Moonlight In Garland

Although my review says I recommend this game, this is one of those times that I wish steam had a neutral option. Because while I do see a lot of potential in this game, I don't think I can recommend it. It's VERY buggy. I often got stuck in menus or in animations (unable to exit the community board menu, unable to move after exiting the subway menu, and unable to get up off the dang toilet to name a few instances), the game is very sluggish in the overworld and only ran well in enclosed environments (ie indoors), the walking speed is too slow for how big the world is, the menus themselves are clunky and sluggish with the animation to pull them up being far too slow, and the controller support may as well be nonexistent for how poorly implemented it is. I really wanted to like this game. Even after playing the demo, I still gave it my money and my time because I do think there is a lot here that IS good. I like the characters, the freedom in choosing where to live, how to decorate, and what jobs to do, and I think the style is cute and unique. I really hope the dev is able to solve the issues with it and make this into another treasured gem of the cozy genre of games. I'll be keeping my eye on this, so I'll update my review if the issues are ever solved. This game clearly has a lot of love put into it, I just hope the dev is able to make it something great.

It's a no for now. I will check back in with this game at a later date and see how things are. There is so much potential here and I'm excited to see where this game goes, but I grew so frustrated with game as I played. You lose so much energy from walking around, I was constantly in the hospital because I didn't notice my energy was low because I was focusing on doing quests so I could make money in the game. I understand energy needing to be used up, but this frustrates me to no end. So I began focusing on the energy like a hawk and that just caused me to stress because not only did I have to focus on the time, I also had to look for items I needed, try to find items people wanted, look for trees that need to be cleaned, all while trying to learn the map and do quests. I would eat and get energy back and before I knew it I was low energy again. This just made me sigh in frustration and make me want to quit. I decided to keep at it, thinking it would get easier as I went along, it didn't. This took away from the cozy vibe for me. Also you have to wash your cleaning cloth. That's cool, but I can't wash it in either of the sinks in my apartment? I have to go outside to wash my cloth to come back inside to clean. That makes no sense to me. Like the water outside does make sense for when you are cleaning around town, but when you are in your apartment you have a kitchen sink, a bathroom sink, a shower, and heck even a toilet you could wash your cloth in. Maybe that will change later, but for right now that just makes no sense to me. Those were the major issues that bothered me, but I had some other issues the frustrated me like navigation, finding objects, the time speed, etc. I would say wishlist this one. Play the demo. Keep checking back on this game. Like I said, it has so much potential and I know the dev has a lot of passion for this game so I think it will only get better. Just for me right now, I don't suggest purchasing just yet if you are one that prefers a more finished and polished game.

I really wanted to like this game, but even after a long time, and countless updates, it's pretty much unplayable. There's some really good ideas, but it's so buggy, hard to navigate, and missing 95% of it's content. I'm giving up now :(

I'm saying not recommended for now because this game needs work still. There's so many little adjustments that would make this so much more fun to play. When you start, there is garbage all over the place but you can only pick up one or two pieces at a time, then have to go all the way back to your apartment's recycle bin to sell. The garbage cans that are scattered all around the city are apparently just for show. It doesn't make me very motivated to pick up trash. Secondly, the moving furniture system is bugged or just not very good. I accidentally moved my stove, and when I tried to place it back, my character is in the way and I'm only able to place the stove on top of the counter (???) or away from the wall. This alone made me rage quit. Another gripe is the energy bar. You shouldn't lose energy just by walking around. Most other games have you lose energy when you do an action. That makes more sense than losing it by walking. That means I pass out just by walking home even if I haven't really done anything that day. I think the game could be good, if little things like this were changed. The pixelated characters are cute, even if their portraits do remind me of ventriloquist dolls. 😅

This is such a sweet and thoughtful game. The dev has obviously poured a lot of love into it and it shows through the huge amount of content, even at this Early Access stage, and is very responsive to player feedback and bug reports! The beautiful pastel colour palette relaxes your eyes and the soundtrack twinkles and lulls you into cosy-land. There are so many funny conversations and characters that have genuinely made me laugh out loud. This is the perfect game for anyone wanting to customise their space, character, and do low-pressure quests. I'm so excited for the full release!

SO fun, a girly life sim game with so much to it and different then farming sim (which I love) if that’s what you want. I’m surprised with how much there is to the game and it deserves more recognition. I never submit bugs or give feedback really but when I did for this game it was easy and the developer was so nice and fixed it quickly without needing me to give my save file which was wonderful because I’m so technologically incompetent. I would love more life sim games like this one that are more modern and in the city, it reminds me a lot of an old handheld game I used to play called My Life.

Controls in this game are terrible. For example, when creating a character, it would skip over some options because the game registered input twice. this happened with mouse, touchpad and controller. it's even worse on controller: I couldn't tell which option I picked on making a new game because it's unclear what is or isn't highlighted. I played a little bit into the game and the controls did not get better at all. For this reason I cannot recommend this game. There are also things that are much more subjective that I didn't like. For example, I found the portrait art to look uncanny and the character sprites amateurish, which was a surprise because the backgrounds look very beautiful. Of course, this isn't in itself a reason to not give a game a chance but combined with the controls issues I had, it made me give up on the game. I cannot speak to story nor even gameplay because these hurdles in the beginning turned me off so badly. so there might very well be a game underneath the jank that others will love and enioy.

I've been playing this game for 8-12 hours straight. Such a fun game! I have a few suggestions though. When your relationship changes into lover, can you add different dialogues? You know, like calling pet names, romantic sentences and stuff... Anyway, it's a great game. I highly recommend it, and I'm looking forward for new updates. Although it makes me sad to think that the game might reach its end. I don't want this game to end.

this game is so unique and fun, im obsesseddddd ✨ also, the art style, color palette and music is chefs kiss 💕 its so girly and adorable ughhhh been playing on the steam deck and game runs great and the controls work as intended. sometimes, in selection menus, it skips over an item because it assumes the same input twice (not steam deck related - happens on my laptop as well) which honestly isn’t that big of a deal/doesnt happen very often, but can be a tiny frustrating. honestly i dont have anything bad to say about this game… i purchased it and played for 8h straight 😭 this is exactly the game i wanted, its like the sims and stardew valley had a baby. im about to have some really chaotic save files TRUSTTT ✨

This game is great, and really stands out in comparison to the abundance of "Stardew Valley" kind of games that are out there. You can tell the dev is genuinely passionate about the game they're creating, consistently squashing bugs and creating new content. 10/10 recommend