a gameplay side, I will say that I did find some of the boss fight balancing a bit uneven. Mostly dipping into a bit too easy on several of them. But one counter to that is that I seem to have become a bit of a power gamer over the last three years, and I found a particularly lethal combination of the traits available which the average player may not. The other counter is that easy is fine if it means it's staying smooth and relaxing.

Maybe it's the FromSoft brainrot that causes me to even feel the need to justify that, but there it is.

Whereas I would have only really suggested Reverie Under the Moonlight to people plumbing the depths of this genre niche, Moonlit Farewell has reached a point of polish and artistic appeal where I will happily recommend it to anyone. It is the type of game that—to me—justifies delving into a niche and which can introduce the curious to that kind of spelunking. It is a very nice little game and I would love to see more people appreciate it.

Moonlit Farewell é um metroidvania muito competente que possui um charme diferencial, mesmo sendo lançado numa época em que um jogo novo desse gênero sai quase que semanalmente. Tem muita coisa pra se gostar aqui: movimentação bem fluida, com controles responsivos, pixel-art ainda mais detalhada e bonita que o título anterior, Reverie under the Moonlight, assim como as animações dos sprites, lutas de chefes bem marcantes, além de fazer o "básico muito bem feito" em se tratando de mecânicas gerais de metroidvania.

Acho que o sistema de "pets" poderia ter sido melhor explorado, não vi nada muito útil ou diferencial para a jogatina neles, assim como não senti necessidade de "inovar demais" no sistema de "amuletos" do jogo. Um jogador mais criativo do que eu pode muito bem conseguir criar "builds" diferentes nesse sistema que variem um pouco a jogabilidade, mas é bem mais simples colocar os que aumentam dano/crítico, já que só tem 1 único combate no jogo todo em que foge do padrão "sentar o dedo no botão de ataque, se atentando pra esquivar de algum ataque aqui e acolá". Também achei o jogo um pouco linear demais pra um metroidvania.

No fim, creio que esses pontos negativos são por causa do retrabalho que teve que ser feito por causa dos fãs da série, que odiaram o fato do Momodora 5 inicialmente ser um jogo 3D, num esquema que lembrava bastante Dark Souls, simplesmente porque não queriam que "mudassem o estilo do jogo". Eu particularmente queria ver como as ideias seriam exploradas nesse formato, mas talvez fosse bem prejudicial para ele como desenvolvedor, assim como para o estúdio. Nossa, como eu odeio a entidade "fã". De qualquer coisa.

No fim, gostei bastante, mas acho que ainda prefiro o Reverie under the Moonlight em que ele teve mais liberdade pra sair do padrão da série até então, e o potencial das ideias foi melhor extraído.

As one of the most mechanically obsessive fans of the previous entry, Momodore: Reverie Under the Moonlight, Momo 5 is a difficult game to judge and discuss. The series has historically been more on the Cave Story side of truly homemade indie efforts than, say, the Shovel Knight one: That is, games that are made by like one person and really feel like they were made by just one person. Momo 4 felt like a good sweet spot of being a self-serious commercial product and while still retaining that homemade feel.

Momo 5 is a pretty neat metroidvania and has a number of its own cool tricks. Sprint and the positional management it brings in particular is such a weirdly refreshing mechanic in a world of action games that are obsessed with timing parries and dodges as the start and end point of defensive measures.

But that's just not quite enough to make me forget the equipment system and tonal melancholy and hands-off storytelling that are practically completely absent here. Momo 5 certainly has all the new features and QoL and presentational refinements that will have starry-eyed gamers breathlessly declaring it a straight upgrade over the previous game, but I think to do that, one has to completely forget what previous Momodora games were actually like, and "safe" isn't a word I'd use to describe any of them except this new one.

I don't think it's a bad game, mind you. I enjoyed my time with it and I will continue to play as there's more to discover. But I think it's worth thinking about why Momodora went from being an expressive affair I would describe as provoking to just another metroidvania I would describe as pretty good. And more widely, why a safer experience seems to be the inevitable fate of all franchises that go on long enough with enough success, even one as small as this.

amazing journey and really, you can feel how much effort was put into this game. the spritework is absolutely beautiful, the areas are nicely worked out and all have their own feel to them. love the several color schemes too! momodora 5 aims to be like its prequel, just a lot more ambitious. we get sigils this time instead of passive items like in 4, some companions and our health and magic can be upgraded separately. loved these ideas and they worked very, very well. we have 3, i believe, abillities we learn throughout the game. i do howevet have to say that an air dash like in 4 would have given this game more speed to it and i really hoped for it to be in this game while playing to the very last minute but sadly, this one was scraped.
the boss fights are put into scene amazingly. seeing all of the old monsters from the very first game redesigned like this was also a really cool thing for my fan heart. we get to see some familiar faces, some mentions of familar faces - a lot of callbacks as you probably would expect from this last game in the series.
whats sad too though is that they completely removed the op items you get when finishing a boss damageless. thats a shame because with the moveset we get in this recent entry, this could have been neat to do.
other than my very few things i missed in this, i cant help but love this very much. if youre a fan you will love it. if not you still will. :P
solid short game with really amazing graphics and enviroments that really leave you in awe. (im talking fairy springs here, god that place is absolutely stunning)
play momodora pls
give rdein some money

