To round out this rdein/Pixel miniseries (for now), here’s the first big commercial release of rdein’s company Bombservice.

The Momodora series has been interesting to retrospect: the first is heavily Cave Story inspired and linear, the second tries out an exploration platformer mould and expands the lore, the third returns to linearity but experiments with it, adding items and such. This fourth entry is a full-fledged Metroidvania, and it goes grimmer in aesthetic.

RutM is a prequel starring Kaho, the ancestor of Momo, who was hinted at in 2 and was a secret guest character in 3. She’s a warrior priestess who wields the familiar leaf in melee and the new bow, a very fast ranged attack. You can augment your abilities by finding active and passive use items—allowing you to customise your playstyle to some extent as in 3—as well as some (sadly a bit underwhelming) permanent perks. There’s plenty of secret nooks and collectibles to find, plus some items can only be gotten by beating a boss without taking damage (no mean feat).

The structure is very familiar to the genre; the sprawling world map is split into zones, save points become warp points later, there’s shortcuts to unlock. That bleak atmosphere is very striking, and fits the shift away from chibi-size characters in this instalment, although the designs are still frequently quite cute (at one point you are transformed into an adorable kitty cat, acting as the “morph ball” equivalent a la Guacamelee’s chicken form). Considering the “gothic European horror” stylings of the kingdom of Karst, this game’s setting, I was getting Bloodborne/Souls vibes all the way through.

It’s been great seeing rdein and his team expand their skills and ambitions from game to game, and this is a worthy finale for the series (a 3D instalment was in production but cancelled in favour of Minoria, a successor to this but with a new setting). For my tastes it was perhaps a little too dark, some secrets too obscure, or side characters not tied in to the plot enough, but looking back these things have always been part of the identity of the series and the games that inspired it. So I still consider this a highly successful work, and I loved experiencing it!