《Lunarium》评测

Parry Master’s Delight

For its debut title, first-time developer Lunarium Studio took its cues from several recognizable names in the action RPG sphere. Appropriately named Lunarium, the end product is an ambitious game with a commendable hand-painted art style, beautiful music, and a fast-paced combat system that marries a decent level of challenge — particularly during late-game boss encounters — with a heavy emphasis on timing-based parries. However, at twenty-plus hours, it’s also a little too long-winded to sustain interest in its narrative, outstaying its welcome precisely when boss encounters require one to buckle down and spend time getting good.

The game doesn’t waste much time to get to its narrative brass tacks. Players take on the role of Ave, a knight-in-training who lives in the rural village of Firleaves. While on a routine patrol in the surrounding mountains, Ave attempts to dispatch a vicious Longhorn Troll; however, the creature becomes infected by a strange power and promptly overpowers her. In the nick of time, she is saved and nursed back to health by Lune, a mysterious hermit who lives all alone in a mountain temple. As it soon turns out, despite looking to be the same age as Ave, Lune is actually an ancient Starfarer, a legendary being who is said to have been a protector to the people of the Firleaves region for ages. Together, the two band together to defeat the troll before it can do harm to Ave’s village. However, Lune informs Ave that more and more of these creatures, called the Nihilus, are sure to overrun Firleaves unless the two of them seek help from Starfarers in other regions. As the game moves out of its opening phase, the pair embark on a quest that will take them to places Ave’s never even dreamed of and reveal some harrowing secrets about her world in the process.

The game’s narrative works best in these early stages, when every new discovery adds to the wall of mysteries facing Ave, who’s completely unfamiliar with the outside world and its ways. Even though it can be a little jarring how quickly Ave and Lune form such a tightly knit bond, mere moments after they meet for the first time, there’s also something heartwarming and lovely in what’s essentially a simple friendship of two souls destined to meet. It is a relationship of the utmost trust and kindness, portrayed and written in rather pretty prose. In fact, the writing team shows some impressive chops, not through bombastic twists but simply an elevated and well-written script. The two protagonists quickly develop a shorthand with each other, and their exchanges are humorous and warm. Ave immediately brings Lune to her village and introduces her to her family as her best friend, whom she will now follow even to lands unknown.

A chance meeting in the forest leads to an immediate, iron-clad bond.

While the writing stays strong throughout, it’s a bit later on that things feel just a tad past their saturation point. As little mysteries lead to bigger and bigger revelations, the game’s runtime exceeds the promise built up in its early hours, and the story starts to drag as plot points become bulkier and unwieldy. To be fair, the ideas it explores are novel, but the late-game “rise to become the hero who saves the world” narrative direction is generally less intriguing than when the conflict still seemed like a smaller, more manageable problem.

Even Lunarium‘s combat revolves around the connection between Ave and Lune. As a knight, Ave is the sword-wielding muscle of the pair who engages enemies head-on. Players control her directly, whereas Lune operates from the sidelines, using their bond to heal Ave when her health gets low, but also occasionally launching arrows from her bow to damage foes a little and unbalance their posture. This secondary function becomes extremely important once Ave has filled an enemy’s stagger meter, in which case a targeted shot by Lune will temporarily down the foe, opening them up for some uninterrupted punishment.

To stagger enemies, the game implements a parry-heavy action combat system, where blocking an attack may negate most damage but a riskier, perfectly timed parry will build up an opponent’s stagger bar. The pace of combat is fast and frantic, with enemies telegraphing which attacks can be blocked or parried and which must be dodged. Still others can only be interrupted by Lune firing a charged shot, though this ability isn’t available until later. Unlike some titles in this genre, Ave is able to dodge freely and without being at the mercy of a limited stamina bar. As a trade-off, however, Lune’s healing skill is slow to execute, giving enemies an opening in which they can still pull off a lethal blow. This healing ability can only be used a limited number of times before the pair must rest at a bench to recharge it, resurrecting all slain foes in the process.

