Developer: Kitfox Games
Publisher: Kitfox Games
Steam Deck Compatibility?: Playable
Rrp: £9.99 (Humblebundle) £11.39 (Steam) £11.99 (gog.com)
Released: 10th March 2016
Available on: Humblebundle, Steam and Gog.com
Played Using: An Xbox One Control Pad
Approximate game length: 7 Hours
The moon has gone from the sky, and the people of the world begin to panic. Well, not everyone does, some instead steel themselves and prepare for the adventure that lies before them. Who knows where this mystery will lead them.
Moon Hunters is a hack and slash, roguelite made by Kitfox Games, the same people who recently created and released Boyfriend Dungeon.
When you start you get to pick the class you wish to play as, there are seven to pick from, however, only the first four are available when you first start to play. The other three become unlocked as you play through the game and make certain choices (assuming the relevant event appears).
The game occurs over five in game days, with each map taking a day and ending with you making camp for the night (the exception to this being villages).
When you make camp, you must perform a task in order to progress to the next day. Each of these tasks will increase at least one stat which is shown on the task in question. Well, all the tasks show the stats it effects bar one… cooking, the stat increase you receive from that depends on what you cook.
Your character has six stats; endurance, spirit, strength, intellect, faith and charm. Enhancing these stats will increase your characters effectiveness, although that depends on what you increase. For example, increasing strength isn’t going to make your magical attacks any better. Thankfully, while in camp your stats are displayed complete with a little description on what they affect.
In addition to stats your character will also pick up traits as you play, these traits come into play in specific circumstances, a good example being that if you have the ‘brave’ trait you can speak to some village elders about your exploits and this will give you a stat boost.
Each time you play the world is recreated through procedural generation meaning you get a different experience. Of course, this also means there’s no gaurentee that any specific event (beyond the beginning and end) will occur so planning out a class build is a bit tricky.
Being a roguelite, one of the things that follows you from playthrough to playthrough are the ingredients you have gathered for cooking and the recipes you have discovered.
The game features a stamina bar, because every game needs one now that the Dark Souls series has made it cool. Stamina isn’t effected by your characters physical attacks but instead by your magic and fast movement skills. Thankfully, the stamina bar regenerates fairly quickly and that regeneration rate be enhanced by increasng the relevant stat.
Defeated enemies will sometimes drop ‘opals’ which you use at merchants to upgrade your abilities for the run. Each merchant you go wo will have a different set of skills for you to purchase, however remember, once you leave an area you can never return. So, you had best think hard on whether you want to buy this merchants skills.
The world needs more games like this, games that can be played in single player as well as co-op multiplayer. Having played both on my own and with friends I can say that this game doesn’t need the multiplayer aspect but having it definitely adds to the experience rather than taking away.
As for the single player, I had loads of fun working out what play style works best for me, you never truly feel overpowered in this game because even if you have tons of skills even low level enemies can be challenging.
If this appeals to you perhaps try;
Children of Morta
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