I have a love-hate relationship with action commands. I love games like Paper Mario and the Mario & Luigi series, but sometimes those timed action commands are an accessibility issue. I went into Moonana’s Keylocker with an open mind after playing Virgo Versus the Zodiac. However, I came out of it with a very conflicted set of feelings.

Keylocker is set in a cyberpunk world where music is banned. You play as B0B0, a singer and musician who leads a group to rebel against the authorities and liberate the people. However, there is more to this quest (and their world of Saturn) than meets the eye.

Keylocker is inspired by Chrono Trigger and the Mario & Luigi franchise in its gameplay. It is inspired by Chrono Trigger in that you do not engage in random encounters, and to some degree, battles are turn-based. It is inspired by the Mario & Luigi franchise due to its action command system, where every attack and defense you make has an action command or rhythm element associated with it. This is where the problems begin.

I played on the easiest difficulty, and due to various reaction time problems, I still had trouble with the action commands. The ability to defend is judged by if you hit the button when an enemy flashes white. The problem is that the parry window is so tight on a lot of the enemies that unless you’re hopped up on 3 Red Bulls, cocaine, coffee, and the dust off a Unicorn’s testicles, you’re not going to hit the button fast enough.

This was a stark surprise to me because I had rather enjoyed the challenge of Virgo Versus the Zodiac, which had similar mechanics. The difference was that in Virgo Versus the Zodiac, the developers had baked-in accessibility options to accommodate those people who aren’t blitzed out of their minds and huffing Unicorn testicle dust. I’m not sure what Moonana’s obsession as a studio is with action commands, but I’d love to see their work on a game that does something less intensive.

The reason for this is that I really like Keylocker’s characters and story. There are a lot of choices baked into Keylocker, just like there was in Virgo Versus the Zodiac. Even choosing B0B0’s class affects how the story progresses and the side quests/content you see. Like with Virgo Versus the Zodiac, there are also multiple endings, giving you a fair bit of replay value.

The art style is interesting, offering an in-depth, unique Cyberpunk world with the cute style of a Mario & Luigi game. It’s a weird fusion, but it works in a lot of ways. Keylocker is colorful too, with unique characters and character art that flesh out the world just as much as the endless amount of lore you can find by interacting with objects and items around B0B0.

It’s a little odd how inaccessible the combat is, in comparison to the accessibility options offered for visual impairments. I was pleased to see how many options there were to customize the color layout of menus specifically. As someone with chronic migraines, it really helped me to pick colors that were less straining on my eyes.

If it weren’t for the action commands and the emphasis on timing, I think I’d like Keylocker more than I do. Fans of rhythm games, or people who enjoy timing-focused actions will probably love it. If you can get past that lack of accessibility, there is a great world and story packed in. Plus, with a lot of replay value, I can see people really digging into the world Moonana created.

A Nintendo Switch review copy of Keylocker was provided by Serenity Forge for the purposes of this review.

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Keylocker

$19.99 USD

7

Score

7.0/10

Pros

• Great storyline
• Lots of visual customization
• Fun concept
• Lots of replay value and choice elements

Cons

• Defense windows are too tight
• Some Action commands are inaccessible
• Combat is frustrating even on Easy