Video Game / Rusted Moss

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Rusted Moss is a 2023 action Metroidvania, created by faxdoc, happysquared, and sunnydaze and published by PLAYISM. Borrowing heavily from fairy tales of olden times, Rusted Moss tells the story of Fern, a young changeling who after the death of Queen Titania must rebuild her to begin the Age of Fae. This metallic wasteland called Earth has fallen, and the Fae knock on humanity's door...

Many a time has the Age of Men come and dawned. Above-ground, humanity prospers while the fae live below, trapped in a slowly decaying, ruined kingdom known as Elfame. With the death of the beloved faerie queen Titania, humanity has scattered her pieces across Earth, entrusting them in the hands of powerful witches to keep Titania at bay. However, a young changeling appears named Fern, who with the help of a strange shadow Puck, must swing, shoot, and grapple her way to rebuilding Queen Titania and restarting the Age of Fae.

The hook? A grappling hook, of course! The metroidvania boasts a stretchy, physics-based bungee-cord-ish-grappling-hook-thing-not-really as its main movement system, with combat rewarding full usage of a six-weapon arsenal.

The game was completed on April 12th, 2023 and published by PLAYISM. A competitive spinoff named Rusted Moss Arena was released on Valentine's Day 2024, available here.

The game can be purchased for PC on Steam, or purchased for other platforms on PLAYISM's main site.

This Video Game contains the following tropes:

