Moonlighter originally released in 2018 on PC, and I purchased it shortly after it became available. I find myself much more likely, at this point, to play a game to completion on my Nintendo Switch rather than my PC. I imagine this is due to working from home for the past couple of years almost exclusively and turning what was a personal PC build for play and streaming into a work station. Returning to where I work of an evening just doesn’t feel great mentally.
The game on Switch encompasses everything I loved about Moonlighter on Steam, and I picked it up just in time to see news on the new DLC! Although I did decide to only pick up the base game at this time, I do look forward to playing through the new content.
For the uninitiated, Moonlighter is both a dungeon crawler ARPG and a shop management title, encouraging the player to both plunder a variety of dungeons and optimize selling their loot in the shop - a quaint little hole in the wall that has been passed down in the family of our protagonist, Will. We are made to understand that Will is an orphan and has been living alone for quite some time.
An elderly friend of Will’s grandpa Pete’s shows increasing levels of frustration as the player continues to ignore his advice and be content with what they have - access to a single dungeon, a moderately successful shop, and peaceful life. With each dungeon Guardian/Boss defeated, his dialogue becomes more exasperated and less understanding of Will’s actions. Personally, after I completed the Desert Dungeon, I felt genuinely guilty after his outburst wherein he tells Will he is done trying to reign him in, give him advice, etc. because what’s the point if he’s just going to be ignored?
These interactions are the only mandatory backstory we get for the town Rynoka, where Will lives, However, there are many notes inside the dungeons to find, both from Pete and a mysterious group of scientists that used the dungeons at some point in the past.
Each dungeon has 3 messages from Pete and 3 messages from the scientists that help answer and create questions regarding the dungeons’ existence and purpose, eventually leading us to believe that the world was at one point in dire distress - perhaps multiple times - and that ill will between the more modern factions of Merchants (those who dungeon-dive for rare items to sell) and Heroes (those who dungeon-dive for glory and battle) is what continues to shroud the ultimate meaning behind the dungeons in mystery. More on this later.
In general, the playstyle is very smooth and open to customization. There are multiple weapons classes and a wide variety of “pets” that can be found in egg form throughout the dungeons that independently attack enemies and/or provide weapon buffs to the player. Adventurers can choose tanky, defensive builds with heavy armor and slow, but heavy-hitting weapons, go the light-and-fast route, or anything in between.
My main gripe about the Switch version is that I ran into one persistent bug and one additional situation that I could find no evidence was supposed to happen when I searched for information online. Often, my ability to move through crafting menus would disappear, leaving me unable to upgrade my gear, purchase potions, or request new shops for the town.
Additionally, in the Technology dungeon, I had a Gold Mimic respawn at full health while I was still in the room (on the 3rd floor no less) dealing with half a dozen other enemies. Needless to say, it resulted in my death and loss of most of my items and was incredibly frustrating.
A smaller critique I have is concerns conomic balancing. Both the Golem and Forest Dungeons yield relatively cheap items and do not allow for consistent upgrades for gear, the town, and the shop. However, the Desert and Tech dungeons have massively profitable items and also provide large power spikes with available equipment, resulting in the ballooning of available gold.
Before finishing the Tech dungeon I had every single upgrade - including enchantments on top-level gear and also sat comfortably around 5 million gold all the time. I could also take multiple low-level weapons found in the Golem dungeon and fully upgrade them without even feeling it in my purse.
Granted, I did prioritize shop decor that increased tips from customers, but using every item that increases tips creates a shopping experience where the tip is at least 100% of the original purchase price. In my opinion, this is an obvious and avoidable balancing issue. Especially when we consider that dungeon diving is kind of a grind, so when there is no more value to getting items, a game like this can easily become boring. My motivation to complete the game stemmed from a message from Pete:
”Heroes and Merchants. One ‘cool.’ One ‘not so cool?’ …They really are two sides of the same coin. But I guess it’s impossible to see both sides of a coin at once… Unless you have a mirror! Or two coins… Perhaps they will see they are not so different one day. On that day… I hope these Dungeons relinquish their secrets…”
This implies a lore-based payoff for finishing the game, which is well worth the effort for players invested in stories like me. Unfortunately, the ending was … disappointing. I fully expected a rich experience full of history and lore. Instead, I got (spoiler warning) … SPACE PIRATES! Not only space pirates, but some kind of intergalactic police force showed up to accuse the whole village of pillaging and robbery. The agents gave off an Empire vibe but spoke like day-1 recruits. It was very bizarre.
I did still enjoy the game, and endings aren’t everything, but in my opinion, it was a weak payoff for hours and hours of dungeon grinding. Hopefully, the DLC provides a more satisfying resolution.