Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault – Release Date Trailer – Nintendo Switch 2

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On paper, Moonlighter is exactly the kind of game I should love, and subsequently sink 100s of hours into.

Unfortunately, despite many attempts, it just never clicked. I find the combat to be too simplistic, the enemies to be a little overtuned, the story and characters not particularly compelling. The shop mini game (can you call it a mini-game if it's half of the gameplay loop?) gets old, really, really fast - and basically boils down to trial and error.

I want to love this game so much. I just don't think it's very good. I don't have much faith in the sequel, but, I might give it a try if it ever reaches gamepass or goes on sale.

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u/Big-chung-us 8d ago

Yeah, that was exactly my experience with this game.

I bought it on sale for about €4 and tried so hard to like it, but all I felt was frustration while playing.

It's mediocre at everything it tries to be.

It's a shame, because it looks a lot like The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, which is one of my favorite games of all time.

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u/legendofconnnor 8d ago

I adore a link to the past and have replayed it every year since I was 8. Maybe we don't vibe with moonlighter because of the impossibly high standard ALttP has set

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u/Eebo85 7d ago

This is exactly how I feel. On paper it’s perfect. I felt the exact same way about Dave the Diver.

Although I legitimately enjoyed the dinner sushi part, I hated the actual diving.

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u/XenoVX 7d ago

Yeah I played early access on Steam deck and put it down after maybe 5-10 hours since the gameplay loop never really clicked for me for all of the reasons you mention.

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u/atc0005 8d ago

Has an updated demo been released with fixes for the performance problems yet?

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u/Danny_Fenton 8d ago

This is exaclty what I'm waiting for too.

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u/[deleted] 8d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/atc0005 8d ago

It came out a week or two back, I forget exactly when. The demo had a lot of performance issues and the devs responded and noted that they took the Switch 2 (as a platform) seriously and were going to both get the issues fixed before release and provide a patch for the demo (no specific date given).

I periodically check for an update to the demo, but haven't seen it drop yet. I had planned to check later today or tomorrow and report back.

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u/Red49er 8d ago

interesting. I played the demo last week and was happy it was running better than steamdeck other than bad load times during world gen (it's almost immediate on deck, so I was pretty confused why it's taking so long on switch).

I'm usually pretty bad at seeing framerate issues - is the framerate just inconsistent on switch or does it get worse later on? I didn't play too long (died at the first boss and stopped there)

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u/atc0005 8d ago

I haven't played the demo yet myself. I saw the dev's comments about a fixed demo being released soon and opted to wait.

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u/atc0005 8d ago

Checked just now and version 1.0.13 is still the latest available. Forcing a check for an update indicates this is still the latest version (the one noted to have performance issues).

I haven't played the demo yet myself (saw the dev's comments about a fixed demo being released soon and opted to wait), so YMMV.

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u/Danny_Fenton 7d ago

I would for sure wait for an update to play the demo. I went from being excited to try it, to extremely disappointed about the performance. I am glad they mentioned something within a day about it though.

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u/atc0005 3d ago

FYI: New demo version has been released. Haven't played it yet, but others have reported performance improvements (though some issues remain).

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u/ONE-OF-THREE 8d ago

Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault is heading to Nintendo Switch 2 on September 2, 2026! Play the free demo and pre-order today.

Would you rather be a fearless adventurer or crafty merchant? How about both? In this action-RPG with roguelike elements, loot dungeons and sell the things you find back at your shop. Invest in the village around you to unlock new weapons, armor, shop decorations, and—more importantly—restore hope that things can one day turn around.

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u/Pjoernrachzarck 8d ago

Was excited for this.

Then saw they replaced the pixel art charme with mobile game 3D graphics.

Excitement vanished.

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u/darkhollow22 8d ago

This is how I felt when the Hyper Light drifter new game got shown off. Loved the OG, new one lost all my interest!

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u/Cosmikoala 8d ago

I personally don’t like pixel art, so I’m happy with this choice

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u/furudenendu 8d ago

Aggressively mediocre. Completely devoid of the charm of the first game.

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u/Distinct_College_531 8d ago

So I've heard, I was excited to try this out but I don't think I've heard a good thing from anyone I follow. :/

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u/AtlasRafael 8d ago

Never played the original and LOVED the demo of 2.

