When Moonlighter released in 2018, it was to a fairly positive critical reception. Players seemed to enjoy the combination of cozy shop simulator and dungeon crawling roguelite, inspired by the Rogue Legacies and Stardew Valleys of the time. Some grumbled about a lack of depth and incentive to keep returning to the dungeon again and again, and seven years later developer Digital Sun is ready to show us what it’s learned from those criticisms. Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault is now available in early access on Steam. I spent several hours with it over the past week, and it already feels like a more focused and refined version of the original.
The premise remains unchanged: you play as Will, a shopkeep-slash-dungeoneer who is looking to turn his spoils into cold hard cash. The core loop involves diving into randomized dungeons, fighting the monsters there, filling your backpack with loot, selling it for a tidy profit, and doing it all again. Inventory management itself is a puzzle, as items interact with each other in your backpack, forcing you to think carefully about how you use the limited space. In essence, it’s three games in one, each section complete with its own rules.
