Moonlighter (2018)

Absolutely gorgeous, but the game lacks depth in every area. The combat is serviceable albeit clunky. The limited variety of weapons is disappointing to say the least. The weapons you start the game with are no different than the ones you end the game with, which would be fine if the actual combat or dungeon design was a bit more engaging.

The upgrade system exists simply to force you to revisit the dungeons a few a times before progressing to the next one, as all it does is give you basic damage/armor boosts. (There is the choice between a raw damage upgrade path and reduced raw + DoT upgrade path for each of the five weapon types, however the difference in gameplay is negligible regardless of whichever you choose.)

The storefront mechanic is novel at first, but quickly grows tiresome as you begin to realize it's just a padded out way of selling off your trash items. I have a few more issues with the game, but I feel like I've already bashed it enough. It's not like I didn't enjoy it to some degree.

Also, a minor gripe, the Switch version is poorly optimized and becomes noticeably laggy after an hour+ of continuous play. It can be fixed by exiting out of the game entirely, which is annoying, but at least it's better than an always laggy game.

The longer I play this game, the more I feel like I need to write a dissertation about it. It has so many issues yet the core gameplay itself has such potential that I keep pressing onward. At this point I feel obligated to finish it, a feeling that I rarely give into, but as Link's Awakening is still quite far off I have the time to push through it, no matter how much of a slog it sometimes becomes.

At this point, I'm in Dungeon 4, I have my assistant selling off all of my items, and I'm grinding out as much money as possible. I have a level 4 Bow and Sword/Shield, as well as most of my gear, so I'm just blowing through millions to give to the Witch to upgrade my gear even further.

The main issue I keep running into is that the balance is very off. Each dungeon has taken longer to clear than the one before it, but not due to a lack of skill - more like the enemies scaled up in attack patterns and damage, the bosses got harder, but the gear never really evolved to the point where it matches. In other words, Level 2 gear in Dungeon 2 worked great and it was reasonably difficult. Level 3 gear in Dungeon 3 was not a huge difference, as the enemies got much tougher. Now, Level 4 gear in Dungeon 4 hardly does anything. And of course, the price of each upgrade gets exponentially more expensive as you progress, so you need to grind out items to quickly flip them.

The whole selling process of guessing prices for hours at a time is worth a post in itself. To save time in my grinding, I've been letting my assistant handle all of the selling - although there is no explanation of how the assistant prices your items. Do your room decoration buffs have any effect on the selling prices? I have no idea and none of it is explained. She takes a 30% cut of your item sales, which would be easily negated by tip buffs, but who knows?

The concept of the assistant also removes 50% of the entire game. Rather than learning some skills or getting an upgrade to make selling easier or faster (like something that would give you more precise pricing floors/ceilings), you just blindly hand over items and basically get handed some cash afterwards.

I can go on, but I need to turn this into a proper blog post. I literally have pages of notes that I've scribbled down. Bugs, questions, frustrations.. this game has confused the hell out of me while also providing a unique and entertaining experience. Bizarre, huh?