Lunacid isn’t a game. It’s a revelation. A blessing for those attuned to the forbidden frequencies of old-school dungeon crawlers and analog horror. If someone told me this was a lost artifact from 1998, banned because kids who played it went missing, I’d believe them. I’d also still play it.

This thing feels like an abandoned prototype for something too powerful to be released in its time—so it waited, slumbering, until now. Lunacid wasn’t meant for casual consumption. It’s a PS1-era dungeon crawler filtered through a paranormal broadcast, drenched in liminality, whispering secrets only the truly blessed will understand.

You ever dream of a place you’ve never been? A place that remembers you? That’s Lunacid. It’s King’s Field for the initiated.

The world? Elegantly decayed. The textures sit eerily still, like an ancient photograph that doesn’t know it’s faded. The lighting? Oh, buddy. You ever turn off an old CRT TV and still see the ghost of whatever was on the screen? The whole game looks like that. Every corridor, every ruin, every unsettlingly quiet space oozes a divine, haunted energy. It feels like a memory you’re not supposed to have.

The monsters? Profane. The kind of things that chase you through fevered dreams and wake you up gasping. The combat? Surgical. No wasted complexity. No spreadsheet gooning—just you and your sword of tetanus, carving through blasphemies like some doomed saint. The movement is floaty in this dreamy, cursed way. The music? It sounds like it was ripped from a cassette labeled DO NOT PLAY, a looping elegy that distorts when you’re not quite listening.

The secrets? Not meant for us. We take them anyway.

The game knows when you’re looking. The walls whisper, but only in your peripheral.

And the slightly jarring anime-style NPCs? They were here before you. They will be here after. Smiling. Watching. Unmoved. Maybe they’re the gods of this place. Maybe we were summoned, not the other way around.

Cherish this. Worship this.
Lunacid is a gift.

Garrat the Hound, my beloved.

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generally not into dungeon crawlers but the difficulty looked to be (and generally was) less of an obstacle than expected so i decided to give it a go. glad i did since i enjoyed this more than i ever would've thought.

as a full package, the presentation here was incredible. tons of visual variety with everything from the levels themselves, character and creature designs, weapons/spells, and so forth. everything looked great which isn't even getting into the soundtrack too. so many different sounds and moods covered (including usage of a track meant for another project that didn't pan out) while still feeling like a cohesive thing put together?

the gameplay was solid to great across the board. in my earlier moments i was most impressed by how open ended things felt in character builds, weapon/spell quantity, and so forth but as things went on longer it felt more restrictive than it looked at a glance. a majority of the weapons and spells you come across are either not that helpful due to enemy resistances or have borderline useless stats for when/where they're found. wasn't a big deal in the end since i was collecting everything but i really wish there was more of a a use for everything. some of the weapons are so pretty to go unused. beyond this, i wasn't as enthused with how much the boss fights felt like either puzzle based design/encounters (in regards to picking the right weapon/spell combinations) or being a drawn out drag. the bosses in general felt a bit weird in terms of health counts and i was surprised they were still so tanky given how leveled i was from doing all the scattered side content and exploration as i went. thankfully there were only a handful of boss enemies and i was left to enjoying what i liked about the game the most, which was the dungeon crawling/exploration.

by the end of my playthrough (while going for 100%) it did start to wear thin a bit with how grindy some stuff turned out to be. some of the drop rates are unhinged if they don't work in your favor and even further some of the weapons take FOREVER to level up. i also had a weird thing with one of the NPCs and time progression for one of their quests which took three or four tries to even work but it wasn't game breaking. definitely won't go for full completion of everything on a replay down the line.

this didn't end up being a full on favorite but the base of it has potential for that if it gets built upon with a sequel, expansion, or whatever may come next.

