Ah, we’ve awoken and it’s another beautiful day on the island. Today is a special day, because we’re finally ready to begin our journey to become the very best that ever was…in alchemy. We’re going to be the best alchemist ever. Welcome to the world of Moonstone Island, where we’ll spend a year away from home living a rigorous life while collecting monsters to house inside a pocket dimension. Yep. Pocket monsters. Well, they’re actually spirits so it’s different. Kidding aside – it’s easy to see that Moonstone Island draws upon a lot of inspiration from the similar games that came before it. Beloved titles like Pokemon, Monster Sanctuary, Harvest Moon, Terraria and Stardew Valley have come together in this unique mix of life simulation meets monster collection. But the beauty of Moonstone Island is that the inspirations stay as inspiration. The game borrows aesthetic and assets from the likes of Stardew Valley, but it still maintains its own identity. By introducing a card-battle system reminiscent of Slay the Spire, there’s added depth to the monster-battles that give opportunity for strategy beyond issuing commands to our spirits. Combining this deck-building system with turn-based combat gives us a unique spin on monster-collecting that also doesn’t take main priority within the game. Whether it’s focusing more on the homestead and life sim, exploring the many islands of our procedurally-generated world, or searching for spirits to collect and battle, Moonstone Island takes the best parts of beloved games and places a lot of power in players’ hands. It’s a title that’s as robust as you want your experience to be. Let’s take a deeper look at how Moonstone Island is a complete package of easy-going objectives, intuitive design and addicting gameplay.
The nods to inspirations are noticed immediately as you’re awoken from our nap by our father – his lab coat indicating his status as an authority figure. You must hurry to finalize preparations, as today begins the first day of a year-long journey to becoming a fully-fledged alchemist. In this world, it’s part of official alchemists’ training to spend a year away from home. Before doing so, you must learn the basics for survival. After waking up, your father takes you through robust tutorials that explain mechanics like planting and harvesting, using tools and even battling spirits. It cannot be overstated how intuitive and natural the controls feel. The UI allows for multiple types of control input for accessibility. For example, playing on PC allows you to use a key binding for an action, or it may already be bound to the space bar for use and you also have the option of physically clicking an interactive button with the mouse. You can easily drag and drop items in your inventory, but also use key inputs to interact with them. Even harvesting and collecting materials will automatically pick up when stepped over.
Playing with a controller also feels easy and natural. As father teaches you the basics, you can see the heavy influence in life sim mechanics from Stardew Valley. Yet Moonstone Island feels as if the developers played Stardew and found small quality-of-life changes that just allow players to enjoy their time better. It’s not a negative when a game is heavily inspired by others – “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” is a common idiom for a reason. The beginning tutorials are detailed and do a great job of introducing you to the game. Moonstone Island further nods to inspirations, as once father is done teaching he offers one of three spirits as your starting companion.
The starters are a nice diversity of elements, as you can choose from a rock-type, electric-type or fire-type. If they all look great, do not fear as these can be found again throughout the world. I found myself charmed by their design and abilities – which also carries through all the monsters you’ll meet. The aesthetics are cozy and pixelated. Character designs and environments are vibrant and have their own charm. There are all kinds of interesting spirits, from obvious flora and fauna inspirations to inanimate objects. Being a fan of bees (they’re fuzzy), I instantly gravitated towards the electric Capicibee. Each spirit has stats, ability cards and passive abilities that will come in handy later. Each element of spirit has a unique set of elemental attacks that are common to every spirit of that kind. There are quite a few different elements, including psychic and poison (psychic-types feel incredibly powerful). All spirits have basic attacks, like tackle.
