Moonglow Bay looks fantastic — but we’ve barely scratched the surface
Moonglow Bay looks great and… that’s about it.
No, I’m not kidding. I received a key to review Moonglow Bay last Friday night and over the weekend I’ve managed to put around 10 hours into the game and almost had a heart attack at the realization that the embargo was today. I’ve barely had time, and it feels like I’ve only just scratched the surface. So, it feels disingenuous, and straight-up wrong, to try and review a game when I’m around 5% into it.
I don’t fault the developers or PR for this abstract encouragement of crunch to meet an impossible deadline. This is just a harsh reality of the games industry, and it absolutely sucks.
Anyway, putting that aside… Let’s actually talk about Moonglow Bay.
Moonglow Bay is a game from Bunnyhug, and what a game it’s chosen to develop as its debut: a fishing RPG with over 100 fish for you to pluck up from the bay, with different locations and areas for you to explore, as well as a variety of citizens to interact within the seaside town. It’s every bit as wistful and charming as ConcernedApe’s Stardew Valley, though, unlike the farming simulator, the game has a much tighter, cohesive narrative with the only big choices being at the start of the game in character customization.
The first thing the game asks you is who you are, presenting your look through a collection of photographs. It works in a way similar to Later Daters, where you pick the photograph that best represents you, and then the remaining characters left are who you choose to be your partner. I picked Casey, a charming person with a winning smile and apparently lethal with a rod. If you know what I mean.
The customization doesn’t spiral off into picking different hairstyles or clothes, but to be honest the game doesn’t need it. Instead, the only real customization is the pronouns you pick, and what makes that even neater to me is that you can also select the pronouns for your partner too. I’ve played other games where your partner’s pronouns are rigid and are based entirely on their look, which usually just means ‘long hair + breasts = she/her pronouns’ and vice versa, so it was nice to see Bunnyhug go the extra mile to make the setting as inclusive as possible, all while still being fit around your personal choices.
After you’re done with picking who you are, we’re introduced to why you and your partner are in Moonglow Bay. You have a dream to start your own business together, and with your partner being a passionate angler and you being deeply, hopelessly in love with them, you both moving from Ontario to this seaside town to pursue this idea seems like the best thing to do.
The one problem is this: nobody in the town trusts the sea thanks to the numerous creatures that live nearby. One of these creatures is something they call ‘The Ruin’, a ‘monster’ that terrorizes the Bay and makes everyone afraid to go on the water. It’s a rough situation, but your partner (who I’ve been happily calling ‘MY WIFE!!!!’ since I started playing) reassures you that it’s just a whale and there’s no reason to be afraid. You share a kiss and the game pans out, focusing on a vibrant, hopeful town…
Three years later and you wake up in your home, alone, with nobody around you but your dog, Waffles. Your partner is missing, presumed dead and the town that was to be your new start looks like it’ll become your coffin. It is a bleak beginning, but unfortunately, it doesn’t last too long because soon enough your daughter River arrives, and your new task is to revitalize the town… Just like that!
The tonal whiplash I got from the first few minutes cannot be understated. The game starts high, then goes to the extreme depths of low due to the player character’s grief, only for it to be up high again. It’s a very odd start, and while I’m certain it’s just to get the ball rolling for your fishing RPG adventure, I’m not quite convinced the game pulls it off. It may have been three years in-game, but for the player the loss has been 3 minutes.
Tone trouble aside, getting into the meaty side of things quickly gives you something to do. Your daughter is here for a festival that she believes will help Moonglow Bay get back on the map, and the only way to do that is to catch fish, cook them into a delicious meal and use your money to help bring the Bay back from the brink of obscurity. It’s a fine idea, especially since this is a fishing RPG and all!
And it turns out there’s a lot of different fish out there. Alongside cooking, fishing, and staring out at the beautiful world that Bunnyhug have created, you’ll also be talking to a lot of people. Most of the time they’ll just be giving fishing tips, but more important NPCs will mention they have favourite meals that they wouldn’t mind you cooking and you, being the player protagonist and all, are more than willing to earn friendship through a nice meal.
And that is that so far. There’s a lot that I like about Moonglow Bay, and I think if you’re even a little interested in a relaxing game that isn’t afraid to tackle tough topics (or so I believe it will, if a hint of climate change is anything to go by), then you should probably give this game your time.
I’ll be editing this review as I go along, and as such, will not be scoring the game until I’ve played more than a small part of it.
Score: Undecided
A copy of Moonglow Bay for PC was provided to Gayming Magazine by the publisher.
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