Moonlighter

 Switch
User Score
7.7

Generally favorable reviews- based on 139 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 93 out of 139
  2. Mixed: 34 out of 139
  3. Negative: 12 out of 139
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  1. rebster
    Aug 25, 2023
    7
    I really enjoyed playing this game but I think that there are some adjustments that can be made that can take it to the next level.

    Useless upgrades such as offering higher discounts in sale boxes. Why would I want to sell at a higher discount when everything from the sale box gets sold anyways? Instead of upgrading chest space, personally I never even filled a whole chest, it would be    I really enjoyed playing this game but I think that there are some adjustments that can be made that can take it to the next level.

    Useless upgrades such as offering higher discounts in sale boxes. Why would I want to sell at a higher discount when everything from the sale box gets sold anyways?
    Instead of upgrading chest space, personally I never even filled a whole chest, it would be more helpful to upgrade your backpack.
    If you’re shooting enemies at the top of the screen you can’t see their health bar.
    Would be helpful to buy a magnet to attract loot from enemies instead of having it fall into the abyss or stay floating over lava.
    Retailer should sell potion and enchantment ingredients.
    Things aren’t explained well enough with the diagrams eg. taking requests and seeing them on your calendar
    Last boss can be won easily if you just stay in one spot. Before I found this out I tried fighting it multiple times, and only on the first attempt did the boss do a different string of attacks, on the other tries he just walked around.
    Desert boss fight is super laggy!!!
    Identical items in the backpack don’t always automatically stack.
    There's a problem with the rings. Sometimes my full health will go down, then when I unequip and reequip my rings my health goes back to normal.
    When forging a new weapon, the stats will show something like 200 with an up arrow. This doesn’t show by how much your attack will increase but just the total attack of the weapon. It would be helpful to have this number just show whether it's improving your current equipped weapon or whether its worse by showing the difference between your current attack power and the new weapon attack power.    … Expand
  2. OskarJUK
    Jun 18, 2023
    7
    This game gave me a lot of fun, but was little boring after some time. Playing with something watching in background is good, I like it.
  3. BagelTCG
    Jun 15, 2023
    10
    This is the perfect version of every genre it touches, from shop-running farming-sim type games to dungeon crawler rogue-like.
  4. SgtWantCuddles
    Jun 5, 2023
    3
    Moonlighter is a game that really looks up to Recettear, like a child looking up to an older sibling, and tries its best to copy the mechanics, but ultimately lacks the polish, charm, and UI needed to perfect the experience.

    As others have said, the performance on Switch is abysmal. More than once, stuttering cost me loot, health, or both. I got stuck on the wrong side of the blacksmith    Moonlighter is a game that really looks up to Recettear, like a child looking up to an older sibling, and tries its best to copy the mechanics, but ultimately lacks the polish, charm, and UI needed to perfect the experience.

    As others have said, the performance on Switch is abysmal. More than once, stuttering cost me loot, health, or both. I got stuck on the wrong side of the blacksmith counter due to that stuttering - glitched through the wall - and lost an entire dungeon's worth of loot and progress due to the game's unnecessary insistence on only saving when you sleep or finish a session of selling at the shop.

    DLC actually adjusts the base game once you start the DLC. Full health potions, for example, could be crafted but now have to be bought, just for gold sink purposes. The DLC is just monsters tuned up to ridiculous health until you build ridiculous equipment. And even then it won't save you - the ball-and-chain enemies can hit you multiple times a second. One caught me in a doorway and took my HP from 900+ to 0 before I could react. The enemies that steal your items - and then steal more and the original stolen ones are gone forever - are absolute garbage and I can't believe they included that.

    Mechanics and UI - awful. They took "show, don't tell" too literally and now they're trying to explain to me how major game mechanics works with 4 pictures. You need more than that to explain that the pendant costs money, for example. I ended up taking Switch screenshots because the first time they explained something I accidentally closed it and - of course - there's no way to view previous tutorial screens.

    The story is...OK? Not much progression other than "you unlocked another dungeon" until the info dump at the end. I'd be surprised if there were more than 100 sentences in the entire game.

    Skip Moonlighter; it's too glitchy, half-baked in the areas that need to be well-done, and the time you invested could be better spent on another game.    … Expand
  5. FluffySpartan
    May 11, 2023
    7
    Game is a 7.8 for me , really close to an 8 but couldn't hold up to that for me. The idea of the game is great! The design really charming, the shopkeeper mechanic is awesome but the game lacks in variety.

    Would love to see them do a sequel with giving us more of everything. Would have loved to make my shop even bigger and to some extend automatic or that I can choose to be more of an    Game is a 7.8 for me , really close to an 8 but couldn't hold up to that for me. The idea of the game is great! The design really charming, the shopkeeper mechanic is awesome but the game lacks in variety.