There are also various support cards that can be integrated to give decks win conditions – like reshuffling from the discard pile or being able to look at the top cards in the draw pile. These support cards become more common as spirits are leveled up. With every level, you’re able to allocate stat points how you want and you’re given the choice of adding more cards to the deck. What’s truly interesting is how each spirit’s set of cards are shuffled together to form the entire deck during battle. As learned in the tutorial area, battle is free of the strict turn-based battle and makes it so that any spirit can move during a turn as long as it’s able to – spirits can only move once per turn. But this adds Moonstone Island to the growing number of games that are creating more “flexible” turn-based combat by allowing all characters the opportunity to act in any order during a single turn.
In the first scripted encounter against a spirit, you’re able to learn just how robust combat can be. Spirits will act depending on the card played. You have three energy points (with the possibility of more in the future) that can be spent to perform actions. While damage is dealt to enemies when possible, it’s severely reduced by armor. All spirits have armor that should be broken to deal maximum damage. You have cards available that will break armor, causing a spirit to stagger and lose its entire next turn. With leveling up and integrating new, more powerful cards you may easily take advantage of the stagger and snowball damage, which can be enhanced further by any elemental weaknesses enemies have as well. You may even find ways to combo a spirit’s passive abilities with your deck for maximum effect.
Combat is straightforward and easy to learn. The game does offer opportunity for more technical gameplay if players want to build a perfect deck, though. you may only have three spirits at a time, but this still creates enough opportunity for synergy within the team for more robust play. The integration of each spirit’s cards also removes the need for dual-type spirits, as you can hit with multiple elemental attacks if you have the cards in hand and the energy points to do so. Battles aren’t without their challenges, however, as enemies grow stronger the more you explore and also have unique abilities that will push you.
Through battle, you’re also able to tame spirits so they can join the adventures. Feeding spirits different kinds of food can assist with this. Once father teaches you the basics, mother asks you to join her for more tutorial around spirit care and alchemy. It’s learned that taming spirits also means caring for them. Feeding them when their energy is low will increase stat bonuses for the day. There are also ways to amplify their power by finding special talismans in the world. Mother teaches you to create a good bond with the spirits, as they’re the key to helping you navigate the world. Part of your duties as an alchemist in training is to also find recipes to grow the craft. You’ll be living alone for a year, so it’s important to find ways to stay comfortable and thrive. Crafting is also straightforward thanks to the recipes discovered. Finding the ingredients for each recipe may be another matter, however, as exploration will be required – this coupled with varying seasonal changes will produce the most variety of ingredients. Once dear old mom teaches you how to spice up your life, it’s time to set off. With your trusty broom, you’re able to charge up and fly off the little sky island you call home. Once the year is up, you’ll know everything needed to complete training.
Yet things don’t go exactly as planned during the flight, as you get caught in a storm that forces us to crash land. Tired, hungry and without energy, you inevitably pass out and awake the next morning. You’re greeted to a friendly face that just so happens to be the inn’s proprietor. This marks the introduction to more of the life simulation aspects, as it’s encouraged to go into town and meet the locals. If you’ve played Stardew Valley, the life sim mechanics play almost exactly like that. All kinds of items can be built and crafted, including barns to store extra spirit companions and greenhouses to grow out of season crops. There’s a certain amount of energy that can be expended in a day, and you’ll pass out if you exert yourself too much. Thankfully, there aren’t negative drawbacks when this happens – you just lose the day.
There’s a lot about the game that doesn’t waste your time. You can just easily upgrade tools seamlessly, there’s equipment that can help you take care of crops so they don’t wither, you can also build crafting tables you need within your home. You’re able to do business with various locals and get quests from them to complete. You can build relationships with the people you meet and keep track of how much they like you through heart meters. There’s even a craftable calendar that will keep track of people’s birthdays. Everyone is open to building relationships, but they all have varying personalities that feel unique. Once you become more established in town, you’re even asked to play spirit match-maker for locals in search of a spirit companion. By growing closer with the town’s people, you’re given additional access to the needed tools and resources. Fulfilling quests will also give a reason to explore, which is also a major component of the game.
