Two must come together to save a kingdom in danger in Moonflower, one an alchemist catboy and the other a mysterious raven-haired elf. 

The Story
You play as the main character, Nika Skylar, an acclaimed alchemist invited as an honored guest to the Royal Palace of Ashmire as a personal guest of Princess Alyvia for the Moonfaire. A festival to celebrate a rare event of the silver moon. Skylar is a member of the elusive Felinis tribe and just as much of an attraction in the kingdom when he ventures out as the royal family themselves. Treated sadly with either fear or disgust and not trusted and closely monitored due to not being a human. He lost his right arm during childhood and in its place is his "living prosthetic".

The lore of this game is vast and I highly encourage anyone who reads it to purchase the art & lore book that is available as dlc. It goes into detail about the story, main characters, side characters and history of the moonflower. A really great addition to the main story. 

The Characters
Princess Alyvia is strong-willed, kind and a dear friend to Skylar. They have a deep friendship between them that has grown for two decades. Royal titles pushed aside and at times playful with each other. A wonderful character and very personable. She is the adventurous type and independant, passionate and charismatic.

King Eamon Dunn, the ruler of Ashmire. He is arrogant, egotistical and enjoys his power. Not a surprise set of attributes for a King. He dotes on his daughter Alyvia but treats her more like a trophy as opposed to a person. Like all nobles he was raised to despise and fear the fae. Believing them a race to be feared and enemies of his kingdom.
Ender Kuu is adorable and mysterious. He is kind, soft-spoken and naive. A balance to Skylar who is more serious and reserved. The perfect contrast for a romantic partner for Skylar. 

Wesley Siddel is a sweetheart. Bumbling, stuttering and loveable. He is a knight and at first glance does not seem the knightly type. But he is dedicated to his role, sweet and loyal to his princess and his duties. He is constantly compared to his older brother Thane who is the captain of the Royal Guard, and despite their contrast of personalities, he cares for them deeply. 

Game-play & Features
The settings are your usual find; display settings, rollback, skip options, audio controls and text speed. There is also a gallery that unlocks artwork during special gameplay moments. The hud can be hidden for those who enjoy taking screen captures. The text is very easy to read and the layout of the hud is very organized and clean.

The gameplay for the most part is a typical visual novel with choices you can make along the way resulting in the story ending in one of three ways. A bad ending, neutral and good. There are mini games as well, where you can make potions or magical items. 

The game itself is wholesome and playable by all ages. Romantic but not spicy. 

The Visuals & Audio
The artwork is well done, with colorful and vibrant characters who are drawn beautifully. The backgrounds are equally colorful and detailed. The one disappointment to me personally was the sprites in the game, although beautiful were static. No real body animations or different poses. There are subtle animations to the facial expressions but that was it. I wish the characters had more variety. 

Where visual novels tend to shine is in regards to artwork, and this one is no exception. The CG art created for the game (character graphic), or as I coined them "special moments" are beautifully illustrated in this game.
Some of my favourite special moments or CG's in the game I captured…

The soundtrack honestly was overall okay, Instrumental tracks that repeat and the characters are not voiced. Ambient noises such as glass breaking, potions bubbling and footsteps are a nice touch to add some life to the mostly static scenes. 

Overall Experience
I enjoyed my time with this game. What compelled me to purchase it was the artwork as I love visual novels with well done art. The special moments in this game are beautiful. I just wish there were more of them. Maybe one for each route's ending would have been nice, even if the ending itself was not the good route.
I bought the game on sale and it was well worth the sale price. I finished the game in about 4 hours with extra time to play the extra routes. The achievements are not hard to obtain overall. 

What I am excited about is the upcoming dlc Moonflower: Fae's Rest Epilogue where we get to see the romance bloom a bit more between Skylar and Ender. 🌺

Review originally posted on Steam

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