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Love or hate fishing minigames, there’s no denying they’re a staple of the cosy set. However Moonglow Bay goals to blow that hook-and-line mechanic right into a full recreation. This fishing sim from Bunnyhug and Coatsink launched in 2021 on Steam and Xbox to blended critiques. The brand new Swap port (and starboard) begins out as a tranquil few days out on the water, however with bugs and a few irritating gameplay it turns into fairly a stormy journey.
The sport begins along with your associate being declared deceased after they went lacking three years in the past (you may select pronouns and appearances for each). Your grownup daughter, River, strikes in to take care of you and make it easier to, alongside your cute canine, Waffles, who you may pat and take for walks. You open a gift left for you: a fishing journal. And so begins your character’s therapeutic and fishing journey.
We discovered it refreshing to play as an older grownup, and a mum or dad at that. However whereas we may inform Bunnyhug was aiming for a healthful storyline, the plot doesn’t have the emotional tug we’d hope for. (And that’s from a author who tears up on the mere point out of Unpacking.)
Moonglow Bay is split into chapters, every ending with a boss combat (stick with us), as you seek for your associate and uncover secrets and techniques within the water. In the meantime, you attempt to catch all 151 fish species and fill out your Pokédex fishing scrapbook. You get a web, rods, lures, and bait, and a ship to sail the seas.
To start with fishing is usually a bit attempting, however it will get simpler. Timing isn’t as essential as in Animal Crossing, and fish aren’t as slippery as in Stardew Valley. There’s no advanced technique; we got many instruments however they ended up seeming arbitrary. The fishing menu isn’t very user-friendly both, as you may solely change rods/lures/bait at sure spots.
There’s a cooking minigame, after all, the place you observe markers to hit sure spots – comparatively simple when you get into the rhythm. You may promote fish or meals within the merchandising machine outdoors your own home, however you’ll get more cash if a aspect quest requests sure gadgets, so we hoarded most of ours. It’s factor your stock is limitless, though it’s disappointing you could’t kind it.
One other main goal is to revive Moonglow Bay, which has floundered after the fishing commerce collapsed when your associate went lacking. You’ll do that via donations to improve city buildings, and requests from NPCs whose range sadly can’t make up for dry personalities. The rewards aren’t at all times definitely worth the cash; you typically restore buildings you may’t enter.
All through the sport, there’s not an enormous sense of development, which you may not discover should you performed briefly bursts. Nonetheless, we did sink a piece of time into the repetitiveness. When you don’t thoughts treading water doing the identical duties time and again, you may prefer it. However gamers preferring to only hold swimming could discover it a bit on the boring aspect.
If our earlier point out of ‘boss battles’ didn’t scare you off, let’s dive into them now. They aren’t crammed with the extreme fight you may affiliate with the time period – principally you employ your rod to catch or transfer issues to catch or assist a giant fish. With out spoiling something, a warning: the second boss turned calm waters right into a tidal wave. The directions are muddy, focusing on is imprecise, and also you’re supposed to hurry in a ship that crawls. And after we lastly beat it, we had no concept what we’d achieved. We weren’t certain if there was a bug or we have been simply horrendously dangerous at it.
Which brings us to a different bone to select: Moonglow Bay is greater than slightly buggy. Aiming the highway or web might be fidgety and glitchy; quests have been out of order; some cutscenes play twice; characters are pushed off the trail after we attempt to speak to them; and partitions/rocks/hills/cliffs obscured our imaginative and prescient. We are able to see why the sport has an choice to ‘teleport to protected space’ (a surface-level answer) as we received caught anyplace with a slight elevation – strolling from the seaside to the pathway or, god forbid, up stairs. There was a pre-launch replace to clean out some bugs, although many stay.
The sport is comparatively superior with accessibility choices although – you may toggle flashing VFX, digital camera pace, and textual content measurement. It’s simply arduous to suggest a title that has been out on different platforms for over two years when the bugs have adopted or resurfaced on Swap (we collect from our analysis). We’d often say one thing like ‘maintain off for a patch’ however you might be ready some time, since, just like the gameplay itself, progress appears sluggish.
In cosy video games, artwork fashion can typically be a deciding issue. Moonglow Bay’s overworld’s voxel design didn’t seize us, sadly. The 2D illustrated journal, however, is beautiful, with thick traces and block colors for the distinctive fish designs. We wished an analogous fashion had been utilized to the remainder of the sport.
The soundtrack is a energy too – which is sensible, given it was composed by Lena Raine (of Minecraft and Celeste fame). On house grounds there are acoustic tracks at tempos that evoke calm blue oceans. In new lands you’re handled to quiet but curious sounds of synths or piano. And that’s outdoors of boss music, which swells to a full orchestral drama. It’s a disgrace that generally tracks performed on the unsuitable time or layered excessive of one another.
Conclusion
We actually wished to love Moonglow Bay. It has the bones of a fantastic enjoyable cosy recreation: collectibles, a heartwarming story, fishing! Sadly, between the bugs, bland characters, and unnecessarily irritating boss battles, the meat is slightly skinny. We loved gathering the fish and restoring the city for a spell, however even the enjoyable quests didn’t have the compelling pull of many different video games. When you actually love fishing in your cosy adventures, this might be value dipping your toe in. However should you’re simply out there for a comfy recreation, there are many fish within the sea.
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