Game Title: Rainbow Moon
Developer: SideQuest Studios
Publisher: EastAsiaSoft
Platform: PSN
Release: July 10, 2012
Genre: Strategy RPG
Multiplayer: No
Rating: E 10+
Score: 8.5/10
Don’t let Rainbow Moon’s name fool you into believing that it’s a kid’s game. The name is kind of quirky, sounding like a mix of 80s cartoons’ for girls. Rainbow Moon is an old school turn based, strategy style RPG. In an age of Action based gaming, Rainbow Moon is a refreshing step back into the past.
The story and game begin as Baldren (you) makes his way to a contest and finds himself cursed by his Arch Nemesis - Namoris. However not only is Baldren warped to a new world, aptly named Rainbow Moon, but so is Namoris and the portal acts like a beacon for monsters. Suddenly the once peaceful world of Rainbow Moon is terrorized by thousands of monsters.
Of course you are the one blamed initially for the tragic turn of events by the townsfolk. But as you make your way through Rainbow Moon and help out the various townsfolk, you are eventually looked upon as the hero you know you are.
Like many old school RPGs the story line is a bit on the light side. Exploration and combat take up the bulk of your time in Rainbow Moon. In many ways Rainbow Moon feels like a cross between Dragon Quest VII and Final Fantasy Tactics. As you make your way through the various towns in Rainbow Moon you are eventually joined by another 5 characters that will make up your party. You can keep their default names or personalize them. Each one has their own unique weapons, armor and set of skills.
You can only have 3 characters in your party for combat at one time. Characters held in reserve do not gain experience points, which is a small drawback. Odds are you will end up gravitating towards 3 characters that you will build up and the other 3 will lag far behind.
Baldren is a basic Fighter. Trisha is a Ranger. Gorodo is a Beserker type. Dozeru is a Knight type character. Serena is the Mage. There is a 6th character named Zelorus but I haven’t gotten to him yet. Their character skills reflect their combat style.
The 2 biggest aspects to Rainbow Moon are the combat and the exploration. Combat is turn based and takes place on a grid. Each character (and opponent) has a limited number of moves available to them at the beginning of their turn. If Baldren has 5 moves available then he can either move 5 spaces (and pick up treasure the might’ve been dropped) or he can attack or do 5 skills during his turn (or a combo of moves, attacks and skills.) Attack skills like Hydra Bite have a specific range as well. It might be a straight line of 5 squares. Another skill like Earth Crusher will allow you to attack the squares diagonal to you or bring back to attack the square to either side of you.
As I mentioned before each character has their own unique combat skills but there are other skills that multiple characters can have like X-Ray Review (which gives you information on a monster), Haste, Protection, Magic Light or Fruit Rain. The great thing about the skills is they will level up with use. Their effects might last longer or they’ll do more damage the stronger they become.
You can also equip Passive Skills that will give you boosts to stats. Such as Sniper Master (50% boost to Luck which impacts your ability to do critical hits), Poison Resistance, United Power (Str +12% for each adjacent ally) etc. In all there are over 100 skills to customize your party with.
As you fight monsters you’ll end up with many monster part drops that you can use to strengthen your weapons and armor. Some items might add a few HP and Luck. Others might give a minor boost to each stat. Once used, you can not undo it, but you can buy more weapons and armor and redo their stats that way with stronger monster parts as you get them.
After combat, characters will obtain Pearls to use to boost their basic stats (HP, MP, Str, Luc, etc) Some skills can require large amounts of pearls, so if you’re playing on Hard, this can cause a lot of frustration early on. However that also makes it more challenging and a lot more fun.
Exploration is the other big aspect to Rainbow Moon. As you move to each new town you’ll end up needing to help townsfolk out. This earns you rewards and helps you move to new areas. You might gather mushrooms in the forest, collect cactus blooms in the desert or break a curse. These side quests end up consuming more of your time than the main story does, but most of them are required to advance the main story. There are several areas and towns to visit and wander through. About 20 dungeons to explore and several monster types to fight.
The environments are gorgeous in an old school way. The graphics will not compare to bigger budget games like God of War or Mass Efffect, but are beautiful none the less. The music is awesome to listen to as well.
Overall there are a few minor flaws to Rainbow Moon. As a gamer who is primarily driven by the story line in a game, the story in Rainbow Moon is short and basic. You will find yourself back tracking quite often and Rainbow Coins are not easy to accumulate for most of the game. (You can however purchase Rainbow Coins , Pearls and a few amulets/rings via the PSN Store.)
However all the flaws are minor flaws. None of which takes away from the journey itself. If you only want to go through the main story you can expect a good 30 to 40 hours if you rush it. But if you want to go for the Platinum Trophy you can expect to put in well over 100 hours of game play. (The fact that there is a Platinum Trophy is a rarity for PSN games.)
With a game like this, giving a numerical score is not very easy to do. However I’m giving Rainbow Moon an 8.5/10. High playability. Long game play. Exploration. Beautiful environments and music. Definitely on my recommendation list.
Tease3211 wrote:Nice, I've been thinking about trying this. I'm suprised to hear there is that much depth to the game to fill up 100 hours of play time. Maybe this will give me something to do while waiting for the next Skyrim DLC? lol
There is an interesting depth to it for sure. But at times it's a grind fest. Thankfully it's enjoyable enough. I think there's a demo but I'm not 100% sure.
Tease3211 wrote:dang, could have sworn I searched that menu.. ok, ty! I'll try it next time
No problem. I'm logging into the game now to double check.
Yeah, press the triangle button. There are 7 tabs. The last one on the right says "SYSTEM". Use the R1 or L1 button to get there. First option in that tab is the Save Game. 
Hope it helps and I hope you enjoy the game!
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