when i first heard of moonscars, i was impressed by the visuals and atmosphere but i heard it was kind of buggy and unpolished (at that time at least) so i tempered my expectations and waited it out. when i finally decided to try it out on game pass i was genuinely surprised by how smooth and well designed the whole experience was.

i had one single minor nuisance during my 9 hours (i couldn't find a certain key because the map layout of the area was a bit fuzzy) but other than that everything was amazing, which is saying something for a metroidvania made by a small dev team.

i enjoyed everything thoroughly, the combat, the level design, the story, visuals and music, and i was especially impressed by how clear and well thought out + implemented the "punishing" parts were. because of its well balanced difficulty (at least for my skill level, which is not spectacular) i never felt any frustration with its systems, although on paper they sounded like a nightmare.

on the other hand, while moonscars definitely holds its own against the likes of blasphemous, salt and sanctuary, hollow knight and other amazing metroidvanias, it lacks a certain extra character in its presentation and a bit more confidence in its (very cool) themes that could make it undeniably a classic.

i only fear that my thoroughly enjoyable time with this great game might be forgotten quicker than i'd like