Ever wondered how all those merchants in RPGs get their hands on so much good stuff? After an archaeological dig uncovers a series of mysterious dungeons, a small town is built nearby to house the countless adventurers who are brave enough to enter the caverns in search of treasures beyond their wildest dreams. Will is the youngest shopkeeper in town, having taken the reigns of his grandfather’s store. He dreams of becoming a hero, but how do you become a hero when you’ve got a shop to run?

Moonlighter is a game of two halves. By day, Will tends to the shop and manages his inventory, before heading out under the cover of darkness to partake in a spot of dungeon-delving. The whole thing can be a little difficult to get to grips with at first, with no real tutorial to speak of apart from a few bits of information given to us by an elderly resident. After an initial few minutes’ head-scratching, things become clear enough and the game opens up into a genuinely enjoyable loop of exploring, looting, selling and upgrading.

Any item collected inside the dungeons can be sold in your shop for whatever price you decide is fair. Everything has an optimum value that will be most acceptable to your customers, but this value changes based on the current supply and demand and it’s up to you to tinker with the prices until you find the sweet spot. The money you make is used to upgrade your shop (increasing the size to sell more stuff, for example), and also the town itself by employing additional workers who will provide yet another use for your loot and cash by selling and upgrading various useful potions, items and weapons.

Dungeons consist of random layouts of pre-defined rooms, similar to popular roguelites such as The Binding Of Isaac and Enter The Gungeon. Each dungeon is made up of three monster-filled floors, with a boss hiding at the end of the third floor. Most enemies drop loot, and your backpack tends to fill up pretty quickly. It’s possible to head back to town at any point if you need to drop off some items, but this costs money so it’s wise to keep some cash on you. Escaping is also sometimes a necessary option if you find yourself close to death, as falling in battle results in the loss of your current inventory.

We did encounter a couple of bugs during our time with the game, with the game even completely failing to load on a couple of stressful occasions. Nothing that can’t be solved by a quick reboot, but it does cause some unnecessary grief. Hopefully, issues like these can be ironed out in future updates.

Your overall enjoyment of Moonlighter will likely depend on whether you enjoy the shop management side of things, but we found it strangely calming and addictive in a Stardew Valley kind of way. With five dungeons to explore and the endlessly-addictive looting/selling loop, Moonlighter has the potential to keep you entertained for a long long time.

MOONLIGHTER / DEVELOPER: DIGITAL SUN / PUBLISHER: 11 BIT STUDIOS / PLATFORM: PC, PS4, XBOX ONE / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW