Tobari and the Night of the Curious Moon, also known as Fushigi na Tsuki no Yoru no Tobari, is a platforming game by Desunoya. If you were to take Super Mario Bros. and blend it with Kirby with a touch of Moe, your result would likely be this doujin platformer; the gameplay is reminiscent to Super Mario Bros. yet our heroine Tobari can use the magical powers of her enemies by whacking them with her Keystaff.
The game was first released in Japan (obviously) during Comiket 81 for Windows PC, and later received an official English release on DLsite's English website; the localization credits includes Mauve, a programer of Gensokyo.org
who also worked on the Fan Translation of some of the Touhou Project games and HELLSINKER. You can find the English version on DLsite here. The overseas version later made its way onto Steam on May 26, 2015 for Windows and Linux. The game's English webpage and its trial version can also be found here.
This game features examples of:
- 100% Completion: There are 48 "achievements" of sort. These range from easy ones (find the hidden shops, get more than 5000 coins), to hard but doable (beat the game with less than 10 deaths, get all Moon Fragments) to ridiculously difficult (beat the extra boss without taking a hit, complete the second special world).
- Big Damn Heroes: Farilina and Hina show up during the fight with Lucea to save Tobari and give her new powers.
- Bonus Dungeon: Two of them. The first is unlocked by collecting all Moon Fragments hidden in the normal stages, and it provides a continuation to the story along with a True Final Boss.
It is also much harder than the normal game. The second can be "bought" from the shop after beating the extra world, and it can only be described as the really evil son of Super Meat Boy and I Wanna Be the Guy - Brutal Bonus Level: The aforementioned World??. It combines navigating through absurdly difficult platforming segments, filled with red spikes, lots of pits, fast scrolling screens and overall requiring extremely quick reaction times, with some completely illogical puzzles. It also pretty much forces you to grind coins for one of its stages.
- Bullet Hell: Endgame enemies and bosses are quite fond of this strategy. The second special boss isn't even funny.
- Character Name and the Noun Phrase
- Charge Attack: The Magic Missile spell can be charged up to make the shoots travel faster and further instead moving slowly and dropping down afterwards.
- Collision Damage: Most mobs damage you on contact, but surprisingly enough, bosses don't. You can freely hang around them while they're not in the middle of an attack.
- Dark Is Not Evil: The Dark Clan of the moon as a whole, and Lucea in particular. Corruption aside, she's just a sad little girl who thinks she's lost her best friend.
- Double Jump: Tobari can do one with the Air Bound power, though the second jump is activated by the attack command instead of simply pressing jump again.
- Dream Land: The world around Tobari has been turned into one.
- Elemental Powers: Some of the magic-casting use them, which Tobari can also borrow with her Keystaff.
- Fire, Ice, Lightning: A few enemies use each. Tobari can also borrow these powers to shoot fireballs, create a blizzard to freeze enemies and use them as platforms, and summon thunderbolts from above.
- Blow You Away: One of Tobari copied abilities lets her use wind to jump higher and slow down her falling speed.
- Dishing Out Dirt: The Shoot Rock spell.
- Elegant Gothic Lolita: Tsubaki.
- 11th-Hour Superpower: In true Kirby fashion, you get the Holy Staff for the second phase of the extra boss. It works exactly like your normal attack, but has greater power and reach, and most importantly, it cancels enemy bullets. You WILL need it.
- Follow the Money: Mostly played straight, and can be a way to reach hidden parts of the level, but cruelly subverted in the bonus worlds, where doing so will lead to your death most of the times.
- Flunky Boss: Everyone does this to a degree, but it's most notable with Tsubaki and the bonus boss, who summons very weak but annoying clones of every other boss.
- Final Boss: Hina corrupted by the "Moon's Illness". She gets better, thank to The Power of Friendship
- Final Boss, New Dimension: With said dimension obviously being an amazing technicolor battlefield.
- "Get Back Here!" Boss: The bonus boss moves around like crazy, and takes the screen with her.
- Goomba Springboard: Much like in the Super Mario Bros. games, Tobari can bounce off enemies higher by holding down the jump button.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: A non-romantic example, this is basically the reason Hina went ahead on her own instead of consulting Tobari, since she didn't want her to get hurt. The feeling is also mutual.
- Kaizo Trap: Downplayed. Nothing will ever kill after touching the goal, but getting past it in some way or another is often necessary to get hidden goodies.
- Life Meter: 3 Hearts, but you can temporarily get up to 6 by buying the "Jellied Yam" item.
- Magic Staff: The Keystaff used by Tobari.
- Marathon Boss: The bonus boss has so much health that her life meters break the screen
- Mercy Invincibility: Only lasts for a few instants, but can still be exploited.
- Moon Rabbit: The Usagi/Rabbits, cute girls with rabbit ears that often offer useful advice. Most enemies also have various kinds of rabbit features.
- Optional Boss: Farilina fights you at the end of the last world. She flat out says the fight has zero meaning and there's nothing to win besides a sense of self-satisfaction.
- Passionate Sports Girl: Asuka, head of the the sport club. Even her attacks often involve tennis, basket and volleyballs.
- Point-and-Click Map: The World Select screen à la the classic Super Mario Bros. games.
- Power Copying: Our heroine can gain different powers by striking certain enemies with her Keystaff.
- Puzzle Platformer: Not really evident if you just blast your way through, but getting all Moon Fragments require tinkering with the right skills in creative ways. The extra world also has multiple levels that employ this.
- Slippy-Slidey Ice World: World 4. Slippery platforms will continue to appear now and then too.
- Spring Jump: Some stages have springboards for you to jump to higher places.
- Suspicious Videogame Generosity: If you find lots of coins, a couple of life stars and a shop, expect a boss ahead. The penultimate stage is also a glaring example, as it contains nothing but coins and extra lives.
- Third-Person Person: Tsubaki talks like this.
- Time Stands Still: The Stop spell. Tobari even yells "WARUDO FREEZE" when using it.
- True Final Boss: Corrupted Lucea, the princess of the Dark Clan of the Moon and Farilina's best friend.
- Zerg Rush: The Sheep Butlers/Jeeve-Sheep's favourite tactic. They're weak, but good luck fending off a thousand of them..
