Moonlight Peaks Review - Love at First Bite

Seren
3 hours ago
26 min read

As someone who has played a lot, and I mean a lot, of farming sims, I know how intimidating they can seem. Many times I have looked at two or three choices for my next adventure and worried that I was going to choose the wrong one. This anxiety when it comes to the genre is a pretty common one, as these games are often characterized by their long playtimes and very similar gameplay. It’s within the smaller details where people begin to carve out a preference and identify the farming sims they favor. For example, some require their game to have a compelling story; some couldn't care less and are happy with just having a range of activities to engage with. Others are obsessed with fishing; God knows I will never find such an intuitive system like in Stardew, but I'm not going to throw my toys out of the pram if another farming sim doesn't match that standard. So, that’s why I treat these kinds of reviews a bit differently, so you’ll have to bear with me. I basically tear these games apart, piece by piece, as I want to make sure I am covering every aspect of the game that may be a dealbreaker for some players, so you may want to buckle in as we dive into the world of Moonlight Peaks.

Moonlight Peaks is a pretty cookie-cutter-looking farming sim on the surface; my partner literally came into our office while I was playing and said, “For God's sake, that is literally just Stardew," and to some degree, yes, it is. However, I find this approach to the genre to be quite reductive, as Moonlight Peaks takes the farming sim foundation and mixes it with the gothic and supernatural, with every part of the gameplay reflecting this stylistic choice. You go about your business like you usually do, building up a dilapidated plot of land, plowing fields, making friends with the residents, and getting wrapped up in the drama of it all, but all of this is done by night. Why, you ask? Well, you are an undead being, a child of Dracula, a vampire, so of course sunlight is not recommended. After rebelling against your father’s rather outdated views on the outside world, you flee to the town of Moonlight Peaks to show him that undead royalty can live amongst outsiders and lead a fulfilling life that isn't just sucking blood. Usual mechanics like farming are entwined with magic, spells, and potion-making, and the residents you meet are supernatural entities like werewolves and seers. Therefore, Moonlight Peaks does look very familiar, but when we dig a bit deeper, you’ll find a farming life sim that is enchantingly different and uses its core principles to bring life to its undead world.

As I just mentioned, Moonlight Peaks utilizes the core principles found in most farming sims. You have your fishing, crafting, farming, and mining, but a noticeable feature that is missing is combat. The game, by no means, needs combat, and you don’t feel its absence, as there is plenty of other stuff to do. Obviously, if you crave that kind of gameplay, then Moonlight Peaks may be a miss, but by no means does it make the experience worse off. In the 20+ hours I spent with the game, I always found I had plenty to do and never encountered a lull in my routine.

A tale as old as Dracula himself, in Moonlight Peaks you receive a plot of land that looks like it hasn't been touched in a little over a century. What I love about this genre is the steady progress you engage with that represents itself visually. You don't clear the trees and tall grass of your home in one night, but slowly cut it back to fit more and more of your things. One of these integral things is a field for you to grow your crops, as Daddy has cut us off; we ain’t no trust fund kid anymore, so it's time to get our hands dirty. What I like about Moonlight Peaks are the small adjustments it makes to basic choices in farming sims. For example, usually you start off with a few bog-standard crops like turnips, but instead here we get blood grapes, and you’re encouraged to begin your capitalist venture in winemaking.

Other crops are also redesigned to fit the gothic aesthetic, like 'cruelcumbers' or goat cheese being made into 'hellfeta.' It's all a bit of good fun. The game also includes herb gardens as an added bonus to farming in general, but they also play a part in later-game potion making. These, like magic crops, can only be watered using a spell and then can be dried and crushed to make a powder. Specific crops will make specific potions, including an appearance-altering concoction that allows you to, well, alter your appearance or a sunscreen potion that allows you to bypass 6 am and be in the sun to get some last-minute chores completed.

