The Falconers: Moonlight

When i visited the store page of the game, what i saw was a lead Female protagonist with revolvers as her side arm and a mystery/horror story set in colonial New Zealand and these two reasons were more than enough for me, to click on the "Add to Cart" button. Game is short and can be completed in one gaming session. Dialogues and illustrations are excellent and music complements the eeriness of the story line. I just hoped that the game was, a bit longer.

The Falconers: Moonlight is an exciting story about a rural New Zealand town that recently suffered the tragic death of nearly all employees of its local mine. The story follows the proactive Cassie Winters, a novice monster hunter, as she investigates the cause of the recent accident. Every scene in The Falconers has a purpose—I never felt like the story was meandering—but in a way, it almost feels like the story moves a bit too fast. I think the ending could have been stronger if we even got just one more scene to learn more about the residents of the town. Still, The Falconers is an entertaining story through and through, and my hesitancy towards rating it higher comes not from anything bad about its presentation, but rather that there's nothing exceptional about it—it's simply good.

7/10

Possibly inspired by Cameron's "the thing". It is a short but interesting visual novel. It takes around 3hr to complete. There is no voice acting and music is barely noticeable. The story however is interesting and well written. Characters have also more depth than expected from a short vn. There are 3 possible endings but they are not that much different in the end.

I'm amazed how good the story is. It got me hooked on the story itself and the visual? well I couldn't agree more on how good it looks

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The Falconers: Moonlight
Developer: Bionic Penguin
Publisher: Sekai Project

Pros:

Cons:

Conclusion:

A supernatural visual novel that has great artwork; clever dialogue; creepy monsters; ghoulishly gory scenes and intriguing characters.

All characters are flawed and their foibles may or may not have led to disaster in the small New Zealand town of Moonlight. The Falconer, Cassie is tough as nails albeit on her first solo mission and trying to hide her inexperience whilst hunting a powerful supernatural being.

Recommend the game for fans of well written visual novels and the supernatural genre.

เกมสนุกมาก จบเนื้อหาเร็วดี ใช้เวลาเล่นไม่นาน อาจจะอ่านเนื้อเรื่องนานหน่อยช่วงแรก มีฉากจบ 2 แบบ แต่กำหนดให้ตัวละครบางตัวตายอยู่ดี อยากให้ทำเกมแนวนี้อีก ให้มีแก้ปริศนา หรือมีตัวเลือกที่หลากหลาย มีฉากจบหลาย ๆ แบบ เนื่องจากเป็นเกมที่คนไทยทำ อยากให้เป็นแนวอะไรที่ไทย ๆ บ้าง เช่นฉากโรงพยาบาลร้าง โรงเรียน ค่ายลูกเสืออะไรแนว ๆ นี้

Fairly short, pretty interesting, visual novel. Light horror. This isn't going to stick with you for months or give you nightmares or anything else like that, but instead is just a bit of light entertainment for a lazy afternoon. Recommended on sale.

I mainly bought this game for the inclusion of New Zealand related history and cultural references, not realising that this visual novel is based on an existing novel already.

I cannot speak to the authenticity that it has for the original work, but I thought it was a fine short VN that allows the player some variability in their choices (although there's not that many choices to be had).

Because I waited ages before playing this game, I forgot that it has a scary and bloody mystery to solve in a West Coast mining village - so it's not your typical sunshine and rainbows VN.

If all that sounds fine, then if you think you'd enjoy it I'd say go ahead for introducing an atypical story in an under-explored location in video games. Having said that, you might want to pick this up on sale as I don't think two hours or more really warrants full price (other than for the art and translation into Thai), but you can be the judge of that.

Falconers was interesting and I did enjoy the story. It's not long and I was enjoying it to the point where I wished it was longer. The art work is nice too.

Two hour visual novel mystery about hunting down John Carpenter's the Thing in a mining town.

There's a weird moment where your buddy Weka reveals his tribe previously lived in peace with the Cullers/Seeders/monsters before the Europeans showed up. And its this moment that changes the entire premise on its head. Maybe the Falconers are in the wrong for hunting down these creatures. Claiming that the Seeders "can't feel anything" and "only imitate human behavior" suddenly seems like such blatant propaganda. Maybe these are people just hiding out and trying to survive, rather than cause wanton destruction like your bosses claim.

But then all it really leads to is a villain monologue from the twist antagonist about the evils of humanity.

Just kinda lost me after that, y'know?

A great story that is ALSO well-written. I am always grateful to find the two in one story. Yes, the supernatural aspects were a tad unrealistic but what do you expect from supernatural stories? The point of myth and legend is how it makes us consider the parts that seem more real, like 'civilisation's' effect on nature and indigenous peoples. Great characters, too. A little type-casted though, yes? But each had well-written dialogue that made them seem more individual and memorable. I appreciate the strong female lead and hard not to love Biddy.