After crashing on Moonstone Island and starting the early stages of homestead life, you learn of traveling beyond to other islands in the sky. Each new game is a procedurally-generated world with one hundred islands, providing a plethora of content to explore. To get to those islands, however, you do need to fly there. There are actually a few different kinds of air travel possibilities that range in speed and maneuverability. For example, crafting a balloon can still yield a way for traversal in the air (you could even build bridges between islands if there are enough materials on hand). This can lead to some hilarious hi-jinx on the high winds as a balloon does not have exactly the same mobility as a broom and is at the mercy of wind currents that may take you in the opposite direction of the intended goal. It’s a humbling experience to be so determined to go one way, only to be sent somewhere else completely. Regardless of how you get there, the many islands of the world house various resources, spirits and dungeons. The title rewards you for everything you do, too. As by the end of each day stat points can be allocated to grow skill trees. Not only do your spirits level up, but you do as well. There are upgrades for every component in the game. While none of this is mandatory – Moonstone Island truly allows players to set their own pace – exploring the world will yield the best results for progress. Dungeons throughout the world offer great rewards and extra lore content.
In addition to dungeons, elemental temples are encountered that house strong spirits and greater rewards. These temples are also linked to a mysterious Magic Man met out in the world. This robed figure randomly appears during your travels, along with his Baba Yaga hut that walks around on chicken legs. He’s an interesting character that asks for help along the way. His memories have been fragmented, and the only way they can be found is by clearing temples. Temples also offer special items that may help with navigating the world. In a move heavily inspired by the Zelda franchise, obtaining a key item will unlock more opportunity for exploration and progress. This is just another entertaining layer to the game that offers players new avenues to explore.
Moonstone Island is full of all kinds of activities that are only important if players want them to be. The main goal is to spend a year away from home, but how you do this is completely up to you. As you fly further across the skies, you’ll encounter dangerous islands that require proper gear to traverse. You’ll find dangerous enemies that require careful planning of spirit decks. You’ll uncover recipes and blueprints that will allow you to craft and customize your homestead however desired. Learning alchemy allows craft different potions to be crafted that can assist along the way. If there are components of the game more appealing than others, there’s nothing that keeps from focusing on that. All the components of the game are loosely tied to each other, so you don’t need to force yourself to engage with these parts for long. Moonstone Island finds the happy balance between intricate gameplay and laid-back design.
Closing Comments:
Moonstone Island is an addicting blend of various genres that still maintains its own identity. The monster-collecting, card-battling life sim brings aesthetics and inspirations from beloved games while still offering fresh gameplay. There’s a vast world to explore that’s different with every game file. It’s a gorgeous title that shows off crisp pixel graphics for a wholesome experience. There are minor aesthetic issues, like the soundtrack not always playing and causing awkward silences within the game. Sometimes selecting enemies in battle is awkward as well and feels like it doesn’t register the intended target. But these hardly have a negative impact and could be more personal preference for players. The title streamlines familiar mechanics for more accessibility – allowing players to do more than just chores. Intuitive game design makes the game easy to get into, but robust mechanics allow threshold for mastery. Players ultimately get to decide how they want to spend their time away from home – this is not a game that wastes your time. In an age where we all feel like our time is strict, players want gameplay that feels fruitful at every turn. This game gives us this opportunity. You can focus purely on farming and growing. You can choose to go out and find new spirits to tame and battle. You can take spirits into dungeons and temples to seek treasures and resources. There’s crafting, fishing and relationship building to do. Quests and exploration will keep you busy for hours. Moonstone Island offers a variety of spirits with different elements and skills, but the true content comes from exploring the hundred islands within our procedurally-generated world. The title strikes a gorgeous balance between “work” and “life” by not relying too heavily on one component more than the other. There are so many ways to enjoy the game that don’t require you to put in a lot of hours with farming and socializing if that isn’t your thing. Instead, the many mechanics are loosely reliant on each other but have the opportunity to be robust. There’s so much about Moonstone Island that could make this review a year long, but we’d rather spend that time becoming the very best alchemist that ever was.
