StormieDae
- Sep 20
- 4 min read

Moonstone Island Review - A Unique Blend of Crop Management and Monster Collecting!

Moonstone Island Review by StormieDae

PC/SWITCH

9/20/23

Studio Supersoft/Raw Fury

When Moonstone Island was announced people began losing their collective minds (and rightfully so). The game was marketed as "Stardew Valley meets Pokémon," taking place in a magical world full of spirits, potions and everything in-between. Who wouldn't be excited about that?

Indeed, Moonstone Island isn't your average cozy, farm sim as it's centered around a pretty ambitious concept. Yes, there are elements of farming, but there are also elements of deck building, monster taming, turn based combat and romance. Whew, I know that's a lot! Did I mention everyone on this island is insanely attractive?

Moonstone Island combines many genres into one cozy funfest!

The story of Moonstone Island puts you in the shoes of a young alchemist ready to take on their next big adventure. When disaster suddenly strikes, you are thrown off of your broom in a giant storm that lands you on--you guessed it--Moonstone Island, which is one of the over 1000 islands that you will potentially encounter.

Your initial island is filled with Spirits, lovable NPCs and resources galore, but you can't just soak in the sun all day! It has now become your duty as the town alchemist to tame spirits for research and clear dungeons to make the world a safer place. There are a lot of different mechanics in this game, so I am going to try to touch on all of them without going on too many tangents.

Starting with the life and farming sim side of things, you are able to place your home on any of the game's islands and start building out your life. Players are given your standard farming sim tools, such as an ax, hoe, watering can, scythe and a hammer. Just as one would expect you can start collecting resources, growing crops, harvesting seeds and so on.

There are up to 1000 islands for players to discover

The farming side of Moonstone Island is really nice and simplistic. You do need to water your plants every day to keep them alive, but you will quickly learn there is SO much to do outside of farming that it can be hard to even remember. Poor plants, please don't let them die of dehydration!

Crafting is also extremely fun and basic. You will go down into mines to collect iron, copper and stones. The mines not only provide you with much-needed resources but also have treasure chests scattered throughout them-- a nice reward for smashing all those rocks.

There are many NPCs to romance, and something I noticed is that you can instantly (and I mean INSTANTLY) ask any and all NPCs on a date. Asking them out won't always work, but it isn’t all that hard to woo them.

A garden and a lizard-looking creature on an island in Moonstone Island

Don't forget to water your plants!

The location of these dates show up on your map and they are typically pretty cute. You will be allowed to make dialog choices, which will be the deciding factor on how the date went. Every single NPC is going to be different from the last, with some being a lot harder to win over than others.

You can also build friendships with just about everybody, so the relationship building parts you often find in life sims are definitely there if that's something you want to spend time on.

As for the creature collecting aspect of Moonstone Island (aka the Pokémon side), you can either defeat creatures in battle or you can try to tame them. Once you tame them, they will either follow you around, live in the medallion that you carry around with you which can hold 3 spirits or stay in your spirit barn.

The spirit barn gives you the ability to feed your spirits or hatch eggs. Players can collect hundreds of these spirits, which can also be sent to Zed, the town researcher, in exchange for in-game currency.

Moonstone Island features card-based combat

Moonstone Island is very combat heavy. You need to engage in combat to tame spirits, as well as to proceed forward through the story. If you are a person looking for a cozy game with no combat, then this isn't going to be the one for you. It definitely is more grindy than I expected it to be. Since the fighting is turn-based, some boss fights can take quite a while to get through. The further you progress in the game and the more islands you discover, the more challenging the combat becomes.

There might be a learning curve here if you are someone who isn’t all that familiar with card-based games. The cards in Moonstone Island will cost you energy to play and they will have different attacks, buffs and more. If you have experience with this type of combat, it's pretty easy to get into. As someone who has played more Magic the Gathering, Hearthstone and Shadowverse than I would care to admit, I didn’t struggle with this combat in the slightest.

All told, if you're a fan of any of the many genres Moonstone Island has to offer, it's definitely worth a try. Who knows, this could become your next Stardew Valley. The environments are beautiful with many different types of landscapes, the sound design is lovely and Moonstone Island will ultimately leave you feeling fulfilled.