Moonlighter
Developer: Digital Sun
Publisher: 11 bit studios
Platforms: PlayStation 4 (Reviewed), Xbox One, PC, Nintendo Switch
Release Date: May 29th 2018 (PS4, XB1, PC) / Q3 2018 (Switch)
Price: $19.99 USD / $29.95 AUD – Available Here
Overview
Publisher 11 bit studios and the developers from Digital Sun Games want us to work day and night shift in Moonlighter. We took a closer look at the Action-RPG with rogue-lite elements and tell you what we think about trying to be a hero at night while following our job as a shopkeeper during the day.
Story
We are playing Will, a shopkeeper who wants to become a hero one day. The village Rynoka is known for heroes and merchants but Will wants to be both at the same time. One of the reasons for this is being the last family member alive who can continue the legacy, the Moonlighter shop. He takes the decision to explore dungeons, fight monsters at night and sell artifacts together with other items during the day. Will’s goal is to get stronger and stronger until he can prove he’s a hero, but a long and dangerous road lies ahead of him.
Gameplay
The developers mentioned, that they drew inspiration for Moonlighter from titles like Rogue Legacy, The Binding of Isaac and The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap. If I’d have to describe the game, I’d call it a mix between Hometown Story and The Binding of Isaac. Our adventure starts with Will having a broom in his hand, which he uses to fight the first monsters. We have access to only one of the five dungeons at the beginning and as we collect items and advance through the different levels of it, we notice that it’s getting more and more difficult. This is the moment where we have to take a decision: Do we continue and risk our life or shall we return to the village? If we die, then our items are lost and we have to start from the beginning. As the dungeons are randomly generated we can then enter again from scratch. This element really helps to create tension while at the same time it can quickly put you in a frustrating situation.
To make life in the dungeons a bit easier we can make use of a teleporter at a certain point, which allows us to continue where we left. This can be helpful if our inventory is full with quality items and we don’t want to risk losing them. If we don’t want to come back and instead start all over again, then we can use a special pendant to get out of the dungeon. Both of these helpful options come at a cost and so we have to make sure to always carry enough cash. This job is done by a magic mirror, that allows us to transform items into gold on the go, as we’ll find a lot of stuff compared to our limited inventory slots, which can not be expanded throughout the game. Another interesting feature is the positioning in our inventory where we have to find the perfect solution. Some items are cursed and can for example only be placed at the top or bottom. There’s even the possibility that another item is getting destroyed if we pick up a cursed one. On the other hand we can also use the curses to our advantage as some give us the chance to teleport items directly into our chest located in the shop. Personally I found this a very interesting mechanic regarding inventory management, as you normally loot whatever drops on the ground without even taking a look at it, right?
Equipment also plays an important role in Moonlighter. We can craft a bunch of different potions with the right ingredients and of course a variety of different weapons and armor sets. While a bow gives us the advantage to attack from the distance, we can also use a big sword or a smaller one with a shield to block attacks. During combat we can only switch between two weapons and as different enemies are waiting in the dungeons, preparation is key. Effects like poison damage can be very helpful, but as we have to enter the five different dungeons various times you might want to get used to the different enemy types in there first. As everything in Moonlighter comes with a cost, I found myself doing a lot of hit and run action, to avoid getting hurt. At the final level of every dungeon there is a boss fight waiting for you.
As soon as we are arriving in the village with our loot, we take on the role of the shopkeeper. Value and demand are the two things, that we have to balance. We can place the products, set a price for them and the expressions of our clients will help us to define the right amount. To give you a more specific example: If there’s a high demand for a special item we have to take care not to oversell it, as this reduces the value. As we don’t know the value of an item before we see the first expression, it can also happen that we sell items with a higher value too cheap. Besides adjusting our prices we have to keep our eyes on every client as Rynoka is also home of some sneaky thieves. An indicator shows us if someone is trying to escape with an unpaid item and we have to catch him before he reaches the exit. During our adventure we can purchase upgrades and even get an assistant, who allows us to fight monsters during the day without having to close the shop. Villagers are still telling stories that there’s a higher chance to find better artifacts at night though. So in the end, you choose between quantity or quality and play Moonlighter the way you want!
Visuals & Audio
Moonlighter uses pixel art, which gives the whole game a nostalgic touch. The villagers and enemies are nicely detailed. Still I have to admit, that I can totally imagine playing Moonlighter with 3D graphics! The soundtrack from David Fenn, who also composed the music for Titan Souls, fits the title very well. While usually some melodies in games can get annoying after hearing them over and over again, he did a great job avoiding this in Moonlighter. I would even go this far and call the soundtrack my personal highlight.
