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СпутникиРНSpaceXРоскосмосNASA While I won't deny that the life-simulation category has become a bit too saturated these days, I do also enjoy returning to this slice of the market every few months to detox and otherwise indulge in relaxing and stress-free gameplay. Following on Pokémon Pokopia in spring, this summer is all about Moonlight Peaks, and essentially what we're talking about here is a rather traditional life-sim project with a Fae Farm/My Sims-like appearance with the twist being the supernatural setup, where instead of playing as a regular human, the protagonist role is that of a vampire.
Now we're not talking about a game where the player has to suck the blood of nearby residents to stay alive, as a lot of the grislier elements of being a vampire are swept under the rug in favour of the more romanticised benefits. There are supernatural abilities to master (including transforming into a bat), mystical spells to cast and potions to brew, there are a host of other supernatural characters to meet and befriend, including witches, werewolves, and seers, and yet this is all on top of dealing with a few vampiric weaknesses, such as an aversion to sunlight meaning all the 'day-to-day' tasks take more of a 'night-to-night' approach.
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So yes, we're talking about a familiar life-sim project in many respects and manners but developer Little Chicken does switch things up in a few ways to keep everything feeling fresh. And this also includes asking players to farm crops, tend animals, make recipes and produce, all of which has a supernatural theme. Essentially, instead of just growing potatoes and tending cows, you will have to farm blood wine grapes, care for a hellspawn kitten, turn ingredients into potions and obscure juices, all to generate funds to buy new livestock and seeds, increase your income, and otherwise 'live off the fat of the land'.
I will give credit to Little Chicken for their implementation of player expression systems, as there are a broad array of items to build and purchase, plus plants to grow to make your spooky homestead your own. There are great relationships to develop with the interesting and unique townsfolk, fun side activities to fill your time, be it fishing or playing the Nockturna card game, and all packaged into a small world that offers an admirable amount of depth. Yet still, none of this changes the fact that Moonlight Peaks faces the same issues all life-sim games tend to face.
For one, the opening phase is pretty brutal and repetitive. For the first month or so of in-game time, you'll spend your nights doing menial and boring tasks, be this chopping wood or cutting weeds, all while getting next to no meaningful return from your desire to build relationships with the townsfolk. Building a financial foundation to grow from is tough, and while I will give credit to Moonlight Peaks for not holding your hand and letting you figure this out for yourself, some of the prices of the upgrades can feel out of reach, which means certain key mechanics and features are locked away for a good amount of time. This includes livestock, where you will need the expensive home upgrade of a barn before being able to purchase animals, and naturally, without livestock, a lot of core cooking and crafting ingredients are off the table. The point is, a lot of life-sim games are set up in such a way that the onboarding and opening few hours are somewhat miserable and flat, and Moonlight Peaks falls right into this trap.
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Likewise, I'm not a huge fan of the stamina system in the game. There's already the time limit attached to each night, where when the sun rises, you are immediately teleported back to your coffin to end the day, which is why I don't think there's much need to also offer a stamina system that further limits your nightly actions unless you have a good supply of food on hand to refill this gauge. It's another life-sim-wide fault mind you, one where this limitation doesn't really serve much of a purpose in my eyes, especially when the night-by-night loop is as strict as it is in Moonlight Peaks.
But again, for each of the life-sim pitfalls it stumbles into, Moonlight Peaks also manages to thrive with many others. The art direction and style is lovely, with plenty of fittingly-themed colours and creative options. There's tons of mechanical depth in this game, a variety of secrets to discover and unpack, interesting townsfolk to meet, and a core story at the heart of the game too that provides added backstory and lore as to how your character and their family is connected to this quaint community. Would it be better if the dialogue was fully-voiced? Without question. But it also fundamentally works as is, so I won't knock it much more beyond that.
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So long story short, while Moonlight Peaks doesn't really do much to challenge the dynamics of the life-sim genre, what Little Chicken has cooked up with this game is entertaining and charming enough to keep you coming back for more. It's familiar and perhaps a bit safe in places, but it works and it gets most of the fundamentals right, and for that matter, Moonlight Peaks is enough of a success in my eyes.