    Would love to see them do a sequel with giving us more of everything. Would have loved to make my shop even bigger and to some extend automatic or that I can choose to be more of an shopkeeper or more of a hero collecting parts. A skilltree would've been nice I think.

    Also I did like the twist in the end. There is a lot of room for more Story now.    … Expand
  6. PacoBN23
    Apr 25, 2023
    8
    Uno de los mejores roguelike que he jugado. Su mecánica de comercio está muy bien implementada y su apartado gráfico es muy bonito. Por otro lado, la sensación de progresión es muy satisfactoria, por lo que engancha desde el minuto 1. Muy recomendado.
  7. chocoway
    Apr 14, 2023
    8
    I had like 60 hours of game time on this game. The dungeon items and moonlighter shop mechanic was fun. Add it with a good story and beautiful pixel art. it was a great game for me. Experienced some bugs. still i had a good time playing this game
  8. Punk564
    Dec 22, 2022
    1
    Played a lot of roguelikes in all forms and this one is the worst. Frustration is to be expected from these games but in this one in particular, it doesn't come from the difficulty but from the poor controls and the repetitive combat. Defeating enemies and bosses doesn't feel rewarding and the story is poor.
    It's a shame, the art style is cute and the ideas were interesting but poorly executed.
  9. Lightning6
    Sep 3, 2022
    10
    Awesome and fun game. I just finished the game and the DLC and I had a blast.
    Overall, beautiful game, nice story with a twist a the end and awesome soundtracks.
  10. svonton
    Jun 24, 2022
    7
    Port part: run smooth, yeah it will be grate suprize if pixel art style game start to lag. Game itself: rogue like game with interest shop keeper mechanic but kinda boring after several hours.
  11. Turtlez322
    Jun 18, 2022
    0
    this game had great potential and some cool features but the slow and repetitive combat ruins the whole experience
  12. Lubot378
    Mar 31, 2022
    9
    I absolutely adored moonlighter I found the game simple yet compelling. I find myself easily lost in most dungeon crawling rpgs however for me moonlight was easy to just pick up and play for a few hours. Everything else has already been said by other reviews. That being said the only complaint I have is that the controls were a bit janky then again this was probably the fault of my switchI absolutely adored moonlighter I found the game simple yet compelling. I find myself easily lost in most dungeon crawling rpgs however for me moonlight was easy to just pick up and play for a few hours. Everything else has already been said by other reviews. That being said the only complaint I have is that the controls were a bit janky then again this was probably the fault of my switch and not the game.
    All in all moonlighter is an incredulously fun rpg with simple mechanics, captivating lore and an addictive shop system. I highly recommend this game and it’s dlc    … Expand
  13. Theobaer
    Feb 17, 2022
    10
    Oh my what a game. It's super addictive. Plenty of fun. Beautifully crafted, with a superb and lovely animated pixel look. Just the right game for oldschool Zelda fans who love to raid dungeons and to upgrade their stuff. Can't wait for it's successor. When on sale, make sure to grab the complete edition - it's a steal. Really!

    Room for improvement: - rare bugs that force you to leave    Oh my what a game. It's super addictive. Plenty of fun. Beautifully crafted, with a superb and lovely animated pixel look. Just the right game for oldschool Zelda fans who love to raid dungeons and to upgrade their stuff. Can't wait for it's successor. When on sale, make sure to grab the complete edition - it's a steal. Really!

    Room for improvement:
    - rare bugs that force you to leave the dungeon (sometimes, it's just delayed loading)
    - super rare bug that force you to restart the game (unsaved progress will be lost)
    - can't freely remap all the keys without breaking the game (primary attack has to stay on a)
    - your employee is not able to process orders on time without you, even if you leave the goods in stock.    … Expand
  14. stashy
    Feb 7, 2022
    8
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Playtime: ~30h

    Moonlighter was my first Rogue-lite on the Switch and after playing others i can say that it has a special place in my heart. it's very arcade like and not much of a story game but it fits perfectly. you just want to play one more round. it's very addicting and rewarding. it has a certain feel to it that other games in the genre can't touch.

    pros:
    + the graphics are beautiful
    + blend between clearing dungeons + shopkeeping is never boring
    + mechanics feel polished
    + very good for casual rounds
    + difficulty is perfect (u can leave a dungeon sell stuff and come back to it for some money)
    + very good learning curve and dodge system (it just feels right)

    cons:
    + not many perma upgrades of town and gear (i miss that in this game)
    + npcs are boring and useless
    + after playing through the main game the dlc seems not that exciting and new (maybe ill pick it up again)
    + cant battle bosses again in a playthrough

    even though there are some cons they dont carry much weight. its fun anyways. i picked it up on sale for 7 bucks and have good memories about the game.    … Expand
  15. Akatsuki7
    Jan 25, 2022
    10
    I love the aspect of defeating enemies and then selling their parts when you open your shop. Such a fun game with amazing art style and good graphics. The game is smooth and always a blast to go through all the dungeons.
  16. nirvana328
    Oct 24, 2021
    3
    nice graphics and story, poor gameplay mechanics and controls...could not get past the first dungeon due to bad controls and poor difficulty balance at the beginning of the game.

