Games provide players with information about the world in all kinds of interesting ways. Some use codices, in-game books, and external media, while recently Final Fantasy 16 pioneered an Active Time Lore mechanic to share insights into its world. In creature collector Moonstone Island, lore is given to players through another interesting method: going on dates.
Moonstone Island blends the creature collector, life sim, and farming genres into a game of befriending spirits, raising crops, and building relationships. Slow gratification is intrinsic to the experience of Moonstone Island, and that extends to how players unravel the history of the various floating islands high above the watery ocean world below. There are a lot of mysteries in the skies, like just why the islands are flying and why the local spirits are so out of harmony. Sandy Spink, the game’s creator, told The Best War Games in a recent interview about the ways in which players learn about the world
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One of the main ways players will accomplish that is by taking the townsfolk on a romantic dinner.
“If you go on a couple dates with Cleo at the tavern, she gets into it a little bit, and I think Gaiana does as well … Our dating system is more like a classic dating sim where you will actually ask them on a date, you set a location, you set a time, and then it actually does a roll. If you're successful, it will schedule a date, and it'll show you the location of the date.”
The dating mechanic involves three tiers of dialogue checks – Chat, Joke, and Flirt – which grow progressively harder. Those checks either improve or hamper relationships with characters, and get progressively easier as the relationship grows deeper. At certain milestones, players try to schedule a date. Those dates, like in most games with such mechanics, lead to deep conversations. For Cleo and Gaiana, those conversations hint at the greater world around the young alchemist protagonist.
Playing an alchemist fits into that larger world as well. Spink made that decision both because the mystique of alchemy appeals to him, but also because it allowed the game to take on a tone of creating, living off the land, and giving players a unique relationship with nature. That’s critical, as a central element of Moonstone Island’ s story is confronting the damage done to the natural order by an ancient disaster.
“I always liked the idea of alchemy; it was like science and magic meeting. When I was coming up with the world, I didn't want to go with a witch or wizard. I feel like that was all overdone, and because there is sort of like a natural sciences or natural philosophy element to what the player is doing in the game … an alchemist is basically someone who has received training to live off the land, make potions, and brew concoctions, as well as tame and deal with the nature spirits that are sort of running amok because the natural balance of things has been thrown out of whack.”
That event, the Cataclysm, is why islands are floating in the sky. Before that point, there was a kingdom that existed as a global metropolis, and after the land that remained had been ejected into the troposphere. In that way, Moonstone Island is a post-apocalyptic title. The Cataclysm also tore rifts in the world, through which came the dark spirits players will contend with throughout the game. The alchemist, then, is healing this old scar in the world, in small ways. By studying spirits, helping bring them back into a more harmonious existence, and working to help the rebuilt society thrive, their job is to address the lasting legacy of the Cataclysm.
Of course, there’s more to Moonstone Island than ancient history. Dates are the best way to learn about the residents of the titular settlement as well. Most of the dateable characters in the game operate some kind of shop to help the player out as well, like Ferra the blacksmith or Zed the professor. The pink-haired extrovert Ferra, in particular, is a popular romance option for players, Spink said, though there’s not a clear favorite.
“I think that maybe the two I see the most are Ferra–she's a big tough blacksmith and she's very flirty and very kind–and Tobin, who's this fisherman that has received the most fan art so far. It kind of surprised me, but people seem to be drawn to him as well. His accent has some people confused because Kate [Gray, writer] lives on the east coast of Canada and was inspired by the Newfoundland accent, so she actually wrote him with that. I don't know, maybe people find that charming?”
As such, Cleo fans may need to loop Tobin fans in on some of the juicy history lessons they’ve missed out on.
Moonstone Island is available for Nintendo Switch and PC.