Moonstone Island Review – Cozy Open World Fun With the Best of Everything

Moonstone Island on PC

Moonstone Island has piqued the curiosity of players for making an bold try to mix the beloved farming and constructing core points of a life-sim sport with monster catching and amassing, referred to by many at first look as a Stardew Valley and old-school Pokemon crossover. I need to admit, whereas I typically battle to keep up curiosity in life-sim video games because of the repetitive gameplay type, I’m an enormous fan of monster-taming titles and pixel artwork normally, so I jumped on the alternative to discover Moonstone Island – and boy, oh boy, was I impressed.

Proper from the second you load into the title display, you’re met with beautiful, detailed pixel artwork and enjoyable atmospheric music that units the tone for the journey to come back. In-game graphics make the most of a lovable chibi artwork type that makes the characters look tremendous cute, pleasant, and approachable, and the Spirits (tamable monsters) much more lovable. Moreover, the world during which you discover is procedurally generated, which suggests the islands you uncover are distinctive to your playthrough, and no two gamers could have the identical expertise.

Whereas I typically discover myself drawn towards titles with a powerful narrative, Moonstone Island’s simplistic strategy is oddly refreshing and charming. You’re an Alchemist following custom and leaving residence to discover the world, navigate the obstacles and risks it has to throw at you, full your coaching, and develop alongside the best way – nothing extra, and nothing much less.

What you select to do, the Spirits you want to tame, the crops you develop, Potions you brew, objects you promote, and pals you make alongside the best way are all as much as you because the participant. In a way, you’re writing your individual story, which is moderately straightforward and comforting to get misplaced in. Merely select your starter Spirit, seize your first set of instruments out of your mother and father, and away you go!

In Moonstone Island, there’s a ridiculous quantity of actions to maintain your self occupied as you progress by way of your days of Alchemist coaching, bringing collectively every part you might ever need in a comfortable life-sim title. Attractive pixel graphics, a soothing, enjoyable soundtrack, Quests, monster catching, turn-based battles, deck constructing, exploration, farming, Dungeon diving, foraging, crafting and constructing, treasure looking, amassing, hidden mines, lovable NPCs, and a number of methods to traverse the lands and make new discoveries.

Due to the sheer quantity of issues this sport has happening, from amassing and taming wild Spirits, serving to out the group, crafting and upgrading your individual home, rigorously selecting playing cards so as to add to your deck for fight, finishing dungeons, uncovering hidden mines, amassing varied treasures, crops, fish, and extra, gameplay generally is a little overwhelming at first. There’s a little bit of a studying curve with regards to memorizing the entire completely different mechanics from instruments, to fight, to crafting, however when you stick at it for an hour or two, it’s best to get the hold of issues with no issues; and that is when the enjoyable and pleasure begins to sink in.

The extra time I spent having fun with Moonstone Island, the extra apparent the time and care put into the sport turned, with the looks of small options that make all of the distinction and actually go a good distance. For instance, when you go AFK, the sport will robotically pause itself after a quick second to make sure your in-game days don’t get away from you. I can’t rely the variety of instances I’ve been distracted trying up inspiration for my home while taking part in titles with an identical strategy, solely to search out I’ve misplaced my invaluable in-game hours and ruined my crops because of this! Thanks, Moonstone Island, for contemplating this – it introduced me a ridiculous quantity of pleasure.

NPCs are charming and make you’re feeling proper at residence from the second of your arrival, full with intriguing personalities and quirky dialogue. These characters create a pleasant atmosphere that feels enjoyable to discover and develop in, making them a lot extra than simply the faces behind the counters of varied shops round city. You possibly can spend time every day growing your bond together with your favourite characters by chatting with them, gifting them objects, and even asking them on dates to discover the potential of romance.

Whereas daytime and well-lit areas carry crisp, clear graphics which can be vivid, daring, and attention-grabbing, nighttime is when Moonstone Island actually shines. Using lovely dynamic lighting, nighttime adventures, and Dungeon exploration feels that rather more mysterious and intriguing. Talking of Dungeons, very similar to the remainder of your world map, these can be randomly generated so that you can stumble throughout. Every Dungeon will comprise a set of puzzles that you may full to uncover invaluable items from inside Treasure Chests, plus a closing boss Spirit to defeat to mark a Dungeon as cleared.

For every Dungeon you clear, you may be supplied with a everlasting enhance to your Stamina, that means Dungeons usually are not solely enjoyable but additionally extraordinarily worthwhile to your long-term gameplay. The puzzles inside Dungeons are pretty simplistic and easy to navigate, for essentially the most half, however stay entertaining, nonetheless. Every Dungeon can also be distinctive, that means finishing them in repetition nonetheless seems like a brand new journey every time.

Whereas Moonstone Island additionally has monster-catching focuses, that is tied into a novel deck-building mechanic that separates it from different titles throughout the similar style. Each Spirit you tame could have a number of playing cards that are performed into your deck. In fight, you’ll draw a random hand of playing cards every flip, relying on which Spirits you’ve gotten in your get together. These playing cards every have a selected Vitality price and are accountable for figuring out your Assaults, Buffs, and different strikes. You get a specific amount of Vitality per flip, which can be utilized to play playing cards, use objects, or flee a battle.

Upon leveling up a Spirit, you’ll have a option to buff a stat of your desire and get so as to add extra highly effective playing cards to the critter’s catalog, which makes for far more highly effective turns in battle. In case you’re the impatient sort and turn-based fight turns into irritating for you, then there’s additionally no want to fret; Moonstone Island has thought of these gamers and enabled a ‘Quick Mode’, which skips animations on the enemy’s flip and makes battles far more fast and environment friendly. In all honesty, this card-battling fight is an absolute pleasure to expertise, and one of many highlights of the sport.

Moonstone Island is actually not like every other life-sim sport I’ve skilled and marks the primary time I’ve discovered myself wholeheartedly absorbed right into a title inside this style. I completely adore every part this sport has to supply, and although I spent my time taking part in the PC version, I can simply say with confidence that it’ll additionally make the proper sport to choose up for Nintendo Swap and play on the go. The principle in-game story will final a yr (100 days), however you may proceed your adventures within the sandbox after this for so long as you’d like, that means your expertise solely actually ends once you determine so.

When you have your doubts concerning the life-sim style or varied in-game mechanics, then simply remember that traditionally I haven’t been an enormous fan of earlier, vaguely related titles, reminiscent of Stardew Valley, or Animal Crossing. Nonetheless, Moonstone Island blew my thoughts in one of the simplest ways doable, permitting me to get fully misplaced within the enjoyable. I needed to dig deep to even provide you with the slightest criticism or destructive side to mirror on, so if that’s any indicator, it’s best to simply give it an opportunity and expertise the wonders of this sport for your self.

Arrange a house on any one in every of 100 randomly generated Islands, unlock recipes to craft objects and embellish your house, uncover hidden treasures, bond and construct relationships together with your new pals, intention to find and tame all wild specimens, or even perhaps got down to hunt for a Holographic Spirit (shiny) – What is going to you do first? The selection is yours.

In regards to the creator

Grace Black

Grace is a author, digital artist, and character illustrator from New Zealand with a love for fiction and storytelling. Grace has been writing for Twinfinite for seven months and within the video games trade for a yr. She’s a horror fanatic, occasional anime enjoyer, and die-hard Ghost-Kind Pokemon fangirl. Her favourite video video games embody Overwatch 2, Life is Unusual, The Final of Us, and Pokemon – all of which she’s going to by no means tire of.