Moonglow Bay Review

Moonglow Bay is a slice-of-life fishing and cooking RPG with a heartfelt story. Moonglow Bay is located on the shores of Eastern Canada and is set in the 1980s. Just like in real life, the Bay is feeling the effects of overfishing and something more sinister; the sightings and rumours of a frightening sea monster. The residents from around town are too scared to go out fishing in the bay, so the fishing industry has all but disappeared. Thus causing the downfall of the whole town, shops are closing, the buildings are in disrepair and the beaches, streets, and the bay are covered with litter. Everyone has given up, even the Mayor is shutting down the town hall, there is no money left and so much of the town is in disrepair. So it is up to our main character to save the town and prove the rumours of a monster in the bay are false, and help the citizens of Moonglow Bay fix up their town.

You start the game with a choice of your voxel-style main character and who their partner is. My partner is Maxime Fisher, what a fitting name! The two of you have been together for 40 years now. You have moved to Moonglow Bay from Ontario to follow your partner’s dream of becoming a fisherman (or person depending on who you choose) and starting a street food stall, creating dishes from all the seafood that you catch. Your partner teaches you how to fish by casting out your line and waiting for the fish to bite. Then once it is on the hook how to reel it in and get it onto the boat. After your first couple of catches, your partner gives you a special present. You tell them you won’t open it now, but once they gets back from their fishing trip tomorrow.

Skip forward three years, we learn that your partner went missing on that trip and never returned. You see a letter from the government declaring them deceased since there has been no sign of them for three years now. River, your daughter, surprises you at the house telling you that she has moved to Moonglow Bay, not only to be with you, but for work. She has been hired to try to increase tourism to Moonglow Bay. River asks if you have opened that special present from your partner yet. It is still wrapped up on the desk in the hopes your partner would return. Once you open it you see a special fishing journal where you can keep track of all the fish you catch, their size, species, traits, and handy hints like the type of lure and bait to use to attract them. Your character decides that it’s time to bring those dreams to life. 

Your daughter River decides to give you a refresher course in fishing since it has been three years since you’ve cast a line. She teaches you how to change your lure and how to select the right one for the fish that you want to catch. After the lure, you have to select the type of bait you want to use. Bait is available in two types, low and high-grade. Low-grade bait is easy to obtain as you can just catch sand fleas on the beach with your net and chop it up with some small fish that you aren’t using for cooking in the kitchen. This bait will help you catch small and medium sized fish. High-grade bait is a bit harder to come by, since it is only available in the fish market once you have it unlocked. To obtain the high-grade bait, you will have to have some low-grade bait prepared so you can trade it to Grace Clout who works at the fish market. The high-grade bait will attract larger and more exotic fish that you don’t normally see.

Once you catch some fish, you can head back to your kitchen to start cooking. Your friend Abi Braun guides you through the steps required to prepare food from your daily catch. You have a recipe book that shows you what you can make with the ingredients you have. At first, you can only prepare Fish Cakes. The recipe tells you to go to the fridge to get your fish, then next up is washing the fish. This isn’t as simple as just taking the fish to the sink, you have to play a mini-game that requires you to perform a simple action. Here you need to keep the cursor on the moving target. After the fish is clean, you have to follow the rest of the steps on the checklist that is displayed on the top left of your screen. Chop, boil, fry, and bake to get to the finished dish. Each task has its own little mini-game that will test how good your timing and hand-eye coordination are. You have to be precise as any mistakes will lower the quality of your food and its sale value. As you talk to people around town, people will request specific dishes so more recipes will be available to you to try preparing. Once the dish is complete, you set it on the storage box in your front yard where people can purchase them. As soon as someone buys a dish the shells (money) will automatically show up in your account. Luckily as you play you can upgrade this set-up to a vending machine type system that you can stock with food for purchase.

As time passes you meet new characters around town that are happy to help you out. You just have to be sure to make time for fishing and food prep so you are able to have shells to buy and upgrade items like your fishing rod. It feels so rewarding to bring the boat that your partner and you had used out of storage and get it back on the water. This lets you travel to different areas to catch a variety of new fish. There are 100 different species to catch, so like in Pokémon, you are going to want to catch ‘em all! Maybe catch a couple of extra ones to take to the aquarium to improve their display of fish from the area. Helping out people in town like this and with their renovations only makes the town better. It helps improve the fishing industry and the tourism in Moonglow Bay to bring it back to life.

Moonglow Bay is an incredibly sweet and wholesome game. The voxel graphics and the catchy fiddle music do a great job of bringing the fishing village to life. I’ve gone fishing in real life before and Moonglow Bay captures the feeling of having a bite on the line and having to fight the fish who is trying to pull away from you. With the bonus of not having to sit and wait for an incredibly long time to get a nibble on the line! Plus I was never a fan of having to clean the fish and all the prep after the fact. The fishing mixed with the mini-games you play in the kitchen preparing your food is incredibly addictive. There’s a special feeling I would get whenever I created a dish using the fish I caught myself. For me, this is a must-play game for anyone who loves fishing, cooking, or slice-of-life games that tell a great story. I hope new fish and new areas to explore get added to Moonglow Bay as time goes on!