Where Moonlight Peaks differs from others, though, is in the magic that can be infused in crops or used to make the process of farming a lot smoother. As you get deeper into spring and you feel like you've gotten a grasp of basic farming, you’ll unlock magical crops that can only be nurtured using spells. These are wholly unique and really cool aesthetically. You have gobbler crops that look like Venus flytraps and moonfruit, which obviously look like little crescent moons. These complement rather than replace the usual human crops you can plant, as they are often much pricier and take a lot more resources to manage. Don’t get me wrong, they make me absolute bank, but I found having 10 of them was enough for me to handle, as to water them, you must spend mana to cast the spell Aquaflux, which waters only 16 crop spaces. We’ll discuss mana more later, but in terms of farming, you can also purchase spells that make usual tilling and watering much quicker. One of the banes of any farming sim experience is the early game constant refilling of your watering can at a nearby pond or river. For a bit of dosh, though, you can buy a spell that instantly refills it wherever you are.

As most players may know, there is quite a bit of strategy to how you go about making the most out of resources. In the early game you have no choice but to just sell raw crops, but you would be crazy to do that even just after a couple of in-game weeks. Some farming sims point you in the direction of cooking to make more money by combining different crops, and others encourage you to process goods. Moonlight Peaks is both but leans heavier on the latter, with the beginning month of spring presenting me with more machines than I could count. As previously mentioned, your starter crops are grapes, and on their own they sell for basically nothing; instead, chuck them into a keg and watch the money go up, as you can either turn them into wine or juice. Rinse and repeat for everything you make on your farm, from turning milk into cheese and fruits into jam. I have neither a positive nor a negative opinion about processing in farming sims; if it's introduced straight away, I adapt and turn my farm into a machine, but I can see why some people may see the process as grindy. Unfortunately, I don't see this feature as something you can ignore, as it seems to be a focal part of farming in Moonlight Peaks, but you can make money in other ways. I found cooking to yield great results if you plan accordingly, but the faster you get those kegs running, the more money you’ll be rolling in.

The world is full of interesting characters

Processing also plays a major role in crafting, as not many furniture items can be made without your supplies being processed first. You can make pretty basic furniture with plain wood, but if you want any semblance of personality in your home, you’ll need to be mass-producing planks and refined stone, which I found to be quite stiff. I upgraded my house halfway through summer, but I could not be bothered to grind out five million pieces of wood to get about 10 planks' worth. Usually, 1 wood equals 1 plank, but for some reason in this game, 4 wood equals 1 plank, which means you'll be cutting down a whole forest of trees to get anything. Spells make gathering resources easier, but I haven't gotten far enough into the game to reap these streamlined benefits yet.

Farming in this game is pretty standard, so I’ll be quite quick with this section. Once you’ve built your barn, you will have access to a range of slightly cursed-looking animals whom I absolutely adored. You start off with a basic-looking chicken, which is entirely deceptive of the creatures you can end up getting. They include a Cowcula who has itty-bitty wings that can't get him off the ground and, my favorite, the Piggoat. He is mildly horrifying yet so adorable; this is my little guy that I call Pheemy, a nod to Greek mythology’s Polyphemus, and we have Edward Cullen the cow, of course. Livestock produce milk, wool, and eggs every other day, which I found to be a unique choice, but with the amount of time it takes for these products to process in a cheese press, I'm mostly thankful. They can also be petted to raise their friendship level and be given cute little hats, which are always a great inclusion. I have yet to see any kind of breeding mechanic, if there is one, or the possibility of expanding my barn, as it can only fit 4 animals at the moment. I also have no idea if there is a gate to keep these buggers in because they can get in my way sometimes.

Now onto Moonlight Peak’s most unique feature and one of its main selling points, magic and witchcraft! You start off the game with a broken wand that isn't of much use until you befriend the coven. After a quick fix, you’ll be able to purchase spells from Webb and Wonders that will allow you to do a whole bunch of convenient actions. They include summoning Ethereal Pickaxes that crush up to 16 rocks or a spell that makes it rain the next day. These spells even replace pretty basic functions that I think should be readily available, like spending mana to move a building, but I guess it's fine. Some of them are one-offs, but a spell like Ethereal Axes can be upgraded so you can chop down more trees. What I love about magic in this game is how you use it too, as each spell has its own pattern that you must draw in order for it to trigger. I don't know if I'm just directionally challenged, but it took me a good few times to be able to use a spell without looking at my almanac. Some may say it's a bit pointless, but it made magic feel that much more immersive.

