The DS cover for Moon, back before it was turned into Moon Chronicles.
In 2009 developer Renegade Kid published the Nintendo DS game Moon. Several years later the game was re-released as Moon Chronicles for the Nintendo 3DS, with plans to make it an Episodic Game, with the content from the original game making up the first "Season" and all-new content making up the second "Season." However this never panned out.The year is 2058 and a strange hatch leading to a massive underground alien complex has been discovered on the moon. Major Edward Kane and a small team from the ETEO (Extra-Terrestrial Encounter Organization) are sent into the alien complex to uncover its dark secrets.
Tropes present in this work:
- Aliens Are Bastards: The aliens in charge of the complex have been abducting humans and melting them down to make a narcotic for centuries. They've also been covertly keeping humanity divided to prevent them from becoming a galactic power. It's also played with a bit, though, as data logs make it clear that in their society's laws, this operation is extremely illegal, and the Sector Overlord is paying off politicians with bribes to keep law enforcement away. Essentially, the moon complex is part of an unsanctioned enterprise being conducted by an alien drug cartel that has already attracted police attention, to put it simply.
- Anti-Frustration Features: Health pickups normally only restore a small amount of your health. If your health gets low enough, however, picking one up will bring you back up to full health.
- BFG: The Seeker Pod launcher fires an energy projectile that creates a massive shockwave that kills anything in its path. Fortunately, the explosion doesn't affect you.
- Bottomless Magazines: The Super Assault Rifle has unlimited ammo and never needs reloading. The Remote Access Droid's stun gun also has infinite ammo, though it still has to cool down after a certain number of shots. The other weapons in your arsenal avert this trope, though there's no manual reload button (though you can still reload by opening your weapon menu and moving the stylus over your current weapon).
- Boring, but Practical: The default weapon is the Super Assault Rifle or SAR. While it does the least amount of damage of Kane's guns, it makes up for it with it's rapid 3-round burst and unlimited ammo. Since it doesn't use ammo enemies will be more likely to drop health pickups when you use it.
- Cool Car: The LOLA-RR10 is a moon buggy equipped with a laser and is used to traverse the surface of the moon.
- Comic-Book Fantasy Casting: Kane bears a mild resemblance to Dwayne Johnson.
- Drone Deployer: At any point Kane can deploy the Remote Access Droid which can sqeeze into areas too small for Kane to enter. If the drone is destroyed it's game over, but unlike Kane the drone's health does replenish and every time it is deployed it will have max health.
- Drugs Are Bad: The substance produced by the harvested humans is referred to as "the suspension" by the Fermians, and can be used as an aphrodisiac, psychotropic, or military-grade stimulant. A data log about Side Effects reveals that taking a high enough dosage can result in a coma or death. Interestingly enough, their society's law enforcement considers this drug to be a controlled substance and its production is strictly prohibited. Unfortunately, there is high demand among Fermian society for "the suspension" as a significant portion of their population is already addicted to this drug and experiencing withdrawal symptoms. Humanity is also not the only species that is being harvested for these drugs.
- Episodic Game: Season one contains four episodes which repackage the content from the original DS game. The second season was intended to pick up where the first season left off and feature all-new content. Unfortunately, Renegade Kid never made it to the second season before shutting down in 2016. Plot summaries of Episodes 2, 3, and 4 can still be found
on GameFAQs. - First-Person Ghost: Despite Kane having a third-person model in cutscenes and when using the Remote Access Droid, you can't see your legs when you look down.
- First-Person Shooter: Very much in the vein of the Metroid Prime series, Moon Chronicles features exploration mixed in with its combat.
- Hand Cannon: The Muon Pistol can kill most low and mid-level enemies with a single shot. When he picks it up, Kane notes that it seems to have been designed for hands larger than human size.
- Heart Container: There are artifacts that increase your health meter's capacity hidden throughout the game.
- Human Resources: Turns out the complex has been abducting humans for decades, perhaps centuries, and processing them into a restorative fluid that's used by the aliens as a narcotic and acts as the games' health pickups.
- Humans Advance Swiftly: Cited in alien data log #0009: "Unlike other species that have been harvested, humans have rapidly developed primitive space travel and energy weapons technology. This has necessitated the implementation of advanced security procedures to ensure the ongoing viability of harvesting operations." Data log #0012 also comments on this, and shows some among the aliens suspect that humanity's "unexpectedly brisk pace" in developing their technology may be because of recovered material from the Roswell crash landing.
- Hyperspace Arsenal: By the end of the game, you'll be carrying seven weapons and one drone rover in that space suit of yours.
- Latex Space Suit: Averted. All human characters wear a spacesuit that is visually identical to modern day astronaut wear.
- Leave No Survivors: Late in the game, after Kane has caused enough damage to the harvesting operation, an intercepted transmission shows the ringleaders of the op have decided to dispatch a fleet to raze the entire facility to the ground. It is also tasked to destroy Earth, as they cannot take the risk that Kane may have contacted others about the crimes occurring on the moon, and they need to preserve the secrecy of other harvesting operations.
- Lima Syndrome: Data log "The Facilities" tells us that some of the aliens in the harvesting facilities began to feel stressed out and depressed over the horrific treatment of their captives, even those who weren't consciously empathizing with them. To remedy this, the leadership of the operation removed all personnel from the facilities and had them all set up to be unmanned and automated.
- Longevity Treatment: It is eventually discovered that aliens have been harvesting humans for centuries in order to make a substance that restores health and prolongs life.
- Mecha-Mooks: The majority of enemies you face are robots designed to guard the facility.
- Mission Control: During the game you are in contact with your CO General Lambert and your tech guy Tsukigami. Later, an "unknown voice," who may or may not be an alien themselves, joins in.
- Photoprotoneutron Torpedo: Some of the alien weapons you pick up have names like Muon Pistol, Lepton Spread or Fermion Sniper, implying they fire sub-atomic particles.
- Ranged Emergency Weapon: The Remote Access Droid is equipped with an eight shot stun gun with regenerating ammo to defend itself.
- Religion Is Wrong: According to one of the information terminals, the aliens have been covertly introducing religious ideas to humanity to keep Earth politically divided.
- Roswell That Ends Well: It's stated early in the game that mankind has known they weren't alone ever since the Roswell Incident, and that there may be a connection between that and the alien complex on the moon.
- Sequel Hook: The game ends with Kane successfully assassinating the Sector Overlord overseeing the drug operation, and returning back to the moon in his stolen shuttle, but a trio of alien ships follow him back. Unfortunately, no sequels were ever created before the developers shut down in 2016.
- Shotguns Are Just Better: The Lepton Spread basically functions as an energy shotgun, firing a spread of projectiles that deal heavy damage up close.
- Shout-Out: The names Kane and Lambert are likely references to John Hurt and Veronica Cartwright's respective characters from Alien.
- A Space Marine Is You: Hits most of the major points of the trope.
- Space Marine: Kane is the head of a special task force and wears a traditional astronaut suit.
- Taking You with Me: Alien soldiers will attempt this if you destroy their suits, charging the player and exploding. You can avoid this by aiming for the head.
- Voice with an Internet Connection: About halfway through the game, Kane comes into contact with an unidentified man on the radio who starts providing him helpful information and instructions on what to do next. He's only called "Unknown Source." While the game never reveals who he is, he might be one of Dr. Matthias's crew from the first expedition that went into the hatch.
