Procedural dungeon diving can get tedious. Eventually you see it all, kill it all, and maybe even wear it all. Moonlighter tries to mix things up by adding value to your late-night subterranean exploits. It does this literally by allowing you to sell all your dungeon loot in the shop you manage during the day. Moonlighter tasks you with being a dungeon diver by night, and a savvy business man by day, an odd combination that just may break up the monotony of the typical dungeon crawler.
If you’re familiar with The Binding of Issac you should be able to wrap your head around the dungeon diving. Each dungeon has a series of procedurally generated rooms designed around the dungeon’s aesthetic. You have to defeat the enemies in each room to move on to the next one, collecting loot along the way. Combat is fairly simple with weapons including swords, shields, and bows. A room’s challenge comes in the form of learning how to deal with each enemy type. Smaller slimes are more of a nuisance than anything, but larger foes take big hits and cause massive damage.
You start off in a golem themed dungeon, but will eventually work your way through forests and deserts. Each dungeon has several floors you must clear in order to reach a final boss, and unique items to collect. The closer you get to the boss the more difficult the enemies are and the more rare and lucrative the loot. But if you die you lose the loot, so you have to balance risk vs. reward.
Once your satisfied with your bounty it’s time to warp to the surface and peddle your wares. This is where Moonlighter carves it’s own path. As the shop keeper you get to set the prices for your hard-earned trinkets. Price things too high and people will feel like they’re being robbed, too low and your hard work will be for naught. It’s an interesting balance you must achieve. In the short time I played I could tell zeroing in on the value of each item would be fun and rewarding. Each item has a demand associated with it, and each customer has a budget and desire, so working the market will a big part of the experience.
In addition to the dungeon and shop keeping components, there’s also a third element in the form of town building. As you earn money you can use it to bring new shops to the developing town you live in. These shops will allow you to purchase new armor, weapons, and potions to help you fight your way through the dungeons. I’m not sure the extent of who you can bring to the town, but more residents means more customers, so you’ll want to invite as many new faces as possible.
Moonligher‘s loop of dungeon crawling, shop keeping, upgrading, then back to dungeon crawling is quite satisfying even in the limited demo I played. It’ll be interesting to see how the progression works beyond the opening hours. I’m also interested in seeing how I can expand my town and what new opportunities that will bring me. Luckily I won’t have to wait long because Moonlighter will be out on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC on May 29th. (There’s also a Switch version on the way.)
You can watch the interview at the top of the page to hear more from Javier Giménez about Moonlighter, and you can check out the video below for an extended play session on the PAX East show floor.