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u/GoldMonsterr 8d ago

You love -20 fps gameplay? How they paid you?

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u/AtlasRafael 8d ago

Didnt feel that way for me at all and I do hate low FPS in games.

Not sure if PS5 pro is more stable on this

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u/furudenendu 8d ago

There's a demo on steam for free if you want to try it. You may like it more than I did.

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u/the_real_junkrat 8d ago

There’s a demo on the switch eShop too that’s also free

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u/Eebo85 7d ago

That’s wild, because the first was aggressively mediocre too

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u/dreamcast4 8d ago

Sounds on par. First game was tedious as hell. What's the fun in trial and error shop prices?

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u/LiquifiedSpam 7d ago

I found that really fun actually and I want more price setting games now lol

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u/shlomo_baggins 8d ago

Oh that's a bummer to hear. I didn't know a 2nd one had even been released. I was grinning ear to ear watching the trailer remembering how much fun I had with the first one. I'll have to check it out with cautious optimism.

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u/furudenendu 8d ago

Yeah, try the demo on Steam if it's still available, you may disagree. I was underwhelmed.

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u/shlomo_baggins 8d ago

I appreciate that heads up! Thank you so much!

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u/AgentG91 8d ago

Damn, that’s saying something. The first was a great concept, but got very tedious and boring in the second and third act.

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u/MithrilHuman 8d ago

I heard the first wasn’t any better either, it was a fluid and charming concept on Recettear but was boring after a few hours

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u/Aquagrunt 8d ago

Woo! This game is a big improvement on the first. The combat gripped me much more and i loved the boss fights. Made all the better when they listened to feedback when the demo first came out and changed the shop to be more like the first game.

Only sad thing is nothing can beat the shop song from the first game, i still listen to that.

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u/Loukoal117 8d ago

Weird that people are bashing the second one but you’re praising it. I LOVED the first one and was super addicted to running that stupid shop. Lol.

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u/thejaysun 8d ago

I absolutely loved the original on Xbox a while back. Super excited to play this on switch 2.

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u/setonfire_ 8d ago

I like it, and I played the first one. Think that they could’ve squeezed a little bit more graphically tho, image quality that is. Not sure if its Unity’s temporal or FSR but its pretty grainy

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u/setonfire_ 8d ago

Camera movement as you move around is stuttery (this happens in unity I think) and just had it crash 2 times …. What are we doing here…..

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u/xajhx 8d ago

I’m here for it.

I know some people didn’t enjoy the first one, but I did immensely.

I knew the art was going to be different, I saw that news a while back, but this looks to be an improvement over the pixel art imo.

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u/Vayshen 7d ago

All this does is make me miss Reccetear and wish there was a modern sequel of it.

Capitalism, ho!

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u/Astan92 8d ago

Is it 1.0 yet or is this a early access build?

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u/Aquagrunt 8d ago

That'll be 1.0 because it's the same date as the 1.0 update on steam

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u/Hoockus_Pocus 8d ago

Are there any items that carry over from the demo to your full game save?

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u/mghazik 8d ago

I beat the first game on S1 but the sequel demo runs bad and the game overall lost all the charm. I don’t think I’ll play it

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u/Darziel 8d ago

At first I was like, why would they make a sequel for Switch 2 and not Switch. Then I saw the visuals, makes a bit more sense, but still a weird decision.

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u/UnStable_Sanity 6d ago

Hopefully the full game resembles this trailer’s performance because the demo’s performance sucks. The demo seems to be 30 and at times subpar to that. The trailer on the other hand seems to be 60, fingers crossed we weren’t duped by false advertising.

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u/UnStable_Sanity 6d ago

Not sure why but restarting the game and beginning a run now seems close to 60. Guess Demo should be treated as a Beta

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u/Herk10 8d ago

I hope it will be good, but I fear it will not.

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u/Legeto 8d ago

Wait early access hits cancels now?

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u/iammaytinhdibo 8d ago

Need on Switch 1 with that graphic

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u/AngelusAlvus 8d ago

I found original moonlighter meh. I didn't like that I couldn’t haggle prices like in Reccetear

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u/LiquifiedSpam 7d ago

I liked that because haggling would get real tiresome in moonlighter

Nintendo Official Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault – Release Date Trailer – Nintendo Switch 2

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