Moonlighter Accessibility Report - Android, Mac, PC, PS4, Stadia, Switch, Xbox One and iOS

Android

iOS

Mac

Switch

Wii

Wii U

PS4

PS5

Xbox One

Xbox X|S

Moonlighter

Accessibility Report

33 Accessibility Features

We've documented 33 accessibility features for Moonlighter, including Select Difficulty, No Button Combos, No Repeated Pressing, No Holds and Remap Buttons. Its accessibility is strongest in Controls and Navigation but it also has features in Visual, Getting Started, Reading and Difficulty to reduce unintended barriers.

This report is created with input from accessibility experts and the player community to help people find games that have the accessibility features they require. Once you have found potential games on the database, there are excellent specialist accessibility sites that offer in-depth reviews to guide your purchasing decisions.

Moonlighter is an action role-play game where you play an adventurous shopkeeper who secretly dreams of becoming a hero. It's a game of two halves: shopkeeping and adventuring. It's novel because of how the two aspects play into each other. The better loot you retrieve the better stock you have for the shop. The better the shop the more money you have for kit and crafting.

External examiner, Tyler Brinkman, first checked Moonlighter accessibility 17 months ago. It was re-examined by Andy Robertson and updated 17 months ago.

Accessibility Notes

We tested the Xbox and PC versions of the game.

You can select between three difficulties. The game doesn't generally put you on a limited clock, but the trading aspects do require some time-dependant decisions. If you wait for a long time in a dungeon ghosts appear. Although progress is only saved if you get back home from a dungeon. However you keep equipped items and the top row of the inventory when you die.

Although the mouse isn't enabled by default you can set things up to make use of the buttons and mouse wheel.

The game implements a different vibration to indicate taking damage, interacting with specific items, and when performing certain actions.

There's not a full map, but the mini-map provides an indication of which dungeon rooms have been visited and which rooms have chests to loot.

Generally it's quite good contrast but there are areas where enemies are of similar colour to the background. Screen shake cannot be completely disabled but instead can be reduced to 10% where it becomes barely noticeable.

Game Details

Release Date: 29/05/2018, updated in 2022

Out Now: Android, Mac, PC, PS4, Stadia, Switch, Xbox One and iOS

Skill Rating: 9+ year-olds

Players: 1

Genres: Adventure, Strategy (Action, Fighting, Role-Play and Traversal)

Accessibility: 33 features

Components: 2D Overhead and Pixels

Developer: 11 Bit Studios (@11BitStudios)

Costs: Purchase cost, In-Game Purchases and In-Game Pass

Controls

We've documented 14 accessibility features for Controls in Moonlighter which deal with how you control the game, different options for alternative inputs and whether you can remap these settings to suit your needs.

Gamepad

Can play with the following:

Multiple Buttons & Two Sticks: Can play with multiple buttons and two sticks.

Mouse And Keyboard

Can play with the following:

Keyboard Alone: Can play with just the keyboard.

Mouse and Keys: Can play with mouse and multiple keys.

Mouse and Controller: Can play with mouse and controller simultaneously.

Remap Controls

Can customise the controls for the game as follows:

Remap Buttons: Can re-map all buttons so that you can use alternatives that better suit your play.

Remap Mouse and Keyboard: Can remap mouse and keyboard key bindings, on systems that support these controls.

Remap Extra Mouse Buttons: Can remap additional buttons on mice that provide more than the two standard buttons, on systems that support these controls.

Remap Mouse Wheel: Can remap the mouse wheel to control aspects of the game when you move it up/down, on systems that support these controls.

Remap Game Menu Access: Can remap buttons to pause, access and navigate the game menu. This enables you to specify which buttons pop-up the game menu.Whether you can remap menu navigation buttons isn't considered here.

Button Combinations

Specific button operation required to play

Holding Down Buttons Optional: Holding down buttons for prolonged periods (a second or more) is not required or can be switched to toggling the action on and off. This is in addition to the movement stick/button which is not considered a hold for this purpose.

