I was fond of the original dungeon crawling shop sim, Moonlighter. Despite a certain amount of repetitiveness, I enjoyed the visual style, the wistful storyline and the two core gameplay mechanics, which gave you the best of both worlds. I was excited then to hear that Digital Sun were rustling up a direct sequel, with the steadfast Will reprising his role as the main protagonist. Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault launched in Early Access back in November, and I was keen to jump in to see how it compared to the OG.
The first thing I noticed is just how different the sequel looks from the first installment. Gone is the GBA-styled pixel art, replaced now with a broad perspective, 3D look. The world has quite a playful look to it, filled with sweet, almost chibi-like characters and rounded-off environments that are painted with a soft, warm palette. While I loved the old school visuals from the original, I really like the new look of the sequel. I do have to admit that the scaling bugs me a little though, as everything is a little too far away to discern any level of detail, particularly in the enemies, who lose some impact through being tricky to discern.
Gameplay follows a very similar loop to the original Moonlighter, splitting Will’s time battling through dungeons full of monsters and manning his store back in town. By stepping through a mysterious portal, you’ll be zooped to different biomes (there are two currently available in Early Access, but there’s more to come), each housing a unique collection of baddies and swathes of potential loot. Following the usual roguelike formula, the levels are made up of a small collection of procedurally generated rooms that you need to clear of monsters before you progress. You’re given a choice of routes on your way to the boss, with battle stages, mini-bosses and optional challenges on offer to shape your adventure.
You get the chance to select perks as you push through the adventure sections – sometimes upgrades to Will’s damage or health, or sometimes entirely new effects that trigger when enemies are killed in certain ways. Select the right ones to supplement your particular playstyle or current run and you’ll wipe away the opposition and bring home all manner of tasty swag.
Even the act of collecting loot has been spiced up, with some fun inventory management mechanics added in. On top of the general game of “I’m running out of room, what should I keep and what should I leave”, you have to contend with some very funky attributes attached to your loot. Many items you encounter in Moonlighter 2 have the ability to increase or decrease the quality of other items that are already stored in your bag – by carefully selecting where to place the new items, you can set off a chain reaction of effects that result in loads of your swag getting upgraded. You have to be careful though, as some items can detract from the quality of, or even destroy, other items in your satchel. I love the ‘game within a game’ of managing your backpack, as it makes every loot drop a puzzle to solve in the search for the most profitable haul.
Once you’ve fought your way to the final room and overcome the boss, it’s back to the village where it’s time to make a couple of quid off your hard-begotten gains. Moonlighter 2 takes place in Tresna – the village that Will and his companions fled to following the occupation of their home village by the baddie, Moloch. While a new pricing mechanic was tested in a pre-release demo -for better or worse- Digital Sun decided to make sales in Moonlighter 2 effectively the same as in the first game. You have to go through a lot of trial and error with your pricing, adjusting what you charge based on the reactions of each punter until you’ve got your prices absolutely perfect.
There are decorative items and upgraded cabinets that you can purchase for your store. These help improve the profitability of certain items while also offering some fun customisation options. New to Moonlighter 2 are shop perks, which offer boosts to certain trades until the end of the workday, though some of them do come with potential drawbacks. As you build your customer satisfaction through the day, you’re offered a random selection of perks to apply to your sales or your customers. What’s more, you’re given multiple opportunities to add perks during each opening period, and stacking together the right ones can help boost your profits to astronomical levels. There are also calendar events to keep track of – little festivals when certain items are coveted, if you play your cards right, you’ll have all the suitable stock you need to make a killing over the holiday.
Of course, there will be those who are frustrated at the lack of change to the shop sections, especially those who like the initial change offered in the pre-EA demo. One of the common criticisms of the first game was that the shop portions became stagnant, and despite a few small details, little has been done to change them in the sequel. I personally don’t hate the mechanic, but I can absolutely see why many players find incrementally tweaking prices to be repetitive and lacking in significant satisfaction. This is one of those areas where your experience of the first game will tell you a lot about how you’ll feel about the sequel – at least in this Early Access stage.
Moonlighter 2 is shaping up to be the game Digital Sun always wanted to make. The gameplay walks the same path trodden by the inaugural entry, but is now more polished, and studded with new options and embellishments that only improve the adventure experience. Some players may lament the same old shop mechanics and loss of the pixel art visuals, but I love the new 3D stylings, which fills the world with a warmth and softness that emphasises the game’s cosiness perfectly. Fans of the original Moonlighter should rush to play the sequel (even in Early Access), and I’d encourage new players to take this one to the counter and see what all the fuss is about.
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