Moonglow Bay Critic Reviews

Moonglow Bay is a fun fishing/slice of life game with a charming story and rock-solid gameplay.

Moonglow Bay is a genuinely moving and surprisingly feel-good tale about coming to terms with grief and embracing change.

Despite developer Bunnyhug getting so much right in terms of the presentation and some of the gameplay, the multitude of bugs and questionable design choices cast a heavy shadow that is impossible to ignore. Since its October release, there have been two patches to address some of the bugs, but the game still remains a messy experience overall. If you can look past the technical issues currently plaguing the game then Moonglow Bay could be a worthwhile time-sink, but it otherwise remains a difficult sell for all but the most diehard Harvest Moon fans.

I still found myself sinking hours at a time into the charming world of Moonglow without even realizing it. Its voxel art visuals are beautiful and the soundtrack is suitably chill. Moonglow Bay has been developed by a truly passionate team, one with so many great ideas that, in trying to implement them all, perhaps haven’t had the time or experience to flesh them out with the depth they truly deserve. Still, if the idea of saving a town through fishing sounds like your cup of tea, Moonglow Bay is worth checking out. Just be prepared for a rather simplistic ride.

This is exactly what it looks like: a relaxing fishing game. If you’re looking for an experience like that, Moonglow Bay is a good option.

This kind of game is a welcome change to the farming/life RPG genre. If you are a player that enjoys fishing in games, then this is the game for you because it’s all fishing, all the time. Moonglow Bay is overall a fun, relaxing game, but it struggles with controls, game-breaking bugs, and glitches that can ruin the game.

As a huge River King fan, trying to find a fishing RPG that gave me a boatload of mellow emotions has been challenging over the years. Moonglow Bay really feels like a lot of thought and care went into every aspect of the game. While not everything is perfect, it’s hard to deny the comfort that comes from chilling in your boat, catching some crazy species of fish, and sailing around to take the blues away. Moonglow Bay is the comfort food that you didn’t know you needed, and a game that constantly reminds you that you’re never alone, and even when you are, you can sail away to a better place and time.

Even though I don’t see myself swapping out my go-to “rainy day” games like Stardew Valley or Moonlighter for Moonglow Bay anytime soon, I’m also not ready to say that I definitely won’t. The amount of progress that the game made in just a week and a single patch has given me nothing but hope for its future, and it’s a game I’ll be keeping an eye on in the weeks to come. Moonglow Bay also supports local coop, and while I’ll always support anything that allows me to play with friends, the game feels like an almost personal experience that I didn’t ever feel the urge to invite someone to share with me. So with that, I’ll leave you with my closing thoughts of Moonglow Bay: Not bad, cod be better.

Moonglow Bay starts strong with its emotional story and initially solid gameplay loop of fishing and cooking. Unfortunately, bugs and the lack of variety quickly become its downfall, resulting in an experience that grows more bland and frustrating to play the further you progress.

Pleasantly meditative as it can be, it feels worn and ragged in places, that uncomfortable woolly itch coming just too often to ignore.

A super-calm mix of fishing, cooking, business management, and town-restoring RPG, Moonglow Bay is a decent idea that wasn't executed that well, and is thus very boring and repetitive. It also struggles with making you care about anything. Players do things just to do them, with the tiniest sense of progress possible. Take your fishing rod and fish somewhere else.

The game's story keeps unravelling towards a genuinely tearjerking ending, digging into its themes of community, resilience, and rebuilding in surprising and consistently interesting ways. It keeps a steady, compelling rhythm, switching between the normal fishing and cooking to something more dramatic and then back again. And watching the town slowly come back to life, not despite setbacks but building on what they leave behind, is beautiful.

The slow pace and gentle yet solemn storytelling — with lots of bright, joyous moments, too — is delightful, and I’m eager to learn more about Moonglow Bay and its people, in a town shaped as much by fishing as it is by grief.