Moonlight Peaks from Marvelous, XSEED, and Little Chicken is a cozy supernatural life sim journey that lets you experience the vampire life. Learn more in our Moonlight Peaks review!
Moonlight Peaks from Marvelous, XSEED, and Little Chicken is a cozy supernatural life sim journey that lets you experience the vampire life. You’ll be living in the titular magical town of Moonlight Peaks, a location in which vampires, witches, mermaids, werewolves, and other mythical creatures all live in harmony. This means that you’ll be working each day on tending to special crops, crafting some potions, learning spells to cast, and more. Your father is not… thrilled about your choices, since the life of a vampire is not one that is known for showing compassion to others. You did, after all, decide to escape from home to do things your own way. Oh, and did I mention you’re the offspring of Dracula himself?
Your adventure will begin in your family’s abandoned homestead, and it’s now up to you to give it your all in order to hopefully bring it back to its former glory. Being immortal means that you’ll have all the time in the world to make everything feel right, as you work hard and use the abilities of your ancestors to complete the many objectives that the game will throw at you. You can even customize your cottage so that it reflects your style. Being immortal does not mean that you’re invincible since you are, after all, a vampire. So, you know… be sure to return to your coffin before the sun is up!
And maybe, just maybe, you might be able to find your forever after in the whole process. There are two dozen potential romanceable characters, so you can definitely find someone who can click with you until you’re turned to dust. But before all that, you’ll first need to work on customizing your vampire persona!
The first step after booting up the game will be picking your character’s name, the farm’s name, as well as the name for your hellkitten companion. After that, you can pick your skin color, iris shape, eye color (and yes, you can pick eyes of different colors if you want to), eyelashes and their color, makeup, eyebrows and their color, hairstyle and color, facial hairstyle and beard color, and clothing set – or pick a different top and bottom that matches your style. You can also choose from different shoes, as well as add some accessories, such as bracelets, watches, earrings, or glasses.
You’ll be taking control of your character by using the left analog stick or the D-Pad, interacting with objects, points of interest, and other characters by pressing the A button. Farming is very much part of the game’s chill gameplay loop, so you’ll need to use your shovel to dig so that you can plant the seeds at your disposal. You must water them every night so that they grow into strong plants that can yield the resources needed for cooking and crafting.
Your first task will be to make some Red Wine for Orlock, the first vampire that you meet after moving to Moonlight Peaks. This is your first quest, and you can review this and the many other quests that you’ll be taking on by pressing the – button to open up your journal. Your journal is also where you’ll be able to check the map of the area, review the calendar, which includes birthdays, festivals, as well as other important dates, an overview of your current relationships with the individuals that you meet, as well as the Almanac.
The Almanac is where you’ll get to look up all of the spells, potions, and collectibles that you’ve managed to discover so far. There are 12 spells to obtain, 50+ crops to discover, 140+ recipes for you to work on, 9 potions, 100 Soul Blobs, 20+ fishes, close to 100 critters, and 100 Vampsters. Can you find everything that the game has to offer?
Going back to the Red Wine quest, and, in order to give you a better idea of what to expect from this game, checking the Almanac will show that you need to locate Viktor somewhere in your plot to learn more about the process for making the Red Wine. Viktor is your uncle, whom you have not seen in a while. Perhaps it has something to do with how a witch cursed him, and he’s now to remain as a small winged creature sans thumbs. You know, a bat.
Once you talk to Viktor, you’ll learn that you can bring up the tool wheel by pressing the R button. That’s how you’ll be able to select your shovel and equip it. You can then press the Y button to dig up some soil in an empty spot on your farm. Press the X button to open up your inventory so that you can choose the seeds that you want to plant. Once those are in hand, press the Y button to plant them in the spot you’ve previously prepared. The watering can will be very important for watering your plants so that they can grow strong.
There are plenty of recipes for you to work on during your time with Moonlight Peaks. You can, for example, work on some delicious Broodje Kaas if you have some bread and cheese. Another one is a yummy Red Velvet Cupcake, which, as expected, will require that you have a bit of flour and some cocoa powder. Or you could go with a soothing Black Rose Tea that requires a black rose and some sugar.
You can also craft items for decoration purposes, such as a Hay Bale Stack for which you’ll need to have 12 pieces of fiber, or a fur chair, which requires that you have dark wood, hardwood planks, and a bit of cloth. Another possibility is the Stone Bird Bath, which needs some refined stone in your stock. Or perhaps you’d like a fancy Coffin Bookcase if you have enough planks and dark wood for it.
Moonlight Peaks is a cozy supernatural life sim journey that lets you experience the vampire life. You’ll be living in the titular magical town of Moonlight Peaks, a location in which vampires, witches, mermaids, werewolves, and other mythical creatures all live in harmony. This means that you’ll be working each day on tending to special crops, crafting some potions, learning spells to cast, and more. Your father is not… thrilled about your choices, since the life of a vampire is not one that is known for showing compassion to others. You did, after all, decide to escape from home to do things your own way. Oh, and did I mention you’re the offspring of Dracula himself?
Along with all of the farming, gathering, cooking, fishing, and crafting you can do, there’s even the possibility of perhaps finding your forever after while at Moonlight Peaks! It’s all going to depend on how you expand your relationship with the different characters that you meet. There’s also the chance of partaking in Nokturna, the finest card game in the realm!
Moonlight Peaks launches tomorrow on Nintendo Switch with a $39.99 price tag. If you get the Nintendo Switch version of the game, then you can go ahead and grab the Moonlight Peaks – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition Upgrade Pack for only $5.00 to, well, upgrade your Nintendo Switch digital copy to a Nintendo Switch 2 copy. As expected, the Nintendo Switch 2 version features a higher resolution and framerate when compared to the Nintendo Switch version.
Disclaimer
This Moonlight Peaks review is based on a Nintendo Switch 2 copy provided by Marvelous.
