Analysis Cynthia Hidden in the Moonshadow on Xbox Series

The video game industry does not only live on triple A and big productions. He independent panorama It is sometimes a perfect ground for sowing good ideas or improving existing ones, as well as mixing mechanics seen in other games. Today, we offer you an analysis of one of these small works which surely go unnoticed in the amalgam of releases which reach us each month and which dominate video game news. Today we tell you in this analysis what we thought about it Cynthia: Hidden in the shadow of the Moon.

The game launched last April on PC and now we have the Xbox versionafter playing it on Xbox Series X. Developed by Catthia Gamesis the work of an independent studio formed, it seems, by a single person. This is his first work, and from everything that’s been explained so far, we can already get an idea of ​​the scope and aspiration of this game.

A story we’ve heard before

Regarding the story, we put ourselves in the shoes of Cynthia Stranborg, a Lunar Shadow hunter who, after leaving her hometown for a while to improve her skills, decides to return home, among other things, to reunite with her beloved Hector. As soon as you return, you will notice that something is wrong and we will see how the dark power that comes from the North has invaded our house and its inhabitants have disappeared (and worse).

So, armed with our bow, we will have to travel the lands of the Tesana Valley to recover our loved ones and bring peace to our home. It is a bit of a cliché story it doesn’t bring anything new to something we’ve already seen. Additionally, despite there being dialogue and stories scattered across the world, the game fails to connect with the player as it feels flat and superficial. Despite all this, the author strives to maintain interest in finding out what happened and how to defeat evil.

Simple but correct in terms of playability

As for the playable base, this is a third-person game with clear inspirations in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. The aesthetic of the world around us is very similar to Nintendo’s work, except obviously the differences. Moving around the world, we will have to use our bow and our stealth advance on the territory (in a fairly linear manner) and discover this or that secret.

In the game we will not have combat as such, without being able to fight directly against the enemies but we will have to distract them to be able to pass or use the powers that we acquire for our bow and use the environment to be able to for them avoid. If he detects us, he will turn us to stone and the adventure will be over. But the game, which has an autosave, is very nice in this sense and we will come back very close to where we failed. In fact, when speaking of this kindness, we emphasize that Cynthia hidden in the shadow of the moon

This will not require great skill from the player, because at all times we know what we have to do and the execution is very simple.

Eye-catching aesthetic

This therefore makes us think that This game may be aimed at a more childish audience or someone new to video games or the stealth adventure genre. But This clearly conflicts with the fairly sexualized aesthetic of our protagonist., whose dresses can be changed if found in chests around the world. Of course, not everyone will be modest at all.

To finish the gameplay, throughout the mapping we will have, if we take little detours, certain “traditions” disseminated in camp books that will help us better understand history and serve as a summary of what has happened so far. We will also have the opportunity to pray to certain statues (but without any reward) and find materials that we can use, during a bonfire, craftsmanship

the different types of arrows we can use. There will also be some simple platforming sections and a very simple puzzleessentially consisting of reproducing the pattern seen on a wall on a few plates on the floor.

In terms of visuals and performance…

As for Visual style, is a game that, as we said, is inspired by the locations seen in Nintendo’s work but with a slightly more naive/childish touch, and without having much work on the animations apart from those of the protagonist . The enemies will have little graphic detail and, above all, the final enemy seemed very poorly worked to us.

Technically, the game worked perfectly on Series to burst punctual. The Quick Resume works perfectly although it is very possible that you will not even use it because the game only lasts about 3 hours.

Conclusions

In summary, we are faced with an independent work consistent with what one can see at first glance and this offers us a short and simple adventure that will serve as an entry point for many players into the world of video games or those who have not gotten into the adventure and stealth genre. Being the work of a modest independent studio, you need to be clear about its aspirations and know that we won’t find anything new or innovative. Of course, what he proposes, he realizes and executes correctly.