Moonlighter 2 Feels Like An Entirely Different Game, For Better And Worse

In a sea of Legend of Zelda homages, 2018's Moonlighter stood out with its lovely art style and a cool hook: What if the loot you gather on your dungeon-delving adventures wasn't just power-ups, but the wares you sell as part of your day job? Following Moonlighter's release, a number of smaller games, like Cult of the Lamb and Dave the Diver, have found success in complementing action mechanics with light management elements, so it's clearly a combo that works. It would have been easy for developer Digital Sun to simply give us a shinier, more polished version of that original concept in a sequel. Instead, Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault, which has just released in version 1.0 after an early access period, surprisingly rethinks what a Moonlighter game is at its very core. That makes it comfortably live alongside the original, offering an experience that's distinct enough to enjoy both--or to come to the series anew without feeling lost. The visual differences between the first game and Moonlighter 2 are the most readily apparent changes. While characters like your shopkeeper, Will, are perfectly recognizable, they're rendered in a new 3D style with an isometric camera angle. That…