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The individuals of Moonglow Bay concern the ocean — and for good purpose. For them, it’s an abyss crammed with extra than simply fish: It’s introduced a complete lot of ache. The once-thriving fishing city has seen its fair proportion of tragedy, principally introduced on by the ocean. It washed away beloved individuals and hard-fought desires. Since these tragedies struck, the city’s liveliness has been changed with myths and legends centered across the ferocious beasts that prowl beneath the waves, devastating the native economic system to a degree that town’s city corridor is about to close down.
Moonglow Bay, the voxel artwork recreation out now on Home windows PC through Steam and on Xbox One and Xbox Sequence X, begins three years after the primary character — named no matter you select — loses her associate. Three years earlier, that character and her spouse, Robin, moved to the small, Canadian bay to revitalize its fishing business — a dream of Robin’s. However shortly thereafter, Robin went lacking. Moonglow Bay begins with Robin being declared useless in absentia, your character housebound by grief. Slowly, life begins once more, and your daughter strikes to city to assist.
Picture: Bunnyhug/Coatsink
You start fishing, cooking, and promoting your wares, bringing Robin’s dream to life in her absence. Fishing begins beachside and from docks, however ultimately you’ll get entry to a ship, too. Every part is centered round this act — tossing your line into the water and seeing what you pull up. The mechanical act itself isn’t troublesome, and that’s intentional: Moonglow Bay removes the friction from fishing. It encompasses all the very best components of fishing — fishing as an concept — and makes it the nippiness, meditative act many people want it really was. For reference, Moonglow Bay’s fishing is akin to Stardew Valley when it comes to involvement. Nevertheless it’s not as arduous as, say, Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
That’s what feels good to me when taking part in Moonglow Bay — it allows you to take issues gradual. There isn’t essentially a rush to maneuver the story ahead or to focus power on anyone explicit process. As an alternative, the main focus is solely on being a middle-aged angler studying to dwell once more after a significant loss. A big a part of that’s turning into embedded within the Moonglow Bay group, too. Your character meets others by cooking for them, half type gesture and half promoting for the brand new enterprise.
Picture: Bunnyhug/Coatsink
Lots of the “serving to” in Moonglow Bay — doing duties or cooking for different residents — isn’t important to complete the sport, however it’s fairly significant. Right here, you study concerning the losses the group has confronted, come to grasp their fears, and assist them dwell with them. It’s by some means each unhappy and candy in a approach that stunned me.
I’m seven hours into Moonglow Bay at this level, and for lack of a greater phrase, I’m hooked. Moonglow Bay has its fair proportion of bugs and glitches; I’ve needed to restart the sport a number of occasions to interrupt out of glitched out screens, and I confronted a large bug that made one sea encounter unimaginable. I’d additionally advocate taking part in this with a controller, too, in case you’re on Home windows PC; the keyboard controls really feel obtuse and never clearly defined. (Even with a gamepad, there are nonetheless moments when issues nonetheless really feel unintuitive, notably Moonglow Bay’s “boss” fishing fights.) Nonetheless, these shortcomings have been straightforward to disregard.
The gradual tempo and mild but solemn storytelling — with a lot of shiny, joyous moments, too — is pleasant, and I’m desperate to study extra about Moonglow Bay and its individuals, in a city formed as a lot by fishing as it’s by grief.
Moonglow Bay launched Oct. 26 on Home windows PC through Steam and Xbox One and Xbox Sequence X, the place it’s obtainable for no additional value to Xbox Recreation Cross subscribers. It involves the Epic Video games Retailer on Nov. 11. The sport was reviewed on Home windows PC utilizing a obtain code supplied by Coatsink. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These don’t affect editorial content material, although Vox Media might earn commissions for merchandise bought through affiliate hyperlinks. You could find further details about Polygon’s ethics coverage right here.
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