Eric Bailey
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Writing For
Nintendo LifeLatest Reviews
Mages of Mystralia's spellcrafting system is a distinctive, signature mechanic. The appeal of the game lies in keeping things just interesting enough to compel the player forward in a colourful setting – finding new runes to unlock new spell possibilities, dropping new story beats to bread-crumb the fantasy plot along. Rewarding puzzles and memorable bosses round out an enjoyable adventure that, even at a leisurely pace, can be explored in under 10 hours, but Mages of Mystralia really could have used some tweaking in its travel and combat, and ends up feeling merely good, rather than great.
If you want to play a top-down Legend of Zelda game as a rogue-lite while also taking shifts as a shopkeeper then, hey, Moonlighter is about to scratch a distinctive itch for you. It hits a sweet spot somewhere between satisfying swordplay and nitty-gritty economic sim, although some players may feel it gets ‘grindy’ after a while in its mechanics. Nonetheless, Digital Sun Games has produced a lush work it can be proud of; one that even touches on our humanity in an optimistic way.