Moonlighter

Moonlighter is a delightful rogue-lite shopkeeping sim game (because that’s a common combination) that can either take up one day of your time or multiple weeks, depending on your playstyle and preferences. If you’re looking for a mild challenge, but want to have an overall relaxing experience in a lovingly crafted environment, then I can’t recommend this game enough.

Moonlighter is one of the funniest indie games that we have seen this year. It mixes adventure and management and delivers hours of entertainment with an experience that feels fresh and brand new.

Regardless of the faults that game may have, Moonlighter is a fantastic game, both in mechanics and in execution. The carrot-on-a-stick nature of the progression is superb, and the dungeon parts are both challenging and rewarding. That, along with the wonderful soundtrack and nice pixel art, make for a beautiful aesthetic that is both fun and nice to see in action. Any fan of action RPGs should pick this one up. It can last players a nice long time and never once get boring.

Moonlighter is a great adventure, where everything works beautifully together. It’s fun, addictive and beautiful, and yet another great indie game we get to play this year.

Overall the two halves of the game fit together very well and combine to make an interesting game.

Highly motivating dungeon crawler with great pixel graphics, the mixture of loot and shop management is persuasive.

Gone are the days where you have to choose between a title that focuses on if you want to be an adventurer or a merchant. Moonlighter mixes the best aspects of both and brings an experience that is highly addictive and enjoyable. Beyond the gameplay, you are sure to enjoy the charming graphics and a delightful soundtrack. This is a fantastic first release for Digital Sun, full of high-quality graphics, music, and gameplay.

Quotation forthcoming.

Moonlighter offers two types of gameplay in the same game and does it in an excellent way. Beautiful and with many details where a great soundtrack accompanies him. A difficult game with an excellent duration.

Moonlighter’s loop of combat, exploration, and sales is an engrossing one, with steps taken to keep players invested in every part of the game.

If you like roguelike games and the idea of managing a store or even if you want to try something special, away from the ordinary indie games, Moonlighter is a good choice.

Moonlighter is a cute and casual revival of an uncommon mashup but doesn’t stick around to push the boundaries.

The mix of dungeon-crawling and shop-keeping is addictive, even if the latter is a bit thin. [Aug 2018, p.72]

The ending turned out to be a huge disappointment but I will not let the last fifteen minutes or so overshadow my generally good impression. Over 20 hours that led to it were engaging, the pixel art is cute and the music is even better. [08/2018, p.70]

The sympathetic adventure of a courageous salesman, which sometimes suffers from a relatively straightforward gameplay, but it can bewitch you with its atmosphere and the smooth action.

It's a shame, then that Moonlighter's also a bit on the short end, as some of these ideas would do well with simply more--but then the combat would like thin out even more. Still, what's here is refreshing, and the balance struck between crawling through dungeons and working with the economics of the town are a good combo while it lasts.

There are some good ideas in Moolighter, with its dungeons, fighting, loot and management simulation. That’s why the first hours of play are pleasant and fun. But that won’t last, for the rest of the game is repetitive.

Though Moonlighter has several problems that prevent the game from truly achieving greatness, the excellent art and music and the fun gameplay experience make it worth a try if you enjoy roguelikes and want a new title to play.

The core idea of the dualism merchant/hero is great but Moonlighter is not able to stand out in a genre where the competition is extremely fierce. The combat and the level design of the dungeons fall flat in many occasions and the epilogue of Will's adventure seems a little bit rushed.

Moonlighter is incredibly captivating on the surface, but there is a lot of frustration just waiting to be uncovered.

At first, Moonlighter is a fascinating and beautiful game. But after a few hours, it's its lack of depth and the fact that its gameplay loop never really feels fully enjoyable that we retain.

In short, an experience that can briefly satisfy fans of the genre: not incomplete or badly realized, yet absolutely anonymous and forgettable.