Cozy gaming recognition has risen to the purpose we’re additionally seeing “cozy horror.” I’ve performed a good quantity of video games that fall underneath that class, and whereas lots have been enjoyable, they’ve all adopted the identical form of format, being visible novels or puzzle-adventure video games. Moonlight Peaks, takes the comfortable horror vibe and combines it with an lovable farming/life simulator, providing a city filled with supernatural creatures, characters, and crops. Suppose Stardew Valley meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer…besides with out the slaying. There’s solely farming and falling in love with werewolves, witches, or vampires.
Moonlight Peaks is available in native Nintendo Change and Change 2 variations, and our overview time was spent with the previous. Going down from 6pm to 6am (as a substitute of vice versa), you play because the son or daughter of Rely Dracula. After some pressure along with your father, you’ve determined to maneuver away from residence. You deliver your hell kitten with you and begin contemporary in Moonlight Peaks, a easy and stress-free city with quite a lot of historical past and quite a lot of drama.
There are seven households on the town, solely 4 of which introduce themselves if you first begin: the Logan, Ambrosia, Webb, and Khazan households, which encompass werewolves, vampires, witches, and seers. There are additionally ghosts, deities, and different creatures you’ll find and discuss to. As a result of you will have such a variety of cryptids residing amongst you, it’s solely inevitable that there’d be some disagreement twixt the households.
So, whilst you transfer into the city’s farmhouse and have a tendency to the crops, it’s additionally your job to assist deliver unity again to Moonlight Peaks—in addition to gather the entire soul blobs floating round city, return each vampster again to their cave, contribute to the museum, and assist each townsfolk with their each want. Whereas doing so, you’ll additionally end up foraging, mining, cooking, tending to your animals, casting spells, shapeshifting, enjoying Nokturna, fishing, crafting, making potions, bouquets, and embroideries, and—better of all—adorning your own home and farm.
Evidently, Moonlight Peaks affords a ton of gameplay—about 50-100+ hours, relying on the way you play. Most of your time can be spent farming, foraging, mining, and interacting with villagers, as most farming video games typically go.
Farming is just like different video games like this; you plant, fertilize, water, and harvest crops day by day and might flip them into wine or different drinks or jams to promote them at a better revenue. Promoting objects out of your farm is one of the simplest ways to earn money, whether or not you’re promoting plain crops, objects comprised of crops, or any animal merchandise. You possibly can cook dinner any harvested crops or give them to villagers if requested on the roles board posted on the town.
Nevertheless, what makes Moonlight Peaks farming mechanics stand out is that there are particular crops you’ll be able to solely develop by means of magic. When you acquire your wand, you should use it to forged a spell that summons a magic watering can which is the one water these magic seeds will take. Magic crops can be utilized in all the identical methods regular crops can, however they can be used to achieve further mana, which is useful as you begin to forged extra spells later within the sport.
Mining and foraging are what you’ll count on, as is villager interplay. You possibly can reward objects and discuss to villagers day by day. As you develop nearer to them, you’ll be able to start so far and even marry.
Moonlight Peaks provides one other mechanic right here although that I discovered to be actually enjoyable, and that’s a card sport known as Nokturna. Created by Dragan, one of many seers on the town, Nokturna is a best-of-three sport by which your aim is to finish every spherical with the very best variety of factors. You begin with a primary deck consisting of 20 playing cards with a complete of 60 factors. Every card has a special price from 1-6, and a few have specialties that may enhance one other card’s price, return your card to your deck for the subsequent spherical, keep in play for the subsequent spherical, and even decrease the factors of your opponent’s playing cards. Each time you win a sport, your opponent offers you a brand new card so you’ll be able to create your individual deck primarily based on what sort of playing cards you favor. There are vampire playing cards, werewolf playing cards, aquatic playing cards, and extra, every with totally different skills. Enjoying Nokturna with the villagers builds friendship, so it’s not solely a enjoyable addition, but additionally very helpful.
Exterior of the fundamental farming sim mechanics, Moonlight Peaks additionally affords some enjoyable goals and mini video games like catching soul blobs round city, returning vampsters to their little cave, making bouquets, and doing embroidery. Soul blobs are little skulls that float round city. Some blue flames, others pink, and there’s yellow as nicely. The flames decide how rapidly they transfer, and subsequently how laborious they’re to catch. Similar to with bugs and different critters, you’ll use your butterfly web to catch them. Catching sufficient soul blobs lets you unlock the flexibility to alter the length of your nights, which I assumed was a reasonably helpful add-on.
Vampsters are little bat-like creatures that sit round city and by no means transfer. While you discover one, all it’s worthwhile to do is choose it up and take it residence to its cave. The difficult half about this activity is that you would be able to’t work together with anything whereas holding one otherwise you’ll drop it and it’ll run again to its hiding place.
Bouquet making and embroidery are little minigames added that mean you can create your individual designs that can be utilized as decor to your farm or presents for the villagers.
Together with the entire sport’s distinctive mechanics and traits, Moonlight Peaks additionally offers gamers with wonderful particulars and enjoyable easter eggs. Not solely are you able to develop googly eyes and wolfsbane, however you may as well elevate draculambs and cowculas, and even discover cranium snails and spiders with eyes on their backs.
The mattress by which you finish every evening is definitely a coffin, and the ornament and character customization choices supply quite a lot of goth or spooky objects for those who’d like to essentially add to the sport’s aesthetic. The controls are additionally very easy; I solely had just a few interface issues, reminiscent of solely having the ability to use my proper and left bumpers if the Pleasure-Cons have been disconnected from my Change (which can have been fastened by the point this goes to print).
It’s clear to me how a lot effort has gone into Moonlight Peaks. From the humorous but heartwarming dialogue, the city’s format, and the various quests to finish, the sport feels full and price getting misplaced in. It’s spooky, however cute—simple, however with out hand outs—and could be very time consuming; good for sluggish weekends or wind down time at evening.
