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In the ancient days, magic was a myth, a story told to frighten children and fleece fools out of their hard earned silver. Not all stories stay myths forever, though, and the world changed when a new moon appeared in the sky, bringing with it a very real power... and a very real cataclysm. From the ruins of the old orders arose new ones, who struggled against one another until a balance was found. Eventually, peace replaced war, and magic found a place in society outside the dark corners of the land.

Moonsong begins alongside great events which will undoubtedly change the world once more. Take control of a band of outcasts as they struggle to understand their role in the conflict and the scope of the perils which face them. From humble beginnings in the back country of a mighty kingdom, they will embark on an adventure that will take them all across the land- and through no shortage of danger- as they attempt to counter the growing darkness.


I started this project many years ago (perhaps a decade?), but it sat on a shelf for a very long time. Last fall I decided it was time to pick it up and dust it off, and in doing so I found the kernel of a promising project. Unfortunately, I'd done less work than I'd thought, but with my shearing scissors in hand a LOT of elbow grease I've gotten it up to a playable state: certainly worthy of a demo release. I've trimmed out the things that I could never finish, culled the story, and reined in my lofty, impossible ambitions to put together a short, atmospheric quest that I hope you'll all enjoy.

Key features include:
- Choose 3 of 6 characters to form your party.
- Each of the 6 can choose to change class later in the game, offering numerous combinations to suit your playstyle.
- 6 unique skilltrees (one for each character) which let you spend ability points earned from monsters however you like, letting you customize your party.
- A linear story with lots of exploration, with ample treasures to reward perceptive players.
- An interconnected world where every step is shown off in high-detail maps.
- A mix of custom, edited and ripped graphics that all work together to form a cohesive aesthetic.

I hope you'll all enjoy this project from yesteryear: it took a lot of work to revive it, but I think, in the end, you'll agree it was worth it.

Latest Blog

Moonsong v1.3 update is here!

The third update is here! And it's a doozy. The end of the game has been completely rebalanced to increase difficulty and the mid game has been changed to be more challenging, as well. A new type of equipment has also been added!

There will be small save inconsistencies with earlier versions, but only because the light armour characters (Siegfried, Amelia and Elle) can no longer equip shields. Saves should load fine, but shields will need to be unequipped to update correctly. Khalid can equip both shields and the new book-type item which replaced shields for magic-focused characters, so he'll be fine either way.

One major thing of note: please uninstall the old Moonsong.fon font after downloading the update and then reinstall the one included in 1.3's folder. The font must be deleted before installing the new version, otherwise it won't update correctly (a restart might fix this, but this is a Windows bug so I have no control over this). The new version of the font fixes certain unicode characters and adds Spanish text support. If this is your first time installing the game, simply right clicking on the Moonsong.fon file found in the main directory of the game and selecting "install" will fix the font in game!

Anyway, please let me know if you have any problems with old save games other than the shield thing!

Change list:

  • Fixed font to show NoĆ«mi's name correctly.

  • Added unicode support for Spanish text.

  • Rebalanced mid- and late-game monsters to have more HP and deal more damage. This change is especially noticeable in the desert and snow areas. (thanks to everyone!)

  • Changed some resistances for late-game monsters to make monster groups harder to eliminate with a single poweful attack.

  • Removed shields from the light armour characters.

  • Added a new off-hand slot item for Amelia, Khalid, Elle and Siegfried: the book. Books act like shields, but offer less defense. Instead, they increase intelligence and give a small attack boost.

  • Added new merchants in all cities in the game to sell the new books.

  • Magic gear (light armour, books and staves) can now be found for sale in all towns at new merchants denoted by a moon icon on their vendor sign (except Ebora, where it is sold by the quartermaster).

  • Updated one of the NPCs in Ebora to give you your first book for free if you find her.

  • Added a small number of extra equipment pieces for balance.

  • Fixed a difficult to trigger but serious pathfinding issue in Karnev. (thanks to grayshadow)

  • Changed the contents of a small number of chests.

  • Changed font to be brighter and more readable.

  • Finally added a custom icon (it's simple, but it's something!).