• Abandoned Laboratory: The Lab of course, Fern having made sure to make the Coalition Lab recently abandoned.
• Ability Required to Proceed: Certain gates with a grenade symbol on them blocks access to areas until you have grenades (or the rocket launcher) to destroy them.
• All There in the Manual: The game's artbook contains numerous pieces of lore that weren't directly stated in-game. Notably, Fern is revealed to be transgender, with nearly every other major character being varying flavors of queer.
• Blackout Basement: The Ichor Refinery has little sources of lighting. The Coalition Lab is even darker to navigate around.
• The Blank: Presumably the fate of anyone unfortunate enough to encounter the Face Stealers. A peculiar character found in Mountainside has lost their face to them, forcing them to wear a cardboard box. After beating the Face Stealers, you reclaim their identity (or at least, an identity for them to use) and steal their shoes.
• Bleak Level: The Lab is completely devoid of human or fae life, save for the surviving experiments, and talking paintings of the Coalition's founder.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: A core theme throughout the game. Lore entries tell tales of the Fae granting wishes for humans, only for the latter to end up regretting it in some way. Anne's wish to hear her brother again implied to be granted by the Fae Shopkeeper results in her hearing her brother's voice constantly begging for her help. In ending C, Maya's wish for the Age of Men to continue and for her to never see Fern again has Maya end up being taken by the Fae as tribute.
• Body Horror: Puck, Fern's companion, is a strange, blob-like shadowy Fae-thing as result of extreme experimentation by the Coalition. In reality, Puck is actually Robin, Fern's real brother. After losing a bet with Queen Titania for his sister, Robin was cursed and stripped of his humanity.
• Boss Rush: The Frozen Tree, in addition to allowing you to refight bosses, has one of these, fighting almost all bosses in the game, including bonus bosses like the Face Stealers and Forgotten Experiments but not including Robin or Frøy. There is even a version for empowered bosses as well.
• Bottomless Pits: A recurring hazard throughout the game, signified by red skulls rising out of them. Later on, Barrows Ceiling introduces a variant that is even more damaging, signified by green skulls. Elfame introduces a danger of falling upwards and sideways out of bounds.
• Brutal Bonus Level: The Great Climb, accessible by beating Juni's climbing challenge, is a gauntlet of 100+ rooms, containing some of the hardest combat and platforming challenges in the game, cumulating in a showdown against Frøy.
• Cold Iron: The Fae is stated to be repulsed by iron, and there are tales of humans hanging iron horseshoes on the doors of their home to ward off the fae's influence. Fern, being a human that was turned into a changeling, is not affected by iron whatsoever.
• Death of a Child: A lore terminal found in Mossy Hills tells about what to do to get your child back if you've lost them to a changeling: throw the changeling baby in an oven.
• Developer's Room: A well-hidden one can be found in the room with the Bolt Dispenser, with the entrance hidden off-screen and requiring a difficult jump.
• 11th-Hour Superpower: During the true final boss fight against Robin, Fern is stripped of Puck and her grappling hook ability; until Queen Titania blesses her with one capable of infinite uses mid-air; available until the credits roll.
• Evil, Inc.: The human-aligned Coalition has been working behind the scenes for quite some time before Fern's shenanigans destroyed the Lab, forcing them to disband. Before the events of Rusted Moss, they were responsible for more than the following: Live experimentation on Fae (such as Puck), production of Ichor, entrusting Witches with Titania's pieces, and creating military androids.
• Fair Folk: Fairies in Rusted Moss think incredibly differently from humans, having completely different values; they maim, hurt, and sometimes kill others out of fun, not understanding the negative consequences of their actions. Fairies are described/shown kidnapping children, stealing faces and names, and killing travelers for fun.
• Fantasy Metals: Fae silver, which can be handed over to the Blacksmith to upgrade the damage of your weapons.
• Green Hill Zone: Mossy Hills, the first area of the game.
• Gusty Glade: Smokestack Forest has wind blowing you to the left in the outdoor areas.
• Harmful to Touch: A black (or white, which is even more deadly) substance called Ichor is present throughout the entire game, hurting Fern when she is exposed to it. It is stated early on to be the processed blood of dead Fae.
• The Hecate Sisters: Diana embodies all three archetypes simultaneously.
• Invincible Minor Minion: The top-most sections of the Lake are patrolled by a very fast, powerful, and of course, indestructible machine, forcing you hurry through the section. An even nastier centipede-like creature begins hunting you down in the Labs after defeating Spirella.
• Meaningful Name: Puck resembles his namesake; a hockey puck.
• Mecha-Mooks: The main enemies of Rusted Moss are armies of unlabeled, cannon fodder robots. Their existence is justified by the nature of the fae; fairies are repelled by metal; to protect themselves (and prolong the Age of Men), humanity built robots serving as slaves.
  • At one point, it is revealed that the robots are controlled by the bodies of tortured fae.
• Multiple Endings:
  • The Queen is Dead: Defeat the Seer with 5 or more Titania Pieces. Fern absorbs Titania's power and becomes the new leader of the fae. Maya eventually becomes disillusioned with Fern's rule and leaves in search of the rumored Changeling King.
  • Together We Can Rule: Defeat the Seer with 5 or more Titania Pieces while carrying Maya's Trinket. Fern shares the power of Titania's Pieces with Maya, turning the latter into a fae. Maya is not interested in ruling, and leaves in search of the original Fern.
  • Beloved Child: Defeat the Seer with 5 or more Titania Pieces while carrying Maya's Trinket and Fern's Trinket. Fern uses the pieces to offer Maya a wish, who wishes for humanity to come back, and to never see Fern again. Her wish is granted, but Maya is taken away by the fae, and Fern remains with the humans, never to see her sister again.
  • Long Live the Queen: Defeat the Seer with all 8 Titania Pieces, including restoring Titania's Head. Fern attempts to restore Titania, only to be stopped by Puck, who absorb the pieces to reveal his true identity as Robin the Beloved Child, and former brother to Fern. With the aid of Titania, Fern defeats Robin and restores Titania to power, bringing in an end to the Age of Men, and thus the beginning of the Age of Faeries.
  • Out of Sequence: Defeat the Seer with 4 or less Titania Pieces. Fern ends up losing focus of her mission by the time she reaches Elfame, and the Age of Men continues.
• Optional Boss: The Face Stealers, the Forgotten Experiments, Diana, a rematch against Elicia, and Frøy are not required for any ending.
• Pre-Explosion Glow: Bosses do this (and certain mini-boss enemies in the case of The Great Climb) before dying.
• Recoil Boost: The shotgun allows you to do this. The Heavy Bullets trinket makes the recoil stronger, along with adding noticeable recoil to the rest of the guns as well.
• Rise to the Challenge: All climbing challenges requires you to reach a flag at the top within 2 minutes. Except Fern's challenge, which has you descending to the bottom instead.
• Rocket Jump: Getting the Rocket Launcher in the Lake allows you to do this, to greater effect when paired with the charge jump.
• Solemn Ending Theme: Rusted Moss's ending theme Eglantine is the perfect example of this, playing a soft melancholy instrumental as the game pans over the areas you have gone through to beat the game. Ending D provides a version of the song with lyrics.
• Speedrun Reward: The Mossy Achievements requires you to acquire certain endings in speedrun mode under a certain par time. Mossy Platinum also requires you to avoid speaking to the Seer, losing access to the charge jump and fast travel.
• Spikes of Doom: The most common hazard in the game, especially during platforming challenges.
• Steam Vent Obstacle: An early hazard throughout Mossy Hills and Factory Roof.
• Tele-Frag: Being inside of phasing blocks in the Great Climb as they solidify will hurt you and send you back to the beginning of the room.
• Warp Whistle: Talking with the Seer gives you the ability to fast travel using Faerie Rings around the world.