It can be hard to boil down a roguelike/shopkeeping sim/dungeon crawler and make it sound appealing. Thankfully, the new Moonlighter trailer from Digital Sun Games has done just that. It helps that it doesn’t take itself too seriously, either.
Charting the eleven features the game revolves around, the new Moonlighter trailer grabs you instantly with its colorful pixel-art and screen-filling bosses. But, if you thought you’d seen that sort of style a dozen times, in comes the shopkeeping elements to persuade you to hand over your hard-earned coin.
In essence, Moonlighter sees shopkeeper Will, owner of the eponymous store, engages in a spot of consumerism gone crazy by going hunting for his own loot to sell onto village inhabitants. He does so by battling through a series of increasingly tough dungeons before getting to the dungeon’s final challenge, a big, bad boss.
That’s not all there is to it, however. The trailer is keen to point out that you don’t get anywhere by hoarding all of your profits. The town of Rynoka must be given a bit of spit and polish, and it is here that most of the Stardew Valley-esque elements come into play, with Will investing in bringing new merchants to the town, as well as upgrading his own store. You can even hire assistants who will face the worst endgame boss possible: minimum wage.
You can watch the new Moonlighter trailer above. If that piques your interest, you’ll be glad to know it’s out digitally on PlayStation 4 on May 29, retailing at $19.99/£15.99, with a physical edition coming at a later date.
