I got a little carried away again and stayed up a couple of nights playing this, so I ended up beating this game way faster than anticipated. BACKGROUND:
I learned of this game via one of the streamers I follow, and I liked the concept enough to put it on my wish list. It went on sale a while back and I bought it then, but I've only gotten around to playing it now. PLOT: Moonlighter follows the story of Will, a young merchant who runs the eponymous shop in the town of Rynoka. Will has the spirit of adventure and is adamant about exploring the Dungeons on which the town is built, much to the chagrin of his old mentor Zenon. The Dungeons were once open to all, which brought in explorers and merchants alike with its promise of riches unlike anything else in the world. However, many people died over the course of many expeditions, which led to the town closing all but one Dungeon entrance. Undeterred, Will explores what he can while also juggling running Moonlighter, and as he succeeds, the town opens up more of the Dungeons for everyone to explore. The Dungeons' origins are shrouded in mystery for most of the game, and as you explore them, you'll encounter notes left by "Crazy" Pete, an explorer obsessed with the Dungeons... and Will's grandfather. Pete's insights, while limited, reveal key aspects of the Dungeons' true nature, but the truth isn't revealed until you accomplish Will's main objective, which is to open the Fifth Door of the Dungeons (which can only be done by acquiring four keys from the other doors). The truth is interesting (at least to me), though it leads to a weird ending for the denizens of Rynoka. You won't get much in the way of characters, as Will is a silent protagonist, the few other prominent NPCs get one personality quirk and nothing else (if they get anything at all), and random NPCs have little more than generic dialogue. I will say that Zenon's a solid character whose constant worry over Will's antics helps give an otherwise blank slate a hint of a personality (a stubborn idiot determined to discover what secrets the Dungeon holds), and Pete's enthusiastic notes put that personality into words. PRESENTATION: This is another one of those games that opts for the retro pixel art style, but as opposed to actual retro games, the sprites here boast way more detail and color, the animations are more fluid, and there's an impressive attention to detail. While there are a lot of lovely character sprites and portraits, most of the cool designs are within the Dungeons themselves, with distinct aesthetics for each individual Dungeon and dozens of unique enemy designs for each theme. The music doesn't go for a chiptune sound and feels more modern overall, and most of the tracks are pretty chill to listen to. I enjoyed the variety of instruments used, and I liked how each dungeon's music was just as distinct as their visuals. The battle themes for the bosses were great, too; they had this epic vibe to them while still maintaining the overall serenity of the rest of the soundtrack. GAMEPLAY: Moonlighter is a fusion of two genres: a top-down action RPG with roguelike elements, and a management game where you run the shop. In order to succeed, you'll have to balance both these aspects to earn money (to finance your gear for trips to the Dungeons) and procure items by adventuring to sell in the shop (completing the gameplay cycle). The main goal of the action RPG aspect is to explore the game's four main Dungeons. Each one has three floors (each with a boss at the end), and if you clear every boss, you're rewarded with one of the keys for the Fifth Door (where the game's final boss resides). At first, you start with only the Golem Dungeon unlocked, but as you gather keys, you'll unlock the others (Forest, Desert, and Tech). Like I said, each Dungeon is completely distinct from the others between its enemies, loot, and hazards, making runs between them a unique experience. No two runs are quite alike, as every time you enter a Dungeon, the layouts are procedurally generated. You'll get different maps each run, but they'll reuse the same set of specific room layouts to create those maps, so the experience is not fully unique. As you explore, you'll kill enemies, open chests, and break containers. As you do, you'll get all sorts of drops and loot that'll be useful when you make it back to town. The caveat here is that if you die, you lose all but the top five slots of your inventory, so you have to be extra careful if you don't want to waste any time collecting loot again. Collecting in itself is an ordeal thanks to your painfully limited inventory slots, so there's a lot of weighing which drops are worth taking back. Some items will have curses on them, which makes inventory management even more involved. These curses include position restrictions (e.g. item can only be placed at the top/bottom or leftmost/rightmost slots), destroying adjacent items, transforming adjacent items into duplicates (which can be a boon if it's on a rare item), mystery items (i.e. you don't know what they are until you get home), and items that are lost if you take damage. There are good effects, too, like a curse that sends adjacent items to your home chest (really nice), or a curse that removes an adjacent item's curse. I actually enjoyed the challenge of arranging my loot to get around or take advantage of these curses, and I would have enjoyed it more if you could increase your inventory slots in some way. The fact that you can only carry so much kind of forces you to keep repeating dungeons to build up your stockpile, which naturally constitutes grinding. What makes this grind somewhat bearable is the ability to warp out of the dungeon using the pendant, a special item