Basically, once you play through the first dungeon you’ve gotten >50% of the game’s experience, and I’d recommend being done. With so many items and whatnot, it might seem like there’s depth or secrets to explore, but as far as I could tell there isn’t really: the game is mostly just a huge rinse and repeat every dungeon, and then you beat the final boss and… that’s mostly it. The combat is fairly clunky and repetitive—especially if you use the short sword (it’s just “attack, hold block, sometimes roll, repeat”).However, that initial experience sure is interesting, and if you like optimization you’ll probably like the idea at first. But don’t let the tease of deeper secrets (e.g., the golem jottings, the books) fool you: it’s mostly an interesting concept (fight in dungeons then be a shopkeeper with the loot) that was stretched beyond its carrying capacity.

I was looking forward to playing what appeared to be an interesting game, but having just completed the tutorial, it crashed and left me with only a “new game” option upon reopening the app. Unfortunately this isn’t the only Netflix mobile game to constantly delete my progress which is especially disappointing considering how much financial investment Netflix is pouring into their ‘experiment’ in mobile gaming. I would’ve preferred an investment in series continuations, letting my favorite actors, writers, and directors keep their jobs as opposed to this waste which any average Joe could’ve told Netflix would never pay off. Netflix had plenty of time in anticipating the streaming wars. I truly cannot imagine the logic behind choosing to deviate from the methodology that had worked before, keeping audiences engaged by investing in the development and continuation of unique and beloved originals, in favor of cutting corners to squeeze as much profit as possible, almost as if they believed themselves to be an already sinking ship. Well, if you abandon the helm you’re bound to sink sooner or later. Good luck with that.

The game itself is amazing. I remember seeing promos for it about like 8 years ago indie style with smooth interfaces gameplay. It’s got the stereotypical narrative of a dungeon explorer with the other half of the game as you playing the role of a shop keeper that can sell loot from the dungeons.My main discrepancy with the app is that no one is upkeeping the game. There is a major issue with the game crashing and the infinite loading screen glitch that hasn’t been addressed. I have uninstalled and deleted a save file to reboot and make a new world just for it to happen again. I will not be deleting it again I just wish the developers or someone would fix what seems like a minor tweak that has cause major issues for many other people besides from me included.

Moonlighter itself is a wonderful game I’d probably give a 4-5 stars. The Netflix port is a buggy mess. It started with the occasional crash. The crashes seemed related to the rumble/vibrate feature. Turned that off in the menu, then it ran fine. Played for a few days after that then force1closed the game for some reason or another. When I tried to reopen it it got stuck just before the title screen loads in. This was a permanent problem. I tried all the common troubleshooting stuff. I had to reinstall the game to be able to play again which wiped all my save data.I reached out to Netflix support about it and after some tedious back and forth they escalated the issue and forwarded to the relevant person/deparment, presumably Netflix Gaming. They said the issue should be resolved in about 2-3 days (which I knew was effectively a lie to placate me) and said to not contact support again for this issue even if it remains unresolved.I let it go for a few weeks and decided to reinstall and start yet another save file. No game updates available so I figured I’d be fine as long as I didn’t force-close the game. I didn’t even make it through my first dungeon attempt after the tutorial. The game crashed and then froze just before the title screen again.Literally unplayable. I’m on an iPhone 11 and as of this review on iOS 17.5.