Moonlighter 2 Mixes Combat And Commerce In A Great Early Access RPG
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It’s been a year of massively anticipated indie sequels, from Citizen Sleeper 2 in January to Hades II and Hollow Knight: Silksong in September. Sneaking in before the end of the year, Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault is only entering Steam Early Access, but so far, it’s building on the original Moonlighter in ways that have me captivated far more than I expected.
Like its 2018 predecessor, Moonlighter 2 is a game in two halves. At times, it’s a third-person roguelike where you’ll hack and slash through hordes of enemies in procedurally generated worlds. At others, it’s a shopkeeping sim, putting you in charge of your own store selling the relics you unearth on your adventures. Despite how much is familiar, a lot has changed, too. Moonlighter 2 replaces the first game’s pixel art with a new 3D style, moves its setting from the village of Rynoka to a town full of interdimensional travelers, and trades out the original’s dungeon for a series of encounters spread across the kind of node map that’s now ubiquitous in roguelike games.
Moonlighter 2 hits Steam Early Access seven years ago the original game.
At first, I was skeptical of these changes. I was fond of the original’s pixel art, for one, and after playing an earlier demo, I was equally unconvinced about its combat and progression. While I still think teleporting from one random room to another is a step down from exploring Moonlighter’s dungeons, all of my other concerns have melted away after a few hours in Moonlighter 2’s Early Access version.
The first Moonlighter ends with merchant Will discovering that his hometown’s dungeon is actually connected to a network of interdimensional portals. The fallout of that forces the people of Rynoka to abandon their homes and take shelter in a village between worlds called Tresna. Those portals also explain the new locations you visit in the sequel, as each delve starts with you teleporting to another world.
Moonlighter’s combat could feel rudimentary, and there’s clearly been a lot of work to address that in the sequel. Fights feel more intense, partly due to the more complex movement that 3D offers, and Will has clearly been training in the time since the first game. On each run, you set out with a melee and a ranged weapon, which account for a lot of the new variety in battle. There are four major weapon types — shortswords, greatswords, spears, and dual blades — and for the most part, they’re remarkably creative interpretations of common tools. The greatsword does massive damage, but loses sharpness with every hit and has a weaker special attack that sharpens the blade. The spear drops spearheads when you attack, and its special move sends them flying back to you, damaging anything in their path.
Moonlighter 2’s combat is a major step up from the original game.
Inventive skill sets like these add a unique sense of rhythm to battles, as choosing the right moment to swap special and basic attacks is crucial to get the most out of your kit. Each stage also has traps built in for you to use against enemies, bringing even more variety into combat, and bosses break the mold with some surprisingly clever mechanics that go far beyond requiring you to just smack them until they drop. Overall, Moonlighter 2’s combat is surprisingly engaging, with the kind of quirks you’d expect from a game that just hit Early Access — it can be easy to completely lose sight of what’s going on when battles get too hectic, and an extremely aggressive aim assist feature repeatedly prioritized the wrong targets no matter what I was actually aiming at.
All that fighting is really just a way to get to the loot. Chests at the end of rooms let you add a few pieces of treasure to your bag, and where you put them really matters. Most relics have special effects, which might burn the item it’s placed next to, increase the value of certain treasure types, or transform other pieces of loot completely. Figuring out the best way to arrange your loot before heading back to town is a satisfying puzzle, and one that gives you a lot of freedom to decide what you want out of each run.
Managing your backpack and running your shop are just as engaging as going into battle.
Back in town, you can sell that loot at your shop. At first, you’ll have to price them based entirely on guesswork, but each customer gives feedback that will help you in the future. You’ll always be told if you priced an item too low, too high, or just right, and triangulating the perfect price for every item relies on a mix of luck and experience as you start to understand what different treasures are worth. Selling items at the right price lets you earn bonuses to your final profit, and different item types wax and wane in popularity according to an in-game calendar. It all adds up to a shopkeeping layer that’s easy to understand but takes a lot of work to get right.
Over time, you’ll also earn new ways to improve your shop, mostly through new display cases and other equipment that improve how much customers are willing to pay or grant other benefits. Then there’s the titular Endless Vault, an eldritch being that unlocks new gameplay features for meeting shopkeeping challenges it sets for you.
Moonlighter 2 might not have quite the profile of Hades II or Silksong, but it may be the most surprising sequel to a well-liked indie game this year. Despite some rough spots, Moonlighter 2’s changes from the original game are almost all positive, adding some needed flair to combat while refining the inventory and shop management layers that already made the first Moonlighter a hit.
