It's been a bit since I've picked up a new farming sim, but I've been playing them nearly my entire life, and I don't plan to stop any time soon. In fact, if I can help it, I'll keep playing them into the afterlife, too. I recently tried out Moonlight Peaks, a new vampire-themed contender to the genre, and now that I've had a chance to really sink my teeth into it, I'd like to share my thoughts on the game.
Story
Moonlight Peaks casts us in the role of Dracula's child, who, due to turmoil with our parents, has run away from home and eke out a quiet life as a farmer in an old family cottage in the titular town. The town has all the trappings you'd expect in this kind of game, it's remote, with a few farms, a local carpenter, a local tavern, and some other various shops, but many of the inhabitants are supernatural creatures like the player, whether they be fellow vampires, werewolves, witches, or seers. The town is also a much less cloyingly sweet than I'd often expect from recent entries in the Story of Seasons series and other popular games sharing the genre.
The first townsperson we meet is a hungover vampire who demands we make him wine using grape seeds he stole from the tavern. Several families have less than amicable relationships with one another and are known to feud, steal from, and even curse one another. We get dragged into several of these issues over the course of the game, but there are plenty of friends to be made, and a friendly uncle to show us the ropes in running our farm.
Gameplay
For the most part, the gameplay is just what I expected. You start out by creating a character, and then you're thrust into your new farming life. You use a shovel to prepare soil, plant some seeds, keep them watered, and harvest them when they're done to be sold or processed into various products. Your farm starts out as a mess of trees, rocks, and weeds that can be removed both to clear space and for materials for crafting, and you can mine for more materials as well. You can go fishing and sell the fish, eat them as is, or cook them into various dishes. There are townsfolk to befriend by regularly talking to them and giving them gifts, and as you get close enough, you'll unlock heart events that deepen your relationships with them and progress their stories.
The game does have a few things that set it apart from others of the genre. There seems to be a bigger emphasis on the town's story, as you're regularly given quests to deal with various issues in town or help the people out with various things, and your progression is pretty heavily tied to completing these quests, so you can't ignore them in favor of a full focus on farming. You can gain various magical abilities, whether these be spells to help you with your farm work, or transformations that allow you to more quickly move across town. You can brew potions, play cards, and more as well.
Visuals
The aesthetic of this game is the strongest point of it. It's much darker than your typical farming sim, with a lot of purple hues to the town that I found particularly appealing. As a vampire, we can't really do anything in the sunlight, so we do all our work in the middle of the night. The different areas are distinctive while still making up one cohesive game world, and the art style is pretty cute in general.
Conclusion
Overall I'd say my time with this game was enjoyable enough. It has the standard gameplay I expect from a farming sim and a consistent and well put together aesthetic. Unfortunately, Moonlight Peaks didn't quite do it for me. I personally felt it focused a bit too much on its story and as a result I wasn't able to focus as heavily on optimizing my farm as I would like, and while I appreciate the overall polish and the consistency of its vibe and aesthetic, it just didn't quite land the way I'd hoped. I also didn't feel like the farming gameplay really set itself apart enough from others in the genre, even with the spells and potions. If the look and feel of it appeal to you, or if you're a big enough fan of farming games, it may be worth a shot for you, but it sadly just wasn't for me.
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