This game has a very simple yet addicting game loop of looting and selling, and each dungeon is unique and fun to explore. I enjoyed manning the shop and getting upgrades for the town; it felt incredibly rewarding to finally see Rynoka fully developed by the end. Side quests are a fun way to get a bit of extra cash if you're running low, but for the most part I ended up ignoring them once I'd entered the fourth dungeon as my focus shifted to collecting materials to upgrade my gear.
The Golem Dungeon was tough and served as a brilliant introduction to the game. It allowed me to learn the mechanics of combat through trial-and-error (as both a souls-like and rogue-like enthusiast I was a huge fan of this) and helped set the scene for the rest of the game. The increasing difficulty of each floor balanced it out fairly to ensure it's still a challenge by the time you've figured it all out.
The Forest Dungeon was a bloody nightmare, and that's what made it so much fun to push through. The added poison damage on top of regular enemy attacks hitting like a truck made it a gruelling challenge on my first runs. I believe this is the dungeon I died in the most (though I still managed to beat the game for the first time in under 40 deaths). It only took a couple of tries to beat the Guardian, but the fight left my heart racing by the end of it—the best kind of feeling a game can give you, in my opinion.
However, once I got past that second dungeon, everything became... significantly easier. I don't know if it's because I'd got really good at the game, or if it was my switch to using a bow, but I tore through the last two dungeons in a matter of hours. In fact, I beat the fourth dungeon on my first run (provided I used the catalyst right before the boss to bank all my stuff). Are bows just overpowered? Did the game fail to scale the difficulty in a meaningful and challenging way? I'm not sure. But this same problem persisted even to the final boss, who I beat with an almost-entirely full health bar. I'm not saying it wasn't fun—I had an amazing time playing—but in the latter half of the game I really missed that sense of wonder and challenge I felt in the first two dungeons.
On the road to 100%, I've found I'll be experiencing a few roadblocks. Mainly, the fact that once you've beat a boss you can't challenge them again unless you want to play the entire game all over again (or reset your save). This means that getting the achievements for beating all four Guardians hitless will be absolutely agonising and will involve a process of try, reset, try, reset, repeat. I understand part of why this is put in place from a lore perspective, but giving players no way of attempting these achievements again but to replay the whole game was a poor choice in my opinion.
Overall, I'd consider Moonlighter to be a very fun casual rogue-like with an addicting gameplay loop, simple combat and a satisfactory amount of build variety. I'd recommend playing it on the hardest difficulty if you're looking for a bit of extra challenge past the early game, but if you're just in for a fun ride and interesting story then playing the game on the intended difficulty is still a rewarding experience.
The Golem Dungeon was tough and served as a brilliant introduction to the game. It allowed me to learn the mechanics of combat through trial-and-error (as both a souls-like and rogue-like enthusiast I was a huge fan of this) and helped set the scene for the rest of the game. The increasing difficulty of each floor balanced it out fairly to ensure it's still a challenge by the time you've figured it all out.
The Forest Dungeon was a bloody nightmare, and that's what made it so much fun to push through. The added poison damage on top of regular enemy attacks hitting like a truck made it a gruelling challenge on my first runs. I believe this is the dungeon I died in the most (though I still managed to beat the game for the first time in under 40 deaths). It only took a couple of tries to beat the Guardian, but the fight left my heart racing by the end of it—the best kind of feeling a game can give you, in my opinion.
However, once I got past that second dungeon, everything became... significantly easier. I don't know if it's because I'd got really good at the game, or if it was my switch to using a bow, but I tore through the last two dungeons in a matter of hours. In fact, I beat the fourth dungeon on my first run (provided I used the catalyst right before the boss to bank all my stuff). Are bows just overpowered? Did the game fail to scale the difficulty in a meaningful and challenging way? I'm not sure. But this same problem persisted even to the final boss, who I beat with an almost-entirely full health bar. I'm not saying it wasn't fun—I had an amazing time playing—but in the latter half of the game I really missed that sense of wonder and challenge I felt in the first two dungeons.
On the road to 100%, I've found I'll be experiencing a few roadblocks. Mainly, the fact that once you've beat a boss you can't challenge them again unless you want to play the entire game all over again (or reset your save). This means that getting the achievements for beating all four Guardians hitless will be absolutely agonising and will involve a process of try, reset, try, reset, repeat. I understand part of why this is put in place from a lore perspective, but giving players no way of attempting these achievements again but to replay the whole game was a poor choice in my opinion.
Overall, I'd consider Moonlighter to be a very fun casual rogue-like with an addicting gameplay loop, simple combat and a satisfactory amount of build variety. I'd recommend playing it on the hardest difficulty if you're looking for a bit of extra challenge past the early game, but if you're just in for a fun ride and interesting story then playing the game on the intended difficulty is still a rewarding experience.