Moonlighter 2 is a new game with better graphics and improved features. It combines exciting fighting like in Hades with the fun of collecting money like in Stardew Valley.
The original Moonlighter was made for its time and still has fans. But how much you like it now depends on what you enjoy. It can feel a bit slow and awkward and it suits people who like old Gameboy-style games. Moonlighter 2 improves the fighting makes managing the shop easier and has beautiful new graphics that look great on modern screens. The main character Will is back and better than before.
The game Moonlighter made the developer Digital Sun famous in 2018. Since then they created The Mageseeker: A League of Legends Story and a new game called Cataclismo which many people liked. Now, the team is using what they learned from these games to make Moonlighter 2.
The new game is very different from the first one. The first game mixed dungeon exploring like Binding of Isaac and Zelda with running a shop where you sell treasures. People compared it to an old Steam favorite called Recettear: An Item Shop’s Tale which I also like. Moonlighter 2 keeps this idea but adds new features from recent roguelike games.
Digital Sun changes the look and feel of Moonlighter 2 to be more like games such as Death's Door or Hades. It uses soft colors and smooth 3D animations. Instead of the old SNES-style graphics Moonlighter 2 now has clean and shiny 3D shapes.
The look of the game has changed a lot but the main gameplay of Moonlighter is still the same. The story starts right after the first game. You meet the main characters again. Since they left Rynoka and the famous Moonlighter store Will and his friends go back to exploring dungeons. They search for treasures and items to sell so they can afford to get back home.
After finishing the tutorials the Endless Vault (which I called the Capitalism Cube) asked me to earn 5,000 gold in one shift at the shop. So I had to go back to the dungeons to fight and collect as much as I could.
Instead of looking down on small square rooms like the original Moonlighter 2 shows colorful angled views of each area. You fight the bad guys (or run away) and then pick which room to go to next.
The icons above each transporter show what kind of room it leads to. You can choose to take a big risk in a boss room try your luck in a tough challenge or quickly go to a safe treasure room to get a helpful reward or final chest.
How you handle your loot is important. Many relics do things when you pick them up or when they are near others. So you need to think carefully about what you collect where you put it and how it works with other relics around it.
One good example is a relic that burns the item next to it. If you put it next to another relic that copies items when they burn you can get double the items if you use it right. Another relic makes sticks and logs which are usually not useful more valuable. This can help make a weak game run better.
At the store there is a new bartering game that fixes the problems of the old simple shop system. In this game you use tokens to raise the price of things a buyer wants. One token raises the price by a percentage and the other raises it by a fixed amount.
The more things you sell the more rewards you get during that shift. This creates a chain reaction letting you sell something like wood which normally costs 1 gold for 1,500 gold. It’s a huge increase in price that doesn’t really make sense but it feels great to do.
It’s about controlling how when and why you use these tokens to get the most value from what you want to buy. At first you have very few tokens but if you get lucky with special perks you can end up with more tokens than you can use all at once.
This part of the game includes fun mini-games that feel like simple chores helping to slightly boost an item’s value. It turns selling items into a fun fast-paced challenge instead of just waiting around. Selling cheap items first to unlock perks then bringing out rare ones makes this a smart and fun break between tough dungeon battles.
Combat is fast and wild. You hit enemies until they get dizzy then use your bag to knock them into walls bounce them off others or send them flying off the map like in Smash Bros.
Each time you land a hit it slowly recharges your ranged weapon. This lets you switch between close-up attacks and long-range shots. I hope the swing feels stronger and heavier as you carry more items but I didn’t see that happen in my short time playing. Maybe it’s a perk you unlock later.
Getting a new weapon at the base made battles feel very different. You can try many things like permanent upgrades or totally new weapon types.
I had a hard time spotting incoming attacks because there weren’t clear visual signs like a flash. This made it tough to handle enemy swarms and often caused my run to end early. Maybe it’s just because I’m still new to the game but having some warning signs would make it feel more like a roguelike than a soulslike.
When you end a run either by choice or by dying a progress bar shows how far you got. I never made it to the boss at the one-third point but I always felt excited to try again. Well after selling a burnt stick for the price of a used car that is.
Moonlighter 2 looks like a fun and exciting sequel for a new generation of players. The first game felt like a friendly version of The Binding of Isaac and this new one mixes cozy game vibes with the fast action of modern roguelikes. It’s like Recettear meets Hades. I’m excited to play more (and probably lose more) later this year.
If you want to try it out the Moonlighter 2 demo is now available on Steam.
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