A totally enjoyable but average metroidvania. Quite linear, but with a couple instances of needing to double back to missed nooks. Areas are decently sized and have fun gimmicks, and the game has pretty pixel art. The music fits each area but is nothing catchy or memorable, and the game in general is pretty easy.

Despite the game not blowing me away, I am basically always in the mood for a SOTN-ish metroidvania, and this did hit that spot for me.

And lastly, Momo/Yuhia is the OTP :p

Ta aí um jogo que me fez ficar orgulhoso do Brasil.

Definitivamente esse foi um fim incrível para a franquia, e embora eu Não tenha jogado os 3 primeiros, já consigo notar uma evolução considerável do quarto título para esse. Foi um jogo que não me deixou sossegar até fazer os 110%, cumprindo e até superando minhas expectativas que eu depositava nesse incrível metroidvania.

O universo de momodora é bastante caraterístico e rico, e com esse jogo não foi diferente, gostei bastante de quase todos os biomas do mapa, e a grande maioria deles apresenta um level design muito bacana, então aquela sensação de "estar perdido" que citei na review do antecessor desse game continua aqui, e eu diria que foi amplificada.

Se eu pudesse reclamar de uma coisa seria que achei algumas bossfights bem fraquinhas, certas áreas (poucas) um tanto mornas em vida e a batalha final poderia ser mais difícil também. De resto, o game tem meus sinceros parabéns.

Enfim, Momodora é uma pérola da indústria brasileira, e novamente, por mais que eu não tenha jogado os primeiros games, consigo notar claramente que a evolução dessa franquia foi assustadora, encerrando ela com chave de ouro.

Solid if linear metroidvania game with nice graphics, but nothing really stands out to me gameplay wise. Still recommended if you're OK with a chill but very generic game of this type.
My main gripe is I don't see what's supposed to be the gameplay hook or improvement compared to Momodora: Reverie under the Moonlight. Instead of there being new mechanics (especially for movement) there are less of them and a stamina bar to limit how many actions you can perform. This mainly makes moving around the levels slow. The difficulty of the game is lowish for a first playthrough since modes above normal are reserved to NG+. The amount of post-game content seems generous, but assuming everyone wants to do multiple playthroughs is a mixed bag.

There are basically no movement tools to make map traversal or speedruns more interesting than an extremely vanilla metroidvania game (compared to RutM which had a decent amount). Enemies tend to be passive and slow. The invulnerable evade tied to stamina is a major focus in combat, with a lot of things coming down to evading when the indicator pops up instead of using a variety of movement options to get around attacks. This makes melee fights feel pretty samey and slow-paced. Granted enemies which focus on ranged attacks have more variety. More of these appear later in the game.

I felt like the main thing the stamina gauge accomplishes is make early game feel like a slog. Gives a sense of progress later but is hardly worth the cost. The level design gets interesting near the end but since the early game is so slow it takes up most of your playtime. I assume the point is easing the player into a chill story focused experience with basic gameplay.

I've only finished the normal difficulty first playthrough at this point. Pretty great! The sigil system gives you a reasonable amount of wiggle room to customize your build. Movement feels good without making you overpowered. Map is decently large. Without being too daunting, so once you've cleared an area of required objectives, cleaning up any remaining collectibles is pretty breezy. There are no longer bonuses for defeating bosses without taking damage, but given the larger number of bosses, and the few sigil builds that necessarily require taking damage (and how few players probably engaged with boss drops in previous games), it's an understandable removal.

For what appears to be the last game in the series, I was surprised to see how moved I was from just seeing how these games have evolved over time. It's odd watching something you played because it was free (when you were, like, ten) turn into this. I think growing up alongside something makes you susceptible to fond feelings for it, and that’s the case here. Returning to Momodora was a really great time for me.

It goes without saying that this is one of the prettiest games of the year by a mile, at least at the time of writing this review. I think that’s become something Momodora is known for, and it’s well deserved. Every environment has a certain character to it that I can’t quite put to words well. I enjoy that sort of thing.

I’m fond of the gameplay changes made. I found it less difficult than Reverie, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The sigils felt fun to find, and to some extent I experimented with all of them by the end of the game’s runtime. The movement isn’t the most pristine thing, but it’s generally fun to explore each environment, and I never felt like I was too slow to be having fun doing so.

