Game: Moonlight Peaks
Genre: Simulation, Adventure
System: Nintendo Switch (Also on Switch 2, Steam (Windows) and Google Play Games)
Developer | Publisher: Little Chicken | Marvelous/XSEED
Age Rating: US Teen | EU 12+
Price: US $34.99 | UK £29.99 | EU € 34,99
Release Date: July 7th, 2026
Review code used, with many thanks to Decibel PR.
I’m always a fan of farming and crafting simulation games, and as the premise of Moonlight Peaks is pretty unique, I was eager to give it a try. This time, you don’t play as a would-be farmer with amnesia trying to coach a derelict farm back to life. Instead, you play as a young vampire, none other than the offspring of Dracula. And where farming usually takes place when the sun goes up, in Moonlight Peaks, your work starts after the sun has gone down. Plus, the characters living in the nearby town aren’t what you’d call ordinary!
And if you want to know more about how to play the game, find our guide here!
Making a New Life
Moonlight Peaks starts with customising your character, which isn’t gender locked. There are a lot of options to choose from, but if you would like the game to set you up with a random look, that’s possible too. After I created my little vampire, named YvoCaro (of course, my standard name for any game character), I was leaving home after a row with my Dad. Mother was sweet and very concerned, and at least she knew I was going to the family farm. And what’s more, my hellkitten decided to accompany me!
Settling into that family’s old home, I started building and customising the farm while learning spells, brewing potions, and unlocking unique vampire abilities to help my land flourish.
There are enchanted crops and mystical livestock, and aside from that, there is a lot to explore in and around the town. The farm is in a magical town inhabited by werewolves, witches, seers, and other extraordinary residents. You can chop for wood, mine for ores, gather flowers and other resources, cook, craft, fish and form meaningful relationships with the other inhabitants. You get to know the community, the history and uncover the secrets of the seven families that have shaped Moonlight Peaks for generations.
Each family has its own traditions, stories, and supernatural background, offering plenty of mystery and discovery. Along the way, you may even find a love that lasts an eternity as yes, there is romance in Moonlight Peaks.
Plenty to Do
Like in any good simulation game, there is enough to do in Moonlight Peaks although if you are on the fence, know that there is no fighting in the game.
We’ve already touched on the farming. Regular crops at first, that abide by the rule that some will grow in Spring, others in Summer and so on. You have to water them daily, which is a bit of a pain, as the watering can is a bit iffy when it comes to which squares it waters.
You have to clear a piece of land first, as it’s pretty much overgrown by weeds and trees, and there are loads of rocks. All of that costs stamina, and you can run out of that early in the evening already. You have to eat to replenish it, but it can be a challenge at first. There aren’t a lot of recipes you can make from the start, and the raw ingredients don’t help much in adding stamina. It’s a matter of managing the stamina and crops as best you can.
You have a fishing rod and a bug net, and you can forage for flowers and mushrooms. To sell things, you get a Chester (think Harry Potters Monster Book, but this one is a huge chest) who is happy to be petted, but will also sell the items you put in it. As is customary, items bring in a higher price when you have worked on them before selling, which is where the various makers come in, like a barrel to make juices and wine, a furnace, a refiner and a jam maker.
The Magical Part
Moonlight Peaks opens up when your broken wand is fixed, and you discover magical crops. They need watering with a spell, which is placed by first remembering and then making the appropriate movements on a circle. This is the first spell of several, designed to make your hard labours easier.
That’s the first time you realise there’s another energy bar: the one for mana. This mana replenishes with sleep, but only one star a day. And finding things to eat or drink to add mana is even more of a challenge than managing your regular stamina bar. As some crops need watering by the spell Acquaflux. Magical crops and performing spells are what make this game very different from any farming sim I’ve ever played.
The animals you can keep on your farm are decidedly different too. I have a Cheeken, which seems like a chicken but she is constantly rushing around with several chicks in tow. And there’s a Cowcula for sale and a Draculamb, I foresee lots of interesting times with them!
Visit the Town of Moonlight Peaks
The town of Moonlight Peaks is only a part of the areas to explore. There’s also Misty Shores, Silverveil Lake, the Howling Marshes, Moonlit Pines and more. Not all are accessible from the first, and neither are the caves that are dotted around. To be able to mine there, you will have to upgrade your pickaxe, and trees further away from the farm require a better axe, too.
The town is a busy one, with several shops and merchant stands. There’s a coffee shop and a tavern, and there are always people around. You can spend time at making pottery, arranging bouquets of flowers and more. Pretty soon, you won’t have enough time in the night!
You meet several other vampires, one of whom is Orlock, who is trouble from the first. The mayor is a werewolf, and not a very friendly guy, though the rest of his family makes up for that. The witches help you uncover your magical side, and one of the seers introduces you to a card game called Nokturna that you can play with several of the town’s inhabitants.
What’s nice is that the cards you acquire playing Nokturna actually show up in your menu, making it a nice challenge to hunt for the best and coolest-looking cards available. There are other pursuits, such as collecting Vampsters and Soul Blobs, as side quests.
The storylines with the others in town are interesting and felt to me like there were real feelings behind it, not the standard answers you see so often in simulation games. There are festivals that are well thought out, and the tempo in the game is good too. Storylines and quests to fulfil them open up at a nice pace, and a lot of new items to make and recipes to cook unlock at a rapid pace. Though I will say that managing your mana is a challenge at the start, and it feels like it should be balanced better.
Graphics, Soundtrack and Controls
The graphics of Moonlight Peaks look good, colourful and detailed. I did notice that the chibi-characters that you see differ from the little avatar shown when you talk to them. The avatars generally look a bit disgruntled. Which I guess fits for werewolves and vampires, but I found the difference noticeable.
The other thing I noticed is that the landscape looks so flat. Standing in the Howling Marshes, you see it best, the 3D perspective looking at the streams that criss-cross the land, you don’t see much of a difference in height.
There is some background music, but it’s not intrusive and sort of comes in waves. It’s nice to be at work on your farm and to suddenly hear a song swelling to full strength. The ambient sounds are great and very fitting for the middle of the night. As of course, playing from 6 pm at night and returning to your coffin to sleep at 6 am would warrant sounds of owls, chirping insects and babbling brooks. But the sounds also fit the location you are in: chipping away at rocks in the caves gives a satisfying echoing sound.
I noticed that the loading times of Moonlight Peaks are quite long. They happen not only going in and out of buildings, but also going from one area to the next. I played the Switch 1 version, and I will download the upgrade pack after launch to see if it makes any difference.
On a very positive note, the developer has the storage well managed in Moonlight Peaks. No difficult limited boxes, you just click store while in your house, and it’s magically gone, and easily retrievable. And when you are setting your various makers at work on the farm, they seamlessly draw from your storage.
Sadly, there is no mini-map, so seeing where you are or where a character you are looking for is always requires a few clicks. Maybe the developers can add that in future. Shortcuts in accessing some parts of the menu would be very welcome too, like quickly checking the spell you need to perform.
Conclusion
Moonlight Peaks is a great farming and crafting simulation game, with romance included and so much divers things to do that it won’t feel like a chore soon. I’ve found a few niggles, but it didn’t detract from the fun I had playing, and I hope that over time the few small niggles that I had can be remedied by the team at Little Chicken.
The idea behind this cozy magical farming sim with a supernatural twist is great and well executed. It gives us a simulation game that doesn’t follow the standard way of working, making it feel novel and refreshing because of it.
Final Verdict: I Like it a Lot
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