Game

Double Moon Densetsu interested me just cause it’s a really typical classic RPG on the NES that I had neverh eard of. Also the graphics looked kinda pretty. So I decided to give it a try. I was told it’s a pretty generic and mediocre Dragon Quest clone, and no, it’s not QUITE that, it tries for so much more than that. But also, at the same time, it’s a LOT less than that. Let’s explain.

The game takes place in the world of Double Moon, a world with two continents, each of which sits under the light of one of the worlds’ two moons. Years ago, your father disappeared, and today on your 15th birthday, you are informed that he went after the an evil shaman who is trying to summon an ancient evil into this world. The shaman, Samoilenko, killed your mother and kidnapped your sister years ago when you were both babies, and now you have to save her and avenge your parents! Along the journey, you’ll run into Somolienko’s cult, a large cast of villains who are causing troubles throughout the world. You need to stop them in small little vignets around the world. Stuff like… stop them from sacrificing some virgins to a dark god, or stop them and their pet turtle from destroying ships. Just random nonsense.

Game

Along the way, you’ll find a large cast of characters to join you. Like, a LARGE cast. It’s like 13 characters. You are NOT going to be able to use all these characters, and in fact, the game can kinda fuck you over about this. Halfway in you get Sphinx, a… sphinx. They are not a great unit, but you will WANT to use them, because all these other characters? They will have to be sacrificed to enter the final dungeon, and the ONLY characters you’ll have are Sphinx and your main character. And if you choose a class like wizard or something, that’ll make it even harder. I was luckily warned about this.

This game is kinda mean. Not only that, but also things like… well, the difficult is all out of whack, honestly. In the first two dungeons, before you get a full party, you’ll run into enemies who do like, 1 damage to you, and then if they get a crit, or use a spell, boom, you’re one shot. From 100%. It’s nuts, and EXTREMELY frustrating, because unlike Dragon Quest, if you die, you restart from your last save, you DON’T respawn and just lose some money. Once you get a full party though, the game becomes kinda piss easy, and honestly a little boring. You just cast buff spells on your main character and go to town on enemies, as they get too tanky to one-shot. Then it becomes hard as hell again when you’re knocked down to you and Sphinx. The difficulty balance is all incorrect.

Game

Other than that, the game is… perfectly fine. Fine music, if not unoriginal. Cool graphics, lots of nice big enemy sprites. And I actually really liked the story, for the most part, it was kinda engaging and interesting with cool little vignets. But the ending is absolutely nuts. So uh, spoilers for Double Moon Densetsu, a game you were totally going to play.

The game ends with you delving deep into the earth, deeper than anyone has gone before. You confront the evil priest who kidnapped your sister (not before killing your dad. Or not killing him if you kill the fake clones first, to get a good/neutral ending thing. It’s weird), but are too late. You defeat him, but the ritual is done, and the DARK DRAGON is summoned to the world, using your sister as a host. You have to defeat her. But the Dark Dragon cannot be killed, and must be sealed away. So you seal it away in your body… You know that its evil corrupting presence will always be there, inside you, but to save the world, you’ll make that sacrifice.

THIS IS THE ENDING TO DIABLO. DID THE DEVS OF DIABLO PLAY DOUBLE MOON DENSETSU??? THIS IS LITERALLY EXACTLY DIABLO, except instead of a prince it’s your sister, and also it’s all good and optimistic in the end instead of fucking dark and depressing.

Anyways, like a 6/10. If you REALLY like NES-style RPGs and Dragon Quest, maybe check it out, but for everyone else, it’s a skip.