Boss encounters easily make for engaging, flashy highlights.

There are a number of other ways in which the duo’s combat abilities can be tweaked. To this end, the game employs an embroidery system to act as its skill tree. As a Starfarer, Lune has had ages to practice her needlework skill (Ave, too, is descended from a prominent seamstress), so skills are fittingly unlocked by first sewing different cloaks using gathered materials, then adorning them with a variety of patterns that enable passive and active buffs and abilities. Cloaks themselves are upgradeable, with each one lending Ave a particular talent once equipped, though only one can be worn at a time. Seamstressing materials processed at Lune’s loom, including minerals and plants ground into dyes, become one of the game’s primary currencies, with “glimmers of hope” dropped by enemies that can be traded for goods at stores being another.

Lunarium features a pretty robust challenge, with bosses in particular posing major threats. These showdowns become tests of pattern recognition and reflexes, requiring Ave to stagger her opponent to effectively deal damage to it. Particularly late-game bosses can dial up the difficulty, which on one hand makes these battles feel engaging but on the other hand comes at a point where the game starts to feel otherwise stretched thin and ready to wrap up. The final boss presents an extreme multi-phase challenge, with each phase more trying than the last and the game’s true ending hidden behind an optional third phase which is only accessible by completing specific objectives leading up to it.

At least the usual tedium oftentimes associated with difficult boss encounters is largely eliminated here. For one, there are no boss runbacks to contend with. Dying will reset players to the nearest shrine, which is always located at the entrance to the boss arena. Meanwhile, dying itself imposes no penalty, as nothing is lost upon death: there is no experience point system at all, and earned currency is retained until it is spent.

With Lune’s skill as a seamstress, it’s only natural that embroidery would play a role in skill progression.

The game’s presentation is rather unique. The art style is hand-drawn and almost watercolor-esque, which accentuates the game’s softer moments well. It does, however, fall a little short on detail, particularly when it comes to environments, and keeps the color saturation dialed somewhat down. It is a calm, tranquil approach that usually works even if it sometimes sells the world a little short of visual flair. Music is similarly serene, with quite lovely piano, harp, and string pieces to accompany Ave and Lune’s exploration. The composition style sounds like a natural evolution of classic-era RPG soundtracks, updated with better instrumentation. Combat encounters bring out a fuller orchestral sound, becoming dark and foreboding to complement the rising action. However, these faster-paced segments were less impactful and memorable than their quieter counterparts, with the sounds of battle often overpowering the actual music in these moments. Characters, sadly, have no voiceover whatsoever.

Lunarium is a game whose individual elements work well and show a lot of promise. Combat is fluent and requires some skill to master, with interesting and challenging boss encounters that test players’ ability. The plot is intriguing at first, with quite beautiful writing and character moments, all brought to life through quality presentation values. Yet, somehow, it clocks in a bit short of its own capabilities. Some aspects have trouble gelling well together, with one element or another often seeming out of step with the others. The interesting narrative is eventually outpaced by the runtime, and just as a late-game slump starts to become engaging again, credits roll. It’s simultaneously a bit too long and not long enough for its own good, managing to find a good mix during its first half and then slowly falling out of sync later.

Disclosure: This review is based on a free copy of the game provided by the publisher.

Scores

BATTLE SYSTEM



INTERACTION



ORIGINALITY



STORY



MUSIC & SOUND



VISUALS



win

20-40 HOURS

HARD

The story of a pair of kindred spirits on a perilous journey is beautifully written
Parry-heavy combat feels challenging yet fair, and flows smoothly
Strong presentation values, particularly in the music department
Unique skill system employing cloak embroidery

The narrative runs out of steam before the game itself does
Individual aspects sound great on paper but don't always gel well
The "unshakable bond forged in the blink of an eye" becomes hard to swallow

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