Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault

Genre: Top-Down Roguelike Action-RPG / Management Sim

Players: 1

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Review:

Moonlighter 2, released in 2026 on PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch 2, is the follow-up to 2018’s Moonlighter, but in many ways it is a very different game. While it is once again a Top-Down Roguelike Action-RPG with a strong Management Sim component where players manage their own item shop, and they once again play adventuring grey-haired shopkeeper Will in a story that picks up after the end of the first game, a lot of the details have changed.

The most immediately apparent one of those changes is this sequel’s new presentation, which leaves behind the 2D pixel art visuals of the previous game in favor of fully-3D visuals with a lot of detail and some good animation. However, this comes with some problems. These visuals, while nice, really don’t seem like they would require the full power of the Nintendo Switch 2, yet they still suffered from framerate drops on occasion, and had some surprisingly long loading times throughout the game.

In addition to this, the game seemed surprisingly buggy – at one point I clipped through the scenery and fell to my death, then kept respawning and dying in place underneath the scenery. Another time, I had an issue with the game freezing and needing to restart.

At the very least, the sound here is good, and particularly I found the soundtrack to be excellent, with understated instrumental, orchestral, and synthesized themes like Kalina Day Realm, Exhibition Wing, and Zephyr Fields.

Getting back to the changes in this sequel, we’ll start with the combat, which still has a melee weapon with standard and special attacks, as well as a firearm you aim like a 2-Stick Shooter that has ammo you recharge gradually as you use melee attacks, and a new backpack swipe move that enables you to send stunned enemies careening off the edge of the area or tumbling into other enemies.

Building on these, this time around Moonlighter 2 fully embraces the Roguelike genre in a way the prior game didn’t – areas are no longer a randomized conglomeration of rooms, but instead individual areas connected by a branching tree map, with each node representing a room with a specified sort of content or upgrade, including run-specific Roguelike power boosts. While I did enjoy the prior game’s Zelda-esque dungeons, I have to admit that reinforcing the Roguelike elements was a good call here, and makes each run interestion and potentially unique.

That said, it does also result in most enemies not dropping any sort of loot or materials, with these reserved as a reward for completing treasure chest rooms. To be sure, some enemies do drop materials you’ll need to upgrade various “Roguelite”-style elements, but these are segregated from the shopkeeping parts of the game, making those parts feel more anemic.

Perhaps in part because of this, your ability to organize your shop’s wares feels much more restricted this time around, and for a long while early on you’re only permitted to have four goods on a sale at a time. You’re still able to price things as you like, and a part of the goal is hitting the sweet spot of a price that’s as profitable as possible without making customers grumble too much. But now you’ll find yourself swapping in products to fill in gaps constantly as items are bought, since you have so little shelf space to begin with, and it’s apparently a while before you can expand this.

Because of this, I feel like Moonlighter 2 loses the great balance between dungeon raiding and shop management that made it such a delight. To be sure, the greater emphasis on Roguelike elements is a marked improvement, and the new combat mechanics add some wonderful nuance, but it’s disappointing to see what made the first game so unique become so minimized here. Add to this the technical issues the game has on Nintendo Switch 2, and it’s hard not to be a bit disappointed by Moonlighter 2, even though it is still an excellent game well worth playing for Action-RPG fans. However, as long as you don’t expect the same great blend of elements the first game had, I think you’ll still find a lot to enjoy here.

tl;dr – Moonlighter 2 is a Top-Down Roguelike Action-RPG with shop Management Simulation elements. This time around, the shop simulation elements feel somewhat minimized, and the Roguelike elements and combat are stronger. The latter is certainly an improvement, but the former is disappointing, making this a less-balanced game than its predecessor. In addition, Moonlighter 2 suffers inexplicable performance issues on Nintendo Switch 2. This is still an excellent Action-RPG, but it’s not quite the success the first game was.

Grade: B+

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