Introduction

I'll admit upfront that I'm probably not the most qualified person to review this game. After all, I tend to avoid horror games like medieval nobles trying to avoid the black death. I run to my nearest place of residence and bar every door both real and imagined in order to keep them at bay.

Though, I suppose this does beg the question why I decided to take a look at "Momoka" in the first place. After all, if I have no love for the horror genre and tend to actively go out of my way in order to avoid it. There has to be some grand reasoning for why I decided to take a look at this game. And while I suppose some would assume I was paid by the developer to take a look at this game. The simple reality is that I've been trying to cover the various entries from the 2018 Indie Game Maker Contest that were also given gamepages on this site.

And while I suppose this wouldn't be enough for most people that don't care for the horror genre to take on a game where the main character is strangled to death by her own clone after having her legs chopped off by an alien in order to create fertilizer. It was enough for me. Though, I'll admit I probably would have been better of avoiding this game in the long run. After all, I really didn't need to get a peek at what goes inside the minds of those into torture porn. And the main character being a catholic school girl only seems to add to that notion.

Story

On the story side of things "Momoka" seems to start out innocent enough with a few girls investigating fanciful claims about the school's church being haunted by the ghost of a pedophile priest. Or at least as innocent as you can get in a game like this. Of course, the stories about the ghostly priest are just that. Stories spread by the girls to scare the newest members of the student body, but those foolish enough to put those stories to the test will find themselves preyed upon by the nuns and a sex crazed alien. An alien that loves a good torture session before sterilizing and screwing his victims.

Of course, this plot just begs all kind of questions. Why doesn't the alien simply clone the girls he likes and then sleep with the clones? After all, it would probably be pretty easy to get the nuns to convince a decent chunk of the girls to donate blood for charity with the offer of rewards from the school or something.

And while I suppose some would argue the clones could be part of a plot to take over the world. We never see that happen in the game itself. In fact, this lack of a twist ending involving the numerous clones is why I wonder why the alien doesn't have a secret cloning facility off site where he can better manage and control the victims of his never ending lust. In fact, the only defense I really see for this issue is to argue the main villain suffers from a rather common plague. Or at least common for villains. That being the plague of being born unbelievably stupid.

And while I could go on about how the game spends a needlessly amount of time on describing horrific things with text boxes instead of showing them like a visual medium should. I think Punk_Kricket covered this issue fairly well in his/her own review. As such, I really don't want to go into details on this point. Since it would feel like a rehash of someone else's work.

Gameplay

On the gameplay side of things the game falls rather short in my opinion. After all, while the game does include a few puzzles where you need to collect items or solve puzzles. You'll largely find yourself tapping the same button over and over and over again in order to achieve a desired result like strangling the life out of the original Momoka or crushing an alien pod in order to get a needle needed to kill the alien behind everything evil and vile happening at the school. In fact, the battle between Momoka and the alien feels a bit like something you'd set the Benny Hill theme to. So much so, it's hard to take the alien seriously as a threat.

Music

The one place this game really seems to succeed in my opinion is on the musical front. While this short game only includes a small selection of background music. The music chosen really helps to set the player on edge and feel like there's something wrong about Mutsuki Catholic Middle School for Girls right from the get go. A feeling that only intensifies as we move from stories about ghostly priests to Momoka describing the sensation of having her legs cut-off.

Conclusion

While I'm not a fan of horror games and will never play "Momoka" again. I can't deny that moca does manage to use certain horror elements to great effect over the course of this game. On the other hand, the lack of twist ending seems extremely weird. After all, horror stories are well known for including twist endings that render the protagonist's efforts to put a stop to the horrors that stalk us in the night as entirely pointless. Add in some questionable plot elements and even weaker gameplay and your left with a game that doesn't stand up to well in my opinion.