Summary
- Moonstone Island, a new creature-collecting life-sim game, blends mechanics from popular franchises like Pokemon, Stardew Valley, Legend of Zelda, and Slay the Spire.
- Critics are praising Moonstone Island for its solid gameplay and open world, featuring over 100 islands to explore and a range of farming and romance options.
- Unlike Pokemon, Moonstone Island allows players to capture "Spirits" using a card-based battle system similar to Slay the Spire, with some assisting in farming, fishing, collecting, and exploring.
A new creature-collecting life-sim game called Moonstone Island has just been released on Steam, and it has garnered some great reviews so far. The Studio Supersoft-developed and Raw Fury-published title looks to be a cross between Pokemon and Stardew Valley with perhaps a bit of Slay the Spire mixed in.
Moonstone Island was flagged early as a game that Pokemon and Stardew Valley fans should check out, and early reviews seem to reflect that sentiment. While Studio Supersoft is relatively unknown as a developer, Raw Fury has published indie hits such as Dandara, Call of the Sea, and Sable just to name a few. The cozy life sim is certainly popular among indie developers, but players have arguably yet to see a game that blends in so many different mechanics from popular franchises like this.
Recent Steam release Moonstone Island incorporates the nostalgic pixel art and life sim elements of Stardew Valley with the monster collecting and battling of the Pokemon franchise. Moonstone Island has also drawn comparisons to the top-down Legend of Zelda games as well as the deck-building indie hit Slay the Spire. The game just launched today on PC and is announced to be coming to Nintendo Switch sometime before the end of the year. At the time of this writing, Moonstone Island is maintaining an 84 Top Critic Average score at OpenCritic.
Critics virtually across the board are praising Moonstone Island as a solid entry in the ever-increasing collection of Stardew Valley-like games, but this one features a more adventurous open world with over 100 islands to explore. In addition to the new elements it introduces to the life-sim genre, Moonstone Island looks to keep many of the fan-favorite hallmarks of a good cozy game like farming and plenty of romance options.
The race for second place in the monster-collecting genre has been ongoing since the late '90s, but Moonstone Island looks to insert itself into the conversation when it comes to the best games like Pokemon. Unlike Pokemon, however, some of the monsters captured in Moonstone Island (referred to in-game as "Spirits") help with various aspects of farming, fishing, collecting, and exploring. There are 66 monsters to capture at launch, each of which provides players with advantages both in and out of battle.
Also unlike Pokemon, the monsters fight using playing cards somewhat akin to critically-beloved deck-builder Slay the Spire. With all the different influences apparent in Moonstone Island, the game could have very well ended up being an ambitious title with a few too many underdeveloped ideas, but early reviews suggest that fans were right to get excited about this new cozy sim.
Moonstone Island is now available on PC and is slated to release on Nintendo Switch sometime in 2023.
Source: OpenCritic