Moonstone (NTSC) - An Introductory Playguide and Review - by LemonAmiga.com
111Moonstone is a Canadian NTSC hack and slash adventure game, developed by students Rob Anderson and Todd Prescott, and released by Mindscape in 1991. It features monsters, magic, a dragon, and plenty of gore! So let's load this up and try to get somewhere.
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7. π₯π₯ Mahen
8. π₯π₯ Michael Nicholson*
9. π₯ Eric Johnson
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11. π₯ Ramon Schmitt
12.π₯ Glenn Main
13.π₯ Paolo Mirabella
14.π₯ Martin Roeleveld
* Note, the first few videos were rendered before these people joined. They appear in the credits of later videos.
Production Notes:
Captured: 18 March 2023
Narrated: 14 May 2023
Completed: 10 Oct 2023 (V2)
A lot of people have been asking for this over the years, and this time, Ramon Schmitt backed this and requested it. So thank you Ramon. Moonstone is a game I never got into back in the day, as there was a lot of loading and disk swapping which is not shown in the review, and combined with my intimidated playing ability, it seemed a bit to vast a prospect to persevere with it. But as this was a backer request, I watched a few videos to try to understand it. One of them was some guy coaching his girlfriend/wife to play it, and she found all four keys and beat the game with his expert help, so I figured it was not such a hard game after all.
Loading this up, I was also loaded with tips and advice, so gaining the first steps wasn't too difficult. I deliberately saved the game up as I entered the town, as I wanted to demonstrate the gambling without losing all of my money. The more powerful you are, the more powerful the enemy dens seem to be, but it all depends on the moon phase, which appears while loading. I guess seasoned players will clear out the hardest bases first, having memorised the game from trial and error, but I got my backside kicked in most of the non-knight-on-knight battles. I saved the game again when facing the dragon. It's possible to get crosses and spells to save health on the dragon, but if you know how to kill it, there is only a small need for those, and I figured sooner can be better than later, as usually he picks the worst time to attack you. I never got the hang of the mud monsters.
For this one I added a random voice when the wizard Math speaks. The voice is one of those stereotypical Igor voices I guess, mixed with an upper class butler. I dont think I used any filters this time, so it's all just me, live. I obviously tried to talk as little as possible during the fights, especially the long one with all the spear men.
Slightly disappointed that I didn't find any keys, or steal them off the black knights, but I didn't want to complete this or get too far, in case people can offer some advice and tips! Often a bad play in these videos gets more comments than a perfect one.
Danscore:
Picture the scene. It's 1991. Modems are still very very rare, and most schools are still using 8-bit machines. Adventures were often often stuck in the King's Quest and Maniac Mansion bracket, and a lot of people still saw an RPGs as being all about rolling dice and gaining stat points. Suddenly, here comes a game with detailed and varied backdrops, digitised retching and screaming sound effects, a wide colourful map, and a fully animated dragon. Okay, so the 3D involved is more like Golden Axe than Shadow of the Colossus, but there is lots of action going on, and players don't get time to figure out the best way to win. A tower and a henge offer some help and upgrades, while paying high prices to merchants can gain even more. There is just a thin skin of RPG elements in there, and very few stats to boast of. As enemy lairs get stronger depending on the moon, and after the loading screen there is no way we can see it on each turn. There are various random factors, and sometimes luck, but mostly it comes down to finding the one (and often only) way to beat each lair. Masters of the game find the action is bit too samey, while I've never met anyone who hadn't heard of this, and had a huge respect for it. Apart from the disk swapping, and no easy mode, I'd give this 8.5 out of 10.
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