These spells are particularly useful with how limited your energy meter is at the start of the game, but casting them can come at a hefty price. To use magic, you’ll need to spend mana points; more are required if the spell is significantly more powerful. You begin the game with 3 consumable points, which equate to one Aquaflux and one Ethereal axe, for example, but don’t think you’ll be blazing through Moonlight Peaks with these spells just yet, as mana does not fully replenish every day. Instead, you acquire just one mana point, so if you use all three in one day, you would have to not use mana for the next three days to get it back up to full. I can see that this restriction was needed to make magic more balanced and not to be spammed straight out of the grave. However, the game gives you options to replenish it through a mana extractor. Those magic crops and herbs we mentioned before can be squeezed of their life juice to make mana essence and therefore gain back your lost mana points. They can even be cooked up into baked goods to sell for a generous amount of money or to eat while you're tearing down the mines.

Moonlight Peaks also has your standard fishing and critter collecting, all with designs that are pleasantly gothic and cartoony. The fishing is in the style of Animal Crossing: you fling your cast, it bites, and you reel it in. There is absolutely no challenge here, which is fine; there doesn't need to be, but what made fishing so monotonous for me was the tiny, whiny roster of fish that were available to catch. There are only 22 fish in the whole game, and by the time I finished summer, I was sick to death of getting Whispers and Splotches. There are just not enough in the game that would make me pass a lake and go, “Oo, I should probably fish so I can find something new!" 9 times out of 10, it was not new, and this got boring very quickly. I found seasonal fish, but with only 22 in total, does that mean there are only like 2 unique fish per season? You can eventually upgrade your rods to catch bigger fish, but this still doesn't make this problem any better. Unfortunately, fishing was a major letdown and not something I could see myself doing a lot of. Later on in the game, I know there is a museum that unlocks, so maybe I'll be much more inclined to catch fish and bugs when it's from a completionist angle, but until then, nope.

Other collectibles, which were a nice touch, were the many Vampsters and Soul Blobs you can find around the map. There were 100 each in total to find, and spoiler alert, one was much more fun to collect than the other. I really do not mind mindless activities that add a little extra when I'm sprinting around the map, but not when collecting them can be such a bore. Let's be positive first. Soul Blobs are the souls of dead people who cannot move on in the form of flaming miniature skulls that can be swooped up with your net. Each flame color signals how fast they are, so there’s a little bit of challenge to be had here. Once they had been unlocked, they were absolutely everywhere, and I hilariously found myself running out of energy very quickly most days just because I was spending ages trying to collect them all. They also each have a hilarious one-liner of how they died, from falling down the stairs to losing a poker match against the Grim Reaper himself. Soul Blobs also reward you for finding them. I don't know specifically how many you need for each reward, but in the 68 I found, I received two very cool items that altered the length of a night cycle.

The other collectibles are these Vampsters who have strayed from their home cove. This is where collecting is monotonous, as each Vampster needs to be picked up and brought all the way back to the bottom corner of your map. This was fine in the beginning when I was finding the ones that were fairly close by, but if you think I am trailing all the way from the Howling Marshes to dump off these fat blobs, then think again. You are slow when carrying them, and god forbid you accidentally run into a cutscene because then you’ll just lose them and have to go back. Don't get me wrong, it was fun to find them hidden in people’s houses and tucked away in nooks and crannies, but there needs to be a better way of transporting them. I also found 20 of them and have yet to get a reward, so game, why should I even bother?

To Moonlight Peak’s credit, after a batch of misses, the game is very generous in the extra content it gives you that you can either engage with or completely bypass, and none of it is downright bad—except for those cursed Vampsters. For you extra-cozy players, you’ll be able to arrange flowers so you can give your special someone a lovely gift; make pottery like flower vases; and embroider patterns to hang up. They are all brief minigames that cost a bit of money, but knowing I can knock Luna’s birthday gift out of the park by making her a bouquet makes giving a gift a lot more fun and creative to engage with.

The other crazy inclusion is a whole card game called Nokturna that you can play with a bunch of different characters. Now, I am not the target audience for this; I never really liked in-game games like The Witcher 3's Gwent or FF7 Rebirth's Queen’s Blood, so I won't be making an extensive review of this. From what I played, it is pretty basic and easy to comprehend. It's basically three rounds of trying to score the most points using numbered cards. As I played against different characters, I unlocked more cards that all had unique abilities, which was a really nice touch. For example, there is a wolf deck that sees you score high numbers by playing out a low-cost Alpha wolf card, which doubles in points the more werewolf-type cards you place. You can customize decks and try different strategies if that's the type of thing you are looking for. I can see a lot of players really enjoying this aspect of Moonlight Peaks, as there seems to be a nice level of strategy that doesn't take away too much from the cozy vibe.

