Moonglow Bay Switch Review

Here in Australia, we are big fans of Bays, and I’ve been lucky to live in Hervey Bay and Runaway Bay, and watch Home and Away’s Summer Bay! There’s just something Cozy about Bays in general. So it makes sense that Moonglow Bay from Coatsink Games would be no different. Initially released in 2021 on Xbox, Moonglow Bay has finally found its way onto the Nintendo Switch. What’s It Like? Patch up the boat, fill in your journal, and get your tackle box as we review Moonglow Bay on Nintendo Switch.

Moonglow Bay is set in the 80’s tells a story of loss and mystery as you play a spouse struggling to come to terms with their disappearance 3 years ago. Much like your life, the town of Moonglow Bay has fallen into a state and as fate would have it, your daughter has come back to repair both. So begins a wholesome tale of rebuilding your partner’s dream and the failing town with it by fishing and cooking and raising funds to clean up the town. Along the way, you will uncover mysteries of the bay, upgrade your boat, and discover a myriad of outlandish and unique species of fish to catalog and document. The game manages to tactfully navigate some heavy themes to weave a beautiful narrative of overcoming tragedy and loss while rediscovering oneself. This is one of the core strengths of the game and the story had me hook, line, and sinker.

The gameplay is best described in 3 phases:

There’s the fishing part, that sees you catch and catalogue a variety of fish in around 20 locations. There’s a lot of nuanced gameplay here as the types of fish caught depend on what rod, area, and bait or lures you use. You can use lobster traps as well to leave overnight to catch a small fortune worth of crustaceans. Fishing plays similar to Animal Crossings fishing style, with the exception that you get to also control reeling in your catch by alternating the direction of your rod to the fish to tire out. You can also use a quick reel which can tire you out, but I found in most cases, especially on the smaller fish, you can use it twice and land the fish. While this may seem like a gameplay oversight, I found it refreshing to be able to land catches quickly and maximize my profits. IN the latter stages of the game, you will have enough funds to upgrade your boat to be much faster, better armored, and even have a galley or kitchen inside to maximize your efficiency, by allowing you to cook at sea.

The second phase is, of course, the cooking, which consists of varied mini-games such as washing and preparing the fish, frying, and oven baking. When you progress through the game, you will be able to cook multiple recipes at once, as well as automatically cook them to save you time. Auto cooking is unlocked on a dish-by-dish basis by perfectly cooking the recipe. This certainly comes in handy when you have 40 lobster salads to cook! Once you have cooked your catch, you can put them in a vending machine outside of your house to sell. Everything will sell during the course of the day, so funds will trickle feed into your account while you fish some more. As you progress, you will unlock new tools and recipes for cooking, allowing you to make more complex and valuable products to sell. You can also unlock more vending machines around town, further expanding your business around the Bay.

The 3rd phase of the game is the restoration of the town, which will take up a lot of funds and items to achieve. It starts off as a slow burn, restoring the local tavern where you can hear rumours of monster fish, but eventually opens up to restoring the whole town at your discretion. Sometimes you will have to create recipes to feed people at meetings or simply donate money. While it sounds like a lot, if you have been progressing the story, funds shouldn’t really be an issue so you can restore a major project every couple of in-game days or so.

Visually, the world of Moonglow Bay is done in a pixellated Voxel Style that I adored. Each character has their own style and charm and they will warm to you the more your story goes on. The art style really helps set the scene of the cold north of Canada and the styles and fashions suit the 1980’s. It’s all very well done in my opinion. For my vision-impaired anglers, there are no accessibility options, so further research may be required to see if Moonglow Bay on Switch is for you. The game looks and performs well in both docked and handheld (with the exception of using the camera, and doesn’t support touch screen which I don’t think would have really worked well here regardless. All of this is backed by a wonderful acoustic score that’s chilled out and suits the coastal vibe of the game. It gels really well with the visual style creating a great atmosphere for the game.

Unfortunately, much like the beaches of Moonglow Bay that you can trawl for bait, the Switch version seems to have a few bugs in its current state. In my 12+ hours of game time, my main issue was my dog was invisible from Act 2 onwards, including in the cutscenes and one story event where I had to move next to the dog which proved to be a frustrating experience. The other main issue was the awful framerate only while using the camera, as it seems to make the draw distance infinite and slows the game to a crawl. Aside from these 2 main bugs, the other issues were minor and didn’t detract from my experience, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

For just under $40 AUD, there is a lot of gameplay and story in Moonglow Bay to provide value. If you are a fan of Fishing mini-games, then look no further, Moonglow Bay on Switch has you covered. The game will certainly improve with a post-launch patch, but still, if you can deal with having an invisible dog, there’s a beautiful story to uncover, friendly faces to meet, and fish to catch. Moonglow Bay is a delight of a game that’s sure to entertain fans of fishing and cozy games alike.

So, What’s It Like? Moonglow Bay is like Animal Crossing, mixed with Stardew Valley.