Moonchild

Edit: Steam is now showing this review as pre-release. I don't know what the publisher of this game did on Steam to make it think it was in a beta before this, but it wasn't. It was sold as a full release, with collector's editions and everything. It is still a terrible game, and everything in this review is still valid. TL;DR: This sort of game is the reason RPGMaker things on steam have such a negative stigma. It exhibits incompetence at every level. I am now honestly surprised this game has net positive reviews on steam. I've been designing an RPGMaker game myself, and was looking around to see what sort of things had positive reviews on here. I have no idea what game the other reviewers were playing, but it wasn't this game. -The writing is atrocious. It reads like a bad fan-fic of someone elses fantasy world. There is no consistency in writing or tone, nor of the world the people were trying to build. In a purely fantasy setting, why is one character talking about her CV(resume)? The opening sequence was so bad that I immediately closed it and tried to get a refund. Too bad I was past my date for it. None of these characters read like real people. The writing was so bad that the best choice the designers made was including a 'talk to party' function, so I could skip past the horrible writing and still be able to figure out where I had to go. You still have to talk to every inane, useless, and pointless NPC in town for fear of missing a quest, so good luck talking to thirty some-odd NPCs with such riveting dialogue that is important to world building such as "I love this carpet!" -The battle balancing is also atrocious. You can be walking around a dungeon, fighting enemies that look like Hindu gods and Chimeras, and one shotting them easily, but 'deadly snake' can nearly wipe your party with repeated paralysis attacks. No warning or lead up, but I'm so glad that snake was tougher than any boss in the game I fought. You get no indication of what enemies are weak to or what spells work, so whether you choose attack or spells for a new enemy is entirely random, and so many of the clearly 'physical' characters have tons of useless attack spells as well, and quite a few casters don't get any attack spells for several levels that are of any use. You have so many spells to dispel an enemy's buff, but never run into enemies who actually buff themselves. -There is a fundamental level of incompetence in the coding itself. A spell that casts 4 fireballs, will also tick you for poison damage or regen for each fireball. An item that says 'revives and restores 100 life points' will revive and restore you to 1. You will clip right through cliffs and forests in maps. You will cast spells and wonder if they actually did anything, or if the fancy animation was the intended effect alone. -Map design is utterly ridiculous. Almost every map consists of 'overly long corridor, leading to dead end or to the next area, good luck picking'. Several -towns- are behind these dungeons, as well as quest items hidden in the inscrutable mazes that take hours to traverse. Thank god encounters aren't truly random, because I would have quit long before I did. Better finish those quests the first time you are in town, otherwise you'll have to treck through the whole dungeon again to get back...oh wait, the quest makes you do that anyway, because part of it is outside town. Several things are hidden in a dungeon, without any warning that you can never go back once you are finished, including quest items and summons. -The 'deluxe' edition has the official guide, which probably includes maps. I wonder if it also includes the developer laughing at the fact that you bought a 'deluxe' edition of this game. Do. Not. Buy. There are far, far better RPGMaker games for free, and even better ones available on steam.

I've been looking for an RPGMaker game with a cheesy story that would offer some enjoyable dungeon crawling in my library and [i]Moonchild[/i] seemed like an appropriate candidate. You know, the ones that you wouldn't spare much mental RAM for... and I've finally found it! [i]Moonchild[/i] is a cute game that hails from Aldorlea Games - a really promising RPGMaker based developer team - that will easily offer you 20 hours of gameplay. In a medieval fantasy realm, Queen Calypso's only daughter, Moonchild is abducted! Our honorable knight Gabriel was able to detain one of the heinous criminals, but the man apparently lost his memory. We start our journey to save Calypso's daughter. The word is that Moonchild isn't the only young noble woman who was abducted: daughters and wives of other local monarchs are missing too. During our travels, we'll consult the wisdom of elves, pass frozen wastes to find a Gifted in the ancient arts of mind, infiltrate the domain of our sworn enemy and even find a common cause to work alongside them. What kind of danger a mother wouldn't risk to take to save her child? It seems none... Graphics won't present you anything extraordinary, yet I found environment design to be fitting and beautiful within the limitations of RPGMaker. The game rewards exploring obscure dead ends, so nowhere you explore is an actual time loss. You always find some interesting item or a power up. Soundtrack is pretty, yet it becomes annoyingly repetitive after a while, so I strongly recommend muting the game and playing your own soundtrack in any of these 16 bit games - with some exceptions like ASM or FF series, of course. Someone said gameplay? Oh, it's nothing unfamiliar. We have a 16 bit party of 4 characters at a time - in which we can arrange and alternate with other characters anytime outside of a battle - , turn based battles with basic strategies, enemies with different immunities and weaknesses. We battle, we gain experience and level up, we search for new items to power up and complete a side quest here and then. See, it is your basic RPG. The world isn't that big, neither that diverse, but the main story itself would present you a nearly 20 hour gameplay and its engaging enough. The game also comes with 3 different difficulties for you to pick based on your experience with these kind of games. I'd consider one minus to be achievements. They are mostly based on one specific character having a certain number of kills. It becomes boring to farm characters just for the sake of achievement, and it's a strategic dead-end. You'd already have a party formation that you like better by the middle of the game anyhow. Another thing from the horse's mouth: the ending WAS an unexpected one for me, which is seriously rare in these 16 bit games. I didn't expect that outcome, not at all! You'd like a basic RPGMaker adventure with interesting enough story and cute characters? You've got it. Please also check out Lady Storyteller's Curator page [url=http://steamcommunity.com/groups/ladystoryteller#curation]here[/url] - follow for regular updates on reviews for other games!

