Moonlighter

I bought this game entirely on the premise. The somewhat niche concept of a rogue like dungeon crawl combined with store management and crafting seemed right up my alley. And the game delivered on that, in the initial stages the game was captivating in its gameplay and its graphics. The pixel art is absolutely gorgeous, and full of life and vibrancy. But, as the game went on, its lack of depth began to show through. While it is presented as an equal split between the dungeoneering and shopkeeping, money becomes so plentiful by the second dungeon that you needn’t touch the shop at all. While this option is good for those who do not care for the management side of the game, it’s rather disappointing for me, who really craved complexity from that side of gameplay. If you do want to stick with the shop, you’ll find the mechanics disappointing, just a case of tweaking prices up and down till you find the sweet spot, then, that’s it. You just wait for people to hurry up and buy your things so you can go back to dungeon delving. You can expand the shop, but this only gives you more slots to sell items, the mechanics remain uninteresting and repetitive. Then there is the town. The town is gorgeous. The pixel art and musical accents shine here, and the characters are all so full of personality. But they never have anything to say. Most npcs pull from a pool of generic lines, that is exhausted after talking to two or three of them. There are a few that hint at having further character beneath the façade, but they only get one or two lines to say before they repeat themselves endlessly, only finding something new to say once you’ve opened up a new dungeon, meaning each npc will be repeating the same two lines for hours of gameplay. I wish there was a point to talking to these people. If they could implement social aspects, alla Stardew valley, it could've been an interesting and compelling side of gameplay. As it is, the game is just good. And that's a real shame.

I loved stardew valley, and really like the idea of running a virtual shop (I have Banu Merchanman in Star Citizen expressly because of this) But it took me a few years to get on this game because of the rougelike element. Turns out, both the shop managment and the rougelike were very fun. It reminded me of a much simpler version of Bastion -- had a blast with that game as well This game isn't super long, so it definetly does not overstay it's welcome. I can only hope the devs eventually make a version two with more breadth and depth s I can enjoy the visit longer

This game was great for a while. Sure it's monotonous but I enjoyed the grinding. Then as you get to the later levels the balance is completely broken. If you get a corrupted boss it's one hit death. And after spending 30 minutes in the dungeon playing their inventory mini games to organize your load, if you die on one hit to a boss it's very annoying. Dropped it after 5 hours.

2D graphics are OK, for what they're worth. But the gameplay is what spoils it. The combat is totally jank. Imagine facing many enemies, which cause damage on contact plus projectiles, in cramped areas, with garbage controls... Also, the soundtrack is bad. Do yourself a favour and play some better soundtracks in the background. The concept of running a store was very interesting, but the size of the store is very underwhelming. It starts small and the upgrades are insignificant. It fails to entertain my inner capitalist. At least there were no taxes.

This was a game that I flip-flopped on for several months, but I eventually decided to buy it during a sale ... and I couldn't be happier with my purchase! This game is a perfect blend of Stardew Valley, Zelda, and Enter The Gungeon. I didn't know what to expect from the trailer, but I was highly addicted after playing for only about an hour. The game always feels like it's moving forward, and you never feel as though you're being ripped off when selling your items. You're able to upgrade your equipment regularly, and you can make the decision early in the game which items work best for you (Sword and Shield, Large Sword, Spear, Bow and Arrow or Fighting Claw). Each weapon has a number of upgrades available, which brings enough variety to keep you interested. I will say that the dungeon fights do tend to get a bit repetitive, but the same can be said about any game (specifically RPG's) that require a lot of grinding. I love the satisfaction of selling the items you find in each dungeon. I've never been more entertained by beating shoplifters and ringing up customers!