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

The time period ‘cozy recreation’ is thrown round lots lately, however 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 battle 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. Nonetheless, that’s just for essentially the most half.

For just a little context, Moonglow Bay is a recreation by indie developer Bunnyhug that first arrived on PC again in 2021 with just a little assist from writer Coatsink. Three years later, we’ve lastly acquired the Swap port, which solely feels pure, with the console the house of so many standard cozy slice-of-life titles like Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Summer season 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 choice of 4 designs, your companion character, and your respective pronouns, you leap into the inciting incident. Having moved from Ontario to Moonglow Bay to dwell your companion’s dream of fishing for a residing, they go lacking, presumed lifeless, and also you’re left alone with Muffin the canine. Sure, I do know it’s a reasonably bleak opening for one thing I’ve already described as a comfy recreation, however persist with me right here. Years after the accident, your grownup daughter turns as much as try to allow you 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 way more heartwarming, because of your little voxel character doing their stage greatest to help the great folks of the Bay. With Muffin and your daughter in toe, you get clues about what actually might have occurred to your lacking love whereas gathering new info on native aquatic species and the world past Moonglow Bay. All this whilst you donate fish to the native aquarium and lift restoration funds for native establishments, just like the Cozy Membership, and library, to try 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 previous particular person. Why? Properly, as a result of not many video games decide to try this. Most builders are seemingly conscious that individuals need to mission themselves onto in-game characters, so we frequently see participant characters as kids, or not less than these too younger to expertise a mid-life disaster. Moonglow Bay takes a threat by placing you within the footwear of somebody who’s extra world-weary having handled an unbelievable loss, and whereas it makes it more durable to mission your self onto them, it results in a story expertise that, considerably paradoxically, feels recent and completely different.

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

This is likely to be a controversial opinion, however I believe fishing mechanics in video games ought to be not less than just a little difficult, much more so in the event that they take middle stage. I don’t imply annoyingly onerous, however they need to supply some kind of problem. One of the best instance that involves thoughts is Stardew Valley. Fishing in Stardew is difficult, 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 may not suppose it’s too straightforward following the primary fishing tutorial, however after the second, the place you discover ways to pull on the fishing line with gusto, recognized in-game as ‘hanging’, it may be a case of simply repeatedly casting your street and pulling again in the direction of your self time and again. 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 enjoying together with the primary story.

Luckily, cooking presents a bit extra of a problem, particularly should you’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 aid it’s not as monotonous as fishing could 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 primary story.

Whereas angling may not be essentially the most entertaining, the crusing expertise sometimes makes up for it. A few of my favourite moments enjoying Moonglow Bay got here out on the open sea, trying to find uncommon fish in my previous boat. You get the boat fairly early within the recreation, and you’ll want to make use of it to progress by means of the story. The little vessel handles surprisingly nicely, breaking waves in forgotten waters as you attempt to uncover the reality surrounding the rumors of scary sea creatures only a quick distance out of your seaside neighborhood.

Exterior of cooking, crusing, taking images, and fishing, there’s little to do in addition to some fetch quests for the locals and, weirdly sufficient, some quasi-boss battles. I don’t need to smash 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 exams you. Positive, 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 just a little, however let’s get into the world. The world of Moonglow Bay itself isn’t huge however it appears like a stable illustration of just a little seaside neighborhood. As you increase funds and put them again into the neighborhood, the fledgling city begins to return alive once more, with extra characters showing from out of the woodwork now and again. It’s a pleasant place to be, filled with good folks. I fairly fancy residing there myself.

Nonetheless, 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 a really perfect location for exploration. It’s not. It’s principally simply snow. An enormous 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 acquired again on my boat and went house.

One of many issues I’ve with Moonglow Bay is which you can’t dock or fish anyplace you want. You’ll want to discover both a dock to tie your anchor to or fish underneath 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 most of the islands you occur upon inaccessible. It additionally implies that you anticipate one thing fascinating while 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 just a little extra freedom to discover.

There’s one thing I haven’t talked about but that brings Moonglow Bay a ton of allure. Whereas the world is all voxel, there are illustrations all through for the primary characters and supporting solid, and these are simply fantastically achieved. Whereas the voxel design works nicely and has its personal enchantment, I’d like to see a Moonglow Bay sequel that leaves the squares behind in favor of the beautiful 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 nicely optimized. There’s the occasional second of visible stuttering and a bizarre kind of glitchy display screen that sometimes 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 nicely thought out, too, although a few the cooking minigames could be a little tough should you’re not extremely exact together with your button and analog stick inputs.

All in all, Moonglow Bay is an gratifying expertise for anybody trying to spend just a few 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 just a little extra participating. If you happen to’re a fan of Stardew Valley, Animal Crossing, or the non-scary bits of Dredge, there’s positively one thing to get pleasure from right here, even when the sport has some classes to study on tips on how to actually actual you into the lifetime of a fisherperson. It’s also possible to pet Muffin the canine. In contrast to fishing, that by no means will get previous.

There you will have it, our assessment of Moonglow Bay for Nintendo Swap. When you’re right here, be sure you try our ideas on different new arrivals on Swap and cell with our Botany Manor assessment, Princess Peach: Showtime! assessment, and Wildfrost assessment. Or, should you’re after extra angling, see our picks for the very best fishing video games.