The Momodora Diaries #1: First Night’s Reverie
by Amr (@siegarettes)
- Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight
- Developer: Bomb Service
- Publisher: Dangen Entertainment
- Switch, PS4, Xbox One, PC
The Momodora Diaries are a chronicle through Momodora Under the Moonlight.
I’m gonna try it. I’m gonna try my damnedest to finish Momodora this time. I’m basically allergic to Metroidvania games. I’m hopeless with directions and I don’t enjoy getting lost. I need a GPS to get to my own house sometimes. So I don’t consider it entertainment to do that in a game.
But Momodora has a cute art style and the combat seems fun, even if there’s some gross hints of ~dark souls~ in it. So I’m gonna make a real effort to finish it this time before I fall into the inevitable Metroidvania cycle of getting lost, taking a break and then having to restart because I don’t remember what the hell I was doing.
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After getting one shot killed several times on the first boss I decided it was time to make a pact with myself to play on easy. Sure, I could slowly chip away against the combat, internalize its lethality and learn the patterns. But I’m an impatient person and I know that being stuck at a boss I can’t get through will frustrate me. I’m here to see Momodora through, as a complete work. And if that means swallowing my pride I’m gonna do it.
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Well, this is definitely a different game when you can run past everything. Haven’t lost many boss battles. My health bar is a lot larger than the pitiable thing they usually start you with, and I started with two items that increase my invulnerability frames and give me passive healing.
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Two hours in and I’ve already got over 40% of the map filled in, so we’ll see how quickly I’ll get through this.
What playing on easy has made me aware of is how enemies can alter the geography. Most of the level design is straightforward and not too interesting to navigate. But having strict penalties for getting hit forces you to move differently. You have to weave and find the negative spaces between enemies. Or I would have to, if I didn’t have enough health to take a hit and run.
Easy mode still feels like the right choice, but I might try it again after I’ve got a better idea of the map.