The Moon's Knight

The Moon's Knight is a very short Twine game (under 500 words, as per the rules for the game jam in which it was made for). As such, it's a very quick experience, taking no more than 5 minutes to play through both of the two paths. I was impressed by how much it managed to do in those 500 words, but it did fall short for me personally -- it was less impactful than I would have hoped.

The prose is actually very interesting. I won't lie, when I booted up the game and read the first passage, I got tripped up on quite a bit of it. I'm one who very much dislikes ambiguity and confusion in prose -- leave that to poetry, is my view on it...

So when I read phrases like (Spoiler - click to show)"dark-crowned wilds" and "oceans traversed by starlight" and "breeze-born interlocutors" -- phrases which, in my view, had no literal meaning and rather were just kinda meant to invoke vibes -- I wasn't really digging it. I just prefer to always know what is literally happening in the story, rather than simply the emotions/moods the author is attempting to convey. However, as I read on, the prose did grow on me, and I realized that this author's version of "prose poetry" was actually a lot better done than some other things I've read recently. Quite frankly, this is what the whole Twine reads like (and probably is): prose poetry. Well, the author couldn't have picked a better Twine for prose poetry than a 500-word one. What can become grating through long exposure is often much more effective and enjoyable in short bites.

And once I got into it, I did find the prose itself enjoyable. I think the language is actually fresh enough and the author's command of imagery skillful enough that the whole comes together in a quite pleasing way. Even if I didn't actually literally know what was happening all of the time, the words coalesced together in my mind, becoming more than the sum of their parts. There was genuine emotion in the prose, and with a deft hand, it evoked those same emotions in me. The odd, serpentine sentence structures also had an impact: they got my mind to let go of my pre-conceived notions of what prose should like, and instead enjoy the words for what they were.

However, I really would have preferred to still know the literal meaning of what was happening -- and despite all the evocative imagery and sculptured sentences, I just wasn't sure what happened in this Twine. I know (Spoiler - click to show)there's a war between the Sun and the Moon, and I'm a knight for the Moon, and so I fight in a battle... but after that, it gets very, very hazy. (Spoiler - click to show) Was the only choice in the game a choice on whether to sabotage my own side, or not? Or was it more of a choice on whether to give up and let myself die because I didn't want to go on anymore? If I raised my shield, what was the Moon doing at the end, what did she mean she will uphold my promise herself? As in, like... she's going to sacrifice herself to win the war...? Or, uh... she's going to take my sword and use it to defeat the Sun herself? I honestly had no idea which of these options was the right one, or if any of them were.

Maybe it was just me (and my lack of experience reading and appreciating poetry), but I really could not understand what was happening or what the actual impact of my choices were. And so, it was difficult for me to connect emotionally to this game.

But I have to acknowledge that it must be really, really difficult to tell a full and complete story in only 500 words. And what did make it into these 500 words is well-done and enjoyable, if only for the sake of enjoying beautiful language alone. So maybe not my favorite, but I definitely think it's a worthwhile game to play if you like poetry or prose poetry at all.

P.S. My favorite line in the game: (Spoiler - click to show) "Dancing flames illume a lonely moon." Lovely little line, and well-chosen as the first link the player can click on.