Moonglow Bay Switch review – old feelings, new friends, and fish

The time period ‘cozy recreation’ is thrown round loads nowadays, nevertheless it’s fairly becoming for Moonglow Bay. It’s aesthetically charming, with a vivid voxel world filled with characters who’re at all times desirous to see you. The mechanics aren’t a wrestle to wrap your head round, and the pacing moseys alongside like a string of child geese waddling behind their mom. For essentially the most half, this recreation is sort of a good heat blanket and a bedtime story. Nevertheless, that’s just for essentially the most half.

For slightly context, Moonglow Bay is a recreation by indie developer Bunnyhug that first arrived on PC again in 2021 with slightly assist from writer Coatsink. Three years later, we’ve lastly received the Swap port, which solely feels pure, with the console the house of so many common cozy slice-of-life titles like Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Summer time in Mara, and others. So, what precisely do you do in Moonglow Bay?

Let’s begin with the story. After choosing your character from a number of 4 designs, your companion character, and your respective pronouns, you soar into the inciting incident. Having moved from Ontario to Moonglow Bay to reside your companion’s dream of fishing for a residing, they go lacking, presumed useless, and also you’re left alone with Muffin the canine. Sure, I do know it’s a fairly bleak opening for one thing I’ve already described as a comfortable recreation, however keep on with me right here. Years after the accident, your grownup daughter turns as much as attempt to show you how to begin your life once more whereas additionally aiming to help you in rebuilding the Moonglow Bay neighborhood that seemingly went to pot after your companion’s disappearance and rumors of sea beasts scared away the fishing neighborhood.

With the start out of the best way, the narrative will get far more heartwarming, due to your little voxel character doing their stage greatest to help the nice folks of the Bay. With Muffin and your daughter in toe, you get clues about what actually may have occurred to your lacking love whereas gathering new data on native aquatic species and the world past Moonglow Bay. All this when you donate fish to the native aquarium and lift restoration funds for native establishments, just like the Cozy Membership, and library, to attempt to return the neighborhood to its former glory. It’s the dictionary definition of quaint, with the occasional second that tugs in your heartstrings like a towboat pulling alongside a large seafaring vessel.

Earlier than shifting on, I’ve to reward the builders for making the participant character an outdated particular person. Why? Effectively, as a result of not many video games choose to try this. Most builders are seemingly conscious that folks need to mission themselves onto in-game characters, so we regularly see participant characters as kids, or at the least these too younger to expertise a mid-life disaster. Moonglow Bay takes a danger by placing you within the sneakers of somebody who’s extra world-weary having handled an unbelievable loss, and whereas it makes it tougher to mission your self onto them, it results in a story expertise that, considerably satirically, feels contemporary and completely different.

So, let’s speak about fishing, the core of the Moonglow Bay expertise. For my part, fishing on this recreation is simply too straightforward. I do know, I do know, not all the pieces needs to be mind-numbingly troublesome, particularly in a recreation like this, however nonetheless, the fishing mechanic doesn’t actually really feel rewarding exterior of the actual fact you get some extra fish to cook dinner for the townspeople. Worse nonetheless, the secondary strategy of throwing a internet to catch a fish is even simpler and extra environment friendly, making utilizing the rod usually annoyingly pointless.

This could be a controversial opinion, however I believe fishing mechanics in video games ought to be at the least slightly difficult, much more so in the event that they take middle stage. I don’t imply annoyingly arduous, however they need to supply some kind of problem. The most effective instance that involves thoughts is Stardew Valley. Fishing in Stardew is tough, however as you get higher, it will get simpler. That’s how abilities work in actual life. In Moonglow Bay, fishing begins and stays fairly straightforward exterior of the occasional late-game problem.

You won’t suppose it’s too straightforward following the primary fishing tutorial, however after the second, the place you learn to pull on the fishing line with gusto, identified in-game as ‘hanging’, it may be a case of simply repeatedly casting your highway and pulling again in direction of your self over and over. Even when there are over 100 fish to catch to fill out your journal and the aquarium, plus 4 completely different rods to check out, the tedium of fishing put me off desirous to catch all of them whereas taking part in together with the principle story.

Happily, cooking provides a bit extra of a problem, particularly for those who’re making a meal that requires boiling, frying, baking, or slicing, every of which has its personal little minigame. Contemplating you’re going to make a lot of the cash wanted to repair up the dilapidated Moonglow Bay space by cooking meals, it’s a reduction it’s not as monotonous as fishing might be. You earn extra recipes as you full quests for the folks of the Bay and it provides the sport an additional sense of development exterior of the principle story.