Довольно забавная игра, которую можно пройти часов за 20. В игре много разнообразных квестов, которые сделают ваш геймплей ещё более увлекательным. Сюжет в игре плюс-минус интересный, но диалоги местами затянуты. Для того чтобы каждый смог осилить игру, в ней есть три разных уровня сложности. А так, если в общем, то это стандартный RPG Maker. Лично я покупал эту игру со скидкой -94%, только ради + одной игры в библиотеку, карточек и достижений. Из плюсов +Сюжет +Карточки +Достижения +1 игра в копилку Из минусов: -Местами затянуто Игру рекомендую к покупке! Хотите увидеть обзор на какую-то свою игру? Вы запросто можете мне её подарить!:) А если вам понравился мой обзор, не забывайте ставить лайки или кидать награды(*^ω^) А так-же, вы можете подписаться на мою кураторскую группу в Steam: [h1] [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/43626167-Lord-Azazel-Group/] Куратор: Lord Azazel Group [/url] [/h1]

I wanted to complete the game before I reviewed it, but it just seems to be fighting me at every turn. The stats and mechanics are poorly explained, battles seem to run the gamut of effortless or tedious, with nothing in-between, and the dialogue is relentlessly awful. That last point is what gets me the most, actually, so I'm going to go in-depth a bit on that: 1. Every character seems to have some little snark to throw in to every situation, regardless of relevance. This is tiresome. 2. It takes about 6 text boxes for 1 text box of information to be conveyed. The rest is fluffy, unfunny babble. 3. The dialogue has no mind for tone - hamfisted attempts at humor are thrust in everywhere. 4. The *actions/emotes in asterisks* are the worst. They're lazy. What they're attempting to convey does not even require custom sprites, and could be conveyed with halfway competent writing and eventing. My only reprieve from the tedious, pointless battles is the aggravating dialogue (and vice-versa). This game leaves me feeling more stressed than a leisure activity should. It is not fun, and it is not even a tenth as funny as it thinks it is.

Moonchild from Aldorlea is an exciting quest involving a mom (Queen Calypso) to save her daughter (Moonchild) from a vague, but likely terrible ritual that seems to be involving female royalty across the land. The action begins immediately with the kidnapping as Calypso leaves her castle via a secret dungeon-like path and goes from there as she and her assorted party members search a vast land for various people and items to assist in the search. The story is excellent, and quite involved, but the goals are always clear, and the tale is revealed in a straight forward manner. Although there are a ton of things to do, see, and explore there is always a sense of urgency to find the child. The key is exploration. Everywhere you go, there is a dungeon/maze type path to travel through to reach the immediate goal. You will need to search everywhere and everything as there are treasures galore, bountiful secrets. and a host of characters to talk to. Some have side quests for you to add to the list of things to do. It may sound a bit involved, but it all holds together perfectly. The artwork and music are very nice, adding greatly to the enjoyment of the game. Battles are nicely conceived, and, depending on the level of difficulty chosen, can be quite a challenge. The characters are very likeable, and there is quite a bit of emotion in this game that is not always found in rpgs. It adds up to a really good rpg for fans of this type of game and should be on the must-play list. Highly recommended.

