What is... Moonlighter

Picture taken from wallpapercave.com

Hours of grinding and dungeon-crawling might sound tedious, but there is something that keeps on getting me hooked onto this game called Moonlighter. Released in May 2018, this action rogue-like RPG was developed by a Spanish indie studio, Digital Sun. Moonlighter is available on PC, PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. The game follows a story of a young merchant named Will where he has to continue his families' legacy on running a shop which goes by the titular name. Will is a merchant by day and a so-called hero by the night, venturing into dangerous dungeons to collect artifacts and sell it in his shop. The game's core pattern is to grind, sell, upgrade and repeat, much to the sound of it, I still found the game very addictive. Let's dive into facts and reasons that make me reluctant to do other activities once I start fixing my nerdy eyes on this pixel-graphic game.

Will is a young amateur man who is the last living person in his family and is on a quest to rebuild his legacy by collecting artifacts and loot from the monsters that lurk in the dungeons across the city where Will and the townspeople live, Rynoka. There are four dungeons in total, each of them has unique monsters and bosses in it. The difficulties of the dungeons will increase as you progress to the following dungeons, rewarding you to more expensive, more valuable loots. 

You have to complete all four dungeons before unlocking the final dungeon.

Merchant by day

Have you ever played the good old Harvest Moon? If you have, then imagine Harvest Moon without the crops but with monsters instead. Moonlighter has shop management as well as character/equipment management, they both come interdependently where better shop management will earn you more profit, turning your profit into your investment on weapon/armor upgrades.

Keep referring to the item book for price estimation.

However, shop management in Moonlighter isn't as straightforward as you think it might be. The game goes by the rule of customers' satisfaction to the items that you are selling. There are four levels of satisfaction depicted by smiley icons on each and every single unique item in the game. Each item has its own price floor and price ceiling, wow since when I become so technical in economy? Don't worry, it's simple to manage the shop. If you see a threshold showing 3200, it means that you cannot sell items more expensive than the threshold. 

 

Customers will always react to the price of the items.

The system will automatically record every price that goes with each customer's reaction, if the price of a certain is considered cheap per se, it will be recorded under the smiley icon as a guiding reference for you. Similarly will go to less satisfying price, it will be recorded whenever there is a new reaction from the customer. 

You can only open your shop in daylight, people will come and go, checking on your items, if they think the price is reasonable they will buy it, if they don't, they will leave with a grumpy reaction. Once you get the hang of it you can push your luck by not indulging your customers with super cheap price but by pushing the profit margin and earn more money. Aye lmao

You may opt to close your shop early and call it a day.

Hero by night

Now let's talk about the dungeons, the place where you get your hands dirty in order to make a living. As mentioned, there is a total of four dungeons where all of them are for you to freely go in and out. Namely, the Golem dungeon, the Forest dungeon, the Desert dungeon, and lastly the Tech dungeon. All four dungeons are filled with monsters and if you are not well equipped you will find yourself killed for the most of your time.

The deeper you get to the dungeon the tougher the enemies become.

Each dungeon will have 3 floors, the upper you get the tougher the enemies and the bosses become. Successfully completing all three floors of a dungeon will unlock the next dungeon. You will have to manage your item wisely since your backpack is not upgradeable, often times you will find yourself overwhelmed with too many loots and artifacts. In this case you will have to convert the unwanted loots to coins, it's a lot more worth it than discarding it in the dungeon. 

As you progress further, most loots that you found will be 'cursed', giving challenge to storage management.

If you ever find yourself over-encumbered before even reaching the 3rd floor, you may choose to teleport back to town and store your items to the chests in your house before going back to dungeon-crawling again. Speaking of which, there are two ways of teleporting, first is by one-way teleportation, the other is by setting up a portal which allows you to return where you left off. Always experiment until you find the perfect strategy to manage your item and to explore those dungeons more efficiently.

 

The portal will be there for you to continue your journey to the dungeon.

Weapons

There are various weapons available for you to choose. The sword and shield, the broad sword, spear, gauntlets, and bow. Each of them has a different combat approach, the fighting system in this game is rather simple and very easy to master. I like the broadsword, slow movement but compensated with high damage. 

Weapons and armor can be crafted as you have the required materials.

Weapon upgrade uses the classic crafting method. I mean, what is an RPG without weapon crafting. Very simple, very straightforward, you go to the weaponsmith and tag the weapon or armor on your wishlist and you go hunting the materials needed. Once you have the required materials and sufficient coins, you can proceed with your upgrade.

 

I found the broadsword suits my playstyle.

 Summary

The town of Rynoka.

So many things you can do in this pixel graphic game, Moonlighter does not demand you to have a high-end computer to run it, but it can still deliver an almost equal amount of gaming satisfaction. The soundtrack can be catchy at some point, listening to repetitive songs as you venture deep into the dungeon might implement part of its songs in your head. I guess that is what happens to most roguelike games huh, catchy music. Anyways, Moonlighter, like other RPG games, requires patience to play because of its grinding gameplay, but it will reward you with lots of coins for upgrades. The story is decent enough for me to follow and like, nothing complicated to understand. The overall experience that I had by playing this game was very fun, casual type of fun. It's a great game to play as you lay back on your couch, beware though this game might make you addicted, I found myself keep repeating patterns, grinding and selling loots, and it never feels like it's enough for me. Moonlighter might look simple but it offers more than players could expect, it's unique in its own way, easy to play and master. 

Rolling is the faster than walking, you're welcome.