It’s hard to deny that Vampire Survivors propelled the bullet-hell genre into the mainstream when it was released back in 2021. Since then, many games have tried to capitalize on its success by adding their own creative spin to the formula, and quite honestly, why not? It’s an addictive gameplay loop, and making a few adjustments can totally elevate the experience into something new and different. You only have to look at titles like BALL x PIT and Megabonk to see this concept in full swing. Reverie in the Moonlight falls in the middle of the pack for this. It’s an interesting idea, and the aesthetics are downright adorable, but the lack of diversity within the gameplay hinders its long-term replay value.
Can’t Get No Sleep
Most bullet-hell games have pretty much non-existent plots, but surprisingly, Reverie in the Moonlight actually has one. You take control of Tete, a young neko-eared boy who struggles to sleep late at night because foul monsters chase him in his dreams. But this all changes one fatal evening, when a girl called Luna appears and tells him that he can fight back against these cruel monsters by using the plushies in his dreams. Lucid dreaming, at its finest, eh? But it soon becomes clear that the reason these monstrosities are appearing in the first place may not be all that it seems.
The entire story is told through visual novel cutscenes, with each segment probably taking a minute or so to read. The overall plot is very predictable, and I guessed around the halfway mark where the story was going. But it’s still a nice touch that there is even a story here, especially as this aspect is often overlooked in these types of games.
Right Now, It’s Plushie Time!
If you’ve played other survivors-like games, you’ll be fairly familiar with the setup. Your task is to avoid incoming attacks, collect experience, and try to build the best toy army to beat the relentless hordes of enemies. In your first run, there will be twenty waves, with each one requiring you to survive within the time limit, which can last anything between thirty and ninety seconds.
When you first start your midnight crusade, you will begin with one fluffy companion that will automatically attack every few seconds. There are six to pick from, and all of them are delightfully cute and play quite differently from one another. My favourites from the pack were the sleeping cat, which reduces the attack power of the monsters after successfully hitting an opponent, and an upbeat dog, which uses the soundwaves from its trumpet to attack from afar. Super cute, right?
The initial waves are downright easy, as they only have a few basic enemies scattered throughout the area. The pace at which they charge towards you is also pretty simple to handle. However, the last few waves can be rather challenging if you don’t build up your team in a smart way.
Late Night Shopping
There are two ways to increase your power. The first method involves collecting experience in the form of candy, which is dropped on the floor after defeating enemies. If you obtain enough wrapped goodies, you will have the opportunity to improve the stats of Tete or the overall plushies’ army. The other option is to buy new items or plushies at the store. You see, every time a critter defeats a monster, you will earn money, which can then be spent at the store at the end of each wave. The majority of the items you can buy are inspired by things you will most likely associate with early years, like music boxes, toy cars, and even paper planes.
But the main hook of the experience is buying new plushies to join your mini legion. This is where the strategicness really kicks in, as you’re going to want to purchase plushies that complement and fight in synergy with one another. You have ten slots in total, which might sound like a lot, but you can quickly fill up the team within a handful of waves. You can, fortunately, sell your stuffed animals, so whoever you initially buy isn’t who you’re stuck with for the rest of the run, which gives you a bit of freedom in how you decide to play. It’s really fun to experiment with different combinations to see what works and doesn’t. In my experience, I found it was better to commit to one fighting style, like an offensive team, rather than build a balanced one.
However, the tacticalness does not stop there, as you can also level up a plush by combining two of them. This is an absolute game-changer, as it will dramatically improve the fluffy stats. The thing is, depending on where you are in the run, it could actually be better to have two of the same plush attacking multiple foes, rather than one ultra-powerful stuffed animal. So, it’s all about picking the best time to start upgrading your team, and there is a delicate balance to this. It is very much like Super Auto Pets in that regard. Even though the games are very different, it’s about picking the right members for your team who complement one another and choosing the best time to upgrade. If you make the wrong call, it can quite literally make or break runs.
A criticism I would like to bring up is that the game doesn’t tell you anything about levelling up plushies, so I only discovered you could do so about halfway through my first run. I legit had an “oooh” moment and decided to restart from the beginning again with my newfound knowledge. It might have been nice if there had been a prompt somewhere indicating you could do that. It’s undoubtedly one of the best aspects of Reverie in the Moonlight, and it should be telling players they can do this right away.
Burning the Midnight Oil
Once you have successfully completed all twenty waves and seen the ending of the story, you will gain access to endless mode, where you can continue going on waves indefinitely, with each wave increasing in difficulty. When I reached wave thirty, that’s when I felt the difficulty spike really shoot up, so you can definitely test out your skills here. I quite liked making teams based around the algaiters and purple cats, as they can unleash powerful attacks from a distance. These two plushies will also follow you as you move across the stage, so they will give you plenty of flexibility to avoid incoming aggression from enemies. But there are so many teams you could hypothetically assemble, like close combat ones or teams where your stats increase depending on whether other similar plushies are nearby.
You can also unlock new outfits for Tete, which harbour different abilities, so that you can impose challenges and different playstyle conditions on yourself. However, I did find the appeal of the gameplay loop dwindle after a while. When I found the plushies I enjoyed using, I didn’t have much of a desire to discover better combos. This probably stems from the fact that there are no real boss battles in the game, so I couldn’t test whether this combo would defeat such-and-such boss quicker. The only goal is to survive, so if I can do that, there’s no real reason to go above and beyond.
Considering the plot is based on night terrors, you may expect your environment to be a nightmare-filled world. But actually, all the waves besides one are set in Tete’s bedroom. The room itself is cutely designed and, strangely, has a cosy vibe, thanks to a dreamy blue hue that fills the room through the moon’s reflection. There are also small details that really bring the room together, like blankets and pillows on the floor, and the small desk to the side. But it’s hard for just one level design to carry the entire game. It would have been nice to see different variations of the bedroom, or maybe have the room get darker at specific points, as this would have made some of the waves look a bit different. If you were also wondering about the one wave I alluded to earlier that has a different design, it’s just a grey room. Very anticlimactic, I know.
If you are looking for your next survivors-like addiction that will eat up all your free time, it will unlikely be Reverie in the Moonlight, because there is not enough variety in the gameplay or level designs to draw you in the long term. It’s really fun to play in short sessions, and I could imagine booting this up occasionally for a 30-minute or so run, but that would be it. Because of this, I would only recommend this one to hardcore fans of the genre who like its distinctively cute aesthetics.
Disclaimer: room6 provided a PC copy of Reverie in the Moonlight for review purposes.
