Lunarium: Linguistic and Structural Barriers Tear Apart an ARPG with Great Potential

Lunarium is an isometric action-RPG featuring intense melee combat and a pleasing hand-drawn art style. Difficult encounters relying on perfect parries and dodges, a dying world whose history is told through messages from the fallen and a few survivors, a self-folding level design full of shortcuts and secret passages... Another interpretation of the soulslike philosophy, as many are seen around, but Lunarium has the character to stand out from the crowd. If only the developers hadn't left construction barriers lying around. One hassle after another, especially if you don't know Chinese.

We follow the story of Ave, a self-proclaimed knight of a small village. The forests surrounding her home have been contaminated by a strange black slime, corrupting local creatures. During her investigations, she is knocked out by a giant monster and saved by Lune, a Starfarer (a kind of deity). The two team up and decide to discover the cause of the blight, visiting other regions in search of a cure. A fairly generic story, which will see us explore various now-destroyed realities, floundering through blocked paths and characters who speak in riddles. The scope of events quickly escalates to cosmic proportions, and there are interesting ideas, although it all revolves around the usual clichés of the genre. Then there's another “small” problem: almost half of the texts have not been translated.

Menu items, on-screen warnings, and entire dialogues are mere placeholders awaiting localization, and it gets worse in the second half of the adventure. There's little to decipher, so you can proceed by trial and error or by making use of the existing English dialogues, but it's not an acceptable situation. What is there is afflicted by messages appearing under the wrong interlocutor and often very heavy sentences, full of unsuitable jargon for both the context and its protagonists. Given the trend, a rough translation doesn't surprise me at all.

The premise is intriguing, with these worlds rising within “bubbles” in their own dimensions. This eliminates the need for a “coherent” ecosystem and would allow its creators to unleash their imagination, yet we only visit two before drawing conclusions and hastily wrapping up the plot. It's true that I clearly got the bad ending, so there might be some other hidden places to discover, but given the shaky infrastructure and a trivial resolution of the plot, the desire isn't strong.

The gameplay is the most successful part, with Ave attacking in melee with her sword and Lune providing long-range support with her bow (she's carried around like a Stand). There's a decent selection of enemies, with varied and well-telegraphed patterns, to which we can respond by parrying, dodging, or counterattacking in time. The execution windows are generous, but preparation isn't instantaneous, and there's no way to cancel animations. Every move must therefore be thought out slightly in advance. Cures are limited, while to use skills we'll have to manage a meager amount of ability points, which recharge with normal slashes. By continuously pressing the target, we'll fill a stagger bar (à la Sekiro), which once full will allow us to “break” them with an arrow to the head.

With accumulated experience points, it's possible to purchase new techniques, more elaborate combos, and expansions for maximum health. To customize equipment, we'll have cloaks and embroideries, created by weaving materials and pigments with the loom in our small “operational base.” We can also return to Ave's village to shop and undertake side quests for the inhabitants. Teleportation to travel between various checkpoints unlocks almost immediately, making backtracking easy. However, the map isn't very readable, and figuring out how to move can become frustrating, compounded by landmarks whose in-game position isn't shown.

The current balancing is quite bizarre. The second area proved difficult, with enemies emerging treacherously from walls, blocking and dodging attacks, forcing defensive play. The boss took a while to go down, with grabs from behind and ranged combos. If the level after the tutorial was like that, I was already ready to resign myself to exhausting sessions in virtue of the genre's typical “git gud.” But instead, Lunarium deflates. In fact, it simply fails to replicate a challenge even comparable to what was just offered. Even the final boss didn't give me as much trouble, despite two phases and a couple of moves with questionable hitboxes. Different designers? A swap during development for narrative needs? I can't explain it.

Did I perhaps master the combat system? I don't think so. The monsters' movements became more erratic but at the same time more predictable, facilitating hit-and-run tactics, and in most cases, the best approach was to charge them head-on and beat them up before they could respond. The unlocking of an embroidery that grants almost unlimited passive regeneration then finished breaking the balance, making exploration a walk in the park. Mind you, I prefer this to constantly having to shuttle back and forth to recover health, but the game doesn't seem suited to handle the situation.

In any case, completing the adventure will take you between 12 and 15 hours; however, as already mentioned, there's a lot of hidden material and most likely a true ending to discover. The quality of the experience is fluctuating, but once it gets going, you tackle it willingly, despite the growing flaws. The concluding remarks are a bit rushed, and the cast's reluctance to speak plainly becomes tiresome, although this might depend on the adaptation.

The hand-painted art style blends dark fantasy settings and distinctly anime designs. The blurred strokes and soft colors give the image a distinctive look and nostalgic atmospheres, almost dreamlike (in line with the story), without neglecting the clarity of the clashes, which stand out with brighter and more vibrant effects. The melancholic music completes a truly pleasing picture, marred by a technical component that needs refining. Dialogues that don't advance, missing or crackling sounds, menus that don't close, frames dropping out of nowhere... During the test, several corrective patches were released that gradually fixed things, but at this rate, it will still take a while for Lunarium to be truly complete. Certainly not on day one.

The foundations are there and they are solid, yet Lunarium Game Studio's title is not ready to hit Steam shelves. Pieces are missing, including some rather important ones, yet the Chinese team preferred a full release rather than a more understandable early access. Lunarium is far from being a perfect action-RPG, but what emerges today does not do justice to its flashes of brilliance. Pending decisive updates, we refrain from giving it a score. We will revisit it, hopefully soon. In the meantime, if you like the genre, keep an eye on it: it could change radically in a few weeks.