I absolutely adore the original Moonlighter, perhaps more than any other indie I can name.

On the one hand, it’s just another dungeon crawler, rogue-lite. Hacking. Slashing. Gathering loot and moving onto the next room, ready to fight another boss.

But the twist is you are also a shopkeeper who can then go on to sell the wares you gather by night at the break of dawn in your humble little abode.

There was always something so obvious and charming in that. Like, of course a treasure hunter with such prowess and skills would want to go ahead and sell the things he finds. Why wouldn’t he? But it also becomes its own game as you starting setting your own prices and trying to maximise profit / or be more willing to do a deal so you get repeat customers.

So getting hands on with Moonlighter 2, even in this clearly early state, was a real moment of excitement for me. And I’ve been head down on my Steam Deck ever since. It’s fantastic.

To be completely honest, so far, it just feels like a slightly bigger budget Moonlighter but with more story and a few more bells and whistles thrown in. And unlike some, I’m always of the opinion – don’t fix what ain’t broke.

This is the game I wanted to play, not some reimagined rethinking of the game. The big improvements are definitely in the region of combat and dungeon-crawling as it’s definitely leaning closer to a Hades-style vibe where you choose the path you want to go down, clear a room, get the loot and move onto the next, with a couple of bosses thrown in for good measure.

Also like Hades you can choose between four different weapon types before heading in – a short sword, large sword, spear and melee striking weapons. Each has their own distinct ability and work in very different ways, but offer satisfaction whichever way you go.

So far, I’ve tended to favor the spear and the gauntlets, but I’m sure I’ll find myself switching and alternating both as I keep playing and the Early Access evolves.

Enemies do feel a little tanky at the moment, even in the early going, but there’s absolutely a sense of progression within the game as you earn gold from your exploits and sales and can then invest them in yourself, whether that’s increasing the health pool, potions, attack speed and more.

The other big change you’ll notice is the art style. The OG was much more like a Link to the Past, top-down pixel art adventure, and thus the combat and feel was very much rooted to the era, but Moonlighter 2 has a more 2.5D isometric view, with more of a sandbox feel as you can wander freely around the maps and your village, peeking behind the scenery, while also contending with enemies from on high or below you.

But things like the Inventory management system have returned. Essentially, when you find items in a chest they have certain conditions, and so you need to place them very carefully to try and maximise what you can bring back with you. Like certain items wil burn an artefact next to them, or decrease the value of certain artefacts on the same row. What’s more, if you’re defeated in combat, all of your items will depreciate in value even further, meaning you won’t make quite as much money back.

It really does lend itself to the idea of risk vs reward. How far you want to try and go versus the quality of treasures you’ve found and accepting defeat on a run when things are looking dire.

Moonlighter 2 is beautiful and also feels so much more refreshing because you can really see and connect with the characters now. It feels like a true, evolutionary sequel in every sense of the word as the world is richer, the environments are broader and bigger and it all comes together through the storytelling, both through side quests and dialogue.

The game also just feels better too. In the sense that it’s so easy to progress from one day to the next, no interuptions, no slowdown or frustration, the transition between shopkeeping and treasure hunting is seamless. And the best part is, the shopkeeping has also seen some marked improvements.

For instance, now you can purchase additional furniture to liven up your shop, between carpets, wallpapers and other appliances. There’s different mantle types to display your wears which can offer more money and bonuses. You can also increase your item slots for when you go out on missions, meaning you can bring back more to your stores and store things in your item chest for a rainy day.

You feel like Moonlighter 2 will boast more options still, as there’s quite a few placeholder spots saying Coming Soon, and for that I’m really excited to see how else they evolve the game. But other things such as bonus tip jars, repeat customers with set requirements, and certain items that sell better on certain days means the game will certainly keep itself fresh.

There’s definitely enough sauce here to dive in and experience the game for yourself, with only minor glitches. Performance wise, it also plays pretty seamlessly on Deck already, though is suprisingly consumptive in space and memory, so I imagine further optimisations will come down the line.

As this is Early Access, I won’t give this a rated review yet – much like Hades 2 and others before it, I’ll wait till 1.0. But we will be doing regular coverage on this as the game evolves. And what we can say for sure is what’s here is very, very good and well worth a look in.

Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault is going to be a go-to game for me heading into 2026, and while the new content here is already exciting, it’s what’s on the roadmap that really has me buzzed.