Moonlighter

2024-11-27
Recettear had a wonderful idea for a game loop: go into a dungeon, gather stuff, sell the stuff in a store, use the money to get better stuff to go farther in the dungeon. And as much as I liked Recettear I was excited to see what else someone could do with the formula. Here the combat is a bit tighter ("Ooh is that a dodge roll?"). And while the store minigame is a bit barebones I did enjoy the flourish of having items start with an unknown price so you have to do kind of a binary search to figure out the proper price so you're not scaring off customers but also not charging too little that you're leaving money on the table.

But after a while all of these pretty good mechanics overstay their welcome. After running the store several times you realize the optimal approach is to do the same thing every time. And the only reason you're doing it is to get enough money for your next upgrade. Because without that upgrade you can't take enough hits or do enough damage to clear the dungeon without taking forever. And you realize you got Groundhog Day'd. Sure enemies get more complicated in their attacks or faster but at the end of the day you'll have seen all the tricks Moonlighter has in 3 or 4 hours and then you got another 8 hours to see your stats go up till you fight the final boss.

Might be worth checking out on sale but not really a recommendation.

2023-07-15
Great idea for a game loop: go into a dungeon, gather stuff, sell the stuff in a store, use the money to get better stuff to go farther in the dungeon. It's a formula used to great effect by Recettear. Unlike that game the combat is actually pretty fun. It's tight enough that you don't feel like you're being cheated and it has a great roll for dodging. The loop of upgrading your stuff and going further in the dungeon is pretty good. The store minigame is a bit barebones but I did enjoy the flourish of having items start with an unknown price so you have to do kind of a binary search to figure out the proper price so you're not scaring off customers but also not charging too little that you're leaving money on the table.

But after a while all of these pretty good mechanics start to wear a little thin. After running the store several times you realize it's the same thing every time. And the only reason you're doing it is to get enough money for your next upgrade. Because without that upgrade you can't take enough hits or do enough damage to clear the dungeon without taking forever. And you realize the whole thing is just a loop. Sure enemies get more complicated in their attacks or faster but at the end of the day you'll have seen all the tricks Moonlighter has in 3 or 4 hours and then you got another 8 hours to see your stats go up till you fight the final boss.

Definitely worth checking out but not a great game.