Title: Momodora: Moonlit Farewell
Developer: Bombservice
Publisher: Playism
Release Date:
PC: January 11th, 2024
PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X/S: February 6th, 2025
Platforms: PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X/S, PC
Reviewed on: PlayStation 5
Price: $16.99 (USD)
Following up on the beloved Reverie Under the Moonlight released back in 2016, Momodora: Moonlit Farewell’s expanded focus on rewarding, exploratory progression and expressive, weighty combat, results in a natural evolution for the series. Despite being the fifth (and potentially final) entry, Moonlit Farewell serves as a great starting point for newcomers to the series and metroidvanias alike thanks to the exposition provided during its opening hours, which quickly recounts the important events of its predecessors, as well as due to its generous slew of quality-of-life features.
Plot Synopsis
Momodora: Moonlit Farewell has you playing as High Priestess, Momo Reinol, whose humble village of Koho has been under attack by onslaughts of demons following the ominous toll of a distant bell. Tasked by the Matriarch with investigating the bell and uncovering the identity of the bellringer, Momo sets out alongside her fellow priestess, Cereza, on a journey through a collection of dense and varied environments as she looks to bring peace back to Koho. It doesn’t take long before Momo discovers that the bell, known as ‘The Black Bell’, is just a minor set piece in a much grander conflict; an ongoing feud between two dangerous and bitter goddesses, both looking to stand victorious over the other with no concern over who gets hurt along the way. Naturally, it is up to Momo to bring this fighting to an end and restore peace in the process.
Exploration
A metroidvania through and through, Moonlit Farewell sees you navigating interconnected environments full of threatening enemies, precision platforming, and concealed secrets, each of which are a joy to overcome and discover. As you may expect with the genre, you will start with only a few abilities at your disposal, greatly limiting the areas in which you can traverse. As the game progresses, your repertoire of abilities will gradually expand, and you’ll find yourself able to reach previously inaccessible areas.
While backtracking to former locations occasionally felt a bit more tedious than I would’ve preferred, many of the acquired abilities enhance your movement in such a way that the return trip will vary quite a bit from your initial journey through the locale. In addition, as the events of the plot continue to escalate, you will find different and more threatening enemies appearing in previously visited locations, which ensures that the difficulty curve gradually increases as you progress. This organic progression and continuous escalation help ensure that the exploration feels fresh even when retreading familiar environments.
Moonlit Farewell tends to follow a tried and true formula for metroidvanias, and it doesn’t always feel like it brings enough new to the table; that being said, I did find a majority of the unlocked abilities fun to utilize, and the level design feels meticulously crafted to always take full advantage of the movement options available, regardless of where you are at within the playthrough. My favorite of these options is easily the ‘Spiral Shell’, which enables the ability to scale nearly any vertical surface through use of a wall jump that feels very reminiscent of the ‘Wall Kick’ in Mega Man X. The burst of freedom provided after receiving this ability, which happens fairly early on in the playthrough, significantly turns the exploration on its head in a way that was surprising and exhilarating.
Combat
Alongside the exploration, Momodora: Moonlit Farewell’s combat system, which focuses on a mix of weighty melee combos, rapid-fire ranged attacks, and timely evasion, stands as the other pillar of the experience. Performing any of these actions is simple in execution; however, the colorful variety of enemies each sporting their own unique movesets and attack patterns ensures that you are always kept on your toes and forced to adapt during encounters. Melee attacks tend to be the highest damaging action you can take but place you directly in the face of danger while ranged attacks can often be spammed safely from afar but deal less damage and can even be reflected by certain enemies. Weaving together the right balance of these two methods of assault is essential to overcoming many of the game’s challenging foes.
Moonlit Farewell’s combat also places a large emphasis on dodging effectively with specific context-based timing, primarily due to the implementation of a stamina bar that limits how often you can perform various movement-based actions in quick succession. If you manage to dodge right as an enemy attack would connect, the stamina cost expended from the dodge will immediately be refunded, rewarding careful and reactive play. This stamina bar is a new addition to the Momodora series unique to Moonlit Farewell in particular; it admittedly took some getting used to, and even after doing so, I feel that it was occasionally a bit too restrictive in execution, especially when you’re just trying to swiftly dash through previous areas of the game. That aside, I appreciate the desire to veer the combat of the series into a more thoughtful and methodical direction, as previous entries often felt a little too easy to button-mash your way through.
While the different types of combat actions available can feel limited at times, there is a breadth of customization options through the ‘Sigil’ and ‘Companion’ systems, each of which allows you to enhance Momo’s passive abilities in a handful of ways. The ‘Sigils’ include a large variety of effects including additional damage-over-time on your ranged attacks, temporary invincibility frames after healing, or even a one-time revive upon death. By the end of the game, you can equip up to five ‘Sigils’ at a time, allowing for a vast number of unique combinations. The ‘Companions’ in comparison are a bit more tame, as their effects trigger only periodically and can’t be used during boss fights; still, I found myself swapping between the ‘Grimalkin Spirit’, who drops magic orbs that can be used to restore health, and the ‘Floating Skull’, which launches large-radius ranged attacks at enemies, frequently throughout exploration with both feeling surprisingly useful on several occasions.
Presentation
Despite sporting a charming, mystery-filled narrative and an engaging, fluid combat system, nothing within Momodora: Moonlit Farewell managed to impress me more than its absolutely lavish presentation. The pixel art is consistently gorgeous and dense with detail which made discovering each new area for the first time a downright magical experience. Whether I was trekking through a mushroom-filled forest, a glittering seaside cove, or an oppressive demon-ridden dungeon, I couldn’t help but frequently pull myself to a halt just to take in and enjoy the expansive environmental details of each. This lovely artwork is complemented by Moonlit Farewell’s lush soundtrack full of melancholic melodies and energizing battle themes, with each track always seeming to serve as the perfect tonal embodiment of what was occurring on screen.
Final Score
Momodora: Moonlit Farewell is a delightful and engrossing experience that serves as the near-perfect culmination of the Momodora series. While not without some minor faults, journeying through its many captivating environments, mastering its expressive yet intuitive combat, and immersing myself within its optimistic narrative was consistently rewarding and an overall joy.
Have you played Momodora: Moonlit Farewell or has it piqued your interest after reading this review? Let us know in the comments or on the Boss Rush Discord.
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