To follow up a recent stream of rdein’s early work, I’ve now played his first commercial game. It’s great!
Rdein makes no secret of being inspired by Pixel’s work, particularly Cave Story. This can be seen most clearly in his early work’s chibi dot-art style, and Momodora 1′s gun unlocks (not to mention Ika-chan easter eggs). The first game was a linear action-platformer with some side paths and backtracking. Momodora 2 tried out a traditional mini-Metroidvania style, while this third one returns to the setup of the first game and rdein’s Action 52 remake Bubblegirl Rozy. This time currency bounces out of defeated enemies like Cave Story’s triangles, and the deflection mechanic from rdein’s Bunny Swordmaster Story has made its way here too.
As you progress through you can find hidden items or buy them at shops to customise your playstyle. NPCs are sometimes involved in acquiring more but others are just there for flavour or worldbuilding. The story is light with hints of depth but can be explored further in this way, and also ties in to the previous two games nicely. The two selectable protagonists (who unfortunately appear to play identically) are returning heroines from each of the prior Momodora games, for example.
To compare further to what came before, I appreciated that the difficulty has been eased here; or at least, you’re able to select an easier mode and aren’t punished for this. You can even choose “casual” and breeze through with quickly-regenerating health. There’s still pitfalls and tough enemies but this is a much more approachable experience.
It really feels like rdein has brought lessons from all his previous work together into this while also making it accessible. I appreciated playing his early stuff to see how it led to this point but it’s also a good place to start. Subsequent releases Momodora: Reverie under the Moonlight and Minoria under the label of his studio Bombservice seem to be bigger and more ambitious and I look forward to trying them but this was a lovely smaller experience with nostalgic Cave Story vibes.