Moonlighter Review

Dungeon-crawling games are nothing new. The basis of them can be traced back to some of the oldest video games made, with the likes of The Legend of Zelda on the NES having the same layout and enemy placement as games such as this one. So when an indie game presents itself as a twist on the classic room-to-room, monster-fighting formula, I’d hope it would at least be something unique enough to warrant playing. Moonlighter almost is.

This isn’t a bad game by any stretch of the imagination, in fact, there are a lot of things on display that I really liked. Gorgeous pixel-art characters, a pretty nice soundtrack, as well as enemy and boss designs that are as fun and creative as you’d hope. I appreciated small details like the stellar boss animations found at the end of each dungeon, there’s just something missing with this game, a quality it lacks to make it a truly worthwhile play.

The fact that the game took me just under 10 hours to complete is fine, some of my favourite games are shorter than 5. I don’t however think the developers intended a first playthrough to be completed in that time, as I received a “Speedrun” achievement for completing it quickly enough, but maybe I’m reading into that too much. The game begins somewhat challenging, with the dungeon enemies posing a decent threat, but quickly becomes very tame, once you’ve spent money on easily accessible upgrades and weapons. I spent the first half of this game not even bothering with armour, which led to me assuming the enemies were formidable enough. Once armour was bought and upgraded though, they posed no threat at all. Perhaps the difficulty they should have recommended for a first playthrough should have been higher. However, I always go with the recommended difficulty, to try and play the way the developers intended.

Weapon variety exists, but the sword/shield, big sword, and spear didn’t feel enjoyable to play. I kept to the fists (gloves?) once I realised how effective they were at cutting down enemies. I didn’t even touch the bow because the game never presented a situation where ranged weaponry would be better than my upgraded gloves. Even in the boss fights, you can take a few hits while rushing in melee and you’re never really punished if you can press the roll button at the correct time.

The shopkeeping mechanic, which is the game’s apparent main selling point, is just about distinguished enough to feel different from other games, where you might just sell the stuff you’ve plundered at any old NPC. The game’s dungeons are littered with practically useless items, but each of them has a fixed value, meaning they’re implemented almost exclusively to be sold at your character Will’s, titular shop; The Moonlighter. Each item’s selling point is found through trial and error price listing, using customers’ reactions and changing accordingly until they’re satisfied. The problem with this mechanic however is once you’ve been to a dungeon once, you’ve pretty much got the prices down to the correct amount, meaning you’ll only run into this problem-solving mechanic about four times in the whole game. Once you get to the third of four dungeons, you’ll be making as much money as you really need. I only found myself returning to the dungeon once because I needed some extra cash, the rest of the time, I had as much as I needed. Once you get to the final room, teleport out, sell all your stuff, get upgrades, then go back and fight the boss.

This linear progression system ends up feeling bland, with no specific aspect feeling fully fleshed out or unique. Bearing in mind, the game doesn’t need to be anything groundbreaking if its execution of a tried and true formula is well performed. The shopkeeping element is what could have made this game stand out. Yet with all shop (and town) upgrades obtainable by a pretty early point, as well as a lack of variation in what you can do In the town of Rynoka, I’m left wanting something more, especially later in the game.

The game ends in a tying-up of the lore, primarily told through notes found in the dungeons, which seemed intriguing at first but ends up having little to no payoff in the end. It’s also a shame that the 5th dungeon is one fight, and not akin to the other “dungeons” found before it. The final boss looks intimidating and is presented in a really cool way, but was actually easier to beat than some of the earlier boss showdowns. The interactions with the various Townsfolk feel little more than background props, none of them were interesting past the pixel artwork other than Old man Zenon, who serves as the game’s main dialogue source.

I suppose that’s about all there is to this game, it’s definitely not bad at all, just not anything too special. I’d prefer to play a dungeon crawler with a distinct personality such as The Binding of Isaac or Enter the Gungeon. I’d also rather play a business-owning game with a satisfying progression system, such as Stardew Valley, My Time at Portia, or Graveyard Keeper. Overall I’m left with a very middling impression of Moonlighter. It’s an inoffensive game, that some might enjoy casually playing, but for me, I found little reason for this game to warrant a playthrough.

5.5/10