For those that know my interests in history, you might have guessed that I’m a sucker for Japanese history (or anything Japan-related, for that matter). So when a roguelike combines the game elements I love with an art style that I love, I’m already sold. Oh, and it’s a great game for everybody that doesn’t own a console that can support Elden Ring. Let’s slash in!
Before we dive into the actual gameplay, let’s do a bit of background first. GetsuFumaDen: Undying Moon combines intense roguelike hack-and-slash action with a stunning dark fantasy world, brought to life through the stroke of traditional Japanese art. As the chosen leader and guardian of the land of the living, wield the otherworldy arsenal and powers of the Getsu clan as you overcome multiple “Death” and descend deeper into the depths of hell to eradicate the source of the cataclysm.
Japan Exclusive GetsuFumaDen
And it’s a sequel! But we never got to play the original since it was only released in Japan. It is called Getsu Fūma Den, a side-scrolling action-adventure game for the Family Computer by Konami, released in 1987 and was available exclusively in Japan. It has been referenced in many subsequent Konami titles throughout the years. The game is structurally similar to Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest, The Goonies II, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (NES). The game offered an exciting plot, which featured the classic Japanse Sci-Fi (which came about due to the strict censoring after World War II). In the distant future of 14672 A.D., the first year of the Demon Age (魔暦元年, Mareki Gan-nen), the demon lord Ryūkotsuki (龍骨鬼) escaped from hell and plotted to conquer the surface world ruled by the three Getsu brothers (月氏三兄弟, Getsu-shi San Kyōdai). The Getsu brothers fought against Ryūkotsuki, each wielding one of the three spiritual Pulse Blades (波動剣, Hadōken) that have been passed within the clan for generations. However, the demon ultimately defeated the brothers, and only Fūma (風魔), the youngest of the three, survived. He was vowing to avenge his slain brothers, Fūma ventures into Kyōki-tō (狂鬼島, Mad Demon Island) to recover the three stolen Pulse Blades and summon the spirits of his brothers to defeat Ryūkotsuki. It’s also included with the Deluxe version of GetsuFumaDen: Undying Moon.
GetsuFumaDen: Undying Moon?
Fast forward to 2022, and Konami releases a roguelike sequel. You play as Getsu Fuma, the 27th leader of the Getsu clan, is widely known for his heroism and talent. He ventures into hell in search of the cataclysm there as well as his missing brother. This is his duty as a leader and a member of the Getsu clan. And the game makes sure you remember this at all times. As some of my colleagues already mentioned, GetsuFumaDen: Undying Moon has more in common with Dead Cells than it does with its Famicom predecessor. So it will feel familiar to anyone with experience with Dead Cells. But with a Japanese twist.. of sorts?
Ukiyo-E
Yes, I’m talking about the Ukiyo-e art style. Even though you might not know the specific term, I’m pretty sure everyone that’s reading this review recognizes the art style. Ukiyo-e[a] is a genre of Japanese art that flourished from the 17th through 19th centuries. Its artists produced woodblock prints and paintings of such subjects as female beauties, kabuki actors, and sumo wrestlers; scenes from history and folk tales; travel scenes and landscapes; flora and fauna; and erotica. Ukiyo-e (浮世絵) translates as “pictures of the floating world.” Specialists have prized the portraits of beauties and actors by masters such as Torii Kiyonaga, Utamaro, and Sharaku that came in the late 18th century.
The 19th century also saw the continuation of masters of the ukiyo-e tradition, with the artist Hokusai’s The Great Wave off Kanagawa, one of the most well-known works of Japanese art, and the artist Hiroshige’s The Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō. Following the deaths of these two masters and against the technological and social modernization that followed the Meiji Restoration of 1868, ukiyo-e production went into steep decline. However, the 20th century saw a revival in Japanese printmaking: the shin-hanga (“new prints”) genre capitalized on Western interest in prints of traditional Japanese scenes, and the sōsaku-hanga (“creative prints”) movement promoted individualist works designed, carved, and printed by a single artist. Since the late 20th century, Prints have continued in an individualist’s vein, often made with techniques imported from the West.
Clone Cells?
It might make your playthrough a bit more complicated since everything moves around in the same art style. This makes it a bit hard to distinguish art from monsters at times, but once you get used to the art style – you’ll die just as hard as in Dead Cells and consorts. Is it just a Dead Cells clone, then? No, not really. Unlike most roguelikes, there are no health pickups in the environment, which means you’re at the mercy of your stock of potions. The mechanics are also more rigid. There are a select few genres of weapons, and each improvement works like another. For example, the war fans are the same as the dual swords; they’re within the same class. I find this agreeable because when your weapons are doled out randomly, it’s nice to grab the class you’re most comfortable with.
Progression
Allowing you to get further into the game is a progression system to upgrade your weapons and lousy self. Not the most remarkable mechanic and one that is handled in a rather average way. You collect stuff from dead enemies, and you buy upgrades. That’s fine; you get to beef up your favorite weapons and then hope that they drop in your playthrough. However, progression in GetsuFumaDen: Undying Moon is slow, even for a roguelike (and it takes off the fun a bit). At the end of every stage, you are given the option to return to the Getsu Estate and bank your goods at the expense of having to start over. I figured this out a bit too late, ingame, which made it feel like running into a concrete wall all the time. I started farming the bosses I could manage and enemies throughout the level since weapon plans are also randomly dropped. At least it helped me with the progress… I guess?
This means it can take many playthroughs to see all of Yomi, and it can be pretty painful. The bosses are reasonably fun to fight, if only because they resemble your typical platformer bosses only in GetsuFumaDen: Undying Moon’s incredible art style. However, perfecting your strategy against them can also mean more playthroughs—even more than in Castlevania’s old-school 2D scroller. Yes, I hear you say, but Nick, it’s a Roguelite that already implies multiple attempts! Correct, but a run here can take upwards of an hour. Then you die, you make a little bit of progression, you’ve learned a little bit, and you didn’t unlock a level to break the monotony at least a little bit. It would have been better to focus on this aspect more initially since it makes the game not less fun (not in my opinion anyway) but less approachable for newcomers to the genre. It still challenged me to start a new run, even though I failed many times.
Conclusion
So, to conclude! GetsuFumaDen: Undying Moon is a very hard, very slow roguelike successor to a game that everyone outside Japan has never heard about. And that’s not a bad thing since the games only share the name and a bit of history. GetsuFumaDen: Undying Moon could have used a bit more polish, but it still offers an excellent experience for those that want to play a challenging version of Dead Cells and found Salt & Sanctuary way too easy. It’s just not for everyone, and it might even scare off some people due to the combination of the art style and serious difficulty (of not explaining things). The variety of these aspects dropped my grade slightly, but it’s still one of my favorite rogues of the year.
