With the heavy saturation of Souls-likes on the market, I've always wanted to see modernisations of From Soft's extensive past. Lunacid is one such game, taking directly from the King's Field and Shadow Tower series. I was unfamiliar with these games, and therefore was able to enjoy a new kind of gameplay experience.

The exploration is incredibly engrossing. Aided by amazing atmosphere and music(shout out Thor High Heels), it's easy to get lost by design, but this means that the player must be attentive at all times, and build a mental map of each sprawling dungeon. It was satisfying to start each level feeling completely aimless only to get a feel and mastery over the layout.

Combat is also surprisingly fun, despite its simplicity. There's a ton of build, weapon and magic options allowing for various approaches, and while battle can start out relatively difficult it's not hard to build up something that can end up shredding them. Again, the progression feels really nice.

That said, sometimes the game was a little too obtuse for its own good. Overlooking a single easy-to-miss ladder in a dungeon can lead to missing half of it as the rest leads to nowhere. Some dungeons are completely optional, yet I had no way of knowing until I exhausted every corner thinking I had missed something. One door that's mandatory for the rest of the game is very confusing on how to open. Needless to say, I had to resort to a guide more times than I'd like.

Overall though, the obtuse parts of the game weren't enough to ruin my enjoyment, and in some ways did add to its mysterious nature somewhat. I loved Akuma Kira's last game Lost in Vivo, and it seems like he's only improving. I'm very much looking forward to a potential sequel to this game, or trying out some of its inspirations.