that costs a small sum of money to use. You can spend that gold in a safe situation to return to town with all your loot in hand, so if you just want to take a quick jaunt to pick up what little you can, you can do so (provided you have the cash). It's an interesting mechanic that lets you loot at your pace, but at the cost of actual progress in the dungeon. If you're short on money for that return trip with the pendant, you do unlock a mirror that lets you recycle the loot you have on you for a bit of money that you can then use to warp out. The cash you earn depends on the item you recycle, and you can get a rough idea of what stuff costs with the in-game items list. Eventually, you'll also unlock a portal that you can use in place of the pendant to warp back to town. The main difference (other than the fact that this costs money to use) is that you can then take the portal in town back to the exact point you left, allowing you to continue your progress in the dungeon. This is quite great if you're actually gunning to beat the dungeon's main boss and get the key, as you can drop off your loot, make preparations in town, then go back in with full health. Chests will occasionally appear in some rooms, and you'll have to clear the room of enemies before you can unlock them (sometimes you have to do so under a time limit). Chests come in different tiers denoted by color, which determines the loot they'll have inside. It's also in chests where you'll find the cursed items I mentioned. Many of the rooms in the dungeons have pits that you can fall into (doing so will damage you), but sometimes, they'll lead to one of a few secret rooms. There aren't many types of these, but they all lead to some sort of reward, like extra loot, multiple chests (though you have to clear waves of enemies first), and a magic chest that warps everything you put in back to your house (provided the chests in your house have space). The last one is amazing, and finding it guarantees that you can keep looting. Be wary of exploring the Dungeon for too long, as eventually, a terrifying entity called the Wanderer will spawn. This thing will chase you relentlessly (though it is slow), and if you manage to get hit by it, you die instantly. What makes it frustrating is that it will destroy loot on the ground as well as chests (robbing you of goodies), and barring a specific circumstance, they can follow you into a boss room, making the fight significantly worse for you. It's an interesting mechanic, though I'm not sure what purpose it serves other than to force you to warp out. Combat is pretty basic overall, as the most you do is swing your weapon and occasionally dodge roll out of enemy attacks. It's not much, but the enemies and the weapon types keep things from devolving into mindless hack-and-slash (well, at first). You can carry two weapons at a time, and you can swap out with one input whenever you want. Each weapon class is sufficiently distinct from one another, with different ranges for the normal attack and a unique secondary action. Classes include the sword and shield (short range, but you can block with the shield), the "big" sword (better range but slower, has a spin attack), the spear (great for poking quickly at a distance, has a charging attack), the gloves (very quick and up close and personal, also has a charging attack), and the bow (your only long range option, has a double damage charge shot). As far as unique instances of weapons, this game sadly doesn't have a lot of options. You can either go for raw damage, or you can mess with weapons with status/elemental damage, which would have been neat if they didn't feel so outclassed by raw weapons. It would have been cool to have more variety here, so I'd call this a missed opportunity. Armor (split into three pieces) is even more limited, sadly. You really only have three choices: armor pieces with lower defense but with a movement speed bonus, the middle-of-the-pack armor, and armor with higher defense but a speed penalty. Again, would have been cool if there were more varied options available, because the strategy of simply maxing out your HP is enough. Both weapons and armor are crafted with the drops you find in Dungeons, so you'll have to make the effort to secure those goods on top of having enough gold to pay the Forge. I think it's really neat how the loot you get is used in this way, but it becomes clear early on that only a handful of loot actually serves a purpose (i.e. everything else is simply meant to be sold). Personally, I'd have loved if more items had another use instead of simply being things you sell to make a profit. Weapons and armor can be upgraded with Empowering Crystals at the Enchantress's store, adding bonus stats at a price. This is a solid way to close the gap between tougher dungeons while you're still working towards buying the next tier of gear. You can also carry five potions on your person, allowing you to heal with a specific input in a pinch. These are crafted using gel dropped by slimes with the help of the Enchantress, and more potent potions with more healing become available over time as you play. I wish there were a greater variety of potions that used other materials and provided other bonuses (here I am again wishing for more options...). In addition to your armor, you can equip two amulets, each giving you a passive bonus. Other than the boss amulets (which are guaranteed), acquiring most of the amulets is down to luck; you'll have to run into special purple chests in a dungeon, and you'll have to also hope what you want is in there. These amulets provide a little bit of the build variety I was looking for, but that experimentation is unfortunately locked behind RNG. There are plenty