Review: Rainbow Moon
If there’s one thing that PlayStation 3 gamers have missed from the PlayStation 2 era, it’s the variety of RPG titles. Great titles such as Final Fantasy, Chrono Cross, Tales Series, and many more leaving gamers an ever lasting feeling of satisfaction. Rainbow Moon, though has some issues, pays great homage to all those great RPG titles.
When starting the game you’ll be shown a short cutscene which introduces the story. You play as a character named Baldren, who is at the time meeting with his arch rival, Namoris. Unknowingly, Namoris tricks Baldren and pushes him into a portal, which is linked to a world known as Rainbow Moon. From here you’ll make a journey across Rainbow Moon in hopes to return back home.
The gameplay is set-up in the same style as the popular Disgaea franchise. Players are placed on a grid plane that allows characters to move about as they take turns. With the added grid you’ll be thinking more strategically, since moving can leave you open to an AI attack. Moving to the wrong spot could potentially mean that you lost the battle, though if thought out well you’ll be able to limit the number of attacks an AI can do.
The biggest issue with Rainbow Moon is the grind factor. For many, grinding is a part of the experience when playing any RPG title, however Rainbow Moon takes this a bit to far. The pacing between higher level enemies is ridiculous. As you complete one battle you’ll find yourself grinding in preparation for the next with little to no break at all. Leveling up just takes way to long then it normally should.
Leveling in this title is a must as after every battle your rewarded with Rainbow Pearls, or skill points. Pearls are used to level up characters attribute, which include health, strength, speed, mana, and defense. There is however, another issue with this as the system felt extremely lop-sided when it came to other characters. You main character, Baldren is typically awarded 8-15 pearls per battles. The other characters though are only rewarded 0-5 per battle, which is terrible seeing that their stats are extremely unbalanced.
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Gamer Living – “Rainbow Moon is a throwback to RPGs of old, where a player’s dedication and skill were paramount, as opposed to many of today’s RPGs where enough button-mashing and a small slice of luck will still see you through to the end of the game.” Score: 4.25/5.00
Escapist Magazine – “While there is definitely a crowd that will enjoy Rainbow Moon for its many sidequests, huge world, and character-building potential, it ultimately doesn’t do much to differentiate itself from the more iconic SRPGs that inspired it. For $15, you could do much worse, but you could also order a pizza, rent a movie, and have roughly as memorable an experience.” Score: 2.5/5
[/tab][tab title=”General Information”]Embark on an epic adventure that leads you through a beautiful, isometric, open world with detailed high-definition visuals. Rainbow Moon is a strategy RPG with a strong emphasis on exploration, character development and turn-based battles. Six playable main characters with upgradeable weapons, armor and accessories; about 100 special skills and more than 20 challenging dungeons are awaiting you in a fascinating story that lasts over 40 hours. [/tab][/tabgroup]
Now like any RPG, Rainbow Moon follows the traditional open world setting. You’ll start out on a small island filled with forests, caves, and towns. Everything looks great and pays tribute to all the classics with its fun and highly detailed look. Traveling to other islands, VIA boat you’ll see changes with areas becoming more darker, swamps sprouting out in areas near water, and mountains begin to rise as you travel near deserts or snow areas. Rainbow Moon environment is as diverse as one would hope for it to be.
Not going to touch much on this, but if your someone who enjoys music in RPG than Rainbow Moon isn’t really one to be much excited about. Most, if not all of the music in Rainbow Moon will be heard when you first arrive on the island. It’s alright at first, but after going through the game for more than 30 hours you’ll come to realize how annoying and over used it gets.
Overall though, if your an RPG fanatic you’ll really love Rainbow Moon despite it’s issues. It’s entertaining, long, and has a huge amount of replay value once the game is beaten. This is one RPG that truly brings back fond memories.
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