Moonstone: A Hard Days Knight
| Developer: N/A | Graphics: |
 | |
| Publisher: Mindscape | Sound: |
 | |
| Year: 1991 | Difficulty: |
| |
| Genre: Action-RPG | Lastability: |
 | |
| Number of players: 4 alternating | Rating: |
9/10 | |
Moonstone is a turn-based medieval fantasy game with “role-playing” elements, but more focused on combat (quite violent).
It involves visiting different locations marked on a map, in search of four keys and other treasures, guarded by frightening monsters. The first knight who manages to gather these four keys, then enter the valley of the gods (at the centre of the map) and triumph over its guardian, will obtain a precious Moonstone, which, once handed over to a band of druids, will confer upon him “the ultimate power”…
The snag is that at each stage of this quest, his three rivals (controlled by the computer or other players) will do everything to snatch the precious relic, the keys, or failing that, strip him of his hard-earned gold and equipment.
“When a man has proven he has talent, the next step is to prove he knows how to use it.”
I would have only one criticism to make: the loading times are a bit lengthy…
Oh actually, a second criticism too: if by chance you face two blue giants simultaneously (those who live in the marshes to the southeast) and if they happen to raise their clubs simultaneously, you’ll see a charming little flashing red rectangle inviting you to restart!
It’s disheartening when a game of this calibre falters like this, simply because the developers didn’t take the time to test it thoroughly.
Update:
I replayed it years later (2022) to take new screenshots, a non-cracked version on an emulator, and to my great surprise, experienced no crashes.
Additionally, I wrote a “review” for the website obligemment.fr years ago. Notice the effort at objectivity in the score.
Ugh, tired.
During your turn, press “Space” to display the inventory screen and use items. Don’t forget to convert your experience points by clicking on the stats at the top of the screen (“strength”, “constitution”, and “endurance”).
|
