Over the last few years, games that blend spooky and cozy have started to build a subgenre all their own. One of the most anticipated new entries in that space is Moonlight Peaks. This supernatural farming sim puts a unique twist on the classic cozy genre – you’re a vampire. After running away from home, you settle into a town full of other creatures of the night. You get your typical farming sim staples like growing crops and caring for critters, but all with a magical new twist.
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Cards on the table, Moonlight Peaks is one of my most anticipated games of the year. I was pretty excited to have the opportunity to play it early for review, but I was a bit nervous, too. When you’ve been looking forward to a game for years, there’s always the risk it won’t hold up to your expectations. But I’m happy to report that Little Chicken Game Company and XSeed have truly captured something special with Moonlight Peaks. It is a solid farming sim that adds enough of a twist to make me excited to play farming sims again.
Rating: 4.5 out of 5
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Delightfully cute yet spooky art style | Some mechanics feel tedious/time consuming |
| Delivers on core farming sim mechanics with a fresh take | Occasional stutters & long loading screens on Switch 2 |
| Compelling characters you want to get to know | |
| Engaging story with fun cutscenes to immerse you in the world | |
| Good sense of progression, with new features unlocked over time |
Moonlight Peaks Made Me Fall in Love with Farming Sims Again
If you play as many cozy games as I do, you’ve no doubt played about a hundred or more farming sims. There’s Stardew Valley, of course, but also Story of Seasons and Fields of Mistria and the list goes on. With the popularity of farming sims, it can be hard for a new game to stand out. Yet Moonlight Peaks has found a winning formula in its supernatural spin on the classic farming sim.
Even if the “move to a small town to start a farm” hook is familiar, it still feels fresh here. How many farming sims start with running away from your overbearing dad, Dracula? Or with the farming tutorial delivered by a vampire trapped in bat form? Moonlight Peaks balances the genre’s best qualities with a unique supernatural twist that makes farming sims feel exciting again. Longtime fans won’t miss out on the classic gameplay loop of planting crops, fishing, mining, and caring for critters. But farming sim fatigue gets an antidote from how each of these mechanics is just a little different in a world filled with creatures of the night.
Your daily cycle is measured in nights, not days. You are, after all, a vampire. Each crop and animal is a slightly supernatural version of the familiar, from Cheekens to Blood Grapes and beyond. You do mine for copper and iron ore, but also for rose quartz. Oh, and watering your crops? You’ll eventually get a spell that can help cut that work in half.
Moonlight Peaks also nails keeping gameplay interesting thanks to its progression. You start with all your basic tools, but magic, bug catching, and fishing open up over time. Similarly, many new collectibles and mechanics are tied to in-game events that you unlock by building up relationships and your farm. In this way, the game keeps expanding over time, with more to do each time you think you’re settling into a routine. This helps avoid that farming sim fatigue as well, because there’s always something new to look forward to.
The game’s cutscenes add another layer of engagement, as well. When you unlock these new features or start new quests, you often get a cutscene with the relevant characters. This makes the world feel more vibrant than simple dialogue boxes can, letting you get to know the Wolves, Seers, Witches, and Vampires that live in Moonlight Peaks. Taken together, the supernatural spin on familiar mechanics, clever progression systems, and use of cutscenes make Moonlight Peaks stand apart from the dozens of new farming sims that release each year.
Minor Snags Kept Me from Giving a Perfect Score, But I Still Recommend Moonlight Peaks
In case it isn’t clear enough already, I’m pretty impressed with Moonlight Peaks. The game has a lot going for it, and I won’t be surprised if it’s the breakout cozy hit of 2026. But that doesn’t mean it’s quite perfect in its current state. I played on the Nintendo Switch 2, complete with the Switch 2 upgrade that bumps up resolution and frame rates. Graphics-wise, the game looks great. And it does run mostly smoothly. However, there were a few minor snags along the way.
The loading screens between areas can definitely linger a bit longer than I’d like. In a similar vein, some of the animations render key mechanics like refilling your watering can a bit more tedious than they need to be. The cutscenes, cute as they are, can be a bit frustrating when they pop in and transport you clear across the map from where you were trying to go. And there were some occasional visual stutters when I harvested crops too quickly, leading me to fear the game might crash. But it never actually did, and those stutters were few and far in between.
Even with these minor issues, I found myself eager to return to Moonlight Peaks each and every day. After putting a slightly concerning number of hours into the game for this review, I still feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface of all the mysteries the town of Moonlight Peaks has to offer. I can safely say I’ll be playing this one long after the ink on my review has dried, and I am pretty confident in recommending this one.
Moonlight Peaks releases on July 7th for PC, Nintendo Switch, Switch 2, and Google Play. The base game costs $34.99 for most platforms, with the Switch 2 edition priced at $40.
ComicBook received a Nintendo Switch 2 copy of Moonlight Peaks for the purpose of this review.
