Moonscars

[mfnick]

2D Souls like. With a tiny sprinkling of Metroidvania and more than a few nods to Blasphemous and Hollow Knight. Put a few hours in and so far it’s excellent. Like Hollow Knight the combat is mostly sword based but you play as a witch meaning you also have various witch abilities (basically magic), 2 of which you can equip at a time. The combat feels fantastic once you get into it and it has a brilliantly satisfying parry. Always a bonus!

 

Special mention also to the aesthetics, it’s a stunning looking game with great pixel art. 

Strongly recommend people give it a go, especially fans of Blasphemous ( @OCH you should love this as a fellow fan). Just be aware there’s a lot of nonsensical waffle in it just like all of these kind of games. Plus it’s on Game Pass. Nothing to lose. 

[mfnick]

Completed after about 10 hours. Became a little obsessed with it, everytime I put it on I just couldn’t leave it. Only took 3-4 sessions. 
 

Excellent game, massively overlooked and underrated. 

[radiofloyd]

Good to know. I’ve stopped adding metroidvanias to my Steam wishlist since there are simply so many good ones, at least until I finish the ones I have.

[mfnick]

It’s definitely more 2D Souls like than Metroid. The Metroid layer is very thin. Still try it though. 

[OCH]

Upon recommendation @mfnick, I picked this up a while ago (I will get around to posting this and Zelda in the latest games thread soon) and now I've finished TOTK. I thought I'd give my other new game a punt. So far, so Blasphemous. That's not a slight, just the vibe I'm getting immediately. Mr Arty-Farty does like the painted aesthetic of the cutscenes, too. I haven't immediately gelled with the combat yet. As with 2D and 3D Souls, it takes me a while to get used to parrying. Timing windows etc

 

First session ended with a fair amount of exploration upto the first boss. Positive impression so far. Although much as alluded to above. The story, with it's cats talking in third person, is pretty obtuse and impenetrable right now.

[OCH]

Pattern learned - first boss dead

I do kind of miss the 2D Metroidvania boss fights wherein you just dodged the occasional energy beam and hit them til they died. Dracula from Castlevania for example. Now it is all about planning your attacks, dodges etc via specific windows of opportunity. The first boss for example, had a parriable attack. I simply dodged it instead of trial and error with hitboxes. The story still only makes sense in broad stroke but I just rolling with it until I start to get invested.