Developer: Little Chicken
Publisher: XSEED Games, Marvelous Europe
Platform: PC, Android, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, macOS
Tested on: PC
Moonlight Peaks – Review
Have you ever wanted to get away from it all and start over? Tired of spending eternity in a dark castle, clashing fangs with your parents? Well, look no further with Moonlight Peaks! A game developed by Little Chicken and published by XSEED Games and Marvelous, it takes a spin on the cozy farming simulator by mixing in the occult, gloomy romance, and jokes. In this review, we’ll have a first look to see how a vampire can thrive on the farmland, whilst trying to balance a social life, as well as developing feelings for that special someone.
Story
After a huge argument with our father, Count Dracula (yes, the Dracula), we decided to leave and head out to Moonlight Peaks along with our Hellcat to keep us company. Once arrived, our quaint and run-down cottage provided a home, along with an unkempt field to use as farmland. Luckily, our uncle Viktor takes us under his wing, literally, as he’s cursed to permanently remain a bat, and guides us through our new life. From then on, we are free to do as we please. We can start planting crops, meet the other townsfolk of Moonlight Peaks, and enjoy our new undead life.
The town itself is a rather unique place, as at the beginning, Moonlight Peaks is inhabited by vampires, werewolves, spellcasters, and seers. Each town member has their own unique personality, filled with flaws and qualities alike.
Further on, the story develops at a casual pace through events that occur as nights progress, though after an initial cutscene, they turn into quests the player can proceed at their own pace. This makes it so that Moonlight Peaks allows everyone to experience the story however they please. You could rush into things or take your sweet time to gather crops, explore the area, and so on, before moving on to the next main plotline.
Of course, some plotlines cannot be skipped entirely or stalled, as this usually means a new character has come into town. These events can be ignored, but they’ll still happen and progress onto the next part, though the player will lose an opportunity to get a head start on the friendship meter with this character. If the player doesn’t particularly care about that, there is no repercussion whatsoever, and they can proceed as usual.
Graphics
Let’s start by stating the obvious: Moonlight Peaks is a beautiful game. Shown in a 3D animated chibi-like style, the world feels very much alive, despite the simplicity of its graphics. All characters, animals, and critters are presented adorably, though their dialogue portrait shows them with normal proportions and almost storybook-like. This makes it so that the game maintains the cute and cozy appearance it aims for, whilst still making sure characters and their designs can be showcased properly without either side clashing with the other.
The world itself looks alive, no matter where you go. For obvious reasons, it is always nighttime; thus, the streets are covered with lanterns, caves have moonlight seeping through, and there are fireflies hovering around as well, all to light up the otherwise dim areas. The fields you can walk through even reflect moonlight on taller grass when a soft breeze passes by, and water flows or ripples on occasion. All these little details create a soft and breathing world to walk through, being pleasant to the eye.
Aside from the main visuals, the HUD is also very on theme, with dark purple text boxes and soft red selection borders with little bat wings on the side. Thank to this, the game keeps its goth-like aesthetic. It also ensures that everything remains readable, and there is no room for confusion or selecting the wrong item, reply, or tool whilst playing the game.
Sound
As mentioned before, the game feels very alive. This is also emphasized through the sound and background music in Moonlight Peaks.
Let’s start with the soundtrack. For every area you enter, or whenever a little event happens, there is a fitting OST playing to entertain what is going on at that moment. From happy little slice-of-life tunes to mysterious and whimsical melodies, Moonlight Peaks knows what it is doing to never feel out of place with its music. What’s fascinating as well is that certain places you visit will completely cut off the music that was playing earlier. Without spoiling too much, it makes sense and doesn’t catch the player off guard.
Aside from great music playing, the game also works with noise and sound effects. When visiting the marsh, for example, the player is met with cricket noises as well as croaking from frogs, and occasionally the ear-drilling buzz of a mosquito flying too close. The latter felt a bit too realistic to our liking, but that’s just a personal phobia rather than a proper critique.
Gameplay
Resembling the famous Stardew Valley, Moonlight Peaks is first and foremost a farming simulator. You can dig up land, plant crops, water them, and harvest them once they are fully grown. While perhaps an oversaturated genre at this point, Moonlight Peaks puts an entirely new spin on it in various ways. For starters, rather than playing through day cycles, the player experiences the game during nighttime. Stating the obvious, this is because you are a vampire and sunlight is just a bit too harsh for you. As the game progresses, you’ll also unlock crops that need to be watered with magic, rather than your plain old watering can. These little twists make the experience so unique that you’d almost forget the original template. You also get to take care of farm animals who provide extra ingredients you can sell or utilize to make food.
Yes, aside from cultivating crops, you can also use these to create them into something more. By either cooking or brewing, the player gets to make all kinds of delicious (and surprisingly normal) meals to sell or to gift to others. By unlocking more tools, the player can choose to make wine, jams, milkshakes, cupcakes, and so on. The recipes seem endless, and not a day has passed that we haven’t uncovered a new recipe. If you’re a bit bored with the crops and the cooking, the player can choose to chop down trees, mine rocks and ores, or weed out tall grass. These resources can be used to upgrade your house, craft furniture, or make gifts for villagers.
Speaking of the villagers, they too can be part of your nightly routine. By talking and gifting items to them, you slowly increase your bonds with them. Whenever you level up, a small event unlocks that lets you see a different side of them, creating more depth for these characters. If you garner enough bonds with them, you can even ask someone out on a date and develop the friendship even further. For those who struggle to pick just one character, players are free to date up to three different characters without any issue. Once you decide to properly settle, however, you will have to choose your final partner.
Though the gameplay is simplistic enough and runs very smoothly, there are a few minor inconveniences we personally experienced in our initial gameplay. For starters, inventory management is a pain. Once you have a full and busy farm, you will note how quickly your inventory gets full. Even with upgrades, you’ll find yourself running into your home to store whatever you just harvested. Sadly, you cannot select multiple items at once and are forced to select everything individually. At first, this is manageable, but once you have about 30 inventory slots, this becomes a bit redundant to the point we just gave up and decided to free up 5 slots at best. A second problem is when you get into bug catching. These critters will fly off at the sight of your net, and you are meant to chase them in the hopes that your next swing connects close enough to catch them. It is far easier than it sounds, until the bugs fly through a wall and you are left wondering if it died or simply got lost in the void. This is most likely an oversight on the moth’s behaviour, but it did leave us unable to catch a few rare bugs.
Conclusion
If you are passionate about the occult or enjoy cozy games, Moonlight Peaks is definitely a game you’ll love. Based on the presentation alone, it is clear this game was crafted with utmost care and love. Even though at first it feels like a game that’s been done a thousand times, the fact that you play during nighttime and get to deal with supernatural antics, as well as the way you can tend to your crops, makes it clear pretty quickly that there’s more than meets the eye. From lovable, yet flawed characters to adorable farm animals with hats, there’s never a dull day (or night) in Moonlight Peaks.
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