#moonless moon

Publishers KAMITSUBAKI STUDIO and Yokaze, and developer Kazuhide Oka will release text-based adventure game Moonless Moon for Switch on September 19 for $9.99, the companies announced. It will support English, Japanese, Traditional Chinese, and Simplified Chinese language options.

Moonless Moon first launched for PC via Steam on August 8.

Here is an overview of the game, via its Steam page:

About

When night falls, she wanders into another world. Moonless Moon is a text-based adventure game following a girl as she travels through a variety of different worlds. Night brings her to a desert on the moon, a coffee shop inside of a tunnel, an island in the sky, and many more worlds beyond the realm of reason.

Story

Yomichi is a normal girl living an average student’s life—except for one thing: sometimes, after sunset, she finds herself transported into a different world. Be it a desert on the moon, a coffee shop inside of a tunnel, or an island in the sky, she enjoys her time in these new places, making friends each time. However, this leaves her with some questions. Do I really have to live in my daytime world? Is that life, the one where I go to school each day, the real one? In this story, she tries to find out more about the worlds surrounding her and what they mean for her.

Characters

Yomichi, the girl who travels from world to world, and the many unique friends she makes in the process.

What Makes it Unique

Moonless Moon feels like a music video that you can play through, full of unforgettable art and music. During the “riddle” parts of the game, you will have to complete the story yourself to go forward. These are fun, intuitive puzzles where you look for keywords and place them in the text. Moonless Moon features several original tracks with animated music videos to go along with them. Dive into this unique world and its who’s who of musical talent. Depending on your choices, the story will progress toward different endings.

ANMC

ANMC is a project to create music and indie games based on the stories written by Kazuhide Oka. Several artists, including many from KAMITSUBAKI STUDIO, joined in, making for an incredible collaborative effort to produce an amazing array of songs.

Moonless Moon is the first work by ANMC.

Staff

Production: KAMITSUBAKI STUDIO

Scenario and Development: Kazuhide Oka

Character Design: Hizumi

Key Visuals: Okusora Keita

Logo Art: JEFF99

English Translation: Marco Godano

From Gematsu

Publishers KAMITSUBAKI STUDIO and Yokaze, and developer Kazuhide Oka have announced text-based adventure game Moonless Moon for PC (Steam). It will launch in 2024.

Here is an overview of the game, via its Steam page:

About

When night falls, she wanders into another world. Moonless Moon is a text-based adventure game following a girl as she travels through a variety of different worlds. Night brings her to a desert on the moon, a coffee shop inside of a tunnel, an island in the sky, and many more worlds beyond the realm of reason.

Story

Yomichi is a normal girl living an average student’s life—except for one thing: sometimes, after sunset, she finds herself transported into a different world. Be it a desert on the moon, a coffee shop inside of a tunnel, or an island in the sky, she enjoys her time in these new places, making friends each time. However, this leaves her with some questions. Do I really have to live in my daytime world? Is that life, the one where I go to school each day, the real one? In this story, she tries to find out more about the worlds surrounding her and what they mean for her.

Characters

Yomichi, the girl who travels from world to world, and the many unique friends she makes in the process.

What Makes it Unique

Moonless Moon feels like a music video that you can play through, full of unforgettable art and music. During the “riddle” parts of the game, you will have to complete the story yourself to go forward. These are fun, intuitive puzzles where you look for keywords and place them in the text. Moonless Moon features several original tracks with animated music videos to go along with them. Dive into this unique world and its who’s who of musical talent. Depending on your choices, the story will progress toward different endings.

ANMC

ANMC is a project to create music and indie games based on the stories written by Kazuhide Oka. Several artists, including many from KAMITSUBAKI STUDIO, joined in, making for an incredible collaborative effort to produce an amazing array of songs. Moonless Moon is the first work by ANMC.

Staff

Production: KAMITSUBAKI STUDIO

Scenario and Development: Kazuhide Oka

Character Design: Hizumi

Key Visuals: Okusora Keita

Logo Art: JEFF99

English Translation: Marco Godano

Simplified / Traditional Chinese Translation: flankoi

Watch the announcement trailer below. View the first screenshots at the gallery.

