what I was expecting was a shinobi like to Cybershadow's ninja gaiden like....what i got was megaman. Not bad, actually good but wasn't expecting that.
Solid game, the aesthetic and art direction do just about all the lifting here; cyberpunk dystopia with a fleshy cyborg trimming. The Controls are a bit clunky, having both a button to just run and double tapping can get confusing, the jump feels weirdly weighty, like sometimes i feel like he's not getting the jump height I believe he should, and the wall jump feels not good, it feels like Moonrider should stick or slide down walls like X from the Megaman games.
The action is snappy, dash slicing enemies is fun though i think there should be some I frames to prevent getting hit after performing it, took a ton of damage that way. The boss Abilities look cool but feel kinda of superfluous since your main blade weapon is more than sufficient in dispatching every enemy in the game, they don't give any type of benefit besides usually one shoting stage enemies. speaking of the bosses, if you have any type of hp advantage you can for the most part win a war of attrition with them. they wanna have patterns and a phase change like megaman bosses but someone forgot to give em I frames to prevent me from spam slashing em.
As for the story, almost bordering on nonsensical. we know next to nothing about the guardians (bosses) what this revolution is about, what is the government doing to people besides being bad, who's the old man, who the resistance is and why Moonrider Awoke to justice? I feel there were supposed to be more cut scenes after levels than what we got.
The biggest criticism i have is this game is super short, there is zero reason to replay levels(besides getting a better rank for bragging rights) if you've found all the chips a level has, that's it. no other reason to go back to a level and unlike a megaman X title, where there would be heart tanks, E tanks, armor capsules, alternate routes to alternate bosses there is nothing.
Despite this, i still would recommend Vengeful Guardian Moonrider, just get it on sale. i would recommend any price drop below $10