In a sea of Legend of Zelda homages, 2018’s Moonlighter stood out with its lovely art style and a cool hook: What if the loot you gather on your dungeon-delving adventures wasn’t just power-ups, but the wares you sell as part of your day job? Following Moonlighter’s release, a number of smaller games, like Cult of the Lamb and Dave the Diver, have found success in complementing action mechanics with light management elements, so it’s clearly a combo that works. It would have been easy for developer Digital Sun to simply give us a shinier, more polished version of that original concept in a sequel. Instead, Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault, which has just released in version 1.0 after an early access period, surprisingly rethinks what a Moonlighter game is at its very core. That makes it comfortably live alongside the original, offering an experience that’s distinct enough to enjoy both–or to come to the series anew without feeling lost.
The visual differences between the first game and Moonlighter 2 are the most readily apparent changes. While characters like your shopkeeper, Will, are perfectly recognizable, they’re rendered in a new 3D style with an isometric camera angle. That’s already a huge change from the original, which was modeled after top-down Zelda games.
Instead of procedurally-generated dungeons, you work your way through isometric roguelike stages with randomized assortments of enemies, building your strength as you go. You can imbue your attacks with effects like Poison and Hex to ramp up for the increasing challenges, or take your chances with a riskier build that relies on taking advantage of environmental hazards like Spikes.