Announce Trailer

Voxelgram 2: I would just say it's like Voxelgram but moreso (3D picross/nonograms), but the addition of a second color seems to be very divisive. It took me a little while to get used to, but once I did I appreciated the way it made me approach puzzles differently and the way they flowed a bit differently too. I saw a small but very vocal group of people who absolutely hate the change and can't wrap their heads around it, but I liked it a lot more than if it had just been more of the same. And just like the first game there's still one bit of the soundtrack that's way more intense than you'd expect that I look forward to every time it loops back around.

Relic Hunters Legend: This one seems to be getting tragically overlooked and got almost zero attention on release, which is a shame because it's great. It seems like it had a bit of a troubled development, and they got dropped by their publisher when it got bought, but that allowed them to rework it from free-to-play nonsense to a full, complete game that stands on its own, which as far as I can tell has done nothing but good things for it. If you've ever wanted a 2D twin stick shooter version of something like Borderlands you've come to the right place, and thankfully the writing is also infinitely better than BL3. The gameplay is definitely the highlight of it, but the characters and story still kept me engaged through to the end too.

The Fairy's Secret: A 7/10 sequel to another 7/10 ebi-hime game I played a few years ago (i.e. a typical ebi-hime game), which I don't mean as a negative at all. Just like The Fairy's Song and most of her other stuff it probably won't make a huge lasting impression on me or anything, but I appreciate the consistent level of quality and polish, and when this is the kind of thing I'm in the mood for I know exactly what I'm going to get.

I finished Moonless Moon recently which was a VN I had seen on my steam front page a while back and initially wishlisted it because two cute girls on cover (so hey maybe it'd have yuri! (it didn't)). It was a relatively short read, I finished the entire thing in under 3 hours.

It's a very melancholic and gentle read to put it lightly. It waxes some philosophy and does it with a gentle and beautiful OST accompanied by really great art. The translation and prose felt pretty good, there were a few minor typos I noticed but overall it didn't feel like a chore to read which is always a good thing. The presentation for a VN is nice too, albeit a shame that the characters really only ever have one sprite. They do a good job with framing them in certain ways and cutting them off to give a distinct vibe though.

Now, as to what the VN is about, I think it can ultimately be summarized by saying its about a girl growing up and experiencing the broader world (or in the case of the VN, multiple worlds).

When I initially had started reading the VN and saw how the main character hopped worlds and commented on how they were better than her home world, I had thought this would be a commentary on escapism. The main character, Yomichi, even acknowledges what she was doing was harmful and temporarily stops jumping to other worlds.

However, in the final chapter and epilogue, to me I think what the VN calls worlds is what we would consider in our day to day lives different... perspectives? I'm not sure what the best way to put it is haha. But ultimately, in our own ways, every human lives in their own different world. What we classify as a world can vary from person to person, but in the case of Yorimichi it's the town she's growing up in. She lives in it and only temporarily escapes at night time when she hops to other worlds. These other worlds, one moon desert place in particular, feel more comfortable to her than her own home world. This bothers her though. Shouldn't she live in the world she was raised in? All her family, friends, and other people live there. Is it ok to jump to other worlds?

And that's essentially the crux of the VN. It turns out that everyone can jump worlds, not just her. It's just not something they talk about. Madobe, the other girl on the cover, tells her how it's ok to travel to other worlds, live there even. She's done the same.

When I think about how this relates to "our" world, I remember thinking about how as a kid I basically lived in the same town. My worldview was so small, that visiting other cities let alone living in them felt like travelling to a new world. I imagine Yorimichi felt similar, where her school and the town she lived in was all she really knew before she jumped to other worlds.

And when she learns that other people jump between worlds too and that it's ok to do it herself, it's a lot like how growing up I as an adult start learning that its ok to leave and live elsewhere. The first time I did so I was nervous, but it was like an exciting journey. It's a normal thing for people to "jump" between "worlds", and it's not something to be scared of or ashamed of. At least, that's the vibe of what I got from the VN.

There's also other interesting characters and stories, but I think they mostly sell the idea of what different worlds are like to Yorimichi. People paying in weird currencies, different rules applying, different sceneries, etc.

KAMITSUBAKI STUDIO’s music-themed text adventure “Moonless Moon” will make its way to Nintendo Switch consoles on September 19. The Switch release will cost $9.99 and feature English, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese language support. Moonless Moon originally released on Steam on August 8, 2024. The game is currently on sale for 15% off in the Nintendo eShop until October…