Image credit: Em Stonham for Kyusai/Little Chicken/XSEED Games/Marvelous Europe
I’ve been daydreaming about a gothic cozy life sim since I started gaming almost 20 years ago, hoping for something that treads the line between slightly dark and ominous, but is still cute and immersive. Thanks to Moonlight Peaks, the dreams I held as a baby bat are coming true.
Developed by Little Chicken and published by XSEED Games and Marvelous Europe, Moonlight Peaks is an adorable vampiric life sim that has nailed the balance between a modern goth aesthetic and cozy gaming staples. Here’s a full review of this gem, completed on PC.
Demon cats and blood grapes
Moonlight Peaks is a cozy vampiric life sim where you play as a vampire striking out on their own, leaving their family home and trying to set up a new life in the titular town. With your little demon cat coming along for the ride, your main goal is to set up a thriving farm on the outskirts of town.
Once you arrive, you’ll see that things aren’t quite as easy as they looked on paper – the farm is overgrown and in disrepair, and some of the townsfolk don’t seem like they want you there, largely due to the mutual dislike between vampires and werewolves.
It’s a cozy gaming staple – inheriting or taking over a farm from a relative and having to start from the ground up – but I enjoyed the spin that Moonlight Peaks took on the trope. The introductory cutscene is charming, and the fact that your family pet comes with you for moral support is adorable, even if they are a little sarcastic.
The core gameplay is what you’d expect from a cozy game, with cooking, farming, and crafting playing a key part in your everyday routine. You’ll need to craft items for quests, find special resources, and cook to manage your energy levels, all while managing relationships with other supernaturals in the town.
If you’re not interested in relationship systems, you don’t have to engage with this mechanic so much, but if you are, the system feels robust, and the characters have fun, engaging dialogue. You can give gifts to your favorites and celebrate their birthdays as well.
One of the main highlights of Moonlight Peaks for me popped up right at the beginning of the game – the character creator.
Generally, I dress in an early 80s goth style in my day-to-day life – petticoats, corsets, stompy boots – so unsurprisingly, cozy gaming character creators don’t always offer clothes that I feel suit my style.
This wasn’t the case with Moonlight Peaks. Fellow goths or alternative-leaning geeks will get a kick out of the options for trad goths, emos, and scene kids; there are gorgeous make-up options, a strong variety of hair colors and textures, and a great selection of outfits, too. I loved the fact that it was all genderless, as well.
The crafting system was equally enjoyable, with adorably designed furniture and trinkets to scatter around your home. One of the first items you’ll end up crafting for a quest in the game is a coffin-shaped cat bed, and the scream I let out when I saw you could dye it pink may have had my neighbours concerned.
Just the right amount of detail
Something that I loved about Moonlight Peaks is that it had just the right amount of detail and depth to it.
Sometimes, cozy games can leave things a little too shallow; you can speak to an NPC or craft an item, sure, but the conversations feel flat, and the crafting mechanics are incredibly simplistic. There’s cute stuff on the surface, but not enough supporting it to make it feel truly immersive.
On the flip side, cozy games can sometimes veer too heavily into detailed mechanical systems; this is a critique I’ve seen levied at behemoths like Stardew Valley before. Adding too many stats, timers, and quest requirements into a cozy game can defeat the objective, making the game feel more like a survival title like ICARUS.
Moonlight Peaks struck the balance between keeping things low-stakes and making systems feel just rich enough to make progressing feel actually rewarding.
The world was lively, and I loved seeing the NPCs wander around from region to region, and there were plenty of new resources or treasures to uncover while exploring. The crafting and cooking systems were vibrant, but they were still approachable and intuitive.
It’s not an easy balance to strike in a cozy game, especially now that the genre is admittedly quite busy, so it was refreshing to see that Moonlight Peaks had a well-balanced gameplay loop.
Despite having a fairly low-range PC, this game ran beautifully for me. It felt smooth and didn’t throw up any major quirks, bugs, or frame drops, with controls that felt easy to get to grips with and menus that were easy to parse.
While I did spend most of my time playing Moonlight Peaks using keyboard and mouse, I found the experience of playing with a DualSense controller to be just as enjoyable. The controls work nicely with both input styles, and it’s easy to switch between the two if you feel like it during a play session.
The aesthetics of Moonlight Peaks were a real highlight for me. The game has a soft, colorful art style, and each character feels like they’ve been designed with care. I particularly loved unlocking new crops or crafting recipes and getting to see the sprites for each one.
If you’re a cozy gaming lover, there’s a lot to get excited about with Moonlight Peaks – and if you’re a goth or someone who loves vampires, you’ll have even more to lose your mind over. The game is gorgeous and feels like a joy to play, and I’m already worried about how much free time I’m going to lose to it.
FAQs
The Moonlight Peaks release date is July 7, 2026.
Moonlight Peaks was developed by Little Chicken and published by both XSEED Games and Marvelous Europe.
No, Moonlight Peaks is not a scary game like Alien: Isolation or similar titles. It has vaguely dark inclusions like vampires, werewolves, and crypts, but it’s cozy and cute throughout.
Moonlight Peaks is available on PC, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, and Android. According to the Steam page, it’s Steam Deck verified.
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