Moonstone Tavern - A Fantasy Tavern Sim!

Rough. Very Rough. The tavern runs itself once you get a starting cook. No one needs you. It's incredibly disconnected. Your guests are your quest givers who occasionally vomit on floors. That's it. Adventuring costs you money in health potions. The difficulty grade of quests only changes the amount of maps you have to run through till you reach your goal. Notice "run through" as you cannot realistically fight and expect to survive. Each time you die it takes 10 points from your max health, ensuring your next death comes that much quicker. You can forage for ingredients sure. But the items you pick up are worthless for vendors, eliminating that route for early game cash. Leveling only allows you to use the next tier gear and is pretty much a joke. The most cost effective way to earn money is to sit on your hands and do nothing while the clock ticks over into another day. I wanted to like this game. I like simulation games. This feels like a rushed, unbalanced, grab at fans of Stardew V...

UPDATE: After about four hours of play, I find this review I originally made after the bartender quest is still valid. Still, even with a few problems and frustrations, I've played the game for four hours, so it isn't all bad! I've found the game feels very unpolished and clumsy, and if I had known the game was in this state, I would not have purchased it. However, I love the premise of the game, and I'm going to hold onto this game rather than request a refund, in hopes the developer will polish it up a bit and make it run smoother. The framerate is terrible, and moving around it feels like the screen is constantly making tiny jumps, instead of smoothly flowing with the motion of your character. The tutorial is barely adequate, with a talking cat helping you find your way along a little. Combat was confusing to me, and my familiar "passed out" as well as myself passing out (-10 max health after awakening in the tavern) and I have no idea how to see how much life my familiar has. ...

The concept for this game is incredible....and that's what makes me so sad. I feel like there would be many, many hours of gameplay here. Unfortunately, the entire game just feels clunky. the frame rate is terrible, the mechanics are a bit wonky, time FLIES by and doesn't pause during open dialogue with other npcs. In time and with some work, this could be incredible. But as it is now....not so much. I will remain hopeful, though. So for now, I would not recommend this...let's hope that changes!

I love the concept of this game but the controls and in game menus are horrible, makes it frustrating to play. However, I have decided not to request a refund with the hopes that the devs will do a rehaul on these mechanics. Has the potential to be a good game, but as of now I would not recommend buying it.

Let me start off this review by saying that this game has a lot of potential. However, it is sorely lacking. It should have been developed more before being released. Pros: Nice art style, kinda like an old RPG. Lots of freedom in what you do - sorta. You can explore a lot. Cons: No instructions whatsoever, They tell you how to move around, but not where anything is, or how to do anything other than find the bartender. For God's sakes people, just put some signs up! Quests are all the same. You literally find all the same quests in difficulties you can't choose. It takes forever to get any money, especially in quests. This is compounded by the fact that you have to pay A LOT of taxes. I'd either remove the tax system, or make getting money much easier. The 'romance' is flat, one-sided, and doesn't take any 'story' progression at all. Seriously, this game needs a lot more work before I'd buy it, even for eight dollars. Also, the movement is shoddy. Overall, needs work. It's a neat id...

This isn't a bad game per say. In fact I found it quite entertaining, if a little rough around the edges. The problem isn't that the game is bad, but the developers. Had they continued to push out content and updates, this game could have been great. I could have dumped hours and hours into it. However, less than a week from the official release, the developers went radio silent. They even promised a new update way back on May 18th, slated for May 25th. It is now August 23rd at the time I write this review, and there has not been a word, or an update since that post. Now, I normally don't write reviews about this kind of thing. Shit happens, people have lives. A small group of indie devs can have things come up. But it's been three full months. The dev's haven't posted or replied to anything on the forums in that time. They also gave absolutely no indication they were going on hiatus. They just took the money and ran. Apparently this developer group has a history of abbandoning games...

The performance is horrible. The framerate is so low that the already very "challenging" controls become very unfun to handle. I was baited by a good and interesting concept and received one of the worst performances ever. Unfortunately time to make a refund on steam again.

Not in it's current state. This game wants to be so much more than it is. The Good: Honestly nothing yet. The Mediocre: Most of this game so far... Balancing, Dialogues, Events, Crafting, Tavern Management, World Depth and Inspiration, Creativity. The Bad: The combat, the combat, the combat. (this is 99% of the game) This makes some bad third party NES titles look like they have good combat programing. This is like Cheetahmen bad. If you do play, do not pick the fighter class, you will just die. Do not pick the guns, you will run out of ammo and will not have enough ore to make more, then die. See latter but with mage. Pick the Ranger class with both guns and wands and you may have a chance to not die, but no gaurentees. The platform/programming. This is a rush title with an amazing premise. It is sad that the developers chose to rush out the product instead of taking the time to produce a quality piece of software that would be solidly enjoyable. I played for a little under an h...

I really wanted to like this game. The premise is great and the foundation is great. But it is just dreadfuil to play. It seems like it is unfinished and it is very hard to use. Maybe after its been out for a while it will improve.

I love the premise of running a tavern, questing to improve your town and attract more customers, as well as leveling up your characters and upgrading your equipment to take on tougher challenges. Unfortuantely, this game lacks polish. The actual questing and gameplay are very repetitive. Pathfinding and hit boxes feel clunky. It's been fun for a few hours but without a deeper story or stronger motivation, I'm not feeling a lot of incentive to keep grinding.