    the store mechanic is also interesting but again poorly designed. I would post items for sale but the towns people would wander around the store and not buy anything, and there was a poorly designed menu with no    nice graphics and story, poor gameplay mechanics and controls...could not get past the first dungeon due to bad controls and poor difficulty balance at the beginning of the game.

    the store mechanic is also interesting but again poorly designed. I would post items for sale but the towns people would wander around the store and not buy anything, and there was a poorly designed menu with no clear way to see which items were wanted and what was the best price to sell them for.

    overall the game has great potential with dungeon crawling and a store selling and item upgrading mechanic but the game is severely limited by it's poor design, frustrating gameplay mechanics and poor difficulty balance at the beginning of the game. It has potential but it's reviews are way over hyped and don't mention all the limitations you hit at the beginning of the game. I would consider this but only if you are aware of the major hurdles at the beginning of the game.    … Expand
  17. chosen0ne
    Sep 22, 2021
    10
    I love this indie game. It's such an interesting, novel idea to run your own shop after you explore the dungeon. The gameplay loop is so well-designed and addictive. I'm always saying "just one more run through this dungeon and then bed".
  18. TempoTheMan
    Aug 12, 2021
    5
    a boring cycle of going into the dungeon, using your teleport to save your location when your bag is full, selling and repeat, pretty boring.
    also the combat becomes boring in the 50th time you go into the dungeon, there are better rougelikes on the switch, buy them instead
  19. Syntheticproduc
    Jun 14, 2021
    0
    Don't buy this game untile they fix the usability issues. Impossible to use the pendant in the dungeon. I die over and over with max inventory without being able to get out. Game doesn't tell you ANYTHING. Worst UI experience in a game ever. Trash it and don't look back.
  20. kolebear
    Jun 8, 2021
    8
    i kinda like this game it's something i can wast my time on when i'm board
    sure the game is hard and it can fill me with rage but it's good and chill
    and i think it's a like undermine with animal crossing mixed in with persona 5 and the weapons feel like botw
    so yeah i think this game is good 8/10 pretty good
  21. Natedog1985
    Apr 14, 2021
    1
    Good idea, awful game. It's classic Zelda where nothing makes sense and way worse gameplay. Don't waste your money.
  22. Tiank
    Jan 3, 2021
    7
    I was disappointed with this game. While the graphics are really nice, and the idea of making a hybrid of rogulite game with shop simulation elements was really good, the execution of it is mediocre. Game gets repetitive very quickly, I didn't really want to finish the 4th dungeon as I didn't feel engaged in the game, or the scraps of a story for that matter, enough. Might be good to playI was disappointed with this game. While the graphics are really nice, and the idea of making a hybrid of rogulite game with shop simulation elements was really good, the execution of it is mediocre. Game gets repetitive very quickly, I didn't really want to finish the 4th dungeon as I didn't feel engaged in the game, or the scraps of a story for that matter, enough. Might be good to play for a bit, and to get it on 60/75% sale, but it's definitely not worth the full price, sadly.… Expand
  23. MartyMcFlyJr
    Nov 26, 2020
    10
    Awesome indie game, had a lot of fun and I liked the combination of having your own store and be an adventurer! I never played the dlc, but It's on my list
  24. R1_gryf
    Nov 10, 2020
    6
    la première moitié du jeu est très sympa dans la progression cependant un fois avoir fini le deuxième donjon je me suis retrouver finir le troisième en une dizaine de try et le dernier en seulement deux essais pour moi ce jeu manque d'équilibrage et est inconstant dans sa difficulté et sa courbe de progression
  25. Blackdog22
    Sep 19, 2020
    6
    So after getting the RogueLike itch I looked up some games and stumbled upon this little beauty. Tons of great reviews, nice looking art, dungeon diving. Seems good. The game starts off fantastic. You have tons of stuff to unlock, multiple upgrade paths, you manage a shop on the side. Holy smokes this game has a lot!

    Then I kept playing. Dungeon 1, nicely paced. Took me a good while to    So after getting the RogueLike itch I looked up some games and stumbled upon this little beauty. Tons of great reviews, nice looking art, dungeon diving. Seems good. The game starts off fantastic. You have tons of stuff to unlock, multiple upgrade paths, you manage a shop on the side. Holy smokes this game has a lot!