[h1]Introduction[/h1] Developed and published by Aldorlea Games, Moonchild is a classic style 2D RPG from one of the most prolific developers on Steam, when it comes to this genre. Suffice to say, their experience with RPGMaker and general storytelling, always reflects in the excellent quality of the games they release. [h1]Gameplay[/h1] Moonchild as expected, has a fairly large open world for you to discover and it’s filled to the brim with sidequests. Most of them are diversified enough and the main storyline is intriguing too. The characters and the dialogue is fleshed out fine and I did apreciate the constant comic relief and conversations that are well written. Far too many RPGs forget to spice things up with humor, which is quite sad since this is a genre that has come up with almost every scenario conceivable. More often than not, a good writer can make the difference between a bland game made with RPGMaker assets and one that stands out. Moonchild is definitely in the former camp. Now with all the praise aside, I did not enjoy having to explore dungeon after dungeon as this reminded me not very dearly, of days long gone when I had Zubat concerns and no Escape Rope on hand. As for the graphical details, the dev team made a good use of pre-existing assets, as well as creating some of their own. You can’t really complain that a game which has obvious classic JRPG influences, might not have good looks on its side since you’re more likely to pick this game up for its character interaction and constant travelling from one part of the map to another. However, I have to complain about the sound selection which quite frankly did not do the rest of the game, justice. It plays on a rather short loop and when will we finally have some voice acting in these games? I know we’re supposed to use our imagination and that it takes more effort which increases the game’s cost but with so much text to read, some voice work would have provided even more value to this story. [h1]Pros[/h1] + Pleasant details and story + Steam Trading Cards & Achievements [h1]Cons[/h1] - Generic and repetitive sounds - Too many dungeons and mazes [h1]Result / Final thoughts[/h1] Many fans of old-school 2D RPGs will enjoy this title’s story and characters. Moonchild has a few shortcomings but all in all it does provide what it can, given the asking price. Achievements and Trading Cards are a nice and welcomed addition. [b]Rating 7/10[/b] [quote]This review was submitted for [url=http://steamcommunity.com/groups/elitegives]Elite Giveaways[/url], check us out for more reviews ranging from Indie games to AAA titles.[/quote]

Um~ This game has a lot of good reviews, but I really have no idea where they are coming from. I guess if you want to play a turn-based RPG with no care for the story, then maybe this would be ok? But I have no idea who plays an RPG without wanting a decent story. The story is really bland on it's own, but the real killer is the dialogue. It's so bad. Everytime there is a scene with the characters talking, I cringe. It's unbearable. Even if the story was amazing, I don't think you could enjoy it with writing this bad. Give this one a pass.

I love Aldorlea RPG Maker games, because the developer is extremely detailed oriented and take great care in designing and implementing the games. Moonchild is a great example of such a game. I played Moonchild approximately two years ago, and had a wonderful time. I spend 44 hours playing this game, and had a fun time getting all the achievements and exploring every little corner of the gameworld. I had an enjoyable time recruiting a diverse team of 9 characters, all of which have different skills sets. Out of the 9, I grind my group of 4 (only 4 out of 9 are involved in fights) until they reach very high levels of 40+. I love grinding and there are always lots of things to do and lots of side quests to work on in Moonchild. I would like to highly recommend this game to any old school RPG Maker enthusiasts who likes a great storyline and a detailed game world with lots of things to do. You will love this game.

This game is on a level of bad that is beyond words. There is no need to even get into the story aspect of this game. That's like giving someone on death row another 3 months of jail time. Who cares? The level design is beyond atrocious. It's illogical, stupid, brain dead, and a huge waste of time. It takes a 10-minutes maze to get into a town/village. You'll be doing this numerous times because of quests and sToRy. The game calls them dungeons or something (I don't f**king remember, you'd have to pay me to play this game again and pay for the therapy afterwards) but it's a maze. Even though it's a straight forward maze with one entrance and one exit, it's probably designed by a psychopath who enjoys killing puppies. You'll most likely be walking for five minutes straight past multiple levels of the maze thinking to yourself "Gee, everything's going smoothly for once" before you get hit with a dead-end, because f**k you. Monsters designs are a joke too. You can be looking at the love child of Anubis and Hades only to notice it has the strength of a zero EV/IV Zigzagoon. But be careful of some weak looking fellas, for they could possess the power that rivals 69 nuclear bombs combined. This is the same case for skills. You can cast some insanely cool spell with so many flashy colors that'll send an epileptic person to the ER, only to see it deal 5 damage, and you can cast a spell that has the animation that looked like it's created with Microsoft Paint, and see it deal 50000 damage. Just roll the dice on this one. You know you're scrapping at the bottom of the barrel when you're posting some (what I assume to be) German review and whoever "Jay Is Games" is. All of the positive reviews on this page have ZERO credibility, and I'm just gonna go ahead and guess half of them have been paid to write a good review, or is an employee from this company. I would like to state one more time, that this game is SO BAD, that I am out of words to describe how bad it is. I actually went to steam support to get this game back (I had it removed on my account permanently, getting it back took me like 3 clicks) so I can write a review again to warn people to stay the hell away from this game. This game is SO BAD, that it made me wary of ALL RPGMaker games since.

Skip this title and go for better RPGmaker games. I'll keep this short: Early game is awesome. Good action and decent writing. Later the usual JRPG grinding and massive dungeons come into play and it becomes a test of endurance. The #1 review of this game lists very accurately the bad sides this title has. (and i am being much more lenient here on the writing) Oh i know fans of JRPG just love this but for me once the interest starts to wane it doesn't get better by throwing more of the same and harder in your face. Let me remind you that on Steam there are some terrific titles here that can either bring you good writing, good combat or both done better than this. Don't settle for sub-par garbage. RPGmaker games partially deserve their bad reputation and this game is here to remind why that is so.