Moonscars

Moonscars is a dark and punchy 2D action adventure that tweaks the Soulslike formula just enough to make it worth jumping into yet another entry in this most overstuffed of genres. The combat here is super slick stuff that's meticulously animated through the game's exquisite pixel art style, there are a ton of cool skills and weapons to get your hands on, and the world and its enemies are thoroughly well-designed. It's a shame, then, that this Switch port currently suffers from fairly consistent frame rate issues, because beyond a few difficulty issues here and there, it's pretty hard to find fault with what Black Mermaid has served up. Let's hope this one gets a performance patch for those stutters.

The gorgeous pixel art and dark themes within Moonscars help make it an enjoyable action-platformer by new developer Black Mermaid.

Moonscars falls just short of greatness the same way Grey Irma occasionally falls just short of platforms she can definitely reach, but where it shines, it shines like a full moon. A rich, original story accompanies solid platforming and technical combat like that of the Souls games, all of it placed within a huge, sprawling map packed with traps, secrets, and goodies to find. Seemingly complex systems like customisable special attacks, blood moons that make enemies stronger, and having to trek back to a place Grey Irma fell to get precious bone dust back all work together smoothly, and while it can be unclear what the player is supposed to do or where they’re supposed to go, the developers have made sure they’re going to have fun figuring it out.

Moonscars offers an engaging level of challenge, however it suffers from a few unfortunate bugs and questionable design decisions.

Black Mermaid understood the ideas that made the 2D Soulslike genre successful and added new mechanics that reflect its own identity. If it didn't have flaws like story being too messy and combat having balance issues, it could have made its mark among the best examples of the genre.

Moonscars is not a bad game, but it struggles from its mediocracy and overall uninspired nature to find its footing in a genre with many more interesting and noteworthy games to choose from.

Moonscars is a good debut by Black Mermaid with some unique ideas and missed potential. The gameplay is fun and engaging but some mechanics feel a little unbalanced and in some cases can even forget about them and still finish the game. The story is well written, especially the dialogues but the lore and character building lacks enough depth to feel close to them. Overall the story and art style of the game is forgettable and this made the sound editing and music of the game lose their power and therefore feel shallow.

Ultimately a failure to stick in the imagination is my main criticism of Moonscars. Had this game come out a few years earlier I would almost certainly be more favourable to it, but as it stands it feels a little too familiar to other games I’ve played extensively, and with not quite enough going for it to make it shine. It’s a blast to play, and the combat feels great, but when there are so many other games with that and great character, and great story, and great world-building, so there’s just not quite enough to drag me back in.

Minor blemishes aside, I had a thoroughly great time with Moonscars. When all is said and done, Moonscars is an example of what makes indie developers so brilliant. Risks have been taken here, in terms of artstyle and approach, but a masterful understanding of what makes such games engaging makes Moonscars one of the more stand-out titles in this genre.

Moonscars remain an utterly impressive debut outing for Black Mermaid, an entertaining action-platformer that is full of atmosphere and cryptic worldbuilding, and a visual style that showcases just how awesome pixel art continues to be in modern gaming. At about 20-odd hours, it is a game not to be rushed but savoured, and the darkness never looked so enticing.