Moonlighter 2 Review

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be a shopkeeper in a semi-futuristic fantasy town? And not just any shopkeeper, but one that needs to travel through interdimensional gateways to find relics to sell at their shop? If you said yes, then wow, that is a very specific fantasy you had, but you can now play Moonlighter 2. A Rougelite Action RPG with shop simulation, in which you are a shopkeeper stocking your shop by traveling through dimensional portals.

Moonlighter 2 is the sequel to the 2018 game Moonlighter. You play as Will, the silent owner of The Moonlighter, a shop passed down to you from your grandparents. Moonlighter 2’s story continues on from the first game. After successfully exploring the mysterious dungeon in your hometown of Rynoka you find an interdimensional gateway at the end of the fifth dungeon. This brings Rynoka to the attention of Moloch, a collector looking for something that he now believes is in Rynoka. Moloch banishes Will and his friends from Rynoka, leaving them to wander looking for a new home. The story picks up in a new town called Tresna, where Will is reopening The Moonlighter. While exploring a new dimension, you also grab the attention of The Endless Vault, a mysterious being setting challenges for Will, promising him rewards for each challenge completed. This is not a story-heavy game and is not competing against Expedition 33 or Final Fantasy for depth of characters and plot complexity. But what story and characters it does have are used well; I was interested to see what happens to my gang of Rynokan refugees.

The main loop of the game is journeying into one of three different dimensions to fight monsters and find relics. Return to The Moonlighter to sell those relics and complete challenges set by The Endless Vault. If you played the original Moonlighter much of the gameplay loop remains the same, but with some new features to keep it entertaining. The most obvious difference between the two games is the art style: Moonlighter 1 had a charming 2D pixel art aesthetic, while Moonlighter 2 makes the jump into 3D. This might throw some people off if they were in love with the old pixel art. Personally, I think they did a good job of bringing the charm of that 2D art into 3D. The characters are more animated now and still have that cartoonish look that made Moonlighter 1 likeable.

The part of the game you will spend the most time in is probably dimension hopping into dungeons to get relics. There are three distinct dimensions you travel to: an airy desert, a tech-inspired library, and a realm controlled by mysterious witches. Each has a different style and enemies to fight. After selecting one of the dimensions, you will see a dungeon map similar to that of Slay the Spire, showing you routes you can take and the possible rewards for beating that room. At the end of each dungeon is a boss that will test your skills early on in the game. After beating a boss, you will unlock another zone in that dimension with another boss at the end.

Beating certain rooms and bosses will get you relics you can sell at your shop. They range in color-coded rarity, from grey commons to orange legendary relics, with each rarity selling for more. Besides rarity is a quality level indicated by a number; this adds a percentage multiplier to the item so you can make even more money. Each dimension also has a different way to increase the quality of items in your backpack. This adds an item management mini-game that changes in each dimension; in the desert you can burn certain items in your pack to add quality to others, while in the techno library you add electrical charges to some items. Deciding what items to keep and what items to upgrade makes each run different.

As for combat, you have your choice of four distinct weapon types. A short sword for balanced gameplay, a broad sword for heavier hits, a spear for longer range, and fists for faster strikes. Besides that, each type has a different special that is very different from the others. The short sword has a circular strike hitting multiple enemies; the long sword has a sharpness meter that makes your normal attacks hit harder. It drains over time, and you use your special to recharge the meter. The spear leaves spearheads all over the place that, at any time, you can recall to yourself, damaging any enemy it hits on the way. You will also pick up perks as you explore, adding elemental properties to your attack, among other things. Combat is fast and responsive, and very rarely did I feel that I got hit by something that wasn’t my fault. While the combat doesn’t have the depth of some other action roguelites, it is still very enjoyable and challenging. Most runs through a dungeon for me averaged out to be around 30 minutes or so, long enough that you are satisfied at the end but short enough that I kept saying one more run far too long into the night.

After returning to Tresna you will need to sell the relics you found in your adventures. This is the other half of gameplay: running your shop. Set the relics out on display and set what you believe to be a fair price. Customers will come in and buy the items, and based on reactions, you may need to adjust the pricing of your items. If they are unhappy, they leave, and you go and lower the price of the relic; if they are too happy, they will still buy the great deal, but you know for next time to raise the price of that relic. As you upgrade your shop and make customers happy, you will unlock perks that will help you make money that day. You can also decorate your shop; some are just cosmetic, like the color of the walls or the carpet, but some will add value to the relics, like a statue that makes all Legendary relics sell for 40% more.

Earning money is the main way that you advance the story. The Endless Vault sets you challenges like earning 500 dollars that get harder as time goes on. The Vault has a total of 7 challenges, and beating the final challenge will complete the main story but will not complete the game. The Vault will still issue new, more difficult challenges, like earning a set amount in a single day, while other characters will also offer challenge runs, like a boss run killing the two bosses of a single dimension in one run. You will also need the money you earn for the Roguelite part of the game. You can purchase new or upgrade existing weapons from the town blacksmith; you can get more health potions from the town witch. There are so many upgrade spots in the town I would be writing all day telling you about them. All of these will add up over time, so what was a challenging boss fight at the beginning of the game is much more manageable later in the game.

I have very few complaints about the game that would not sound like I am nitpicking. My biggest complaint being that the shop aspect of the game has less to do in it than the dungeons. After a while, you will start to know the prices of most of the relics you take back to town. So paying attention to customer reactions to prices stops being as important. Since that is the only real way you interact with your customers, I found myself at times just standing around at the counter waiting for a customer to come up. You don’t even have to deal with shoplifters or animals anymore. It just feels like more time was spent making sure you had fun in the dungeons, and they neglected some of that same thought in the shopkeeping part.

At the end of the day, Moonlighter 2 is a very fun game. It does not reinvent the wheel in any aspect of its gameplay. But what it does have is very enjoyable. In my playthrough of the main story and some of the side content, I sank over 24 hours of gameplay into it, and I was never bored, feeling like I was doing the same thing just to move the story along.