Fishing sim Moonglow Bay review: angling mini-games and heartfelt story

People of Moonglow Bay fear the ocean — and for good reason. For them, it’s an abyss filled with more than just fish: It’s brought a whole lot of pain. This once prosperous fishing village has suffered a lot of loss, most likely due to the tsunami. They took away their loved ones, and hurt the dreams they had worked so hard for. Since these tragedies struck, the town’s liveliness has been replaced with myths and legends centered around the ferocious beasts that prowl beneath the waves, devastating the local economy to a point that the city’s town hall is about to shut down.

Moonglow Bay, the voxel art game out now on Windows PC via Steam and on Xbox One and Xbox Series X, begins three years after the main character — named whatever you choose — loses her partner. Three years earlier, that character and her wife, Robin, moved to the small, Canadian bay to revitalize its fishing industry — a dream of Robin’s. Robin vanished shortly afterwards. Moonglow BayYour character is left housebound from grief after Robin is declared deceased in absentia. Slowly life returns to normal and your daughter goes to work in the town.

Image: Bunnyhug/Coatsink

You begin fishing, cooking, and selling your wares, bringing Robin’s dream to life in her absence. Fishing begins beachside and from docks, but eventually you’ll get access to a boat, too. Everything is centered around this act — tossing your line into the water and seeing what you pull up. The mechanical act itself is not difficult, and that’s intentional: Moonglow BayThis removes any friction in fishing. It encompasses all the best parts of fishing — fishing as an idea — and makes it the chill, meditative act many of us wish it actually was. This is a guideline. Moonglow Bay’s Fishing is similar to Stardew ValleyIt’s about involvement. But it’s not as hard as, say, Animal Crossing New Horizons

That’s what feels good to me when playing Moonglow Bay — it lets you take things slow. There isn’t necessarily a rush to move the story forward or to focus energy on any one particular task. It is about being an average-aged angler who learns to live again after major losses. Moonglow Bay is a large part of this. Part kind gesture, part advertising for new business, your character cooks for other people.

Image: Bunnyhug/Coatsink

A lot of the “helping” in Moonglow Bay — doing tasks or cooking for other residents — is not essentialYou don’t have to complete the game in order to be successful, but this is a very important step. You learn all about the loss of the community, understand their fears and can help them to live with it. It’s somehow both sad and sweet in a way that surprised me.

I’m seven hours into Moonglow Bay at this point, and for lack of a better phrase, I’m hooked. Moonglow Bay has its fair share of bugs and glitches; I’ve had to restart the game a few times to break out of glitched out screens, and I faced a massive bug that made one sea encounter impossible. I would also recommend playing this with a controller, too, if you’re on Windows PC; the keyboard controls feel obtuse and not clearly explained. There are moments where things feel confusing even with a controller. Moonglow Bay’s “boss” fishing fights.) Those flaws are easy to overlook.

The slow pace and gentle yet solemn storytelling — with lots of bright, joyous moments, too — is delightful, and I’m eager to learn more about Moonglow Bay and its people, in a town shaped as much by fishing as it is by grief.

Moonglow Bay launched Oct. 26 on Windows PC via Steam and Xbox One and Xbox Series X, where it’s available for no extra cost to Xbox Game Pass subscribers. The Epic Games Store will have it on November 11. Coatsink provided a code for the download of the game to be reviewed on Windows PC. Vox Media also has affiliate relationships. Although these partnerships do not impact editorial content, Vox Media could earn commissions for products bought via affiliate links. Find out more. additional information about Polygon’s ethics policy here