Moonlight Peaks Nintendo Switch 2 Review
Summary: Moonlight Peaks makes vampire life feel just as cosy as country living.
4.7
Bewitching
Moonlight Peaks has been on my radar ever since its reveal trailer last year. A cosy farming simulator with a supernatural twist already sounded right up my street, and after playing the demo last month, I thought I knew exactly what I was getting into. The full release quickly proved me wrong. The demo keeps you largely confined to your farmstead, but the complete game throws open the gates to the town of Moonlight Peaks almost immediately. It was only then that I realised the farming aspect of this game is just one piece of a much bigger puzzle.
You begin your adventure running away from home as the child of Count Dracula, leaving behind the expectations of your father in favour of building a quieter life in the secluded town of Moonlight Peaks. Escaping Dracula’s reputation isn’t as easy as escaping his castle, though, as some residents are quick to judge you for your family name. Witches, vampires, werewolves, and other magical residents coexist in the town, although a long-standing feud between two prominent families means townsfolk are often trading insults and airing old grievances. Some personalities are deliberately over-the-top, but the exaggerated writing suits the game’s adorable chibi art style very well. One of the game’s most pleasant surprises is its wonderfully diverse cast, and developer Little Chicken deserves credit for proudly weaving representation into the game.
If you’ve played any farming simulator over the last decade, you’ll feel right at home in Moonlight Peaks. You’ll upgrade your tools, unlock new buildings, collect resources for crafting and slowly turn a run‑down plot of land into your own thriving farm. The difference is that you’re doing all of it as a vampire. Your day begins at night instead of in the morning, you sleep in a coffin rather than a bed, and before long casting spells or transforming into different animals becomes part of your daily routine. You can also grow magical crops to brew enchantments and cook dishes that feel right at home in its supernatural world. What really sets Moonlight Peaks apart, though, is everything you can do beyond the usual fishing and bug catching. There’s pottery, embroidery, flower arranging and Nokturna, a collectible card game that lets you build your own deck before challenging the townsfolk. More often than not, I’d head into town intending to do one thing and end up losing an afternoon to one of these activities instead.
One of the things I enjoyed most was how much freedom Moonlight Peaks gives you to make the world your own. There are plenty of clothes to buy, furniture to collect and decorative pieces that let you customise both the inside and outside of your home. Moreover, if you’re a completionist, there are plenty of collectibles to keep you busy. Whether I was catching Soul Blobs, expanding my Nokturna card collection, or reeling in fish I hadn’t yet caught, there always seemed to be something else waiting to pull me away from whatever I’d originally planned on doing.
I also really enjoyed how the quest system keeps the game moving without making it feel restrictive. I almost always had at least two active objectives, typically a mix of learning new mechanics and helping the townsfolk. And if you find that you’re not busy enough, there is also a job board in town that allows you to complete timed requests for rewards. It gave me enough direction while still leaving plenty of room to ignore my quest log and simply see where the day took me.
That said, the opening hours are noticeably slower than the rest of the experience. Some of the early objectives are tied to harvesting crops that take multiple days to grow or expensive upgrades that require a fair amount of saving. This meant that I occasionally found myself heading to bed early simply because I’d run out of meaningful things to accomplish before the next day. Thankfully, the pace improves dramatically after those first few hours of gameplay once new activities are unlocked, and the game rarely looks back.
Relationships are another major part of daily life in Moonlight Peaks, and there are more than 20 romanceable characters. Romance is open to everyone, so you are free to date whichever eligible resident you like regardless of gender. As in other farming sims, romance is a gradual process of chatting with townsfolk each day and offering gifts to slowly fill their heart meters. As your bond grows, you unlock new cutscenes with those residents. You can even romance Death, though as tempting as that was, I found myself gravitating towards Saga instead. I was eventually able to ask her on a date, and the pair of us did pottery together, where I sculpted a vase using the left Joy-Con stick to shape the clay before adding patterns and colours. Both our second and third dates took me to the same pottery minigame, so it’s unclear whether more variety is introduced later or if it continues to recycle activities. Even so, I appreciate that the game has actual activities for the dates rather than just giving them standard cutscenes.
Performance on Nintendo Switch 2 was consistently solid throughout my playthrough. Across 30 hours, I didn’t encounter any crashes, major bugs or noticeable frame drops, and loading screens were short enough that I never found myself waiting around to get back into the game. Considering just how much time players are likely to invest in a single save file, performance is every bit as important as gameplay, and Moonlight Peaks delivers on both fronts.
Final Thoughts
The demo convinced me Moonlight Peaks was another cosy farming simulator with a supernatural coat of paint. It’s clear now that it’s so much more than that. It’s a world that’s easy to get lost in, full of characters worth getting to know and enough activities that the farm often became the last thing on my mind. 30 hours in, I still don’t feel like I’ve seen everything Moonlight Peaks has to offer, and I have a feeling I won’t be putting it down for quite some time yet.
About the Author
Jade Darton Jade is a web developer and Computer Science BSc student from Suffolk, UK with a passion for games and writing about them.
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