    Then I kept playing. Dungeon 1, nicely paced. Took me a good while to get my equipment upgraded and beat the first boss. Then comes dungeon 2. I get more gold from the shop, I upgrade my equipment a tad too fast, and down the second boss. No real.... mechanics thus far from the bosses. Just basic moves. Then onto the third and fourth. I upgrade all my gear within 1 run of the dungeon. The gold you get from items vastly outpaces the cost of the items themselves. I 2 shot the 3rd boss and 1 shot the 4th (The fourth was stupidly easy). Simply put, the pace is garbage, the bosses are bland. The idea was fun just as an idea, it wasn't fleshed out very well once you get later into the game.

    Also, the game on Switch has a memory leak worse than my grandmothers **** I don't know why, but after playing for a bit the game starts glitching out and your framerate drops to nothing doing basic things + you skip everywhere. Items just randomly disappear. Mobs will randomly glitch into you. Text will read wrong (Say you have 2 items when you actually have 5) A pretty embarrassing showing from a stability standpoint.

    Also, your Grandfather is the most BASED dude ive ever seen. He pretends he wants to keep you safe, but keeps telling you about new dungeons opening, clearly baiting you to go die. Idk wtf is with that dude, but hes definitely an ****.

    The writing is also garbage. No animations on shopkeepers, no real point to the town at all and I would say half the stuff you can unlock serves no purpose. Oh, and all the rings from bosses do the same thing. The same fkn thing. There is no variety. Very lazy gearing concepts.

    All this besides I gave the game a 6 because the Music is badass and also because the concept on its base is actually a ton of fun. Just seemed like the devs got bored of it and phoned it in at the end, or ran out of money. Either way, it shows.    … Expand
  26. GabFire
    Aug 10, 2020
    8
    É um jogo muito bom e que faz você viciar com sua jogatina, eu nem cansei de jogar e ainda tenho vontade de repetir.
  27. Daisuk
    Jun 29, 2020
    7
    The gameplay loop is good, but the separate activities by themselves just aren't interesting enough to keep you playing for very long. Especially the combat gets repetitive and boring very quickly, in my opinion. Still an enjoyable game, lovely graphics, and some cool mechanics, but the lack of variety in combat and shopkeeping lets it down more than it should.
  28. knirfie
    Jun 8, 2020
    5
    A fun and addictive game that is unfortunately plagued by some annoying bug and glitches that will most likely make you stop playing before completing it.

    Complaints: Performance on Switch: prone to frame drops and stuttering when entering rooms or defeating an enemy. Not acceptable with the complexity and graphics. Gameplay bug: Occasionally the dodge rolls get you stuck in the    A fun and addictive game that is unfortunately plagued by some annoying bug and glitches that will most likely make you stop playing before completing it.

    Complaints:
    Performance on Switch: prone to frame drops and stuttering when entering rooms or defeating an enemy. Not acceptable with the complexity and graphics.

    Gameplay bug: Occasionally the dodge rolls get you stuck in the middle of objects or outside of the level. The only thing you can do is teleport home, or restart the game, and you will loose your progress. Played the game for 6-8 hours and this happened to me about 40 times or so.

    Longevity: Around the end of the 3rd dungeon you loose interest in selling stuff as there is nothing to spend your money on. When I stopped playing (because I got trapped in an object during the boss fight and died, again) I already had 14 million credits with nothing to spend it on.    … Expand
  29. Nezz
    Apr 16, 2020
    8
    Really great, interesting and laid back game. Was fun to play. Not too short for me as I do not play often and in short sessions.
  30. Alberto_Rahl
    Mar 4, 2020
    8
    No lo veo como un juego para pasarte horas y horas seguidas jugándolo pero si como uno al que juegas cuando te atascas en otro o solo tienes unos minutos libres.

    Moonlighter encuentra su sitio perfecto en la switch. Parecen estar hecho el uno para el otro.
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Awards & Rankings

52
#52 Best Switch Game of 2018
39
#39 Most Discussed Switch Game of 2018
91
#91 Most Shared Switch Game of 2018

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
83

Generally favorable reviews - based on 23 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 22 out of 23
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 23
  3. Negative: 0 out of 23
  1. Nintendo Force Magazine
    Aug 28, 2019
    80
    Link may never get a night job. But Will has, and his insomnia makes for a great idea for a game! [Issue #39 – May/June 2019, p. 73]
  2. IGN Japan
    Apr 29, 2019
    80
    Moonlighter is a game that has you experience the life of a hero and a shopkeeper at the same time. You fight enemies to obtain items at a dungeon, and go on to sell these at your shop, allowing you to buy better armor. The gorgeous graphics enhance the experience and the gameplay loop is great. The game could have offered more to do and the story is a bit simple, but it’s an enjoyable ride nonetheless.
    Read full review
  3. Cubed3
    Dec 28, 2018
    90
    In spite of an ending that arrives too soon, Moonlighter manages to offer an engaging balance of commerce and action up to the very end.
    Read full review
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