Violet LeBeaux’s Moonlight in Garland begins like so many other cozy games: you’re feeling burnt out by your life, and decide to make a fresh start. But the place you find yourself moving to isn’t an isolated island or a rural farmstead – instead, you relocate to Garland, a bustling city absolutely packed with things to do. First step: rent an apartment. Next: get yourself a bank account and a city ID. From there… do whatever you like, because the world is yours!
I was really excited about Moonlight in Garland when I first heard about the game, because I absolutely adore cozy games and was curious about this unique take on the genre featuring a city setting instead of the usual farm or village. While the game spent a few years in Early Access, I didn’t actually pick it up until shortly after its full release this year – and I found the game to be more than worth the wait. Moonlight in Garland is a cozy delight that honors genre staples while also offering some new twists on what can often become a fairly standard formula.
Moonlight in Garland begins with a fairly elaborate character creator. I made a bizarre green-skinned cat-person, which was hilarious whenever the more realistic-looking denizens of Garland failed to notice anything was odd. From there, you take the train to the city, buy your first apartment – I went with Birch Towers, the fanciest apartment building option, because I loved all the facilities available – get yourself settled, and then do pretty much whatever you want. The game is fairly open-ended, which I love, although there are some larger goals like contributing to the Museum, helping out various characters, and improving the community in a number of different ways.
A great strength of Moonlight in Garland is the sheer variety of things available for you to do. As befits a bustling city, there are lots of options: you can fish, garden, decorate your apartment, pick up trash, beautify the city, interact with residents, take photos, and much, much more. The developer has an active, detailed roadmap for the game’s ongoing expansion, and new things are added quite frequently. Even over the course of the few days it took me to write this review, a new activity was added: the ability to brew tea in an adorable shop on the north side of the city.
You will never run out of things to do in Moonlight in Garland, but the game also doesn’t pressure you to do absolutely everything or to constantly stay busy. It’s perfectly okay if you just want to take a chill day once in a while to enjoy the scenery – and you should, because this game is gorgeous. It has a vibrant, colorful pixel art style, which truly makes the city feel lively and bustling. I particularly like the pink/purple color scheme used for Birch Towers, and the pops of even brighter colors in places like the playground.
While I made sure to try out everything Moonlight in Garland had to offer, I definitely ended up with some favorite activities. The big one was spending time with the various characters who call Garland home. There are so many residents to get to know, and each of them have their own elaborate schedules. You can call them on your phone, and they always have something interesting to say – I spent a lot of days just dialing up various people to see what they were up to.
I definitely had some characters I favored more than others – I immediately connected with Oliver, the overworked but always happy to help front desk employee of Birch Towers. I haven’t yet committed to romancing anyone, but right now Oliver is definitely a front runner. Others I liked include the also extremely overworked Sage, the introverted Quinn, the former pop star Ziggy, and the botanist George. It’s a good sign that a game has a strong cast that I haven’t romanced anyone yet after all my time spent playing it, because I like everyone so much that I can’t bring myself to choose just one.
While Moonlight in Garland is fully released, it is still in ongoing development and has a few rough edges that need smoothing out. I did not encounter any game-breaking bugs, but had a few minor issues. These included a few dialogue boxes that said “undefined,” NPCs sometimes “sticking together” when walking outside, and some visual lag, particularly during weather events. I also encountered an error when attempting to take in-game screenshots, which was especially a bummer as the game is visually gorgeous. However, the developer is aware of these bugs and is actively working to put out regular patches and fixes.
I also have to admit that I wasn’t a huge fan of how the energy system works. You have both physical and mental energy levels that you have to keep an eye on, and doing pretty much anything, even just walking around, drains your energy. There are plenty of self-care activities you can do to refresh yourself, and there are meters you can keep an eye on, but, especially in the early game, it’s easy to forget just how quickly the meters drain and end up in the hospital simply from talking a walk and picking up some trash. I do think the game could include a slightly more robust low energy warning system – although I admit some of it is probably my fault from trying to do too much at once!
Moonlight in Garland is a lovely cozy game that does something unique thanks to its city setting and focus on apartment-based living. Cozy game fans who are looking for something beyond the usual farm or island should definitely give Moonlight in Garland a try, especially as the developer is constantly adding fun new activities, patching bugs, and in general expanding the game to make life in Garland even more pleasant and fun!
Kate reviewed Moonlight on Garland on PC using a provided review copy.
Due to a bug encountered when attempting to take screenshots, official screenshots from the game’s Steam page have been used.
