If there’s one genre that has just exploded in the gaming world in recent years it’s the rise of the cosy game.

Gamers have become addicted to farming the land, building all manner of items, including furniture, as well as popping down to mines with a pickaxe checking out valuable minerals and such, and taking on any creatures lurking in its depths. And of course indulging in a little light fishing.

They are the antithesis of the first-person shooter, those adrenaline-fuelled encounters that get your palms extra sweaty, with what is a relaxing pursuit of a well maintained world. Or at least that’s what it should be.

And although, on the surface at least, Moonstone Island ticks all the cosy boxes – and then some – it’s really anything but.

You start off with the brutal realisation that your parents are kicking you out, so that summer of just chilling with your mates and playing COD is suddenly no longer on the table. Instead they want to send you off to prepare to be an alchemist, and it looks like they’ve already got ideas on what to do with your room as they’re not expecting you back anytime soon.

So you arrive by broom to Moonstone Island, which serves as your base for the duration of your adventure. It’s here that you set up camp, get your house in order, and build a few bits and pieces to get you up and running.

You also have time to hang out with the locals, where you can get to know them, even intimately if you so desire.

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And then it’s into fairly standard cosy sim farm fare; you collect stuff, plant stuff, farm stuff, collect stuff etc. One new addition to the usual gubbins however is that of collecting monsters, or spirits as they are known here. In a Pokémon adjacent fashion, you get to choose 3 spirits initially to start your journey. You then embark on your travels by flying to various islands, of which there are 100 to explore, where you will encounter other spirits and enter into battle with them.

Where it differs from Pikachu and co is with the battle mechanics, which are purely card based here. Each spirit has their own set of cards, which you can expand on as well as upgrade further down the line, and you choose the best card out of the ones available to you, to take down enemies. It’s also in battle that you have the opportunity to tame the spirits you’re fighting, which if successful, you can add to your roster.

So then, Moonstone Island is a game that possibly stretches itself a little on the thin side by trying to be all things to all cosy game players. The result is often far from relaxing. It is a game where everything you need to progress takes its sweet, sweet time. You have to collect so many of these, and so many of that, and a lot more of those, and this all begins from the off.

This makes it somewhat of an uphill struggle fairly early on, as you have to prioritise, and juggle quite a lot all at once.

It doesn’t help that it’s all such a grindfest, including the levelling up of your spirits. At points it can feel like you’ve got a hundred things on the go, but you still feel like you’re treading water.

All in all this makes the game leaning away from cosy and more into stressful territory. If you can handle it, then there’s much enjoyment to be had here, if you’re happy to juggle the various quests and side quests that continually ask more of you.

To that end, this probably isn’t the best title if you’re a newcomer to this genre, as it will more than likely break you fairly early on.

With its cute pixel art and upbeat soundtrack, Moonstone Island appears an attractive proposition to cosy gamers, on the surface at least; but as you’ll soon discover, if you’re to make any progress, you’ll definitely need to get your grind on.