Finally, on the gameplay front, we have customization and decoration. These are both aspects of games in this genre that players will spend hours and hours experimenting with, and from the trailers we received from Moonlight Peaks, I think the cozy decorators out there will be in for an absolute treat.

Let’s start with character customization. This feature in particular has gone through a lot of changes through development, and the devs seem to really value it. Just by randomizing your character, you can see the breadth of options on offer, and even though I look a bit boring—sorry, I'm not that creative and also wanted to get started straight away—there is plenty of fun to have here. A major choice that I hope more games implement in their customization is the complete eradication of gender options and gendered body frames. You see games boasting that they are inclusive by having different body types, but they usually always fit a male and female physique. In Moonlight Peaks, you are just a certified goober splodge in the best way possible. Players will have access to a range of cosmetics from makeup to skin options like vitiligo, which is also another great touch. You also have access to a pretty expansive closet so you can roll into Moonlight Peaks in style. There is a tailor in town so you can eventually unlock ‘better clothing,' but I was really happy with the free options I got in the opening character customization. You can feel your personality come out in your character just from these opening choices rather than having to wait around to buy cosmetics.

You can transform into adorable critters

Having only just reached fall, I feel like I’m not in a super good place to gush about the decorative options in this game. Typically in the genre, you don't really bother with spending money and resources on aesthetic things early in the game. You want to make sure you have a steady cash flow before you can start perusing the furniture catalogs. Speaking of catalogs, though, I am a massive fan of when games don't only allow you to buy singular items but also give you the option to buy sets. Ridge can sell you specific sets, like kitchen or bedroom items all with different color swatches, so filling your house doesn't feel too daunting. Furniture can also be categorized by various styles too, like a country kitchen collection or a more modern look to your couch and table, so I can see loads of players having very different-looking houses when the game releases.

However, where Moonlight Peaks really shines in its decoration options is the clutter. If you are a Sims player or a general decorating game player, then the word "clutter" is basically an orgasm trigger. You can have the skeleton of the interior, with your tables, counters, and shelves. But where the pure ecstasy comes from is what to put on all of these delicious surfaces. Moonlight Peaks saw this market and turned it up to the extreme, as the number of clutter items you can buy, find, and craft is insurmountable. From dainty CD players to stacks of plates, crystal balls, candles, and so, so much more. Inside and outside builds just became so much more innovative; I am so excited to see what the community comes up with because if the trailers are anything to go by, then you will probably be spending 50+ hours simply decorating.

Overall, in terms of gameplay, the concept of clutter encapsulates what makes Moonlight Peaks’ gameplay so enjoyable and addicting. There are so many little things to do that may seem insignificant to some players, like flower arranging or collecting Soul Blobs, and whether you want to engage with all of it or none of it is entirely up to the player. However, for those who do want to, they are in for an absolute treat and will find no lack of things to do here. But that’s enough talk about gameplay; I honestly could go on for longer, but it is time to talk about the whole other side of Moonlight Peaks that is just as striking in quality and scale.

As the daughter of Dracula, you are unfortunately tarred with the same brush as your father, with a reputation that isn't exactly positive. It seems like the story will dive into it more, but from various sarcastic dialogues, it seems like your father left Moonlight Peaks and is known for being a bit of a snob. Other vampires even reference him with outright distaste. But you’ve decided to take it upon yourself to make your own way in life and become a valued member of the community. The town of Moonlight Peaks is a vibrant one, with different family factions that all have long histories and age-old feuds. Most noticeable is the rift between the Logans and the Ambrosias, who are werewolves and vampires, respectively. Orlock and Brook, the supposed patriarchs of their clans, are constantly butting heads and can't seem to agree on anything to help the town, so it's your job to patch things up and learn what you can about each family. Family is at the center of Moonlight Peaks’ story as you spend time with each of them and complete a range of quests—mainly ones where you have to grow or obtain something—so you can find each family crest and eventually unite the town. From what I have seen so far, the main story may be a bit of a slow burn, as even just two months in, I haven't made much progress on the central quest, with only one crest found so far—or maybe I'm not unlocking/triggering the right things, who knows.