The Falconers: Moonlight is a supernatural thriller visual novel set in the 19th Century West Coast New Zealand. That unique western atmosphere was truly enjoyable. It's fantasy fiction, so don't expect historical accuracy. The novel is relatively short (40,000 words) with only three endings but it felt like it totally deserved that tag 'story rich' as the game has quite interesting lore. I like how not too many details were weaved into the plot at the beginning, a player has to guess some things (which is not that difficult actually) but later we easily see the full picture.

I sincerely enjoyed the plot. It was gripping enough, had some gory moments that made me gasp. In general the story felt well balanced for me, sometimes it was repulsive but it really didn't go too far in its revolting part. So it was scary enough for me, I really find disgusting all those centipedes, maggots and...stuff like that but at the same time it wasn't focused too much on any nasty details.

What I especially enjoyed in the story is a cool enough female MC, so self-insertion felt quite nice for a change. The story actually proves later that she is far from perfect but it somehow doesn't spoil her image at all, on the contrary makes her more realistic. Such a rare case for me that I love female MC in visual novels. That's the reason enough to make this review positive.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1678850179
English is excellent! Except 'no-one' with a hyphen I didn't notice any typos. Writing in general is rather pleasant. All in all it was such a nice experience that I'd like to have a series of Falconer stories. I hope 'Moonlight' won't be the last one released on steam.

Art is quite pretty! Some CGs are just gorgeous! Plus the game has animated action scenes. Sometimes it felt not like playing a game but watching anime.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1678720578
There's only one tiny thing I'd like to whine about a bit. Autoplay is that slow so I couldn't use it. Recently I started using this feature a lot. It helps to relax without constant clicking and what is most important prevents me from getting distracted too much. As I usually manage to answer messages, surf the net and do lots of other stuff while playing, so I kinda found a solution for this! But sadly not here. Nothing too important but still it was a bit annoying.

So, I can't say I was overexcited playing this game but it was nice enough to recommend it!

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An absolutely bloody amazing game. I enjoy games with good story and strong yet reasonable characters and this did not dissappoint. The main character itself, although flawed, was very knowledgeable when it counted. All the characters are well thought-out. I honestly hope there will be future sequels to this story, like a series of sorts - not unlike The Witcher novels.

Comparing how long I took to finish to its price, I'd say get it on discount. I bought it when it was 50% off.

The Falconer's: Moonlight is a supernatural thriller visual novel developed by Bionic Penguin and published by Sekai Project. Falconers are an international consortium of "monster hunters" pledged to protect European colonists from danger as they continue to settle into unknown lands. As the protagonist Cassandra "Cassie" Winters, you are a Falconer sent on your first solo mission to a qaint 19th Century mining town off the West Coast of New Zealand to investigate a terrible accident, missing people and rumors of monsters that stalk the outskirts at night. Can Cassie unravel the mysterious circumstances at work in Moonlight and save the town...turn the page?

Visually this novel is quite impressive and is without a doubt the most cinematic V.N. that I have read so far. From the moment that you have your first battle to the opening credits, the high presentation value of this visual novel is apparent with the camera pans during the action sequences alongside the excellent soundtrack. The illustrations are beautiful with the ever present manga-inspired art yet with an "old west" flavor which combines for a very unique and interesting look that manages to set this V.N. apart from others. Also of note is that the immersion factor is high as there are an abundance of ambient sounds peppered throughout the novel from background noises like people consversating in a bar, doors opening/closing, footsteps and the sounds of combat, etc.. You also have a number of choices to make as the narrative plays out, decisions that can affect how the story unfolds so choose wisely. In conclusion, the presentation of The Falconer's: Moonlight is really quite high and does a wonderful job of setting the stage for the action packed yet supernatural storyline.

Once again, Sekai Project manages to deliver a very solid visual novel experience with this title. I for one hope that this is not a "one-shot" V.N. and that they manage to turn this into a series as I would love to read about more adventures with Cassie and the Falconer's...that sounds like a band doesn't it? Nevertheless, I enjoyed my first read of this title and there are three unique endings available so replayability is very high. Option-wise, there are Steam Achievements to accquire and Steam Trading Cards to collect as well. In summary, this V.N. provided an excellent narrative, a interesting cast of characters and some fascinating lore along with the enticing "old west" theme so The Falconer's: Moonlight is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED to visual novel fans far and wide.

The game has choices, true, but sadly except of the occasional alteration of the text they are 100% meaningless. What I could perhaps even forgive if only the game wouldn't make the impression of a decent detective story where the player's job is to identify the culprit from the clues he gets. Alas, I even managed to do so correctly but the game never asked for my opinion and the protagonist made the 'wrong choice' anyway. At this point I pretty much lost the interest and quick-clicked through the rest, confirming myself I indeed didn't miss anything. The only choice which actually matters is the one at the very end offering the usual most boring binary choice between two endings, ignoring everything what happened before. Disappointing to the core, unless you like basically 'kinetic novels' and want to just read a (mediocre) book with pictures on a PC. There is also no alteration of the character based on the choices and whether you act as a bully or a cunning detective, your behavior is hard-coded thruout the whole game save for those 1-2 sentences following each of such choices.

