We love it when a studio demonstrates significant growth and improvement with each of its subsequent projects. With Bombservice specifically, the team has always boasted a strong understanding of what makes Metroidvanias ‘click’, and with Momodora: Moonlit Farewell, it’s delivered what may well be its finest game yet.

The latest chronological entry in the series, Moonlit Farewell is a noticeable step up from its already-excellent predecessor, Reverie Under the Moonlight, in terms of scope, visual design, and gameplay. Right from the start, you’re greeted by stunning scenes of pixel-art wizardry, with Bombservice showcasing its mastery of colour and atmosphere. This extends to the characters and enemies, with each and every bizarre creature feeling both alien in design and yet perfectly suited to Momodora’s ethereal world.

Gameplay will feel familiar if you’ve played the previous entries, with main protagonist Momo utilising melee attacks and a long-range bow to deal damage. You obtain new, permanent abilities such as double-jump, sprint, and wall jump periodically throughout the game, while sigils can be found or bought from stores for additional perks. Experimentation to find which sigils best fit your playstyle is encouraged: do you want more potency in your Healing Bells or will you find more success in increasing the strength of your arrows?

Exploring the world and defeating standard enemies rarely provides much of a challenge, but significant difficulty bumps rear their heads when taking on boss characters. Like all good action games, though, success comes when you take a step back, learn your foes’ attack patterns, and wait for the opportune moment to strike. As mentioned in our review of Minoria, however, our favourite encounters came with the ferocious one-on-one battles against bosses of a similar build to Momo herself. Monstrous, screen-filling creatures are great and look fantastic, but they can feel a tad shallow by comparison.

The game does a lot to ensure that you never feel too lost. Friendly characters provide loose objectives to follow, giving a rough idea of where to go. Meanwhile, the map itself separates the various biomes via colour while also including handy icons to designate save points, stores, fishing spots (yes, you can fish!), and hidden items. There's still a fair bit of backtracking involved, but when the game looks this good, we don't mind quite so much.

If we were to describe Momodora: Moonlit Farewell in one word, it would be “exquisite”. This isn’t a game that necessarily attempts to do anything new in what is undoubtedly a crowded genre, but everything it does, it does very well. It’s a slick experience with gorgeous visuals, engaging combat, and challenging, yet fair boss encounters. The soundtrack has also been noticeably improved over the previous game, making this a must-play for fans of the series and, indeed, Metroidvanias in general.