I do like the idea of the story being staggered across the year instead of moving in and immediately meeting everyone, though. In the game’s synopsis, it says that there are 7 family crests to find in total, and at the moment I have only unlocked 5 of them, with 4 being there from the start. I really like this approach, as it doesn't feel like I'm being rushed and that I will complete everything I need to do within the first year. I know my first year in Moonlight Peaks is going to be stacked and that I’ll be playing well past the end of the year, which is not something I can say about most farming sims. It’s nice to know that I'm not just going to see everything the game has to offer before the end of the first month.

I’ll briefly mention festivals, or rather the lack thereof in Moonlight Peaks' case, which is a massive shame. The standard for these types of games is having at least 2 festivals in each season; unfortunately, in spring I only experienced Loveage, which is sort of like Valentine's Day, where you give gifts to the character you like the most—or three of them if you’re a hoe like me. The festival itself was fun enough with unique vendors and such, but not a lot going on outside of that.

They tried to hype up flower arranging, but this feature had already been introduced a few days before, so there wasn't a whole lot going on for me to get invested in. If you take other games' festivals, for example, like Stardew’s Spring dance or Harvest Moon’s animal and crop competitions, Moonlight Peaks feels significantly lacking and could do with a whole load more to make each season feel unique and give me something to look forward to, or even prepare for.

For me, personally, the lifeblood of any farming sim is its cast of characters. As I mentioned 1000 years ago when I introduced this review, I said that some people could take or leave a certain feature of these games. Well, for me it's the relationships you cultivate, and without a solid character roster, my interest plummets. At first, I was very skeptical of Moonlight Peaks, as having a large cast all with their own heart events often equates to a lack of depth and a bunch of residents just completely vanishing from my mind because I just do not care about them. The game has 23 dateables—compared to the usual 12 in other games in the genre—and over 30 characters in total, so I was admittedly a bit worried. However, I'm overjoyed to say that I am in love with the residents of Moonlight Peaks. There is plenty of optional character content and story beats so that whenever you enter town, there’ll always be something going on.

The town starts off with four major families: the werewolves, vampires, witches, and seers, but your town will soon grow with more supernatural networks moving in. Every family and its members feel unique, and the bonds between them are all pleasantly layered and intriguing. One of my favorites is Orlock, an alcoholic dreg of society who is slowly drinking himself to death. He causes trouble wherever he goes and doesn't have a particularly good relationship with his kids. This opens up a whole can of worms that is shown through each family member's heart events and opens up a narrative arc that feels very somber, reminiscent of the despair found in Shane in Stardew Valley. There’s also the added quality that everyone is a supernatural entity, so their problems, whilst very human, also have that fantastical element to them. Hell, Death is literally an NPC that you can romance in this game, so you’re definitely going to get a unique experience. From what I have just said, you can imagine that Moonlight Peaks is quite the comedy, and there are more than a few times where I chuckled at the outrageous theatrics of some of the characters and the dilemmas they had. This witty dialogue was all punctuated by cartoonish character animations that actually had me staring at their models rather than their character portraits.

My only gripe with its characters is that you’re not particularly rewarded for talking to them every day, as they often don't have much to say. Their daily dialogue normally boils down to reactions to events that have just happened or things you have unlocked. It would be nice if they said a bit more, but with such a large roster of characters, I was glad I didn't have to traipse around the map, talking to every single person every day. I'd swoop into town, shower them with gifts, and return to the shadows. Where the character development truly shines is in the heart events. Because there are so many characters in the game, you’ll find each time you venture into the town, there will always be someone having a dilemma or cute moment to witness.

For those who are not familiar, heart events are character-driven scenes that usually unlock more friendship as you build with them. You can do this through gift-giving, and for the first time ever, ladies and gentlemen, I experienced a farming sim without a guide at my beck and call. I took for granted how easy it is to look at who likes what so I could score quick friendship points, but navigating everyone's likes and dislikes was such a fun challenge; I think I’ll stop agonizing over what the quickest route to marriage is from now on. Quick tip though: flowers always work. Moonlight Peaks delightfully differs from the usual formula too, as instead of heart events being quite sparse, often unlocking for every two hearts you gain, you actually get one for every heart you obtain. All of the ones I have experienced so far have been full of character and a great insight into what makes these characters tick but also just the everyday banter found in the town. From the more down-to-earth Dragan, who is battling an insecurity that his seer abilities are diminishing, to Noel, trying to rizz me up and take me out on dates, claiming his intentions are not full of shit, and even a vampire pub quiz! Moonlight Peaks is full of life and can guarantee you will love more than a handful of its characters. I won't get into how hot a lot of them are.

