Welcome to our review of the 2D side-scrolling Action-RPG, Moonfall Ultimate! Step inside a world of hacking, slashing and casting spells, set in an industrial gothic universe. Developed by Slovakian studio Fishcow, which really lives up to its name.
In this game, you will discover the story of The Empire, a once small kingdom now under threat from so-called Savages. They hunt a mysterious element known as Lunarium which resides in The Empire and you, a dauntless recruit, must protect the land at the front line. At the beginning of your game, you can pick a class, which are basically the traditional ones like Warrior, Rogue, and Mage (Vanguard, Shadow or Elementalis). The skillsets of the different classes are also like the traditional systems – upgrading skills like poison bombs, extra critical damage, different spells etcetera. Then you are thrown into the ‘tutorial’ which explains.. well nothing. I had to press all the buttons to figure out how to do an ‘action’ commando to read text. Once you play through the tutorial, you are ‘warped’ into the Hub. The Hub is basically a base camp for mercenaries, with a smithy, merchant etc.
In the Hub you can accept quests and read about the backstory of the game. Once you accept a quest, you are teleported into the ‘area’ of the Savages and go from ‘room’ to ‘room’ in a metroidvania-style exploration system. It would have been better if it was actually a metroidvania-style exploration. It feels more like walking from one end to the other, beat up the enemies, flip switch, return to location x, and complete quest. The new quest is basically the same, but with more and harder enemies – which will result in early death. While fighting the enemies the game throws at you, you can switch between ranged and melee weapons. While using one or the other, the other will be boosted. So for example, when using ranged attacks, the next melee attack will deal extra damage. But, you’ll have to switch between the weapons to perform another attack, since it’s a different weapon. Oh and while you are switching the bonus will subdue..
Which is also the main problem I had with this game. Something that is advertised as ‘Metroidvania-style exploration, mixed with 2D side-scrolling action RPG elements’, has to be active and flexible. Not static and generic. The game felt sluggish and sometimes even out of balance. I played with the Shadow, since I like rogue-like types the most, but couldn’t progress far into the story since I was overpowered by the many enemies the game throws at you after a few quests. Then advertise that you’ll have to play as Vanguard to powerplay through it, while using a Co-Op buddy as Shadow to poison and backstab enemies.
The artwork and background are also generic in my opinion. There is some hefty competition in this genre on the Nintendo Switch, so I don’t think Moonfall Ultimate will be the one to rise above the rest. The text in these kinds of games doesn’t have to be flashy, but just throwing it at the people like PowerPointslides with no running text won’t trigger me into reading what to do, or why I am the sole person to save the country. So if you are looking for a cool 2D-scrolling adventure, try Salt & Sanctuary. The artwork in this game is also hand-drawn, with some of the most energetic gameplay I have ever seen. Or if you really want a good adventure RPG, you can of course always wait until the release of Diablo III for the Switch.. since, well, it’s Blizzard.
To summarize:
Moonfall Ultimate does not deliver what it promises. I truly believe the game could have been great, if there had been put more work, time and elbow grease in certain key-factors of the game. Since the whole game is just a mediocre version of the oldschool 2D RPGs I personally would reboot my Castlevania games on the Game Boy Advance than testing my patience and playing through this piece of Nintendo Switch software. Sorry guys, but don’t try this at home.
