Moonstone Island Review (Steam)

by Jim Smale · September 22, 2023

For this Moonstone Island Review, we play a creature-collecting life-sim set in an open world with 100 islands to explore. Make friends, brew potions, collect Spirits, and test your strength in card-based encounters to complete your Alchemy training!

Moonstone Island Review Pros:

Fantastic modern pixel art graphics.
373.53MB download size.
Steam achievements.
Full controller support.
Graphics settings – fullscreen.
Survival gameplay.
Opening tutorial for how to grow plants.
Harvest plants with a Scythe to get seeds from them.
Plants have to have a hoe to dig the ground, plant seeds then water.
Choose one of three starting Spirits – Capacibee (electric), Sheemp (fire), and Ankylo (Earth).
Turn-based combat is where you play cards to do attacks/items/defense.
Making an enemy spirit dizzy makes them miss a turn so you can deal more damage.
Plants can be used for Spirits, heal you, or replenish stamina.
Combat has a fast mode button.
Card casting and item usage are all governed by X amount of energy per round.
Earn EXP from fighting and level up your spirit by entering the medallion and picking one of the upgrades and a new card.
Spirits can be tamed so you have them fight for you.
Quest progress and completion pop-ups.
Your medallion houses three Spirits and you can enter it to level up and manage your spirits.
A spirit barn can be built to store additional Spirits.
The monster-catching side of things is very much a Pokemon game.
The story is about you leaving home to become an Alchemist.
Handy weapon/equipment wheel for fast selection.
Full crafting system and some can be done from the menu.
Save when you want.
Day and night cycle.
The map fills in as you explore.
Mail is a way to stay in contact with people so you can use mailboxes to read and send mail.
Zed is a guy you can turn in spirit research for Rewards.
You can romance anyone you meet.
Procedurally generated world.
Friendship meters build or lower with your interactions amd choices.
Items harvested pop up on the screen as you collect them.
The workshop in town lets you buy recipes, items, etc.
Warp whistles can be played to send you home.
Craft a new house so you can move to a different island.
Your energy bar goes down as you do actions and running out causes you to fall asleep wherever you are.
Has a huge sense of adventure and exploration.
The end-of-day breakdown shows dungeons cleared, Spirits discovered, Spirits tamed, and spirits Banished.
You get given a hone tent at the start and you can place it where you want.
Central storage chest.
Every menu or item shows text info on it.
The journal hoses all your missions and whilst there can be a lot of them, you can do them in any order.
Play how you want.
The farming aspect is like Stardew Valley.
Multiple choice encounters.
Uses tools to cut down grass, chips down trees, etc.
Mini map amd big map options.
Pick up resources and flowers on the ground.
A balloon can be crafted and with that, you can float off of cliffs to distant lands with minimal control.
Seasons change and this affects what Spirits can appear and seeds/flowers need certain seasons.
If you die in battle then you get resurrected from a magic man.
You see Spirits in the world.
The magic man can appear and wells cards and talismans.
Buy and sell items/equipment at the shops.
Memorable characters.
Find treasure maps.
Your spirits will follow you around the world.
When taming a spirit they start moving closer to you until you get them or they resist.
Caught Spirits can be renamed.
The relationship menu shows every encountered character, your current friendship level, if you have given them presents and then any date you have organized.
Game settings – always sprint, screenshake, rumble, spirit spawn rate, and battle difficulty.
A charming game with a lot of character.
Different biomes each with unique Spirits.
Dungeons play a huge part.
You get a warning if you find an island with high-powered Spirits.
The style and color palette is very Link to the past.
It’s a game that just eats your time.

Moonstone Island Review Cons:

So much to take in.
Cannot rebind controls.
A pain having to enter the medallion just to heal up your Spirits.
Kind of teaches you a few basics then just leaves the world open to you.
The taming system feels like luck more than anything as you don’t get good feedback on it.
Stamina doesn’t last long early on.
Flying around on the balloon can be a long stressful trip as you are flying blind.
Early on you don’t get to see a lot of everything like dungeons.
The day and night cycle is quite short.
Having Spirits follow you is fine but they are the same as the enemy obviously so knowing who is yours and who is aggressive is annoying.
So much going on it can be hard to nail down what you want to do.
When passing out or dying you still have to watch the same cutscenes play out.