I don’t own a PS3 so naturally I’ve never played Rainbow Moon before. I have encountered a few reviews of the game in my travels across the wide expanse of theĀ internet and all of them made me want to play it.

Since I now own a Vita, I have the opportunity to give it a shot. I’ve played the portable version and I can honestly say I love it. In fact, I’m glad I have the portable version instead of the console version – though if you own both the PS3 and PS Vita you can transfer game saves between them. The reason I’m happy that I have the portable version is because the game is massive.

Rainbow Moon windy snowland

It blows my fucking mind just how massive it really is. The level cap for characters is 999, and the game world itself is remarkably large. When I first started playing I have to admit I was a little scared seeing how the environments and dungeons were laid out. All of that fear is now gone having experienced the game first hand.

Rainbow Moon does feature microtransactions, but in a good way. I’m pretty stingy with my money, and I don’t like spending on extras – hell, a lot of times I don’t even like forking out the cash for DLC. In that respect, you can play through the entire game without spending a dime. The extra money and pearl kits allow you to level and outfit your characters more often, essentially making the game a cakewalk. It’s probably better that you don’t spend any money, so you actually get to experience a more challenging game.

Items, armor and weapons are purchased with in game currency or coins. Character attributes are purchased with Rainbow pearls. Both of these currencies can be earned by simply playing the game, however if you want a boost you can buy one of the many kits on PSN.

Rainbow Moon battle

Battles are turn based, and there are several different ways to encounter them. On the world map enemies patrol an area and you can engage them directly to start a battle, or avoid them completely. While traveling an area, a popup will also appear allowing you to start additional battles at any time to level your characters. There are also boss battles, but those are special case encounters and you generally know when they’re going to happen.

The main story is pretty bland, so much so that I’m not even going to bother talking about it here. The quests are much of the same. You either have to kill various enemies or collect special quest loot to hand off. It’s the standard RPG fanfare. The dungeons are also pretty generic, and have you moving through various underground environments pulling levers, and slaying baddies.

Rainbow Moon island

The environments and the art style are both equally beautiful, and the colors are incredibly rich and vivid on the Vita screen. In fact, just exploring the main world is one of my favorite aspects of the game because of how detailed it all is.

It’s not perfect though. The menus are a bit clunky, but they work. In addition, it’s pretty inconvenient that items don’t stack, because it leaves your inventory cluttered with 50,000 potions or torches as they take up a single slot each. Aside from those gripes, the game is fantastic and worth the $15.

If you don’t like turn based strategy games then you won’t enjoy Rainbow Moon. Otherwise it’s a great game that is remarkably expansive. No seriously, I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to finish this game completely – portable version or not.