Lunarium

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Doing a comprehensive review for this one because it seems the game sold below expectations and will probably need word of mouth. True ending review, ~18 hours, 85% completion [h2] Overall: 8.3/10 [/h2] Tldr; short and sweet above average indie game. Appropriately priced. Solid story, good gameplay, great presentation [h3] Story: 7.5/10 [/h3] Lunarium tells the story of Ave and Lune, a mortal and starfarer who journey to save the land of Firleaves, revealing along the way the nature of the titular 'Lunarium' and the truth of the Nihilus that threatens their world. Starting with the good, the characters are the best part of Lunarium. Lune is a thoroughly compelling character driven by a sad longing. On the other hand we have Ave, a headstrong, somewhat stubborn woman who makes Lune's goals her own. Though I didn't care for Ave at first, she did grow on me to some extent. But what really elevates these protagonists from good to great is that they are a natural foil for each other. Their bond develops naturally throughout the story with a heartfelt sincerity that compels the player to see the journey to its end. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the level of care with which the protagonists are written extends to every NPC as well. Almost every character has a level of depth that brings a new perspective to consider, making me want to exhaust every line of dialogue. The story of Lunarium and the depth of the varied characters compliments the somber and ethereal tone very well and gives room for the player to reflect on the meaning behind life and mortality. Woven through the game is an abundance of additional lore inserts and environmental storytelling that engages the player and encourages them to think one step ahead. This engagement with the story is rewarded by Ave and Lune, who thankfully also have a brain and vindicate the player by figuring things out themselves in a promptly manner. Unfortunately, the story itself in my opinion has a fundamental flaw: it tries to punch too far above its weight as an indie game with limited scope and budget. It is hard to explain without spoiling but Lunarium relies on painting a canvas depicting the vastness of its universe, but only has three and a half isolated 'biomes' to show us that story, even if what is shown is beautiful. The result is something akin to Van Gogh's Starry Night, except he only painted half the night sky because he ran out of paint. The result is that the player is left trying to extrapolate the other half by themselves. Speaking in less abstract terms, this manifests itself as the nature and history of the Nihilus and the cosmos being underexplored, a main villain with motives and backstory as complex as my dog barking for food and very interesting characters with as much squandered potential as a dreamy young adult destined to work a dead-end job and live an unremarkable life, among others. Nowhere is this as apparent as the ending, which despite being the true ending turned out to be maybe 15 seconds of extra dialogue with no closure for anyone beyond Ave and Lune. The ending feels rushed in general, perhaps due to typical indie studio constraints. This is not to say Lunarium doesn't tell a good story — it does, but it will likely leave you wanting. Reading this story is eating an inspired entrée at a high-end restaurant and leaving hungry because you resolved to spend no more than $20, but hey it was tasty and you got what you paid for so you can't complain. I imagine some individuals much like my high school English teacher would argue that the off-putting, 'je ne sais quoi' of the missing space is a Mona Lisa-esque proposition to rouse the imagination, but personally I would much prefer it if the fries in my bag were real and not imaginary, lest I perish from starvation. [h3] Gameplay: 8.5/10 [/h3] As an indie isometric action RPG, it's pretty hard to go wrong and I am happy to report that this game is proper fun. Fighting in general is tense yet enjoyable thanks to well-telegraphed attacks and beautiful animation. Don't be fooled by the first few hours as the gameplay rapidly opens up with a well-built skill tree and personalization options. Exploration is generally rewarding — between currency, embroideries, capes, upgrades and other collectibles powering up is smooth and enjoyable. Thankfully there are also a variety of enemies to test your mettle, a point of differentiation from other indie (and at times, AAA) games that converge on the consensus that goblin #2 ought to hit like a truck compared to goblin #1 simply because it was born red instead of green. Speaking of enemies, Lunarium boasts 25 bosses, one for each Australian dollar you pay to experience the game. This is a substantial amount considering the current economy and jokes aside, the notable quality and craftsmanship of each fight, almost all of which have their own tricks up their sleeve to ensure you regret locking yourself into an attack animation. On the topic of difficulty, Lunarium is a 'Soulslike' and you get standard fare for the term. I would put it on par with Nine Sols, maybe a little bit easier if you use the best tools given to you. There is an easy difficulty setting if you're not up to the challenge. Though speaking of Nine Sols, some may also refer to this game as 'parryslop', and the game does indeed heavily rely on the parry system. But to parry that critique, I would argue that between the stagger system, unparryable attacks and resonance management, there is enough push and pull between the systems that the combat is uniquely interesting, demanding the player to reason carefully about the tradeoffs of each line of attack. More like parrypeak. Not everything is perfect though. Ave's walking and turning speed is so slow and takes time to get used to compared to other top-down ARPGs, even if it may be a design choice. Exploration unfortunately becomes far more linear from the third area onwards which is dissapointing considering the more open map design of the second area. At that point so much currency drops from enemies that you won't have much reason to fight standard enemies anymore, rendering them more a nuisance. There is some lack of QoL such as no minimap on the HUD, dialogue appearing on the bottom left and disappearing before you can read it, no map when selecting a bench to teleport to, etc. Some quests didn't even trigger for me until a patch update, but to the developers' credit they seem to be fixing any bugs found pretty quickly. Ultimately, Lunarium was a joy to play, with boss fights being particularly exceptional. [h3] Charm and presentation: 9/10 [/h3] I mean, do I really have to say anything here? The art, design and animation speaks for itself and though there aren't that many tracks in the OST every single one is a fitting banger. Lunarium promises an ethereal, somber journey and absolutely delivers it along with moments of brevity and whimsy. The game feels meticulously crafted to evoke thought and emotion and no area of the map feels generic or incongruent. Now for some nitpicks. While the relationship between Ave and Lune is generally well done, it feels off in that they barely engage in displays of affection. And no, I'm not just disappointed there's no yuri. You'd expect Lune to maybe put her head on Ave's shoulder when resting at a bench, or say something besides "is something wrong?" every time you talk to her in the hub, or do something cute in idle animations but I think the budget ran out. Unfortunately the English translation also has some hiccups, with instances of mispelling, wrong names (eg. Theodore vs Theodoard), and even missing text boxes. Thankfully these are rare and do not detract significantly from the experience. There are also UI hiccups such as sometimes clicking right click to exit but sometimes you need to click ESC. The game would also heavily benefit from a few CGs when explaining key worldbuilding concepts.