If you notice any issues with this new update, feel free to let me know! Any feedback on the updated balancing would be especially helpful.

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Magnus going full beast mode (literally) is a viable win button, and one of the strongest builds in the game. If I ever do another balancing pass I'll have to further lower the AP rewards from enemies (I've done this so many times! Imagine how insanely overskilled the beta testers were... also this is very time consuming, otherwise I would have likely already done it ) and increase enemy HP, because it seems like there's lots of ways do to 300-500 damage near the end of the game and the enemies can't keep up. End game enemies hit very hard, but that doesn't mean much if you can one-shot them.

Thanks for the feedback! All of what I've learning will definitely make it into any and all future Moonsongs.
Unfortunately I did not fully play it - but I'm pretty picky with maker games though. Usually only every few years there is one that I really like. But I guess that is understandable - considering that there there is a ton of work needed - usually only done by 1 person - to create such games. (Especially the logner ones - I like it long and in depth regarding the plot and characters.)

The plot at first seemed interesting. But when whe had to go back to the main city/capital it got boring for me. Also from one of the previous comments I got that this isn't even the full plot. (As the "first verse" probably indicates only part of it.)
It got annoying when we first had to use another ship in that first port town where we got ambused. I expected an ambush - and this was a bit interesting. But after that it just felt like there was another dungeon forced into this - with the tunnels. And I do not like the dungeons and combat too much. I just wanted to see more of the plot. Mabe politics a bit. And war. Maybe the king not believing us. Or stuff like that. Instead: In the other village that mine - another boring dungeon. Then instead of finally going to the capital ... the accident with the ship and the desert with sandstorms. Stopped playing there.

The dungeons seemed boring to me cause I usually do not like trash mobs with a boring combat system. While I'm not against random encounters here they seemed too happen often. (Well ... it it random. But getting annoying when you just have your generic dungeon and sometimes take a long walk without encounter. Then a few steps and there is another one. And to "flee" you have to go into combat doing it from some characters action not directly at the beginning.)

Would have preferred a puzzle dungeon. (There was onlyy boring one with a switch/lever at the beginning.) But instead only a few chests + boss. Nothing else. For puzzle dungeons and future reference: Here I recommend to not have random encounters then. The worst is to have to walk back and forth in a lengthy dungeon with puzzles and lots of areas where you have to figure out stuff ... when you want to focus on this but have random encounters there.

What I liked was the class/levelup system and the ability system and the different types of gear. Though - since I tried to do every random encounter I got into - I probably had a good level and in the end in combat it was not needed to plan enough. Just using some good gear and spamming skills. Even took a bit too long to me sometimes. Out of the default system I find this one with the bar below ... the least interesting. The ones where everyone takes an attack each turn (speed only determining order) feels faster/better to me. And the best is one with a bar with characters that take order in turns (the one with higher speed getting to attack more often).

Yeah: Ability system is the stuff I focus on the least - usually. That is why this itself (though I recognized the lot of effort put into this) was not enough to keep me playing until the end. Since I'm usually interested in plot the most - while enjoying puzzles. And combat focused dungeons with random encounters were not interesting to me cause I did not like the combat. (Prefer 1-round 1-button press trash mobs + an interesting boss fight instead of annoying trash mobs. Bosses seemed not too strong.)
Well, it seemed like you disliked pretty much every aspect of the game on a fundamental level. Sorry you didn't enjoy it! There's only two areas after the one where you stopped, but they're just more of the same, gameplay-wise so I don't think there's much point you continuing.

I strongly suggest you try Villnoire instead, it's got more puzzles and there are no random encounters. You might enjoy that more, based on you feedback!
OzzyTheOne
Future Ruler of Gam Mak
4676
This game looks amazing I need to give it a play some day soon!
author=OzzyTheOne
This game looks amazing I need to give it a play some day soon!