Rapid Repeated Pressing Optional: Quick, repeated button pressing (more than 2 times a second) is not required, can be skipped or switched to holding a button to trigger a repeated action.

No Simultaneous Buttons: Only one button or key required at a time, in addition to direction stick(s).

Controller Vibration

Vibration Optional: Controller vibration not used in the game or you can disable it.

Informative Vibration: Controller vibration indicates events or interactions in the game, echoing visual and audio cues. This can provide additional information about progress, approaching enemies or hitting a target.

Difficulty

We've documented 2 accessibility features for Difficulty in Moonlighter which deal with how you can adjust the challenge of play, and whether this is locked once chosen or can be adjusted as you play.

Difficulty Options

Select Difficulty: Select the level of difficulty from a range of presets. This not only offers a way to adjust the challenge of a game but enables you to do so without dealing with individual criteria.

Adjust After Setting

Adjustable Between Levels: You can adjust the difficulty between levels/rounds. Although you have to restart your checkpoint or level, this enables you to adjust the difficulty after selecting it at the beginning of the game.

Getting Started

We've documented 4 accessibility features for Getting Started in Moonlighter which deal with what support is offered to get started with the game. This includes customising the experience when you first open the game via any onboarding processes it provides as well as tutorials and other assistance when you first start playing.

Assistance Getting Starting

These features aid your play of the game in terms of cognitive load on learning controls, dealing with pressure and coping with the environment and challenges.

Tutorials: There are helpful tutorials and instructions on how to play. Information is provided in a timely manner, with appropriate level of detail.

View Control Mapping: You can view a map of controls during play. This clearly displays the mappings of actions to buttons/keys/mouse/keyboard without having to leave the game. This includes games that always display buttons to press during play.

No Jump Scares: No sudden loud noises or popping-up scary visuals that unexpectedly appear without warning, or the option to disable them.

Assistance For Progressing

These features aid your progress through the game offering different ways of maintaining your progression.

Bank Progress With Frequent Checkpoints: If you fail you can retry that level or aspect of the game without losing a lot of progress (less than 5 minutes). This is often provided via Frequent Checkpoints combined with restarting without losing time, equipment or score.

Similar Games With More Accessibility Features for Getting Started

If you want to play Moonlighter, but it doesn't offer the Getting Started accessibility features you require, these similar games extend the Getting Started accessibility:

Crown Trick (7 Getting Started Features)
Garden Story (7 Getting Started Features)
Minecraft Dungeons (6 Getting Started Features)
Slay the Spire (6 Getting Started Features)

Reading

We've documented 4 accessibility features for Reading in Moonlighter which deal with how much reading or listening comprehension is required, how well the game provides visual and audible access to the text and whether subtitles and captions are a good fit for purpose.

Reading Level

How much reading is required to play the game's main path or story and how complex the language is. The presence of voiced characters doesn't reduce this requirement, as it's recorded as a separate datapoint.

Moderate Reading: Moderate reading required. The quantity and complexity of reading are at a level that a high school student (14-year-old) would appreciate.

Text Visibility

High Contrast Text: Text colour contrasts to the background or can be adjusted to be. The text in menus, instructions and other information is presented in high contrast with a solid background.

Subtitles

All Speech Subtitled (Or No Speech In Game): All spoken content has subtitles, or there is no speech in the game. This means there is no requirement to hear spoken dialogue or narrative to play the game.

Captions

Speaker Indicator: Textual captions indicate who is speaking (or there is only ever one person speaking). This can also be indicated visually in the game with character icons or placing text in speech bubbles next to the person speaking.

Similar Games With More Accessibility Features for Reading

If you want to play Moonlighter, but it doesn't offer the Reading accessibility features you require, these similar games extend the Reading accessibility:

Boyfriend Dungeon (5 Reading Features)
Garden Story (5 Reading Features)
Tenderfoot Tactics (5 Reading Features)
Minecraft Dungeons (5 Reading Features)

Navigation

We've documented 6 accessibility features for Navigation in Moonlighter which deal with how the game provides guidance and assistance to navigate its worlds. These are only for games that have traversal and exploration in 2D and 3D spaces.

