As a rule, I don’t review sequels if I haven’t played the first game. There are, of course, exceptions to this, specifically with spiritual successors, games that are years apart from one another, or games that don’t continue the narrative too closely. My reasoning for this is the same as my reasoning for not starting a trilogy of books in the middle. Regardless of how good the story is, it won’t be as good as going from the beginning, so my review might not be as fair as I’d like it to be. In all of the exceptions I’ve mentioned, you can take the second game more on its own merits, so it’s fine. With this in mind, we come to today’s preview. Which, as you can see by the big 2 in its name, is indeed a sequel. In this case, though, they were kind enough to give us a full rundown on the story so far, so I felt a lot more equipped to go into this with a fair head on my shoulders. We’re looking at Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault, and it’s very much a case of so far, so good.
Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault is a bit of a mashup of two styles that I really like. First off, we have my very favourite genre in gaming in the roguelike aspects of this title. You’ll be jumping through a series of randomised zones, collecting loot and slaying monsters. The loot, for the most part, is not the equippable kind, though, and that’s where the second part comes in. The other half of this interesting union is a shopkeeping sim, and this is something that adds a lot to the game.
Aside from some collectables, life pickups, etc. The loot you find in Moonlighter 2 comes in the form of various relics that you can sell in your shop. These will come in various rarities and levels of quality, which will reflect the prices you can sell them for. Then you just need to get back to town alive, open your store and get them shifted.
With this comes a cool backpack mechanic. In Moonlighter 2, the items you find can improve each other in a series of different ways. Certain items will burn others, making themselves more valuable in the process. This is a clever mechanic because your inventory slots are limited. If you’re going to make the most out of the space you’re given, you’ll have to use this mechanic to the best of your ability. It makes far more sense to destroy one item to make another stronger than it does to have to delete things to be able to carry better items. This also eliminates the bad RPG habit of collecting and keeping absolute tat because you might need it at some point later, even when you know in your heart of hearts you won’t.
Equipment is handled a little differently in Moonlighter 2, in that you’ll collect various resources on your trips and then have to ask the blacksmith in town to make you new weapons. The same will apply to other gear vendors. The gold you make from your sales will help grant you upgrades and meet the goal of opening the Endless Vault, a big talking box that’s taken residence in the town square. It only wants seven thousand gold to achieve this task, but that’s going to be a hefty spend, considering you need to not die while undertaking this quest. There are lots of cosmetics to buy, too, and these will also need a mix of gold and other things to acquire.
Graphically, I absolutely love what I’m seeing. Moonlighter 2 is bright and cartoony. Cutscenes are beautifully rendered, and the game has a JRPG feel to it while obviously still being a real-time battler. In fact, I don’t have any issues with this title, nuts and bolts-wise at all. The sound does everything it needs to do. I’m not big on video game soundtracks generally, so if it’s not annoying me, it’s fine. Lastly, the controls felt a little weird to me to begin with, but I think this is more of a me issue than a game issue. I’ve never been particularly comfortable playing PC games with a controller, and all the buttons can be remapped, so I’m not going to complain.
I really like that they took the time to give us a proper rundown of events from the first game. They could have hidden the story somewhere or just given us enough to give us a brief idea of what was going on. Instead, I never felt myself wondering why I was doing what I was doing, and the rest of the plot flowed seamlessly. The NPCs are really well written, too. In a lot of games, NPCs can feel like a bit of an afterthought. They’re either slightly wooden or, at worst, totally lifeless. In Moonlighter 2, they felt like an important part of the tapestry of the game, which they should.
Gameplay is very much what you’d expect from the genres I’ve mentioned. We’ve all seen the roguelike trope of battling through randomly generated maps, and I think a lot of us have played shopping sims. Nothing in Moonlighter 2 is trying to reinvent the wheel. What it does, it does perfectly well. It’s more about the package than the sum of it’s part. I really enjoyed the combination of genres, and considering I wasn’t expecting this title to move mountains, I wasn’t disappointed by any of the game loop.
All in all, Moonlighter 2 is a very solid game. Everything works nicely, and considering this is a preview, this is a very finished-feeling title. I’m not finding myself highlighting things I think they need to work on. This is a case of a game having a great foundation and everything that comes later being icing on the cake. As long as they don’t try fixing something that isn’t broken, this is definitely going to be a game to watch out for going forward.
If you want to have a go at the Early Access release of Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault, you can find it here. If you like roguelikes, selling things, or both of the above, I think this is a game that’s well worth your time.
This preview is based on an Early Access copy of the game provided by the publisher.