Overall
Moonlighter combines a dual nature but you’ll find yourself quickly in a position, where the gameplay is getting very repetitive. The dungeons differ visually from each other, but I would’ve liked to see more enemy types and some environmental puzzles. I also miss more life in the village and maybe some events. The story is unfortunately only a minor matter. Moonlighter offers so much potential but what remains is an interesting idea that lacks depth.
You will do this through the use of Pheromone Goggles and a Pheromone gun that has been installed with a Demon Sweeper upgrade. This allows the user to suck up any mini-demons that appear attached to girls though they can simply be shot with the gun. Because of these goggles any female around the character will immediately become infatuated with the wearer, meaning that to hunt these demons the player must also avoid the numerous confessions and occasionally sadistic tendencies of the girls of the school.
Occasionally girls with mini demons attached to them will appear and not only are these girls impervious to normal shots until the demons are shot off of them they are far more aggressive than their counterparts. These demons can then be either shot and destroyed or sucked up using the Demon Sweeper for extra points. As you progress through the game it is possible to gain various upgrade parts for your main equipment, allowing the Demon Sweeper to even tear the clothing off of the girls, also eliminating them from the stage.
In fact, outside of the relatively difficult item finding missions, this game tends to be a rather easy one to complete. Rarely will players feel like they are about to lose a level as not only is it easy to stun girls by temporarily using the Demon Sweeper or by using the sweeper to suck up long range confession attacks, but the amount of damage done by their confessions and affection is rather minimal in the long run as advancing through a stage or absorbing a “Mr. Happy” plush will restore some of your health.
This candy is obtained through simply completing missions and is also the best way to raise affection with both Nanako and Chiru to unlock more of their story paths. All of these paths will feature the aforementioned Doki-Doki mode and other fan-service heavy scenes that involve finding demons hidden within their body and purifying them, often by stripping the girls down to their underwear in the process.
Perhaps one of the elements that does make Gal*Gun 2 a bit of an easier game is the fact that the Switch version will provide players better aiming if they happen to play it as a handheld. Players can choose to aim however they wish with the analog sticks but if you want to be extra accurate, especially when it comes to picking apart far away mini-demons, then you can also zoom in and take precise aim using the motion controls of the system. This control system is adjustable if you don’t like to use this function but it does make the game a bit easier.
It is interesting to note that there is only the original Japanese voice track to work with in this game but that isn’t too much of a problem as nearly every element of the game is given solid subtitle work, even with the main enemy’s verbal tic given a unique twist in the dialogue.
With the roads are rough on any vehicle still capable of running, bandits preying on anyone not prepared to defend themselves, supplies runs always leaving you at the risk of death, and numerous other disasters awaiting you, Death Road to Canada can be a punishing game and one that you will definitely need some practice and a healthy dose of luck to get through alive.
The actual game modes are all the same more or less, one is a standard mode, another focuses heavily on using characters you’ve created as survivors you’ll come across, and another focuses more on giving players special rare characters that are references to other games or pop culture icons with advancing difficulties being unlocked once you manage to complete a route.
The road trip part of the journey is where you’ll find all sorts of randomized events occurring as you travel to Canada. Your group will have short, often humorous, conversations while driving and can encounter all kinds of events on the road that can impact their morale. There is a massive amount of events that can happen and often choices that you can make that will affect your crew in various ways. Sleeping in a seemingly safe area may provide everyone rest but can leave you open to danger, attempting to escape bandits can cause members to get hurt or get away scot-free depending on your party’s stats and who you choose to handle certain situations.
That is why players will “always be looting” as the game says when you can select from a variety of locations to search in the game’s other half. This places players in a variety of locations where they will leave the relative safety of the car and brave the undead to search through abandoned stores, houses, and other buildings to try and see what they can scavenge.
Like any good survival game, your characters can only take a few hits before dying and while it is possible to heal up between scavenging sessions with medical supplies, it is highly likely that if you get swarmed you will end up losing someone. In fact, as you get further along it is entirely possible that an inescapable timed swarm battle may see your group of four survivors dwindle down to a solo survivor. The interesting thing is, as long as you have at least one human (as dogs and even pigs can be recruited as survivors) survivor you can continue your journey to Canada. Even if it means having no one left from the original group in your survivor pool.
Also it is worth noting that while co-op is available in the game, it is not available for use online. While this is nice for drop-in and drop-out couch co-op it is disappointing that the option for online play isn’t available in some form. Your co-op partner is also limited when it comes to interacting with NPCs found during your journey, making them little more than a helping hand when it comes to taking on the zombies.
Unfortunately the actual variety of the locations quickly becomes monotonous while the zombies themselves all begin to blend together with similar appearances becoming problematic. The soundtrack is fairly standard for a retro pixel style game such as this and doesn’t really lend itself to being memorable in any way.