Y'know, I've had a habit for a while now where i'll get to the end of a game, but never actually reach the ending.
This is the 1st time in a good few years where I've seen it through to the end, and i figured I'll jot down my (poorly constructed, i haven't done this kinda thing in even longer) thoughts

This games been very comfy, the kind that's best played late at night, when you don't want to think about the world that marches on regardless of you.
I'll admit i was a bit misguided on what to expect, i bought it thinking it'd be open world, with Noita levels of secrets, and plenty of secret endings to find... and its not. its fairly linear, with only a few secrets that are easy to miss, especially related to the few endings (looking at you ending B)
course, i don't really mind. What's here is absolutely lovely, and i still lament that i cant do a 2nd 1st playthrough...
The combats admittedly the biggest weakness i'd say, its all very shallow, with even a few points in your speed making you able to consistently avoid anything, nevermind jump height.
Boss fights in particular were a let down, i blindly stumbled into the 1st thinking the game didn't even have any, with mid weapons and no offensive spells and i STILL beat em 1st try...
...and i accidentally found a way to cheese the final one's 1st phase... anyways, combat was clearly not THE focus of the game, so i'll talk about something else.

Obviously in a game like this, explorations gonna be one of the focal points, and while i don't have very much to compare it to, i found that many secrets were pretty nicely hidden, with only the occasional "mash E on every wall". If you're like me and listen to every random thought that pops up in your head, you'll find most things via intuition, and what you'll miss will mostly be consumables

Uhhh the NPCs? yea ill ramble about them next, they don't really do much of anything, i wish there was a bigger emphasis on those around you. and more of em throughout the well. like how Demi would occasionally pop up in certain places! those were my favorite moments. especially when she told me death was gonna get me and then i spent the next several hours absolutely PARANOID to explore that damn tomb. I desperately want more of that.

oh yeah, i didn't know until after i had already bought the game, but this was made by the dev of Spooky's House of Jumpscares (i don't care if it had to be changed, i hate the law), and it certainly shows when it wants to. (that damn tomb)
I've kinda forgotten where my thoughts were, but i've noticed my melancholy from finishing the games passed! ...man i'll miss that 1st playthrough...

The castle! I spent way too long trying to get in there, i knew that i had to use blood magics to open a door, but i kept spitting at the door and not the thing next to it... regardless, that was definitely my favorite place in the whole game. I especially liked finding the lore on Ophelia and Jusztina, really wish that there was more to do with Crilall though...
Oh right Garrat! MY BOY MAH MAN! You meet him there! I like him! He does about as much as the other characters (nothing lol) but hes my homie regardless.
I'll admit, the OST was NOT at all what i expected, I thought it'd be gloomy, background noise to emphasize the dreariness of the fact that you're in the worlds worst prison, and obviously there ARE tracks for that, but its mostly very relaxing, the kinda of music you could sleep to y'know?

Cant really think of anything else, so i'll talk the endings and whatnot, obviously SPOILERS have been IMPRISONED WITHIN AN IMPENETRABLE BOX!!! WHERE THEY SHALL NEVER BE ABLE TO ESCAPE!!!

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The main ending? ...didn't get it. I tend to be very thorough when i play a game, and i ended up unknowingly getting all the requirements for Ending E... Kira if you're reading this, keep up the good work monarch, and maybe let us remove the white tape so we can go back to the regular one? ...its the only achievement i'm missing. please?
Ending B was something i definitely would have missed had i not thought it very funny to spit blood on everything, on top of just so happening to do the forlorn arena on a full moon, but i gotta say, ummmm
yeah i really should've expected something like that with the whole "god of cruelty" thing yknow?
Ending CD was something i imagine everyone got, cause i mean.... WHY was there a whole room to the side? obviously i'm gonna look in the puddle for a few seconds in contemplation!
And Ending E... I sure hope the true one isn't as... bleak? seriously it somehow feels more of a bad end than the actual "YOU JUST DAMNED THIS WORLD AND GOT POSSESSED YOU SADISTIC DUMBASS"
definitely wish 3 of the 4s requirements weren't just "do the regular ending but slightly different"
also when you get an ending, the game puts you back to just before it triggered, does this mean canonically the endings never happen?
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Overall, i shouldn't have bought it on sale. A cozy little dungeon crawler thats managed to evoke feelings that i cant quite name, but i cant quite forget. The kind i get from games like OneShot, yknow?
or those dreams that you promised not to forget, but have slipped through your fingertips anyways.

Anyways, at this point ive been writing from 3am, its nearly 5, and i cant think of anything else to put down, if you read the whole thing, why? and uhh Kira pls add more Demi i have an unreasonable fondness of that little goober
i look at her and i just go :)
srsly she just sits in Wings Rest and says hi WHY DO I ADORE HER SO MUCH???

Ok im done, thanks for such a lovely game, i can only hope that one day i'll make something you enjoy as much.