Moonlight Peaks Switch 2 Review

Moonlight Peaks Switch 2 Review
Version Reviewed: Nintendo Switch 2

I recently came off a cozy gaming binge. Moving from Fae Farm and Animal Crossing to Stardew Valley, and most recently Discounty, you could say the bar has been set pretty high for cozy games. Moonlight Peaks takes elements from some of those favourites and gives them a supernatural twist, but does it have the fangs to stand on its own? What’s it Like? Wake from your coffin, brush off your cape, and keep the garlic out of reach as we review Moonlight Peaks for Nintendo Switch 2.

Moonlight Peaks puts you in the coffin of Dracula’s child, who runs away from home to begin a new life in your family’s abandoned homestead. Nestled among a community of werewolves, witches, vampires, and other supernatural residents, your goal is to prove to your sceptical father that kindness and compassion can achieve far more than fear ever could. While the opening follows many of the same setups found in other cozy games, the story further unravels through charming cutscenes and character interactions, much like Stardew Valley. Getting to know the people around you becomes just as rewarding as tending to your crops, with each friendship revealing more about the town and its spooky cast.

As I mentioned at the start of this review, Moonlight Peaks follows many familiar cozy game conventions, but its strength comes from improving or putting a supernatural spin on many of those ideas. Farming is a great example. Crops still grow with the seasons, but instead of relying solely on a watering can, you can cast spells to water them, saving both time and energy. Magic is balanced by a mana meter that only gives you a set amount each day, so deciding when to use your spells becomes part of planning your routine and the amount of magical crops you can handle. Crops also become a mini game of their own, with some crops taking on a more ghoulish requirement of the venus fly trap, requiring you to hunt fish and insects to sate their hunger. The 400% and 500% mana extraction benefits make it worth it.

I also loved how watering crops has been streamlined. Rather than stopping to water one tile at a time, you can hold down the action button and continue walking as your crops are watered automatically. It’s a small quality-of-life feature, but one that makes tending your farm much smoother. Early on, you’ll be selling crops for a quick profit, but before long, you’ll be refining them into artisan goods that earn a much better return.

Relationships also play an important role in Moonlight Peaks, with each resident revealing more of their story as you spend time with them. Building friendships progresses a little slower than in many other cozy games, with most of your progress coming from giving gifts or challenging characters to games of Nokturna. That turned out to be one of my favourite parts of the experience. Winning matches rewards you with new cards once per day, gradually expanding your collection and encouraging you to build stronger decks. Nokturna could almost stand on its own as a separate game, and it quickly became part of my daily routine as I chased the best cards. Along with this there are other mini games along the way, cooking involves a timing game, and friendships with Elvira unlock a pub quiz night.

The world itself is also much larger than I expected and is packed with collectibles and secrets to discover. One of my favourite activities was tracking down Soul Blobs, each accompanied by an amusing description explaining the unusual way that soul met its end. Different areas of the map also offer their own rewards, whether that’s mines filled with ore and crystals, vendors selling seeds and animals, or new locations waiting to be uncovered. If exploring isn’t on the agenda for the day, you can always spend time decorating your home, crafting furniture, upgrading your tools, catching bigger fish, or hunting down even more elusive Soul Blobs, Vampsters, or insects.

Everything feeds into a progression system that rarely leaves you wondering what to do next. As someone who loves cozy games, I always felt like there was another goal to chase, whether it was unlocking a new spell, upgrading my farm, discovering another area, or expanding my collection. Even after 33 hours, I was still uncovering new mechanics and features, and was barely into the first years Autumn, so there’s no shortage of content here to sink your teeth into. Even subtle cleverness seeps into the game for example, when tending to your animals as a Vampire, they make cute animal noises, but when you interact with them as a Hellkitten, you can understand their dialogue and learn about the inner workings of your pets… for the record the smell of the Cowcula is a pretty standard complaint from all your animals. Although animals can’t be customised, there are small cosmetic additions like hats, which I found quite enjoyable.

The relationships are an interesting topic amongst your townsfolk, too. Reviewing the possible relationships I was surprised to find the bartender I had my eye on wasn’t an option (yet?), but the old drunk vampire was. Death is also a possible love match, but he feels more like an uncle on a cruise rather than the ominous presence usually portrayed. The characters have a cutesy style which is a cross between Animal Crossing and Fae Farm, but the name plates have a gorgeous artstyle, which also had me considering Mina as a potential match just because she was so darn cute!

Moonlight Peaks features a goth Animal Crossing-style visual approach with characters having a cutesy chibi style. Every character has an adorable design that makes even the more intimidating supernatural residents easy to warm to. During conversations, expressive portraits, animation and cute emotes above their heads give each character plenty of personality, helping their dialogue land with a little more charm. The town itself follows the same philosophy. From crooked rooftops and towering castles to cosy cottages and furniture, everything embraces the supernatural setting without losing the comforting atmosphere you’d expect from a cozy game. It gives Moonlight Peaks an identity of its own, making it feel familiar while still standing apart from many other farming sims. During my playthrough, some performance issues started emerging from the shadows after about 20 hours. Thankfully, they were mostly limited to a brief period of stuttering each morning when I woke up in my home. It would usually last around 15 to 20 seconds before smoothing out, and I found restarting the game would generally fix the issue for the next hour or so.

For my vampires looking into accessibility, there aren’t any dedicated accessibility options available at launch. Thankfully, there’s a demo on the Nintendo eShop, giving you the chance to see whether the game is a good fit before committing to a purchase.

At just under $65 AUD, Moonlight Peaks offers excellent value for cozy game fans. I’ve already spent many hours working on my first in-game year, and there’s still plenty left for me to discover.

Moonlight Peaks is a wonderful surprise. It takes inspiration from many of the games that came before it, but builds on those ideas with clever quality of life improvements, a charming supernatural setting, and an addictive card game that could almost stand on its own. Whether I was tending crops, expanding my card collection, decorating my home, or exploring another corner of the map, there was always something drawing me back for just one more day. If you’ve been searching for your next cozy obsession, Moonlight Peaks deserves a place near the top of your wishlist. It may be filled with vampires, witches and werewolves, but this is one cozy adventure you’ll be happy to invite into your home.

So, What’s It Like? Moonlight Peaks is like Animal Crossing crossed with Stardew Valley and Fae Farm, taking the best of all 3!

Moonlight Peaks is a What’s It Like Certified Exceptional game.

In the interest of full disclosure, a review copy was provided by the publisher, but this doesn’t influence my score.

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