If this was the pilot episode of a TV show, it would make one hell of an introduction to Cassie Winter. Our protagonist is freshly solo and eager to prove her competence, riding into town to solve a crime. By your choice, she can be warm and trusting - the better to coax information from soft hearts - or tough and professional, more convincing to those who respect a show of force. This is her first independent mission as a Falconer, and it's a doozy.

The Falconers: Moonlight showcases both lovely artwork and tasteful use of animation, embellishing what is a solidly compact, suspenseful story. It took me roughly 3 hours (with skipping) to see all 3 endings and get the achievements, so it's worth being thorough and exploring all the options.

As for world building, the game provides just enough detail to immerse the reader - considering its brevity, there's not room to go overboard with superfluous descriptions. Overall it felt an appropriate amount for the length, though I found myself wanting to learn more about the Falconers and their trade secrets (Farlan's remedy, anyone?), as well as their targets, the Cullers. The unconventional setting and the characters were all interesting enough to merit revisting, perhaps in another game.

All in all, I'd say it's definitely worth the money. Well-told and nicely illustrated, with solid fleshed-out characters. If you don't mind the length, you won't regret the purchase.

Shout-out for Bionic Penguin. I recommend this one and suprised more folks haven't reviewed it yet.

This has to be one of the best English VN-releases so far this year. If anything, get it to support a developer who has a lot of potential for even more great future projects. I sincerely hope they continue producing good work.

Positives:
+ Strong woman lead
+ strong special effects-- from the little things like gun shots, to moving the camera for a more cinematic feel.
+ good music main theme
+ Nice backgrounds
+ well-done art
+ Great location/ world building
+ Pretty good story/plot ( even though its short) Think action plus mystery

Neutral
* No romance (but that's okay with me)
* many moments without music, but did have atmosphere sounds
* No voice overs (again, that's fine with me. Voice overs aren't mandatory for the visual novel genre).

Negatives
- was shorter (but I don't mind shorter vns)


What I appreciated was that despite the moving effects, the movement stopped mostly when it was time to read. It is a pet-peeve of mine when backgrounds/characters are heavily moving when you are supposed to be reading. It can become distracting.

There are a couple of long reviews, so I will be brief:

+ Good story, sense of mystery, and overall athmosphere
+ Visually pleasing.
+ Good characters
* The music is nice, but nothing special
* No romance. This one doesnt need it.
- Very short.

The summary: Great VN, and definitely worth this modest sum of money.

First of all: the directing is excellent, and for me it's the standout quality of this VN. Heavy use of 3D camera work and animations make the game feel dynamic and alive in a way VNs usually don't. Every shot is constructed with cinematic intent, which also gives the game visual variety and great mileage out of its art assets. There are some parts in the middle that are less polished than the beginning and the end, but overall I think the effort put into the presentation makes it worth its price point even if it's fairly short for a VN (took me around three hours to complete it).

The story itself is enjoyable. The beginning is slow, but once it hits its stride about 1/3 of the way in, it picks up a lot. The plot is well paced with strong progression of developments and a good balance of action and investigation. My biggest complaint is that I found the prose writing very overwrought in places, but the dialogue is quite good, and all the characters are distinct and well written with interesting backstories and motivations. Some of the themes are heavy-handed, but overall it's an entertaining story that effectively carries your interest to its conclusion. If you're looking for romance, there are hints of it here, but only hints.

Sound design and music do an effective job of setting the atmosphere without being intrusive, and some of the tracks are pretty catchy, although the majority of them are fairly forgettable. The art overall is strong as well, although I think the anime proportions + realistic shading looks kinda strange on some of the characters' faces.

Overall, this is easily one of the best English VNs I've played. The good story paired with the great directing makes for a tense monster-hunting action romp, and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who likes VNs, westerns, or supernatural action stories. The main caveat is that it's a little shorter than some people expect VNs to be, but I personally prefer short games and don't find that to be a problem.

A beautifully done, cinematic visual novel that keeps you wanting to read on until the first playthrough is done. Characters have their own life, and aren't your typical run-of-the mill VN sort. But perhaps what I love most about this game is the strong female protagonist who can stand her ground no matter the situation.

Pros:
- Compelling story
- Amazing artwork
- Sound design
- Believeable Characters (and fun too. I <3 me some Biddy)
- Refreshing setting

Cons:
- A bit on the shorter side. About 3 hours for one playthrough.
- Limited replayability. Only three endings.


Overall, I recommend this for people who enjoy well-written stories with a strong protagonist and beautiful artwork. Worth the money hands down.