Moonlight Peaks - PC (Steam) Review

Moonlight Peaks by developer Little Chicken Game Company and publisher XSEED Games and Marvelous—PC (Steam) review written by Pierre-Yves with a copy provided by the publisher.

Estimated Reading Time: 6 minutes. 

After getting in a fight with your dad and storming out of his castle, you take the train and head to Moonlight Peaks. Settling into this nocturnal town where your mother used to live, it won't take long to interact with other Vampires, Werewolves, Witches and Seers, all living together in a harmonic discord with big personalities that works in this chibi-esque adventure.

Moonlight Peaks has to be one of the coziest games that I've played in a long time. So cozy in fact that I didn't realize that having things like combat in my farming sims isn't always needed. Instead, all you need to worry about is the plot of land belonging to your family, making friends and learning magic. The hard part? Changing the perception that not all Draculas are like your father. Who said being his daughter would be all fun and games?

One thing that became immediately clear is that Moonlight Peaks is a love letter to the genre. Is it perfect? No. But I’ll be damned if it isn’t super comforting to play. The vibes are real and the personalities of the townspeople make the place feel alive. I also really appreciated that the characters were written as people and not as monster tropes. Sure some of the vampires and the werewolves don’t like each other, but that’s not because of a Vampire vs Werewolf thing. It’s because one is a menace to everyone in this society and the other is a very stuck up bureaucrat that doesn’t know how to take a day off.

And it’s fabulous.

 

Interacting with the people in town isn’t one sided which I also appreciated. So often are you a silent protagonist who may get to nod once in a while. Here? You can be sassy if you want to. New phone, who dis? #SorryMom I’m on a train away from Dad and I slammed the door shut on the way out. As you learn more about the people, your character will have a better idea of how to deal with them and the options at times are hilarious. I for once often took the sassy responses because they were more entertaining while still being friendly with those that I’m now living beside.

Another small neat feature is that when going into these events, you’re given the event title and who’s involved, so it’s not a “I wonder what’s about to happen”. Based on those involved, you’ll know how off the rails what’s about to happen is just by the guest list! Otherwise, you can chat with people around town, or try to give them gifts, that is par for the course. People will also tell you if they liked, or despised what you gave them, and if you can’t remember, their profiles in your journal can be friendly reminders.

In terms of gameplay, from the beginning you’ll be given all of your tools to work on your land and get started shaping it as you see fit. As these starter tools are not the best quality, they are going to take up a lot more of your energy in the first days. The better the tools, the less energy used, the less you need to eat to restore everything. What’s neat here though, is that all of your tools are already configured in an easy to use quick wheel, or, in their very own positions in your inventory that DO NOT take up your valuable space.

 

More than your tools is your magic. While you start off with a broken wand unable to cast spells, whoops, you'll soon get it… repaired. Yes. Let's go with that, and then! Then you'll learn your first spell to help water your crops. After this point, you'll be able to learn other useful spells like being able to chop down trees or mine rocks and ore. When you can clear out 15-20 odd things in a forest of a mine for nothing more than a few spell points? It leaves you with a lot of energy to get even more done around your place. 

Speaking of what you can do around home, there’s a lot. While your starter house is placed where it is, it can be moved with magic, or when you upgrade it for the first time. A lot of other things like furniture, and decorstions can simply be moved around by tapping into the design mode allowing for easy drag and drop options. Not everything can be moved around in this manner, like planted trees, crops, or buildings, but that’s what your magic is for.

Finally, having a built-in unlimited inventory through your house that all of your crafting stations pull from was amazing. I wish your cat would tell you this sooner, as I had built an actual limited chest to store things in, but once you have that? There are next to no issues with how much you’re handling unless you went outside, fished, caught bugs, and picked up wildflowers and crops.

 

Finally, perhaps the reason that I found Moonlight Peaks so cozy, is the lack of daylight. Tackling the vampire in the room, Moonlight Peaks visually is full of vibrant beautiful colours. It doesn’t feel like night time while exploring the town or turning your space into a beautiful “everything” garden. It’s peaceful, and without the setting sun to worry about, there was just peace as the clock ticked away past midnight into the early morning hours. Sure you need to worry about the sunrise, but more often than not, this vampire was long asleep by then. Especially when you can slow down time through a very fancy gifted clock.

If there is one… issue? It would be with the audio. Moonlight Peaks is very quiet. The background music when it’s playing is fantastic but it’s never there for very long before muting itself and leaving you with nothing but nighttime nature vibes. While that is super cozy, I often found myself listening to other things like Izzy’s game audio while I worried about my Cheekens or how many spell points I had for the day because I used all of my items to replenish them. 

 

While smaller in scale, Moonlight Peaks is a fantastically cozy adventure with plenty of grand personalities to make you forget about the real world for a bit. If you’re a fan of cozy games with chill farming vibes, this one is for you.

Score: 8 / 10