Have you ever wondered what it’d be like to be the only surviving human in a world full of anthropomorphic animal creatures and elves? Well, sure, I imagine a lot of you have, which is why it’s such a nice thing that Moon Fire: A Seeker’s Saga is here to indulge your furriest of fantasies. It’s a visual novel with great art, a beefy story, and tabletop RPG elements that force you to sometimes roll to succeed in particular actions. Choices matter, and you can lose valuable characters for good too!
Plot Ahoy!
MoonFire: A Seeker’s Saga begins with your protagonist who is, seemingly, the one human being in this world. As the human protagonist in MoonFire, you awaken in a world of swords and sorcery without any necessary knowledge to be able to navigate the land in which you find yourself. Armed with just your wits, ability to choose from multiple choice lists, and (hopefully) d20s that don’t belong in dice jail, you’ll be given chances to speak with various characters throughout the world and discover more about the universe of MoonFire.
Due to the fact that this has heavy emphasis on story, there isn’t a lot that can be said here about it since MoonFire is all about fantasy politics and political intrigue. You’ll encounter creatures like cat knights, duck paladins, and merchant bears… if there’s animals you might like, odds are they will be represented in MoonFire in some capacity. You’ll experience the world with a number of companions who each have their own roles to play in the story, and depending on decisions you make, you can influence the highs and lows of the narrative (and your dice rolls will also change what you can do).
Review Notes
When you reach certain decision breaking points, the RPG elements of MoonFire kick in and a d20 will be rolled for you to see if you pass for whatever choice you tried to make. MoonFire makes it very obvious that the choice requires a skill check, and most everyone I remember gave a percentage chance of being able to succeed. So, in one instance, grabbing a sword and fighting back might have a low 40% chance to work due to your low strength score, while running away has a higher 70% chance due to your agility and that sort of thing.
Your stats themselves can be improved throughout MoonFire to better succeed at the style of options you like selecting, so there’s a strategy in repeat playthroughs to elevate certain stats at certain times to try and keep specific characters alive, as well as replayability to see where the narrative changes with options you failed at during previous runs.
Beyond that, interacting with MoonFire is very simple. You can just move the cursor around the screen using your mouse to choose the options you want and click through the dialogue of the various characters you meet and events that transpire. You will often have moments where you can move around on the map to choose your destinations, since the game gives you the luxury to pick your own destinations since there are side quests you can complete that are separate from the main story plot lines.
Sometimes you’ll be thrust into turn-based combat where you can pick the action you’d like to do and roll a d20 to see if you can succeed, and you can even find, buy, and sell items to improve your chances to do other things in MoonFire’s story.
MoonFire has a very interesting visual presentation, one I’m not sure if it’s good or bad. A lot of the backgrounds look like photos of environments with a very heavy filter placed over them- and many of them don’t look good at all due to this strange, ethereal swirling that occurs in the images as a result of the filter used. There are others, like the camp background, which look absolutely amazing and fitting for the visuals, but seeing the actually good backgrounds makes the bad ones stand out that much more.
TLDR
MoonFire: A Seeker’s Saga is an extremely interesting title, decently written, with a great premise and mystery in discovering why all the humans are absent from its world except your protagonist. The interpersonal conflicts and medieval politics of the various creatures are captivating at times, and I found myself getting a lot more lost in the fantasy of MoonFire than I expected. Of course, this also runs well on Steam Deck since it has low system requirements, which makes for easy play during a cozy evening, perhaps with your favorite beverage.