of enemies to fight, with each dungeon having a unique roster. A lot of them have distinct behaviors, but none of them are particularly difficult to figure out or to fight. Bosses aren't as varied, as each dungeon only has three bosses (and the second boss is just a variant of the first boss with extra moves), but they are engaging fights for what they are. Some enemies and hazards can inflict status effects like stun, burn, shock, and poison, which are as unpleasant as they sound. As mentioned before, there are ways you can inflict these yourself, but there aren't many options for doing so. On rare occasions, killing regular enemies will drop an egg, which, if you take home, will hatch after a few days. Once they've hatched, you'll now have a pet version of the regular enemy, which will fight alongside you and provide you with neat bonuses (like inflicting status). The game didn't really teach this mechanic (so it actually took me until close to the endgame to realize this was even a thing), but some of the pets really change the game in a fun way. Sadly, it's up to RNG if you get to have fun with this mechanic. The other half of the game has you take all your hard-earned loot and sell it at your shop. You can display your goods, open up (only during the day), and the customers will roll in. Your store will only be open during the day until the sun sets, and you'll be free to go to the Dungeons at night (exiting which will move the day-night cycle forward). The game leaves it to you to decide how much your goods should go for, but the customers will make it known how they feel about your prices. Sell too high and they'll be pissed, but if you sell too low, they'll snatch your goods up (but you miss out on potential profit). It's a bit of trial and error to figure out the Goldilocks zone of prices so you get the most bang for your buck without angering any of your customes. Supply and demand is a major factor in determining prices. Some items will naturally be in high demand, which will allow you to bump their prices up slightly. The more you sell of something, the more likely its demand will fall, which will force you to lower prices. I found that as long as you sell a wide variety of goods, you don't really have to worry about high supply/low demand affecting your profit. Money is obviously used for purchasing your gear, but you can save up a ton of cash to upgrade your shop. Doing so will expand the shop itself (allowing you to sell more goods at once), add more item storage (extremely important as you amass more loot), and add bonuses like customer tips or a better bed that'll give you extra HP for your adventures. Based on my experience, going for these upgrades first was worthwhile, because being able to rake in more cash by selling more goods at once will more than make up for the investment. One of the shop upgrades unlocks a shop assistant who you can pay to run the shop for you during the day if you wish to do more dungeon crawling. Otherwise, they'll patrol the shop as you run things, though they don't really do much. Your cash can also be spent to unlock town facilities (including the aforementioned Forge and Enchantress, which you will absolutely need for the dungeon crawling). The others include the Hawker (whose goods give your shop helpful bonuses like more tips or faster customers), the special merchant (which lets you simply buy the loot you get from dungeons, allowing you to save time instead of going on a run), and the Banker (who is more of a swindler than a reputable handler of finances). The day-to-day of shopkeeping isn't really exciting, but there is something therapeutic about juggling attending to customers and keeping your shelves stocked. Occasionally, you get thieves trying to run off with your goods (or the cash in your register), but you can beat the shit out of them and get your stuff back if you're quick enough. I found this amusing, because these thieves have no eye for subtlety. The gameplay loop is obviously repetitive and grindy (go to dungeon, get loot, sell loot, buy gear, repeat), but the part where you're rolling in gold after a hard-fought dungeon run makes the loop satisfying for me. The combat aspect also isn't difficult overall, and it's trivialized if you play in a way that lets you get the best gear early (at which point you have carte blanche to go hack-and-slash without a care in the world). I also found the game to be quite short, given there are only four Dungeons, all of which aren't expansive at all. If it's any consolation, there's a New Game Plus after beating the final boss, and you can buy DLC (which I believe adds an extra dungeon). VERDICT: Moonlighter's mix of dungeon crawling action and fun shop management complement each other and deliver an experience I quickly became addicted to. That said, I wish the combat aspect had more depth and challenge to it, and that there were more things you could do. I felt like the experience petered out after I got to the point where I could go through dungeons mindlessly and I ended up with more money than I know what to do with, but I did enjoy the journey of getting to that point. As far as dungeon-crawling roguelikes go, I think this is one of the easier ones you could get into, so I highly recommend this for newbies to the genre since you're not worrying about builds as much. I can see the shopkeeping aspect adding to the feeling of the grind, but I think many people may find it as chill as I did. If that sounds appealing to you, give this game a go, too. This game is available on Steam: Moonlighter on Steam (steampowered.com) - end -
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June 2024
Derryck
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