Moon Hunters is a divergent narrative experience all about the choices you make during a turbulent event. An event that takes place over the course of five days. The Moon and Gods have disappeared, abandoning their followers. Suddenly an enemy arrives at the gates and declares: The Sun is the true god.
When you first start, the game begins with, “We remember something new with each telling, together let us tell the story again and again.” What this is more or less telling you is that Moon Hunters is about replay value. I can’t underline that enough. You are going to be confused, lost, unsure and lose your first play through. Okay not lose per se but you probably wont see the best ending. That is done on purpose and it is what makes Moon Hunters unique. The vast replayability and the strong chance that each play through will be different.
This is highlighted even more by the fact that you can bring up to three of your friends along with you and they get to make their own decisions as to which character to play, and how they deal with all the random events that occur during the five days. 
I feel the need to underline that just about everything in the game is randomised from the levels, events, and map. There is only a couple of areas that are the same for story purposes but these are rare. The reason that is important and why I bring it up before any feature is that when things are randomised it can lead to rather amazing moments where everything is new and exciting. Then there are other moments where literally nothing surprises you. It doesn’t happen often but replay is this games greatest boon but also possibly its greatest shortcoming. It all depends on how you feel as a player.
Now that is out of the way, Moon Hunters is a top down action/RPG style game. Think somewhere along the lines of Gauntlet or for more modern references Diablo. I find it to be more of a mixture of Risk of Rain and Gauntlet as each of the six unique characters has their own abilities and fighting styles. There is some customization in the color palette of the pixelated characters and their portraits, as well as how you upgrade abilities. The game doesn’t have much in the way of tutorials but it doesn’t really need it, as you at most have four buttons not counting directional movement.
The characters themselves all have something to bring to the table, but I did find that some of them are far better at being support and downright suck for solo play. One particular character fights with a musical instrument and I found myself easily overwhelmed. The balance needs a bit of tweaking for two out of the six but for the most part its not that big of a deal.
Once you select your character you can choose up to one of four starting areas, these really don’t have much of an effect on your character but add a little flavour to the story. The bulk of the gameplay takes place on a randomised map that has many areas for you to explore. The goal isn’t really clear but all you have to do is survive the five days while attempting to find the Moon Goddess. The map is randomised with forests, mountains, etc. Additionally there are randomised elements to those areas such as shop keepers, cooking components, or a highlighted event there. You can unlock different area types such as river lands and more events with each successive play session.
Between traveling your character/party also camps at night where your presented with multiple options to enhance stats(magic, health, etc) and also experience more randomised events. Along the way you will collect cooking elements that can be combined to grant stat bonuses and temporary buffs. The cooking elements once collected are unlocked through all future playthroughs. Each area represents one day of travel/investigation, so the game doesn’t really take too terribly long to start and finish. This is good if you have a large group and just wanna have some fun action and make stupid fun decisions. 
I found that by myself the game could take anywhere from an hour or more, depending how thorough I was with the levels. I imagine it could take a bit longer with more friends. Once you choose an area to explore you are dropped in at the entrance and must find the exit somewhere in the level. This is where the combat and many of the random events take place. The map is designed randomly so no one area is ever exactly alike. I enjoyed this feature but at times found it quite tiresome, as you would find huge areas with absolutely nothing in them sometimes. One could argue this is “realistic” it just ends up feeling grindy and not very rewarding to the players time.
Graphically Moon Hunters isn’t anything spectacular but it does have some beautiful cut scenes and art that made my jaw drop. The best way I could describe it would be as a Mayan fantasy with magic and mystery. The lore of the game is by far something I would’ve loved to explore more, but its given to you in bread crumbs. The avatars, towns and menus are all gorgeous but where things get repetitive is the level design. The randomisation holds the art style in a choke hold and some levels just look very plain as you battle your way through them. You will see the same openings and paths and become very familiar with its design. I almost would’ve preferred less randomised designs in this case as the towns and story areas are truly designed beautifully.
The combat is rather fun and addictive, enemies range in size and difficulty but generally have a simple run at you type of strategy. As mentioned earlier each of classes has their own unique style and flavor when it comes to dispatching foes. This stands out even more as you begin to pick and choose which abilities to upgrade. As an example, the Druids razor leaves could be upgraded to add more leaves, add a poison effect, or perhaps you could go an entirely different route and upgrade his wolf form. The Witch(one of my favourites) could upgrade her abilities at throwing dark matter balls or focus completely on upgrading her ability to open black holes. This is what makes those moments where you may find the same events/repetitive maps not so dull, as you try out different builds and play with each characters powers.
The game claims to be a personality test but I found this to lean more toward the good guy mentality as most evil decisions don’t bear much fruit. However, decisions made bad or good will affect your characters personality and traits.The traits are but not limited to Brave, Foolish, Compassionate, Wise and Vengeful. These allow different events to be locked off if you don’t have the right trait. You’re not going to get the chance to flirt with that gorgeous villager if your character isn’t charming or seductive. You get the idea. During gameplay you just end up picking whatever decision is going to lead you to the preferred trait you want. I liked the idea behind the trait system but like most things in Moon Hunters it doesn’t really explain itself well and leaves you to figure it out for yourself. 
Story and events of the game require quite a bit of interpretation and may leave you scratching your head sometimes. It’s not a game that requires an extensive guide like a Point & click adventure game but there were times I felt like I was making no progress and had to check for certain things. One of those is the ability to speak to animals. Throughout the game I was taunted by the game telling me, “This animal seems agitated as if having something to say, if only you had someone that could teach you to talk to them.” This really started to grate on my nerves after six or eight play sessions and not finding any clue how to unlock this ability. One quick forum search later and I had the basic idea of what I needed to do. I guess what I am trying to say is, that I wish the developer had put more hints in the game and relied less on the chance that I will just happen upon it. This is just one example but trust me when I say there are plenty of others.
There are multiple endings to the game but once you finally get done with the five days you are presented with an ending cut scene and then shown the constellations that you have unlocked. This represents somewhat of a progress bar and what you’ve seen or unlocked. The game also takes into account what decisions you made and what traits you have and makes a little story up for you to read about your characters fate after the five days. I appreciated the story and thought it was cute even if slightly pointless.
Minor aspects are for the most part well done. The game features controller support, Steam cards/achievements, and online multiplayer that requires a bit of network know how. Musically the game is rather dull and I found myself leaving the music down all the way. The tones tend to repeat themselves and you can almost clearly tell when the soundtrack loops. Moon Hunters is one of those games you want to bring your own soundtrack and jam out. Throughout my entire time with the game I didn’t run into a single bug or glitch and the game is made extremely well.
All that in mind, I can easily recommend anyone to play Moon Hunters. Its easy to pick up and play and is very rewarding for short burst gameplay. I love what the developers did here and wish there were more games like this out there. Combining all of these elements of randomness, choice, and replay is hardly an easy feat, and you can tell this game was a labor of love for the developer. The game is extremely fairly priced for the huge amount of replay value you are getting here. So either with a friend or by yourself enjoy this game and craft your own stories over and over again.