Clarity

Large Clear Navigation: The in-game navigation and maps are clear to read. They offer large text and offer markers that are large and of high contrast. Where text or information is small, there are settings to zoom-in and increase visibility.

Head-Up Display

Game Map: View a map of the game world during play, with the landscape, points of interest and missions highlighted throughout the entire game. This enables the orientation of the player and the world, confirming a direction of movement and the location of destinations or points of exploration.

Menu Navigation

Menu Audio Cues: Navigating menus provide an audio cue for each selection.

Digital Menu Navigation: Menu choices with Gamepad can be made without using an analogue stick to guide a cursor to a selection. For example, using D-Pad, buttons or the Stick to change menu selection in a single action.

Menus Don't Wrap: Menus don't wrap and stop the cursor at the bottom of the list if you press down. Or menus do wrap but make it clear that you are back at the top of the list with sound or narration.

Similar Games With More Accessibility Features for Navigation

If you want to play Moonlighter, but it doesn't offer the Navigation accessibility features you require, these similar games extend the Navigation accessibility:

Minecraft Dungeons (10 Navigation Features)
Crown Trick (8 Navigation Features)

Visual

We've documented 5 accessibility features for Visual in Moonlighter which deal with how you can adjust the visuals to suit your needs, and offer additional information if you can't hear the game.

Visual Distractions

No Screen Shake: No screen shake effect or it is included but it can be disabled. This includes the absence of screen shake for dramatic effect as well as to indicate hits on a target.

No Busy Backgrounds: No distracting backgrounds or you can make them static or blank. This includes the absence of other movement elements in the background that might distract or confuse the action. Where foreground contrast is high, this includes games with some movement in the background that doesn't make it overly difficult to distinguish what is happening.

Audio Cues for Visual Events

Audio Cues for Visual Events: Audio is provided to indicate visual events. Game events or progress highlighted by visual icons, effects or animations are also accompanied by audio to signify that progress. This is useful for blind players.

Menu Audio Cues: Navigating menus provide an audio cue for each selection.

Motion Sickness Friendly

Motion Sickness Friendly: Doesn't have 3D movement elements that may trigger motion sickness, like motion blur, depth of field and field-of-vision. Or includes the ability to disable motion blur, depth of field and field-of-vision effects.

Similar Games With More Accessibility Features for Visual

If you want to play Moonlighter, but it doesn't offer the Visual accessibility features you require, these similar games extend the Visual accessibility:

Slay the Spire (9 Visual Features)
Minecraft Dungeons (7 Visual Features)
Boyfriend Dungeon (6 Visual Features)
Tenderfoot Tactics (6 Visual Features)

Audio

We haven’t documented any accessibility features for Audio in Moonlighter which deal with how you can adjust the audio of the game and whether audio cues compensate for aspects of the game that are hard to see. The following games are similar to Moonlighter, and offer accessibility features for Audio:

Tenderfoot Tactics (3 Audio Features)
Children of Morta (3 Audio Features)
Mana Spark (3 Audio Features)
Dave the Diver (2 Audio Features)

System Accessibility Settings

In addition to the accessibility features provided in the game, you can also use system-wide accessibility settings:

Android
Android has accessibility settings including ways to navigate and interact, although not all games support this.

Nintendo Switch
Nintendo Switch has some built-in features, including a lockable zoom, that can be used on all games.

PC
Windows has extensive accessibility features. Some, like colour correction, work with games. Lots of accessibility software can be used with PC games, from voice recognition to input device emulators.

PlayStation 4
PlayStation 4 has a range of accessibility settings. Some are system only, some work in games (invert colours and button mapping).

Stadia
Stadia offers some system accessibility features. Tandem enables you to use two controllers to play one character. This also enables you to connect other controllers like the Xbox Adaptive Controller.

Xbox One
Xbox One has a system features, the excellent co-pilot share controls mode and adaptive controller support for all games.

iOS
iOS has a very extensive suite of accessibility settings including ways to navigate with voice and comprehensive screen reading, though most of the features don't work with games.

Read more about system accessibility settings.