At its core, Moonglow bay is a cozy fishing, cooking, business management and townlife sim that fans of games like Stardew Valley, Harvest Moon etc will enjoy, the block style character models, the music, and the setting are all quality, the fishing and cooking mechanics are thoughtful without being tedious, and despite some review bombing because of cloud saves, and some early bugs that have mostly been patched out. (literally read someone say it’s a good game but downvote because of cloud? lol) it is definitely undeserving of mixed reviews. Also, I do have a pretty good rig, but I have seen few to no bugs.

As an lgbtq enbyl I was pleased by the ability to choose my gender independent of my body. They even went deeper than that, including gender neutral honorifics like MX, dialogue changes, and a canon nonbinary story character other than the MC! On the subject of inclusivity, there is a variety of couplings and sexualities represented in the npcs, including dialogue in the main story specifically mentioning partners of characters. I wouldn’t call it overtly queer, but it’s there and doesn’t dance around it. Moreso it’s presented in a way that feels honest, and real.

Sometimes when a game like Moonglow bay tries to tell a story you find yourself annoyed that the story is getting in the way of your cozy farming experience. Devs often just sort of “tack” a story on in order to tick a box thought they had to, and when that happens, it shows. Moonglow Bay’s Story does not fall in to that trap. In fact, I found myself just as eager to progress relationships and story beats as I was to immerse myself in the relaxing, yet somehow excited loop of “fish, cook, make money, spend money, repeat. Highly recommend this game for anyone who enjoys fishing games, cooking mama, stardew valley, and cozy but emotional stories.