Moonglow Bay (PC) Review

Moonglow Bay begins and players are offered a simple character creation screen where one gets to pick among four slightly grey-haired individuals, plus their significant other from the rest of the options. Note that this is one of those rare (for now) games that lets one pick a preferred pronoun. The one writing this isn't really a fan of the whole pronoun thingy, but it's definitely a plus that you are free to create a same-gender relationship, something that many other similar titles definitely lack. After that you will be served a small tutorial, which will explain the core aspect of the following adventure: casting a line and catching some fish. After a certain event and a three-year leap, the actual adventure begins.

A mix of three types of sim games: a fishing sim, a cooking sim, and a store management sim, this adds a little bit of roleplaying to spice things up, with the protagonist going around talking the people of Moonglow, listening to the stories, and helping out in all sort of ways… but mainly by fishing and cooking, fishing and cooking, fishing and cooking. This is the main thing on offer… and it gets boring really, really fast. This is one of those chill kind of experiences and thus it's no surprise that everything takes its sweet time, but it's all super repetitive as well. Again, this is meant to be a relaxing, casual-friendly kind of deal, but maybe it takes things a bit too far.

The second problem is the way this handles the whole process of fishing and cooking. No, scrap that. Cooking. This is the annoying part. Fishing is nice and simple. One goes out to the sea, uses his/her/their fishing rod, net, or whatever, and catch a variety of… err, catches, depending on the bait used, the location and so on and forth. It's simple, fun, and relaxing, and adding new species to your library can be addicting in a weird, Pokémon-like way. Cooking on the other hand is an assortment of repetitive, QTE-esque button presses. It's tedious work, and not the kind that can be fun despite being tedious. This is tedious, full stop.

Everything, and especially cooking, makes it obvious that this isn't meant to be played with a keyboard, but a gamepad with analogue sticks. Even when doing so, though, there are moments where the controls are over-sensitive. That's not exactly a deal breaker. This isn't action-packed, so it's easy to stomach such a small issue - however, it does offer taste of Moonglow Bay's lack of polish. It's super easy to "forget" which button does what, frequently forcing you to stop and think, even after a few hours. It's not that the controls are complex or anything. It's just that the logic behind the control scheme on offer seems to change every now and them, so the brain struggles to register inputs. It doesn't feel "natural" if that makes any sense. Even the simple process of saving had this veteran of a gamer scratching his head for a second or two…

Another problem with Moonglow Bay is that it provides little incentive to go out and do stuff. The first reason is practical. Unlike other similar titles you are rarely given any new tools or upgrades to work with, and there's also very little in your way of doing things. When you get your boat for example, you are basically ready to go almost anywhere you want, and completing quests rarely alters the gameplay by adding a new mechanic that's required in order to progress. As for the second reason why it's hard to care, that would be the weak writing.

As mentioned earlier this is also an RPG of sorts, and as such it includes a story. Once again, you get a taste of how generic it is very early, as the introductory tutorial chapter tries to make you feel emotional way too soon, before even getting the chance to know the characters involved, and thus completely fails at it. The rest of the experience is even worse, with the sole purpose of 90% of the NPCs being to offer some tips, or provide some boring small talk.

Moonglow Bay has a severe lack of character. It's one more bland and generic casual game, complete with its bland and generic casual game soundtrack, and bland and generic casual game voxel visuals, even though there are definitely some parts that look pleasing to the eye. Furthermore, while a lot of the bugs that this was initially plagued by have been eradicated, many still persist. It's hard to say why this isn't that good, it's not one of those thousands of indies that are incomplete garbage. The developer's love for its creation shines through, but maybe the team behind it just isn't there yet skill or budget-wise. Either way, this isn't as good as it could be.