Whereas angling won’t be essentially the most entertaining, the crusing expertise often makes up for it. A few of my favourite moments taking part in Moonglow Bay got here out on the open sea, trying to find uncommon fish in my outdated boat. You get the boat fairly early within the recreation, and you could make use of it to progress by the story. The little vessel handles surprisingly effectively, breaking waves in forgotten waters as you attempt to uncover the reality surrounding the rumors of horrifying sea creatures only a brief distance out of your seaside neighborhood.

Outdoors of cooking, crusing, taking photographs, and fishing, there may be little to do in addition to some fetch quests for the locals and, weirdly sufficient, some quasi-boss battles. I don’t need to spoil an excessive amount of, because it made all of it the higher that these bosses got here as a shock to me, however in these moments the sport pushes the boat out and really checks you. Certain, it’s hardly like a Darkish Souls boss, and, unsurprisingly, you’re not making an attempt to kill something right here, however these moments act as bookends to every a part of the sport and push you to discover all of the corners of the map.

So, we’ve talked concerning the mechanics of Moonglow Bay slightly, however let’s get into the world. The world of Moonglow Bay itself isn’t large nevertheless it appears like a strong illustration of slightly seaside neighborhood. As you elevate funds and put them again into the neighborhood, the fledgling city begins to come back alive once more, with extra characters showing from out of the woodwork every so often. It’s a pleasant place to be, filled with good folks. I fairly fancy residing there myself.

Nevertheless, when you repair up your boat and get exterior of Moonglow Bay, issues get weirdly desolate. My first journey was to the arctic wastes of Frosted Skates, which appeared like an excellent location for exploration. It’s not. It’s mainly simply snow. A giant island filled with snow, and never an entire lot else. There’s an ice fishing spot, which is cool, however exterior of that, it’s simply snow. So, I received again on my boat and went house.

One of many issues I’ve with Moonglow Bay is which you could’t dock or fish anyplace you want. It’s essential discover both a dock to tie your anchor to or fish below a fishing signal indicating there’s one thing within the water. It’s weirdly restrictive, and the docking downside is the extra annoying of the 2, because it makes lots of the islands you occur upon inaccessible. It additionally signifies that you count on one thing fascinating whenever you discover someplace to dock, and as my time in Frosted Skates proved, that isn’t at all times the case. I simply want that there was slightly extra freedom to discover.

There’s one thing I haven’t talked about but that brings Moonglow Bay a ton of appeal. Whereas the world is all voxel, there are illustrations all through for the principle characters and supporting forged, and these are simply fantastically executed. Whereas the voxel design works effectively and has its personal enchantment, I’d like to see a Moonglow Bay sequel that leaves the squares behind in favor of the stunning visible model of the illustrations. Regardless of my points with the sport, these visuals make me excited to see what Bunnyhug has up its sleeve sooner or later.

With some complaints about bugs and glitches when Moonglow Bay first arrived on PC, it’s good to see that the Swap model is fairly effectively optimized. There’s the occasional second of visible stuttering and a bizarre kind of glitchy display that often pops up simply after you go to mattress and the show fades to black, however exterior of that, nothing impacts the core gameplay expertise. The management scheme is effectively thought out, too, although a few the cooking minigames could be a little difficult for those who’re not extremely exact together with your button and analog stick inputs.

All in all, Moonglow Bay is an pleasant expertise for anybody trying to spend a number of hours wrapped up in a seaborne slice-of-life drama. The fishing is a disappointment, particularly contemplating how a lot time you spend within the Bay angling on the clear blue waters. Nonetheless, cooking, crusing, and the occasional boss battle make issues slightly extra partaking. In the event you’re a fan of Stardew Valley, Animal Crossing, or the non-scary bits of Dredge, there’s positively one thing to take pleasure in right here, even when the sport has some classes to study on how you can actually actual you into the lifetime of a fisherperson. You can even pet Muffin the canine. In contrast to fishing, that by no means will get outdated.

There you could have it, our evaluate of Moonglow Bay for Nintendo Swap. Whilst you’re right here, remember to take a look at our ideas on different new arrivals on Swap and cellular with our Botany Manor evaluate, Princess Peach: Showtime! evaluate, and Wildfrost evaluate. Or, for those who’re after extra angling, see our picks for the most effective fishing video games.