Unfortunately, I didn't progress far enough in the game to fully explore the romantic options, but it appears that you can at least marry your chosen candidate. Whether you can move in with them and if gameplay/interaction changes after you do so is still a bit of a mystery to me.

With wolves roaming the streets and bats flying through the air, you are probably thinking Moonlight Peaks must have a pretty large map to contain them all, and you would be right. The world map for this farming sim is a good size, and you can feel that without even looking at your map. Often I would have to look at it once or twice to see where I was going, even hours into the game. Currently, I have unlocked around four major areas, with quite a bit left obscured. This includes the mystical Moonlit Pines, the boggy Howling Marshes, the shores of the lake, and the town itself. The town is the central hub of your time in Moonlight Peaks and is teeming with life and personality, especially when it comes to the townsfolk’s homes. I've mentioned the focus of clutter in this game’s interior and exterior design, and you can see this most aptly in the vibrant bedrooms, living rooms, and shops of the town. Everyone’s house is packed full of items, and most of them you can acquire yourself. You can guess how busy these houses are just by the fact that those pesky Vampsters are hidden around them. The town is also full of different vendors to shop at, whether it's to have a drink at The Broken Lamp with Samael or buy silly hats at Snek’s stall at the Midnight Market. But it's not just the town that receives a lot of love; the surrounding wilderness is also full of points of interest where you’ll see different residents meet up, cast spells, and stop to howl at the full moon. It all makes the world feel very lived in.

Exploring is also made more interesting and fun through the different transformations you can unlock. The trailer has only named two so far, which are the hellkitten and the bat, so I won't be spoiling the third in this review. It was a very pleasant surprise. As soon as I unlocked my feline mode, I soon found that I rarely walked around in my human form, as being a cat gives you a significant speed boost. Being able to dart back home at a moment's notice is so convenient when the map is so large and often quite twisty and easy to get lost in. I did not end up unlocking the bat form, wherever it may be, but from the trailers, it looks like it mostly helps with farming. I also noticed a few areas of the map could be unlocked through obtaining different forms, so that is something to look forward to.

A lot of the time, people will say an absolute dealbreaker for them is the visual style of their farming sim, and I totally agree. There have been many that I have dodged simply because I did not vibe with the style or the character designs. If I'm going to be spending hours of my life looking at this thing, it needs to be pretty, and my neighbors need to be hot, goddammit. At first, the style of Moonlight Peaks was a bit strange. The character portraits are undoubtedly beautifully drawn, but I guess it's just an art style I'm not used to. Some of the character heads look a bit bobblehead-esque, and they all have quite a mature look to them, which I have come to really appreciate. The game also just straight up gives you another set of portraits you can change to if you’re not vibing with the game’s aesthetic. They are much more anime and kawaii-looking; it kind of reminds me of the anime mod that I see so many people add to their Stardew Valley files. Each to their own, I guess. I personally think the original portraits complement the gothic aesthetic extremely well.

Usually, when I'm given character portraits to look at, I tend to mostly look at them, as the 3D or pixel models aren't usually too expressive. However, I think for the first time while playing a farming sim, I was enraptured by the goofy-looking 3D models and their cartoonish animations.

They are basically all chibified versions of the characters, and they are freaking adorable and so full of life. Even when they are just breathing, they don't feel static. Instead, characters emote and make funny sound effects when they are shocked or happy; one of my favorites is when someone loses their temper and looks like they are cursing both heaven and hell. I also have to give a special mention to the fluidity of Orlock stumbling and tumbling around when intoxicated; it is hilarious to watch every time.

