The creation of the Momodora franchise is directly linked to the history of indie games and has the mark of a Brazilian developer. The first two games in the Momodora franchise (free to play) were directly inspired by Cave Story, an indie first developed in 2004 that was re-released in 2011, developed by Studio Pixel and distributed by Nicalis, Inc.

Since then, we’ve had Momodora III, Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight and, now, the newest title and possibly the last in the franchise: Momodora: Moonlit Farewell. All of them were developed by Bombservice, Guilherme Melo Martins‘ Brazilian studio, and distributed by PLAYISM. Bombservice also developed another game in the same style called Minoria, which I’ve already played.

Here we’re going to highlight, of course, the January 11, 2024 release Momodora: Moonlit Farewell, which stands out for maintaining the beautiful fundamentals of a metroidvania, for being a game that lives up to the Momodora franchise and for having a very well-tied story.

Simple metroidvania game with beautiful pixel art

For those who like metroidvania-style games and combat with Castlevania-style enemies, this is a very interesting game. It can be streamed and has Portuguese localization, especially since the game’s creator is Brazilian.

It’s a simple, well-made game that works for its purpose, as well as the beautiful pixel art that catches the eye of the audience and the player. Combining gameplays from the Momodora franchise, because they are short games and have interconnected stories, could be a good idea for those who usually play platform games and/or metroidvanias on their streams.

Momodora: Moonlit Farewell – Story and Gameplay

In this game, history is the backdrop to the entire journey, where the mission to save your own people and destroy the demons summoned by the ringing of a black bell. In terms of the story timeline, for those who care about the sequel, Momodora: Moonlit Farewell follows the events of the story 5 years after the events of Momodora III.

In the story chronology, Reverie Under The Moonlight is the first game, followed by Momodora, Momodora II and Momodora III, with Moonlit Farewell being the conclusion of this story.

The game’s exploration is very simple and the upgrades you receive after killing each boss mean that the areas to explore in the sequence are very well defined, even the secrets and extra items are very easy to find as they are marked with a question mark on the map.

For avid fans of metroidvanias, they may miss the more in-depth mechanics, but I like the way this franchise delivers quality gameplay in its simplicity.

The game’s developer himself says on the game’s Steam page that Momodora’s focus is more on the gameplay than on the story, which is just a backdrop for the whole setting of the journey.

For a metroidvania, it’s relatively short and can be completed in between 10 and 15 hours, depending on whether you collect all the items in the game or go through the normal game progression. In terms of performance, Momodora runs on any computer very well and is an extremely intuitive and accessible game.

SHARE:

Ludovicoluka

I have 25 years, I produce content to internet for 4 years and I like retro games, indies and I’m an enthusiast for new launches. I have as my favorite games Donkey Kong Country 2, Super Mario World, Hollow Knight and Red Dead Redemption II, per example. I like to experiment everything and the more, the better, but I never get sick of my comfort games!