I hardly ever play souls-like games, and when I do, the closest to them is something like Stellar Blade. I open this preview up with that disclaimer because I want the reader to know that I do not write from the perspective of one experienced with this genre. With that made clear, I do not believe that Crimson Moon falls as neatly into the genre as the trailers and marketing for the game would have you believe. Developed and published by ProbablyMonsters, Crimson Moon is a single player or co-op action-adventure RPG, with self-described “Souls-inspired melee combat built for mastery rather than punishment.”
You play as Nephilim, a half-human half-angel attached to a prophecy, and you’re regularly dispatched from Sanctus Clypeus, your hub, to the city of Gildenarch to rid it of demons and other infernal creatures.
In the roughly 30-minute demo that I played, the story was not a focus, but rather the basics of combat and how it feels to run around and fight and explore on a mission. The long and short of it is, it was quite enjoyable. The combat itself has fairly standard controls with the most unique part being “angel mode”, which is activated by pressing R3/L3 together, giving your character super strength and regenerating health. It’s governed by a meter that refills as you fight enemies, and drains as you use it. None of the enemies ever felt overly difficult in this early part of the game, but it should be noted that the game was locked on normal mode for the demo. And yes, you read that right, dear reader, there are difficulty modes! Despite the melee combat being inspired by Souls, the gameplay structure is much closer to Warhammer: Vermintide.
The basic approach to the game is as follows: You start in the hub, where you are free to explore, talk to the blacksmith, explore the shop, and take on some side quests. From there, you go to the war table and you select a mission, including its difficulty level. Once done with that, you select the equivalent of a basic loadout (there was only one in the demo), and you go off through the portal to Gildenarch to fight the evil. In the demo, there were a total of four zones full of enemies while the fifth zone was a boss. There was no time limit, so you can take your time and go a slowly and deliberately as you want to.
While clearing the zones, a whole lot of loot drops. The loot is equipped directly to your character if you choose to pick it up and you immediately drop whatever you were wearing in that gear slot. I was unable to tell if you keep any of the loot or what the exact approach to progression is in the demo, but there is an upgrade system via the blacksmith in the hub. Each zone clear also rewards the player with a buff of the players choosing from a small pool of options, and then it also refills your health flasks (which, like Souls, are limited). Of note, however, is that get a handful of revives right on the spot if you die. Meaning, you can continue the boss fight or whatever you were in the middle of without losing anything, as long as all your revives have not been used up. The developers did not say how many would be included at launch, just that it would vary depending on difficulty and it was being tuned. There were five in the demo, and I used them all, but I made it through!
The last thing to note, which I did not get to experience but some people playing alongside me did, is that the game is completely designed around two players being able to play together. The game is entirely playable solo, but the multiplayer element is right at its design core. The game is scheduled to launch later in 2026, and felt quite polished despite having seen such a limited slice. The gameplay mechanics were solid, I didn’t experience any bugs, glitches, or unusual behavior, and I had a good time playing it. If you’re in the market for a co-op action-adventure RPG with souls-inspired melee combat, keep an eye on Crimson Moon.
