Moonlighter is a mix of dungeon-crawler & shop simulator. Our main goal in this game is to obtain valuable materials from dungeons, as well as progress in them, and later sell them in our shop. We can spend earned money on shop & gear upgrades. The crafting system is well made, each class of weapons has 2 branches - we can go for raw damage or slightly less damage but with special passive elemental buff. However difference between armor pieces is based purely on statistics variation they provide (more defense but less speed etc.). Combat - There is abundance of different hostile creatures that vary regarding in which dungeon we are and how far we ventured in it. We have for our disposition variety of weapons, each class features unique basic and special/heavy attack. We can also bring pets (those are extra cute UwU) to combat that will aid us and/or provide passive bonuses (e.g. stun on attacks). This part is mostly polished and well done. Shop-keeping - This part is really interesting and well made except for economy balance, we just keep bringing more valuable items, customers keep paying more so we can keep up with rapidly rising costs of next level gear, potions and other upgrades.. the progress seem only virtual. I must admit that "Between Dimensions" DLC is kind of letdown. It provides alternative way to pass through certain level of dungeon and we even get special weapon for it.. but those seem kind of high risk to use since they drain health on their secondary attack mode which render them barely useful, and we can't keep 'em. As for technical state, the game is rather bug-free (except for occasionally disappearing materials/arrows). We get cute pixel art for graphics (loving the animations), music after a while might feel too repetitive though. Main drawbacks: -Repetitive & grindy -Majority of items we find are cursed and we have to manage them manually each time, it would be fine if it wasn't for almost every item. -Lore is near to non-existant
Spinch is a rather classic style platformer (it clearly delves a lot from mario), there is no deep lore but it features solid gameplay, and charming audio & visuals. Controls are simple - there is only jump & dash except for basic direction controls. Still wish that we could use mouse in menu (it's simply more convenient), also it lacks instant "restart from checkpoint" option in resume menu. Platforming is fluid and each level design is quite unique, however game itself is kinda short (it's up to you whether you see it as pro or con). I've encountered like one bug yet, not that bad tbh since the game just came out. I wouldn't say it's particularly difficult on it's own (I've finished only like 40% so far, can't really tell whether it will be more demanding later). If you die you will just go back to checkpoint (no other penalty), though those are not abundant and usually there will be a need in repeating a significant part of level in order to get to next one. If you are into platformers check it out, pricing seems fair but i would be really pleased if they added some wallpapers (i just really like them) and maybe soundtrack as additional goodies. NOTE FOR LINUX USERS: The game is platinum tier, working flawlessly with just out-of-the-box Wine so you don't have to be upset that there is no port (though i wish there was UwU).
