You will die a lot in Moonring, almost from the very start of the game you will start the countless deaths you will encounter, and yet it feels familiar in a good way. The thing is, while Moonring has its influences in the retro CRPGs, it has a lot of modern ideas and refinements as well. There are roguelike elements in the game, such as the dungeons changing every time you leave or die, but there is also an auto-save option that does not mean a perma-death for your character this time, at least not if you do not want that. Saves have been adjusted multiple times since the game launched and new options have been added in new builds, that affect how you progress.
You take on the role of an unnamed protagonist in the eternally shadowy world of Caldera with little early guidance or direction, making your way and figuring things out on your own. You can move your character around the world using up, down, left, or right while moving onto items will cause you to pick them up, but bumping is how you will get a lot done. Bumping into enemies will attack them, while doing it to allies will begin a conversation and so on.
Moonring is a game you need to put effort into and it can be frustrating at times due to the throwback mechanics, such as being aware of keywords the game highlights when you speak to NPCs that you will need to type to delve further into. You won’t have a dialogue tree reminding you what to say and you do not have a quest log and nothing will point you in the right direction. But this does not mean things are too obtuse, the game gives a small tutorial-like explanation of some mechanics at the start in the form of notes, and now and then the game provides you with notes that will give you some hints and locations to be aware of, but ultimately it is up to you to figure things out and it is ultimately refreshing.
Moonring does not go out of its way to hold your hand, but it does have many modern touches that do help gamers who never played the classics not to feel overwhelmed. Moonring will take some notes for you and does offer some help in understanding its mechanics, while not going out of its way to explain them. It does explain things like potion crafting and status effects, so the goal is not to replicate the classics completely but to capture the feeling while understanding this would be too overwhelming for younger gamers, so makes an effort to strike a balance.
The story of Moonring is well thought out and sees you learn that Caldera plunged into darkness centuries ago when five moons appeared. Each of these moons is associated with a god and the residents of Caldera and enthralled in their dreams to these gods. You are not, however, and as one of the dreamless, you must discover your destiny and go on an epic quest to realize the truth.
Moonring also shows itself to have a deeper gameplay system than you will first realize, with some well-developed mechanics, such as a fully realized stealth system and various ranged attacks. You can also cause various status effects to interact in different ways, and some may cancel each other out. Your abilities will not always have the same cost either as the different means will affect this in various ways.
As mentioned, saving has been altered since launch, and whereas at launch dying would send you back to the dungeon’s start, costing you your progress, Fluttermind Games has addressed fan feedback with many additions, such as new saving options, new modes to make the game somewhat less difficult, while also offering new permadeath options, to make the game even more challenging. The game felt full at launch but Dene has been adding to it nonstop and that is commendable.
Moonring also calls back to older RPGs in another way, and that is the way your character progression happens. There is no gain from killing enemies or completing quests, but instead by earning devotion to one of the five gods by using a rare item or fulfilling deity-specific tasks, with each being patterned around the five gods’ themes, such as strength and knowledge. Gaining devotion will allow you to gain new god-themed abilities as well as raise a god’s attribute to make new items usable.
This method of advancement is part of what calls to mind the second Ultima trilogy, especially with the virtues that the avatar sought to embody. It also encourages you to explore and seek out as much as you can, and not just locations, but also the deeper mechanics, conversations, status effects and so on. This is an RPG that wants you to truly explore in every sense of the world and actually role-play the character and find ways to work around the problems you will find yourself in.
In terms of presentations, Moonring resembles classic RPGs well, with pixel graphics that use the old 16-colour EGA palette, while the audio is designed to resemble what you would hear from an IBM PC speaker, with MIDI-like music. If you want the graphics to look like they would on an old computer monitor, you can switch to a blur mode to replicate that look. Everything here has been designed to give the game an old-school feel, yet it feels fresh at the same time.
Moonring is ultimately a great game that will not just appeal to fans of retro RPGs but has plenty to attract those who have never played the games that inspired it. The biggest negative I can say about the game is its price, because Moonring would easily be worth 20 USD, yet is completely free with no strings attached and it feels almost criminal at this point. Fluttermind deserves to make money off of this game and while there is merchandise being released such as physical maps and soundtrack releases, some paid DLC would not be unwelcome, so that the developer can make a profit off of its work. This is just an amazing game and one everyone should play.
You can check out Moonring on Steam here at no cost.
