Moonlight Peaks brings a spooky vibe to the cozy game genre, casting players as a young vampire rebelling against their family’s traditions. At a glance, it hits all the marks: Customization? Check. A heartwarming story about friendship and personal growth? Check. A cute vampire I can fall in love with? Double check. Sadly, some frustrating pacing issues suck out some of the fun — pun intended.
By blending dark purple hues with a cottage-core aesthetic, Moonlight Peaks’ eldritch realm manages to feel like a warm and inviting place to call home as you navigate a charming story about finding your own path through life. It’s all complemented by an ever-growing cast of charismatic supernatural townsfolk with whom you’ll befriend (or even romance) as you integrate yourself into a rural life full of paranormal whimsy.
I had just as lovely time hanging out with these friends at a speakeasy-style bar or hipster cafe as I did exploring the biomes outside of town to catch fish and bugs, mine for ore, or buy livestock. And I appreciated that they regularly had quests for me, which added valuable insight into their personality and occasionally featured laugh-out-loud dialogue. These tasks seldom seemed like irrelevant errands, as they usually led to unlocking new gameplay mechanics or features.
As with similar games like Animal Crossing, you can customize your character and home with an endearing selection of clothing, furniture. and knick-knacks available for purchase at the shops in town. But the adventure finds its own identity with the addition of spell-casting to help you with watering crops, chopping trees, moving structures, and more. A flick of the wand, and you receive magical assistance that relieves you of the tedium of daily tasks.
It's weird, then, that Moonlight Peaks features time-saving mechanics like this while also bogging you down with a constant sense of financial anxiety. Grinding is a normal part of cozy games, but this title’s out-of-whack economy keeps you on the verge of destitution for the first 20-30 hours of playtime.
The bloated cost of everything, combined with a slow growth of funds, disincentivizes things like building out the local museum with your bug collection, purchasing a cute new shirt, or investing in blueprints for crafting items for your home. Instead, there’s a pervasive feeling that you should be selling every bug, ore, and fish to hoard coins toward only the most important tool upgrades or farm improvements. I found myself in a monotonous cycle: Wake up, grind, sell, repeat. And even then, I still found myself broke again the second a quest forced me to buy something to advance the story.
Despite these often severe pacing problems, though, cozy game enthusiasts with a love of the occult (and an abundance of patience) may have a good time sinking their fangs into Moonlight Peaks' interweaving tale of vampires, werewolves, and witches as they learn about the importance of love and compassion — even for the undead.
