Rainbow Moon Review

[xy_game]Rainbow Moon can easily be described as a pleasant surprise and a great addition to the PlayStation Network. Developed by SideQuest Studios and published by eastasiasoft (Söldner-X series), Rainbow Moon brings a solid mix of old-school and modern elements to the table.

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It uses features from popular RPGs including Final Fantasy Tactics and Nintendo’s Fire Emblem series. You have a massive overworld to explore but this is only a small part of the game. The underworld network of caves and other dark, eerie holes to explore can offer hours of exploration and various challenges to players.

When you start out in the game, you are all on your own with a few NPCs that will guide you along slowly and help you out by providing some required items to move forward. Progression through the game on easy mode will still require some basic “grinding” to level up your character, but the hard mode will have you set in that mode for hours on end. For those of you who enjoy the grinding aspect in other RPGs – play it on hard, but expect the game to take much longer to complete.  Various merchants are scattered throughout the world to provide you with potions, torches, and other needed items to aid you along the way – for a small fee of course. Currency in the game is referred to as “Rainbow Coins” and these are collected after every battle, but you can always find some hidden stashes throughout the world itself. There’s definitely no shortage for the cheaper items, but not everything is cheap so you’ll need a hefty amount later on.

The leveling the game is rather simplistic and it uses Rainbow Pearls, also acquired through battles. Once collected, you can speak to specific characters who can upgrade your stats in return for the pearls. Each character level allows for a few upgrades in each area – but there’s always a limit until you level up again. The more difficult the enemies in a battle, or the greater they are in numbers – the more Rainbow Pearls [and coins!] you’ll earn. Basically, you’ll have to work to become the character you want to be.

The story in the game is pretty thin as one would expect. You play the role of Baldren and before throwing down with some uber bad dude, he gets deported to the dimension known as Rainbow Moon. From there he has to get stronger, find the bad guy and ultimately defeat him. Clearly there is no relation to Final Fantasy in terms of the plot. It’s fine though because the game itself is fun.

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The battle system will take a slight bit of time to get used to. It uses a grid system which as mentioned earlier, FF Tactics and Fire Emblem players will know. You can move a limited amount of spaces per turn in battle, and you use the D-pad to decide which way you’ll move or which enemy you’ll attack. Special attacks will highlight certain squares on the grid and can usually be switched around to hit multiple enemies at once, depending on the attack. As you level up, you’ll unlock new sub-turns for battles as well. This means you can choose multiple actions such as attacking 2-3 times, plus healing up with some potions, all in the same turn. More attacks open up as you level up and progress through the game. Battles are not random in the game either – some enemies are seen prowling around, and interacting with them will enter the battle mode. Otherwise, you’ll see random pop-ups stating you can fight X number of enemies and which ones they are – but you can choose to ignore the battle by not hitting the required button.

My favorite features in Rainbow Moon are its soundtrack and the visual presentation. It’s a nice looking game that makes me feel reminiscent of PS1 RPGs that I loved so much, and the music is simply fun. I never get tired of exploring the overworld and duking it out with the enemies because of its upbeat style.

While I love the game, it’s not without its annoyances. While exploring underground areas, it’ll be pretty dark and you’ll need to use torches to see more around you. Multiple torches last longer, but your inventory early on is small so you won’t have a lot to spare.  It’s a cool idea, but it isn’t executed well. Another minor issue I have is the fact that some of the optional battles are very one-sided and you can get smoked early on in the game. It doesn’t feel like it’s scaled anywhere near your personal level – of course it’s not a gamebreaker since the battles are of course optional.

As from its small quirks, Rainbow Moon is a really addictive RPG that many old-school gamers will enjoy. Newcomers and the younger crowd may not feel the love from it, but I’d recommend giving it a try regardless. It’s truly unfortunate that the game doesn’t have Vita support as I could see many players spending countless hours enjoying this one on-the-go.