Please do! Use summons! Behold their lovingly crafted animations!
Frogge
I wanna marry ALL the boys!! And Donna is a meanc
18536
I remember this game being very cool when I played it, even if I didn't end up finishing it. The mapping and visuals in particular were on point. I hope the negative review doesn't discourage you, Kaempfer, this game shows a ton of effort and skill!
@Kaempfer: Thanks for the recommendation. I checked Villnoire out - and it seems more to my liking because the focus is on different stuff.
I'm about to download this 41 times to get you the 1000 you deserve.
author=dreadpirate
I'm about to download this 41 times to get you the 1000 you deserve.


I'm somehow at 970 (as of this message) so your hard work is paying off!
author=Kaempfer
author=dreadpirate
I'm about to download this 41 times to get you the 1000 you deserve.
I'm somehow at 970 (as of this message) so your hard work is paying off!


Or I'm just really bad at math haha
Hi, I am enjoying this game quite a lot, but I have encountered a problem, which I am not sure if anyone has reported it before:

I was in the mission of sneaking into the Duke's manor in the rainy night (after Roland betrayed and sold the team). I went into a house, and suddenly the team went to put a parcel named "Alchemist" into a shelf, and suddenly 3 soldiers shew up for battle. I managed to beat them, but when I tried to get out from the house, the system showed "event script referenced an event that does not exist".

(Now that I have loaded the earlier save and finished the mission of the sneaking, I can understand that it was for the sub-quest later on. Thank you!)
author=grayshadow
alchemist's house

I'm glad to hear you're enjoying it! Were you able to walk in there during the sneaking section, or did you use ctrl+walk (gotta be careful with ctrl+walk, there are a lot of hidden triggers)?

I thought I blocked off all access to the market square during the night, so if I missed a tile, please let me know!
author=Kaempfer
I'm glad to hear you're enjoying it! Were you able to walk in there during the sneaking section, or did you use ctrl+walk (gotta be careful with ctrl+walk, there are a lot of hidden triggers)?

As what I can recall, at the first time I entered right from the door of the house, and at the second time I somehow entered from the tile at the left hand side of the door (the tile that got covered by the "tent-looking" roof). I haven't used ctrl+walk at all, just walked normally.

By the way, I have just finished this first verse, and I really enjoyed it. Look forward to the next verse!
Ah, shoot. So it would seem as though there is a way to get into the market courtyard at night if you're very careful. I've fixed it, but I don't think I'll be releasing a patch for this alone. If I do release another patch this will definitely be fixed, so thank you for sharing it with me!
This was a fun experience! I enjoyed my journey through this game, and I learned a lot about rm2k3 while playing it.

I have one question: how did you remove the 'Order' option from the menu?
That's one of the easiest things to do. In the System 2 tab, you can remove commands you don't want and even rearrange them.
author=Dyhalto
That's one of the easiest things to do. In the System 2 tab, you can remove commands you don't want and even rearrange them.
Thank you very much for your time.
author=Mitchell95
This was a fun experience! I enjoyed my journey through this game, and I learned a lot about rm2k3 while playing it.

I have one question: how did you remove the 'Order' option from the menu?


I'm glad you enjoyed it! Always happy to hear that!

I find the Order command to be quite pesky when you're making custom systems for party management, so it usually gets the axe quite early on from me.
author=Kaempfer
author=Mitchell95
This was a fun experience! I enjoyed my journey through this game, and I learned a lot about rm2k3 while playing it.

I have one question: how did you remove the 'Order' option from the menu?
I'm glad you enjoyed it! Always happy to hear that!

I find the Order command to be quite pesky when you're making custom systems for party management, so it usually gets the axe quite early on from me.

Yeah, I was implementing Kentona's caterpillar system, and I couldn't figure out a way to get the actual order of my characters to translate back onto the map.
Really liking this game on my first try (playing as Leonov first). The visuals are crisp and have that retro feel going on, and I like the song selection. The learning system is also very intuitive, and good call on adding a caterpillar system.

I also find the battles are fairly challenging, which is another plus. I'm not a fan of grinding or games that are way too easy. Encouraging the player to use strategy in boss battles is where the real fun comes in for me.

Only thing I'm wondering is that since I'm using EasyRPG Player and your game uses DynRPG plugins (which are incompatible with EasyRPG Player at the moment), will that impact anything outside of cosmetics?