Momodora: Reverie Under The Moonlight

Momodora: Reverie Under The Moonlight is a side-scrolling Metroidvania from solo-ish studio Bombservice, and it carries the kind of quiet confidence you only get from a developer who has made the same genre four times and finally knows exactly what they want to say. You play as Kaho, a priestess traveling to a cursed kingdom to seek an audience with the queen. That premise sounds simple, and it is, but the game uses its restraint wisely. The world is dying, and the pixel art communicates that decay better than any cutscene could. Combat is built around a leaf-card attack, a small bow for ranged pressure, and a dodge roll that quickly becomes your most important tool. There is no bloat here. You find passive items that modify how Kaho plays, layering small stat bumps and behavior changes onto the core moveset, but the game never drowns you in menus or build complexity. Boss fights are the highlight. Each one reads like a short argument about rhythm - you learn attack patterns, find the window, push back. A handful of them are genuinely hard in a way that feels earned rather than arbitrary. The difficulty, on default, sits in Souls-adjacent territory without demanding the same time investment. The pixel art is where Momodora earns its most devoted defenders. Environments shift from soft forest glades to decayed cathedral interiors to places that feel genuinely wrong, and the color work throughout is considered and specific. The soundtrack matches: understated, slightly hollow, the kind of score that suggests emptiness without announcing it. It is the rare case of a small game having an intentional soundscape rather than just background music. If there are criticisms worth flagging, the map system is basic and can cause mild confusion in backtracking sections, and the story is delivered mostly through item descriptions and brief NPC exchanges rather than any direct narration. If you prefer your lore handed to you, the oblique approach might frustrate. The runtime is also honest - expect around five to six hours on a first playthrough, perhaps eight if you hunt every collectible. Some players feel that is too short for the price of admission, though I would argue the game knows exactly when it ends and does not pad itself to fake value. This is the fourth entry in the Momodora series and a prequel to the previous games, but prior knowledge is not required. It stands completely on its own, and for many players it will be the entry point that sends them backwards through the series. For fans of tight Metroidvanias with genuine atmosphere, deliberate pacing, and pixel craft that punches above its budget, Reverie Under The Moonlight is exactly the kind of small game that deserves more attention than it typically gets.

Kai · Scout Team

Indie & narrative

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