I love a straightforward game that doesn’t rely on stats and abilities or on acquiring the greatest weapons or armor. I also love chaotic combat and well-written dark humor paired with an insanely unique and twisted dark fantasy setting. Moroi scratches all those itches while also somehow presenting new ones to pick at, giving me one scabby body (which is probably very fitting for this game). It immediately grabbed all my attention from the moment I hit the concrete prison floor at the very beginning. If Moroi isn’t already on your radar or wishlist, allow me to convince you why this might be the next big indie game before the end of this preview.
Frantically Kill The Dead, Again
Players have two weapons that they can use throughout the Moroi demo: a sword that you get towards the beginning and a Gatling-type gun you get a bit later. Using these two weapons, you solve environmental and logical puzzles given to you by the strange, twisted beings you’ll meet in the Cosmic Engine to try to escape it, keep your sanity, and regain your memories. The puzzles are incredibly straightforward, mainly featuring backtracking to get an item from someone to trade it to someone else for a different item. However, the simplicity doesn’t necessarily make them easy to solve, especially when they force you to wrestle with your moral compass. And because you’ll encounter undead enemies who want to eviscerate you completely while going from place to place. Well, not me. I played on Easy. It’s fast-paced and chaotic, and I can’t imagine Moroi with any other type of gameplay.
One of my favorite features in the demo that I hope is consistent in the whole game is that some of the characters you meet will provide you with items that can be paired with your weapons to create a completely new one. Spoiler: When the duck gave me his teeth after saving him from being eaten, I thought it that was one of the most badass things that has ever happened to me. A sword serrated with teeth from a duck? That’s awesome. I keep imagining all the other kinds of weird weapons I’ll encounter.
A Lesson in Dialogue and Sound
I absolutely adored the demo’s writing. Not only was it well-written, but it was grimly hilarious and fit the tone of the Cosmic Engine incredibly well. Every character managed to be different from one another both visually and in how they spoke, giving the impression that the team put in massive effort to set the two apart while making them work in unison. Something that I also didn’t realize I was going to enjoy so much was how short every conversation was. Dialogue bubbles had maybe a sentence or two at the longest and a word or ellipses at the shortest. I love it when games get to the point, and every dialogue I had with an NPC felt thorough and concise.
There isn’t much music, but developer Violent Saint made up for it in the foley sounds and other effects. It would be a disservice not to acknowledge the sound design, especially since I genuinely squirmed at a scene of a pig’s head exploding because of the sound it made. You probably don’t need me to tell you this, but there are a lot of squelching and ripping sounds to be expected. So, maybe consider lowering the Sound Effects volume if that makes you a little queasy unless you’re into that.
“Hail Friend, Well Met!”
Few demos make me wishlist the game as fast as I did with Moroi. It’s fast-paced, fun, dark, and gross, but I can’t compare it to anything else I’ve played before. I will admit that much of the game outside of dialogue was somewhat blurry, though I acknowledge that it’s a stylistic design choice, not a game’s fault.
Despite the demo taking me over an hour, I can expect the full release to be a memorable addition to the indie game collective, especially for those who would like to add a bit of dark humor to their library. Moroi is by no means a roguelike, but I would recommend it to those who enjoy the gameplay of Hades mixed with a setting similar to the Dark Souls games but with more puzzle-solving.
