14 DAY TRIAL // I dash toward a piece of Lunar energy which shifts position at the last possible moment. It’s now too close to an enemy to risk going after it, so I back off a little and look for another blob to get. I catch it quickly and, almost at the same time, launch an attack toward the enemy that’s closest to my character. Scratch one opponent, there are two more to go before I clear the room and get a reward.
More energy is always flowing through the battle space and I need to think and act fast. My dash gets me more Lunar power but it also puts me in the path of an incoming strike. Corruption now affects my character, which makes me lose health every time I attack. Thankfully, I need just a few to deal with other monsters.
I pick up an upgrade for my overall health and prepare to assault the next room. I need to keep this corruption under check to make more progress before I die and inevitably return to Nambo Quay for some more character and pet interactions.
Midautumn is developed and published by Team Midautumn. I played the Early Access version on the PC using Steam. The title uses some familiar action rogue-like ideas with a unique mechanic when it comes to combat.
Players take on the role of Robin, fresh out of college and with limited job prospects. She moves in with Grandma only to be informed that she has to work as the guardian of the spiritual world. She will get to explore and fight but there’s also a cast of characters to interact with. Wenye and Tsechoi offer her gifts with gameplay effects and a supernatural researcher is also crashing at her grandma’s place.
Team Midautumn says that the narrative will touch on ideas about the Asian diaspora and gentrification. The writing seems to be of decent quality, with some interesting details about the town of Nambo Quay and its history.
But this seems like a game that will draw players mainly because of its mechanics, which deliver a pretty classic take on 2D action and combat. To protect the spirit realm, Robin will move through underground rooms, fighting groups of enemies, earning upgrades, and sometimes having to deal with the extra challenge of bosses.
To succeed, she will have to make good use of Lunar energy. She can absorb it and then power an attack with it. Rinse and repeat to eliminate enemies. Ranged ones even launch energy at the hero, making her job somewhat easier.
But if she takes damage while holding a charge or absorbs too much, rot sets in. Health is depleted when striking. It can become hard to clear even relatively easy rooms. It’s an interesting gameplay twist that’s hard to master during the fast-paced battles.
Midautumn is part of the already well-established trend of pairing pixel art with rogue-lite action titles. It’s an interesting look, although it can sometimes be hard to read everything during the more frantic combat moments. There are also some placeholder graphical elements. I like the design of the characters. The soundtrack is decent but a little generic.
Conclusion
The full launch will offer more biomes, extra bosses, and extra narrative. Midautumn has some interesting ideas for the action rogue-lite space. Currently, the game has some rough edges but fans of the genre should keep an eye on the updates its developers deliver and pick it up later.
A preview key was provided by the publisher