While it lacks the depth of other examples within the medium, the narrative isn’t necessarily boring either. While it’s aided by the visuals, I did feel connected to what was going on in the world by the end of things. This could be a biproduct of playing every game in the series, and I could easily see someone playing this game and shrugging off the story entirely, but it resonated with me. To avoid spoilers, I’ll cap this by cautioning you to not go into this one expecting the same bleak world as Reverie. This one is more about hope than anything else.

Anyway, it’s a damn good game. With games such as this one the worst part is that, by the end of it, I don’t have anyone to really talk about it with. If you read this review, play the game, give it five stars, and then discuss it with me. That’s your mission. If you’ve already played it, you have permission to be my friend.

Momodora: Moonlit Farewell is the final entry in a five game series by (mostly) solo indie developer RDein, and man it's really fuckin hard to rate. I've fiddled with the star rating at least 10 times while writing this review.

M5, is a good game. RDein knows how to make a banger 2D platformer and M5 is no exception. There's some weird, not-well-thought-through ideas that are in the peripherals of the core gameplay, but they don't impact the game enough for me to call them out directly.

The game is visual eye candy as well. Downright gorgeous, best in the series by far. Close observers might notice the real-time 2D pixel-art environmental shading applied to the player character, which I know from experience is ridiculously hard to do in Unity. I'm always impressed with these games, but man they knocked it out of the park with this one.

The final boss of the game? God damn. That one's going down as one of the most visually spectacular bosses I've ever fought. What a way to say goodbye!

If this is the last game I ever get to play by RDein I think I'm okay with it, but I really hope it isn't. Game-dev is a bitch.

If you like metroidvanias and indie games then you should play M5. You should also play M4, (one of my favorite games of all time: Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight), and if you like that go play the OG M1-M3. The series is up there with the best of the best.

Um desfecho perfeito para uma franquia tão amada.
Entregou tudo e mais um pouco, o nível de melhoria do RUtM pro Moonlit Farewell é GIGANTE. A gameplay é muito bem fluida, a história se passa depois dos eventos do terceiro jogo e termina lindo. A progressão dos jogos que o rdein fez na questão de desenvolvimento é um negócio muito foda de se ver, desde um jogo que era um cave story, pra uma belezura dessas e bem original, esse jogo é LINDÍSSIMO e tem cada cenário muito bem detalhado. Os mapas são bem criativos mas é meio triste usar uma repetição de bichos dos jogos anteriores, mas não é como se fosse o fim do mundo também, os bosses a maioria eu achei bem legal e divertido de lutar, mas tem outros que achei bem desinteressantes (Ainda considero a Fennel do RUtM como a melhor boss da franquia). Tem vários sistemas legais de companheiros, um de ''buffs'' que são as cartas com poderes adicionais e ao decorrer do jogo vai se desbloquando o pulo duplo e wall jump. Amo a Momo e a Cereza, os diálogos entre elas dentro do jogo são bem engraçados e divertidos.
O jogo novamente é bem balanceado com dificuldades separadas pra quem quer um jogo leve ou mais desafiador, então é pra agradar todo mundo, a duração dele acaba sendo 3x maior do que o RUtM desde que a pessoa explore bem todos os mapas e pegue tudo. Amei a experiência e foi um final perfeito pra franquia, não sei se o rdein pretende continuar ou se aqui é o fim, mas se for, obrigado mesmo por essa franquia maravilhosa. 10/10

Demorei um pouco pra gostar do jogo, o level design é um pouco diferente dos outros Momodoras, mas depois que clicou foi muito divertido. Acho que esse aqui vai ser o último capítulo da franquia por MUUUUUUUUITO tempo, não parece um final definitivo, mas parece o inicio de uma pausa de uns 10 anos até o próximo.

Dito isso, a trilha sonora é a melhor da franquia, esse jogo é o mais lindo de todos até agora, os bosses são os melhores e mais divertidos (principalmente o boss final épico nível anime, foi irado demais) e a ideia das áreas são bem legais e únicas.

O problema é que algumas áreas são MUITO chatas, e outras a exploração não é tão divertida, e o jogo num geral não tem tanta coisa extra e nem uma liberdade tão bacana, até o Momodora 4 era mais livre que esse.

Enfim, Momodora Moonlit Farewell ainda é um ótimo jogo, até o final do mês quero ver se consigo platinar, pra continuar mantendo a franquia do Rdein 100% platinada na minha steam.

Pretty good, worth the 10 hours.

The art takes a step up from reverie, but the gameplay felt a bit more dull. Boss fights felt more dumbed down both in difficulty and complexity which is a shame as they were my favourite aspect of the previous entry in the series.

I do have to give some praise to the sigil system for keeping it fresh. I switched up playstyle a fair bit by moving the sigils around and it was a lot of fun to experiment with (I ran bow focused, glass cannon, and magic focused throughout my playthrough)