GetsuFumaDen: Undying Moon

GetsuFumaDen: Undying Moon may be pretty to look at and enjoyable enough to play, but the snail's pace of its upgrade system flies counter to the appeal of roguelikes. Without more streamlined growth and acquisition, the incentive to dive back in for another run takes a massive hit. Barring a balance update, it'll remain a textbook case of "slow close, yet so far."

I desperately want Undying Moon to be a linear, level-based adventure where I can see all the levels and fight all the bosses without enduring the tedious rigmarole that roguelites require. Keep the randomized level layouts! Keep the randomized paths and boss encounters if you have to, but just let me play your beautiful game without all these roadblocks. Eventually, I just got sick of Undying Moon. It was more frustrating than compelling, in part because it does so much right, but its wings are clipped right out the gate by its grind-heavy, roguelite trappings. There are better roguelites out there (Binding of Isaac and Dead Cells, for example), but I’m sorry to say none of them look nearly as amazing as Undying Moon.

After a few content updates, GetsuFumaDen: Undying Moon has the potential to be an essential in the genre. Right now, it still feels like an early access game and one that has annoying technical issues on Nintendo Switch. Its biggest draw is the aesthetic and combat, but it needs to be polished and tweaked in its current state to be an easy recommendation when you have much better games in the genre on Nintendo Switch priced similarly.