Moonlighter game Review: Open For Business
Moonlighter: A superb hybrid concept, unfortunately poorly executedBorn from the work of the members of Digital Sun, Moonlighter is one of those little nuggets that sparkle with the public from their first presentations. During the GDC 2017, we fell in love with this rogue lite mixing exploration, combat, loot, organization of inventory and haggling. Is the end result, outside of the test sessions, still as bewitching? Verdict.
A UNIQUE CONCEPT =
Expect to be surprised by trying Moonlighter, as this is not a classic Rogue Lite, but a hybrid of store management and dungeon exploration. We play a young merchant, Will, a bit adventurous at the edges. With his large backpack, our hero will leave to explore the 4 dungeons which adjoin the small village in which he is based. These famous dungeons, recently reopened, have given new life to the little city, which is attracting more and more adventurers eager for glories and riches. These new residents are all new potential customers who will be interested in the finds that you have brought back from your expeditions. Throughout the game, NPCs will come to buy you all kinds of equipment, objects, monster residue or other precious stones that you have seen fit to bring back. Suffice to say that your backpack is not infinite and that you will have to make decisions as to what you will leave on the way, depending on the value of the treasures available to you. '' 'What you need for crafting weapons and armor or what your customers will ask you through small quests will therefore be preferred during your runs, just like the items that you consider expensive.WHEN YOU DREAM OF BUYING A SUITCASE
Moonlighter: A superb hybrid concept, unfortunately poorly executedStructurally, the dungeons are fairly classic: three randomly constructed "floors", secret rooms, chests and hidden objects, a swarm of monsters to face and a boss waiting for you on arrival. We will therefore successively explore the world of Golems, the Forest dungeon, the Desert and the mechanical dungeon. A fifth door, which we will not talk about in order not to spoil anything, will conclude the epic in fifteen to twenty hours depending on your progress and your managerial talents. Still with regard to the battles and the exploration of the dungeons, we will notice quite quickly that the gameplay is intended to be fairly rigid, based on attacks and displacements on 2 axes, whose fluidity and nervousness quickly show their limits. In order to overcome this little concern for dynamism, the developers have thought of adding several types of weapons and a roll system that allows you to dodge with class the few attacks that will reach you.
Moonlighter: A superb hybrid concept, unfortunately poorly executed
Let’s be clear, fighting isn’t the heart of Moonlighter. Unlike its peers, the game is based on a triptych of gameplay, each of which weighs as much on the player's success. As said before, there will be a share of combat in the dungeons, a share of haggling at Will’s store, however there will also be a very important part of the game, focused on inventory management. The latter will very quickly transform you into a machine to optimize since many of the objects that you will find in the dungeons will be cursed. These curses take many forms, and will sometimes force you to place items in different places in the bag, but they can also be more restrictive and remove the item that is close to the cursed object when you return to the store. Others will be more practical and will be sent directly to your trunk at the store once retrieved, or will cancel a curse from a nearby object. You will have to deal with all these constraints and quickly get used to grinding your backpack in all directions. To remember the value of an item or to know if it is useful to you during your exploration, Will has a small notebook which will allow him to record all of the sale prices and the data relating to the popularity of the objects. . You will have this information when you return from the dungeon. Direction then, the Moonlighter for the third part of your adventure.
TRADING SIMULATOR =
Moonlighter: A superb hybrid concept, unfortunately poorly executedOnce back at the Moonlighter, Will will be able to sell his precious finds, and you will then have to set the prices that suit you based on your past experiences. At this level, our hero's little notebook automatically records the reactions of your customers to your prices. The first step is to set a call price, based on no data. It will often be either too low or too high, and will allow you to lower the price until you get a favorable response from your customers. If you sell too much, and people still take the item from you because it has a high popularity rating, then the popularity will drop the next day. It will therefore be necessary to sell off your stocks by taking this famous request into account and fixing the prices on the fly, adjusting here and there according to your needs in gold coins. Because yes, you will need this money whether it is to enlarge your store, bring in other more or less useful merchants, or even craft your weapons and armor in order to hold longer in the dungeons and go to crack their boss.
A "WOW" EFFECT THAT FADES FAST
Moonlighter: A superb hybrid concept, unfortunately poorly executedThe concern with the formula, although original and refreshing, is its mechanical repeatability. Each part of the game, whether it be fights, inventory management and the merchant part, runs out of steam fairly quickly and boils down to repeating the same actions without changing your approach too much. The following progression diagram will emerge quickly: loot a little of everything, sell and distinguish which are the most precious items. Farm them, make as much gold as possible, upgrade your store, craft the most powerful weapons and enchant them to the maximum, roll on the dungeon and on your boss, and renew the strategy in the next dungeon. Everything ends up becoming an automatism and the few additions of features over the course of our progress will only too little raise the challenge of the title. So we will come out amused by the concept, but bored by the execution.
The notes
+ Positive points
Artistically very cute
Very good basic concept
The first hours, exhilarating and original
-Negative points
Three main features that quickly become limited
Some interface bugs
A disappointing finish
Moonlighter had a great idea, to mix dungeons, fights, loot, sales and management. And if the first hours are a treat of originality and freshness, the different sections quickly show their limits and follow each other mechanically, without really offering a challenge once we have grasped the progression to adopt. An ingenious adventure, but one which will undoubtedly leave us hungry.
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