Parents' Guide to Rainbow Moon

While the gaming world and all its genres have seen plenty of evolution over the years, sometimes it's refreshing to see something new follow a nostalgic formula. Rainbow Moon is an RPG that takes its cue from the classic hard-core role-playing games of days gone by. Players have to grind their way through dungeons, mobs, and side quests galore to build up their heroes and chip away at the story's more than 40 hours' worth of gameplay. It's a challenge, to say the least. It's even more difficult depending on the settings the player chooses at the start. Newcomers can get a jumpstart by choosing to begin the adventure with some starting equipment and cash to buy new items, while RPG veterans can crank up the difficulty and go charging into the story with little more than the shirts on their backs.

Patience is a virtue with a game like Rainbow Moon. When grinding is so important to making progress, there's a precarious balance between challenge and frustration. For the most part, the game manages to maintain that balance well. With all the available tweaks to weapons, armor, and character skills available, there's enough character management involved to break up the monotony of battle. That's not to say there aren't moments when events plod along and it feels like you're stuck in a loop. But then, just before you're ready to give up completely, you'll finish a battle with just enough cash to buy that one particular sword you've wanted or earn enough XP to go up one extra level, and suddenly it feels like you've broken through and genuinely earned your hero status.