Pros
*Great Soundtrack, very catchy music.*Fun gameplay for any old school RPG/tactic player.
*Extremely colorful and fun visuals across many different landscapes. Cons *Movement in Combat can get annoying when you end up going the wrong direction.
*Story isn’t really great, you lose interest in the story very quickly. Console: Playstation 3 (PSN) Date Released: 07/11/2012 Date Reviewed: 07/28/2012 Reviewer: Rob Rainbow Moon is a game that was released on the Playstation network for the Playstation 3. It is a Tactical RPG in the style of old school RPG games like Arc the Lad and Final Fantasy Tactics. The story starts with the hero, Baldren, goes to fight a long time Nemesis who ends up sending him through a portal that takes him to Rainbow Moon. When Baldren awakes he finds himself in a colorful world that has been plagued with evil creatures brought over by his Nemesis. And that is about as much of the story as you could care about. You won’t find much when it comes to story here but the gameplay is quite fun, lets take a look shall we? Presentation : A Graphics / Animation / Sound The Graphics for Rainbow Moon are very well done in most respects. It is very colorful and has some very interesting creatures across the board. Although the game doesn’t compete well in the graphics department like a true PS3 game like Final Fantasy, it doesn’t really need to. The graphics are meant to make you feel like you are stepping back in time to those good ol days when you played games like Final Fantasy Tactics, or even older SNES games that were built around grid based combat. The animations in the game could use a bit of work as the attacks and specials don’t show much movement from the character. You would expect a game like this to show some more flashy movement from the characters as they fight in combat. Movement across the zones does feel very smooth and you don’t have much of a problem finding your way about the world, and interesting additions such as a ladder to cross a chasm or hole or the need to find a particular item to cross pass certain areas feels very reminiscent of old school Zelda games. The Audio in this game has to be one of the best points about it. It has quite a few great sound tracks and the music helps keep you involved and interested in the grinding needed to continue past some of the more difficult areas. The opening theme is very catchy and some of the battle music can inspire fun days of humming at work. Single Player : B Game mechanics / Length / difficulty The Game mechanics are done extremely well minus a few flaws here or there. The game is very in-depth with a skill system and advancement system that is incredibly fun to work with but very easy to screw up requiring more grinding to fix your errors. There are two different types of currency, one which you spend to raise skills called Rainbow Pearls, the other, Rainbow Coins. The pearls are used to raise different stats to help in combat. Rainbow Coins are the currency on Rainbow Moon and is used to buy equipment or skills as well as items and healing. You will need to manage your items carefully though since you can only carry a certain amount and your characters also need to eat to keep from becoming hungry which will slowly deplete your health. Battles are fun and very strategic, you will find yourself having to plot a few moves ahead, much like a chess match, in order to come out of battle victorious. The only real problem I have here is that movement can seem a bit tough in combat and if you accidentally move the wrong way you can easily screw yourself over. You must manage all your items and use your skills wisely to come out of combat in this game especially if you decide to start in hard mode where you have no gear to start the game, this can be quite challenging indeed! They game is quite long, and it is rumored to have over 100+ hours of in-game fun to do including the side quests and main story. Now for a new game that is a bit long but if you are an old school game such as myself this is actually a good thing to have as many games have lost this concept, minus a few titles here and there. The game can be very difficult for the first time RPG player, but not difficult enough you can’t get used to it. In all truth if you set the game on easy most average players can get a good feel for the game and the tutorial helps immensely! They did think of it all when making this game playable. Multiplayer : C Game mechanics / features / Online features There isn’t much to say about multiplayer here but I had to give an average score because there are some online goodies for people who love the game and love achievements. First off there are quite a number of trophies with this game, the website says 53 with a platinum trophy in there as well for those who enjoy getting those achievements. Second there is a Lottery you can play every day to test your luck at receiving a cool item. Third is a ranking system that you can check out on their website. http://www.rainbowmoongame.com/ to view the top players of the Rainbow moon universe. To set yourself up you must go to a special merchant who allows you to share you stats and info with the world. Very clever add ons for a single player game to give it an online feel if you ask me. Replay Value : B Lasting appeal / Bonus Content / DLC This game has good lasting appeal especially for those trophy and achievement hunters who want to get everything in the game. With over 100 hours of things to do the game never gets old. There hasn’t been any bonus content or DLC announced but with the popularity of the things they have put in the game, along with the very cheap $15 price tag. It wouldn’t surprise me if some updates are in store for the hardcore fans of this game. Overall : B+
