As much as I’m the Loot Level Chill cosy gaming guy, it’s getting harder and harder to review titles in the genre as it becomes more and more saturated. While there’s often a tempting hook to lure me in, the substance and longevity can be missing, leading to many games in the space feeling like fleeting experiences that don’t really leave me feeling satisfying. I’m pleased to say this isn’t the case with Moonlight Peaks though, whose cutesy supernatural setting immediately sunk its teeth in and engrossed me with a compelling mix of farming and life sim gameplay.
You start the game off by creating a cute little bloodsucking avatar. I always judge the quality of a character creator by my ability to create myself, which usually just means glasses, a beard and a manbun, and Moonlight Peaks was more than capable of handling this request. I love that even though all the characters in the game are supernatural creatures, their in-game avatars are adorable.
Once your character is created we get the obligatory snippet of story, which features you and your 3-eyed cat running away from an ominous looking home, hopping on a train and travelling to Moonlight Peaks as you tell your mum that you love her but you need to get away from dad. The premise hooked me a lot more than I expected, and as you speak to other characters you start to learn that you’re from a rather famous vampiric lineage that impacts the way people think about you and the way you can interact with the world.
A good cosy game needs a diverse and interesting cast of characters, and I was surprised at how taken I was with the cast of Moonlight Peaks. It starts with those character designs: while the in-game models are lovely and cute, the portraits that accompany dialogue are definitely not. The first half dozen characters you meet are what I can only describe as “daddies”: every character looked like a hunky middle aged man, to the point where I had to look at the Steam page to see if that was one of its selling points. It’s not though, and the wider cast is a lot more varied with plenty in the same vein as those above, but equally plenty don’t fit that mould.
The citizens of Moonlight Peaks are made up of four key factions: vampires, werewolves, witches and seers. There are clear tensions between some of these groups, and a lot of my time with the game was spent trying to smooth over relations between the vampires and werewolves. Other characters pop up too, including ghosts and even Death himself, who is holidaying in Moonlight Peaks for some reason, as you can see from his Hawaiian shirt. It all comes together to make a world that feels alive (which is ironic as a quarter of these characters are undead). The dialogue can be a lot of fun, with characters feeling distinct and although it’s easy to forget who’s who at first, you soon learn their individual personalities. One of my favourite early encounters was with witch-in-training Noel, who clearly has an inferiority complex and challenged me to a fishing competition. The game lets you pick dialogue options that match his increasingly frantic energy, leading to some funny moments as he gets more and more rattled.
When you’re not chatting to creatures of the night, you’ll be spending your nights enjoying the robust farming and customisation options available to you. Your home has a rather large plot of land surrounding it, although it takes a while to make it all usable, and you’re free to do with it as you want. I always go straight for crops, so I focused on growing a bit of this and a bit of that, often focusing on grapes so I could make blood wine. It was a good little earner for me, although it took a while to brew. Once it was ready I could drop the bottles in the Mimic Chest that acts as a sell box and rack up a nice little profit. Early on you get the ability to start farming animals too, and, of course, there’s mining, fishing, foraging and general exploration to get stuck into. You even get a wand as one of your implements, and through a lovely tactile minigame you can learn spells that help with your farm work, such as summoning a floating watering can to take care of your crops.
I really appreciate how Moonlight Peaks always gives you a reason to do this stuff. It’s rare you’re left wholly to your own devices, as you’ll often walk into town or into one of the surrounding areas and trigger a cutscene pulling you into more of the aforementioned melodrama between factions. This always leads to quests that involve growing or creating things and often create some of the bigger moments in the ongoing story, such as a peace summit dinner party between the vampires and werewolves which goes wrong and unlocks your latent ability to shapeshift. It’s just really well put together, and I’ll definitely continue playing it after this review is live.
Visually it’s lovely, although does feel a little bit like someone’s put a spooky skin on Animal Crossing. I can’t quite put my finger on what the similarity is between the two but I can definitely feel it. The character designs are a standout for me, but in general it’s just nice to look at. I adored the music though, the composer has struck a wonderful mix between cosy and spooky, and I often found myself zoning out to it when I was meant to be playing.
Technically the game ran well on Switch 2, with only a minor bit of microstutter. My biggest issue with the game was that characters seemed to disappear too often. I’d look at the map and see where someone was, but by the time I got there they’d moved even though I never saw them come past me. It was particularly noticeable after story events, where the person you need to speak to might be in a cutscene with you but then disappear and be halfway across the map. A minor gripe, but I often felt like I had to rush to speak to someone before they disappeared, and I don’t want to be rushed in these games.
Moonlight Peaks is an excellent entry into the genre, with a lovely cast of characters, a compelling story and some great farming and mechanics that’ll satisfy even the most fussy of cosy gamers. If you’re looking for a new place to call home and love the supernatural then I think Moonlight Peaks might just be the place for you.