The character models also fit pleasantly well with the gothic aesthetic of Moonlight Peaks. When you begin your first night, instead of bright and airy spring with its pastels, you are met with deep, moody purples and blues with a lot of the color palette muted to feel like it's bathed in darkness. Everywhere you look is also accentuated with glowing plants or trails of fairy lights that make everywhere feel whimsical and enchanted. It's also cool to see a blend of different aesthetics in Moonlight Peaks, as the town feels ancient and reminiscent of the Victorian period while also being very cottagecore to bring that cozy farm vibe to life. The game is drop-dead gorgeous, to say the least, and you can tell a lot of care was put into every area of the map. The seasons on offer also provide a nice change to your surroundings. I was a bit worried that night would start to feel very samey in how dark it is, but summer felt aptly bright and vibrant with more of a luscious green look to its flora. I can only imagine how beautiful the rest of the seasons will feel.

This world full of witches and vampires also has some very pretty sound design, and I was often impressed by some of the choices made. I love the sounds you make when chopping down trees and especially when I mine rocks. It has a real weight behind it and feels really chalky and dusty, like how you would imagine mining a rock would be, instead of a simple ‘ting’ sound you get in other games. Characters are also constantly interacting with items that each have their own animation and sound, like Mina turning the coffee machine on, with the sound of a steamer and liquid pouring. It's design choices like these that the devs don't really need to worry about but are noticeable and appreciated in making the world feel alive. I also liked the subtle changes in the environmental audio when you are in different locations; most notable is the sound of Saga’s boat bobbing on the lake and the natural sounds of the outdoors when the music has stopped playing.

Speaking of music, Moonlight Peaks has some stunning tracks where I genuinely sat back and just listened to them for a moment. They play intermittently, letting natural sounds take over, but when they do play, they feel magical and calming. In summer especially, my ears were treated to an almost Parisian-sounding track that was just beautiful to listen to. The music in story events or characters' moments can also vary in tone, from cartoonish mishaps with a playful tune to a more somber track when discussing some deep topics.

Accessibility/options

There are a few noticeable accessibility options that are appreciated in Moonlight Peaks, some I have mentioned previously. You have a few that are more stylistic, like switching to a different set of character portraits, and some that are a lot more practical, like turning text animations off if you don't fancy Orlock’s drunken rambles rumbling on the screen. The most noticeable features for my time with the game were the different clock options. You can switch from a 24-hour clock to a 12-hour one, which is a small yet appreciated inclusion, and you can actually alter the length of the night cycles themselves. Albeit, this is a feature you must unlock, but it's not very hard to do so and can be done within the first couple of weeks of playing. It basically allows you to either slow down your night or speed it up, with each night lasting 15 minutes. You can bump this up to 20 minutes if you find your days are too short, or you can turn them down to 10 minutes if you find you want to move things along. I found myself shortening a lot of my days as I found 10 minutes to be a sweet spot for getting what I needed done. It's also just really handy to let players dictate how long they want their days to be, as people can have different playstyles, and with the story being quite a slow burner, being able to coast through days where you are waiting for a specific crop to grow can be a godsend.

It's hard to identify a good farming sim these days due to how oversaturated the market is and the fact that so many players look for different things. As someone who has played her fair share of them, it's even harder to encapsulate the success of one until you’ve poured at least 40+ hours into it. I feel that way about Moonlight Peaks. Even though I've poured my heart into this review, I'm still aeons away from seeing what this game has to truly offer, which only excites me to continue my adventure past my allocated review time. From what I've played so far, though, this one is definitely worth a place amongst the greats. Moonlight Peaks balances so many gameplay mechanics with a stylistic flair that incorporates magic and witchcraft to give it a fresh take. There is so much optional content to engage with that you’ll find that every day is full of things to do, from endlessly cluttering your house to collecting Soul Blobs. I can guarantee there is an activity for everyone. Its cast of characters is also one of the strongest I've seen in the genre, which is a great feat considering how large the roster is. By slowly introducing new families and detailed heart events, I felt like I was truly involved in the family drama that is rife within town.

Undoubtedly, it has some missteps; fishing is not all that great, and I wish there were more festivals, but these are small things that I can see them improving on in the future. It's finally time to stop agonizing over which farming sim to play, as Moonlight Peaks is one to mark your calendar for. I'm giving it the coveted Golden Genie lamp.

Pros

Large cast of interesting characters

Beautifully drawn portraits and lively animated models

Gorgeous supernatural, yet whimsical aesthetic

Slow burn story and features that do not immediately reveal everything

Tons of optional content to engage with

Map is always expanding and fun to explore

You can adjust the length of your night cycle

Cons

Not enough fish

Characters lack interesting daily dialogue

Vampsters are annoying to collect