Moonlight Peaks Switch 2 Review

It’s an unorthodox farmer’s life for us as we develop unusual crops and befriend werewolves in Little Hen’s supernatural life sim. Learn GameWatcher’s Moonlight Peaks evaluate to search out out if the sport’s value staying up all night time for.

The crossover attraction of horror and farming sims has begun to be realised, however Moonlight Peaks isn’t actually a part of that. It’s a farming sim with a supernatural sheen, certain, but it surely’s about as threatening as a defanged vampire.

Not that it is a unhealthy factor for Moonlight Peaks, as a result of the premise sees you play as a vampire, so residing in a world of monsters is fairly unthreatening for you. There’s stress, but it surely’s solely within the interpersonal drama of the neighborhood. It’s a fairly comfortable time of it, actually, simply with a pleasant supernatural spin.

We enter the city of Moonlight Peaks as a vampire daughter or son of Dracula, who has run away from residence to the titular city to show themselves by restoring the deserted household homestead and turning into a farmer of the unusual land.

The hook of a vampire farming life sim is that your day begins at sundown somewhat than sunup, with the time restrict being the very apparent daybreak refrain. So that you’ll have to be tucked up in your comfortable coffin by then. Moonlight Peaks totally embraces this night time life by populating it nearly fully with totally different creatures of the night time going about their enterprise, working jobs, having longstanding beefs, and a litany of non-public issues.
The city has a wealthy historical past that’s fuelled by the seven households which have made it their residence over the centuries.

Amongst these households are the Draculas, fellow vamps, the Ambrosias, werewolf pack, the Logans, the witchy Webb household, and the magical seers of the Khazan. You enter Moonlight Peaks with your loved ones’s repute very a lot in folks’s minds. Mayor Brook Logan is distrustful of you, whereas members of the Ambrosia household are just a little extra welcoming and admiring of a Dracula being again on the town.

What’s fairly obvious early on in Moonlight Peaks is that it has a better preliminary give attention to story than its most evident trendy inspiration. Within the early going, you get obligatory missions and a gentle stream of tales from sure residents, introducing you to the totally different dynamics there are between folks and feeding you some city historical past within the course of.

Now, should you’d somewhat simply get on with issues since you’re already accustomed to the mechanics of a farming life sim, this early a part of the sport is usually a contact tedious, even in case you are getting some context for the way a magical city of witches, werewolves, mermaids, and snake salesmen works.

Personally, having spent a superb chunk of early 2026 going deep on a contemporary Stardew Valley run, I did get a tad impatient with the treacly begin. Nonetheless, I did develop to simply accept that Moonlight Peaks takes nearly as a lot inspiration from video games like Animal Crossing and Dragon Quest Builders, the place there’s a freedom that’s wrapped within the cosy, restrictive wrap of storytelling.

One motive I favored this method is that it meant I bought to work together with some residents having precise data of the type of folks they is likely to be. That method, I may choose what sort of dynamic felt proper to have with them, somewhat than simply occurring aesthetics.
The draw back is that this method is inconsistent. Solely a handful of characters get a correct introduction like this, and the remaining require a bit extra investigation to grasp.

There’s a wealth of choices when it comes to friendships and romances, and this appears to be the compromise we get with having two dozen potential beaus. Additionally, it’s honest to say that my preliminary gripes in regards to the pacing would have been additional aggravated if everybody bought an unavoidable little bit of backstory. Nonetheless, it leaves some residents’ personalities feeling undernourished in comparison with others’.

Romancing and friendships are simply part of the expertise, in fact (though some would argue it’s probably the most important half); there’s that complete farming life too. Whereas the job of farming is strictly what you’d count on in any farming sim, the supernatural flavour of Moonlight Peaks spices issues up a bit. Right here, there are distinctive takes on established fruits, greens, and livestock that match a magical world the place it’s important to develop and domesticate every little thing whereas the solar’s down.

Contemplating you’re an undead monster, you initially get drained of vitality fairly shortly. A few chopped bushes and a few farm upkeep later, and also you’re mainly prepared to go again to the coffin for the day. Nothing too uncommon, in spite of everything, you’re presupposed to be new to all this and, naturally, stamina ranges get higher with time, assets, and skill upgrades. It’s simply that, once more, the degrees of the difficulty make moving into Moonlight Peaks just a little tedious when it needs to be charming you.

However sufficient about that. When you do recover from the hump of the opening hours, Moonlight Peaks begins to shine within the moonlight. The nice pleasure of life sims equivalent to that is within the gradual discovery of recent issues to do, simply as you get into the groove of the on a regular basis.

You acquire the flexibility to shapeshift, which makes traversing the city a a lot swifter expertise, and alongside that comes the possibility to study witchcraft that helps you within the extra mundane duties. This opens up a bevy of contemporary experiences to whereas away the hours past tending to crops and hanging out together with your digital associates.

There’s a collectable card sport referred to as Nokturna you may play in opposition to the opposite residents, which is sort of compelling to play and gather playing cards for. However it’s the extra serene hobbies you may take up which are surprisingly probably the most engrossing to me. Hobbies equivalent to embroidery and flower arranging are comparatively easy issues within the sport, however they match the somewhat easy-going nature of Moonlight Peaks. These had been the types of issues that drew me into the world of Moonlight Peaks and had been the place I most felt like I used to be residing a life within the city.

Having a supernatural sheen on a farming life sim definitely appealed to me from the outset, and there’s simply sufficient uniqueness to this premise that makes Moonlight Peaks a viable various to your life sim of alternative. For a seasoned vet of the style, the opening hours might be frustratingly gradual, however the eventual rewards are value persevering for.

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Moonlight Peaks is launching on Steam, Nintendo Change and Nintendo Change 2 on July 7, 2026.