Mr Viral
Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault Preview
Fans of cozy sims like Stardew Valley might remember 2018’s Moonlighter, which cleverly combined shopkeeping and commerce with action-adventure gameplay. The game has returned in the form of Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault. Poised to enter early access in November, the sequel will certainly delight fans of the first game.
Saving the World, one Purchase at a Time
The little fantasy village of Tresna has fallen on hard times, and it’s up to you to save it. You’re the shopkeeper from the first game, and your tasks are to go out adventuring and find relics and treasures, return to town intact, and sell the goodies you found. With the money you earn, you can invest in better gear, upgrade your shop or spread your wealth around the town. It’s fun to watch your shop grow from a tiny establishment to the equivalent of Tresna’s Costco. That is, if Costco sold magical relics and treasures instead of toilet paper by the pallet.
This part of the loop is as cozy and relaxing as you might imagine. The residents of Tresna are an engaging lot, with lots to say. Setting shop prices, haggling with customers and attending to the register are mostly a delight. The only smudge on the glass is that everything is a multi-stage process that can get a little tiresome. There’s no voice acting, which is too bad, as the dialogue itself is pretty well written. It doesn’t take itself too seriously.
Surprising Combat
It seems like every action game lately has some roguelike elements, and Moonlighter 2 isn’t the exception. Every journey into the Endless Vault is a series of small stages, connected by a branching grid. Some areas contain treasure, others have temporary weapon upgrades or a mini-boss. At the end of each run is a boss. Beat the boss and you return with coin and relics.
If you’re defeated at any stage of the run, you have a choice: return to Tresna with your collected loot devalued by half, or retry the run from the beginning. This is true no matter which difficulty you select. It feels a bit punitive. However, it also reminds the player that Moonlighter 2 is pretty serious about combat.
That’s also emphasized by some fairly challenging encounters, especially bosses and mini-bosses. Your character has a dodge roll that’s a little sluggish to initiate, plus a regular and special attack. In the Moonlighter 2 beta playtest preview, I played there’s definitely a feeling that combat needs some balancing. Too many enemies with overlapping AOE attacks and a sluggish roll equal frustration. That complaint aside, combat is generally engaging. There are quite a few weapon types to experiment with.
Window Dressing
The original Moonlighter was a top-down pixel art game. The sequel has transitioned to attractive and stylized 3D art. It has a colorful storybook look that’s nicely timeless, and the NPCs have a lot of small touches that add a bit of wit and character. At least in the beta playtest — and only over one level — there were a few too many blob-type enemies, but the more humanoid monsters were interesting to fight.
Since there’s no voiced dialogue and the environmental audio is pretty spare, the game’s music bears a lot of weight. It’s the kind of acoustic, fairytale folk style you might expect, a little cheerier in town and more menacing in combat.
Balancing Act
Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault takes a lot of what folks enjoyed about the first game and broadens its appeal. I really liked the new art style, and appreciated the balance between the cozy shopkeeping loop and the roguelike combat. Based on the relatively small slice of game in the playtest, Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault should be a hit with both cozy sim and action adventure roguelike fans.
***PC code provided by the publisher for preview***
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