Why do cozy games suck?

Games in order of apperance:
Animal Crossing New Horizons
Smushi Come Home
Stardew Valley
Harvest Moon
Garden Story
A Little to the Left
Fae Farm
Disney Dreamlight Valley
Bug & Seek
Cat Gets Medieval
Cult of the Lamb
Palia
Harvestella
Farming Simulator
Pokemon Scarlet/Violet
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#AnimalCrossing #NewHorizons

[@koramora]

You better watch the whole video before commenting 👿

[@blue-yq3qd]

How did you know???😱😆

[@yo.adrian]

**Looks at video time** Okay, I'm going to listen to this video while it's playing in the background and I'm playing TOTK.

[@leannewalker1422]

Animal Crossing is my favourite cozy game; I also have Stardew Valley but I am not keen on it. Lately I’ve been playing Fae Farm and enjoying it.

[@lillysparrow]

who gonna stop me? 😎

[@maxwellmeep]

No

[@ArielAntenna]

i am also so tired of every cozy game having farming… like can we please have something else to do besides farm lol

[@melinarose3645]

Graveyard keeper still has a little farming but the core gameplay is different. Next to story of seasons and stardew valley my favorite "cozy" game. The dialog is just top tier ✨🙏

[@ArielAntenna]

@@melinarose3645 i actually bought this during the steam summer sale and have been meaning to pick it up this fall!

[@Ambers3rdFupaRoll]

No

[@RuthlessDutchman]

@@bobbybobson19283 Oh to play a cozy game that isn't based on making money or managing resources

[@qlowquest]

play rune factory 3

[@designerwookiee]

On the topic of giving pikachu a bath, it's honestly astounding to me that the pokemon franchise doesn't have a line of cozy games centered around non-battling components of being a person in the pokemon world. Imagine a game where you're a pokemon professor's assistant and your job is a mix of helping feed, groom, and otherwise care for the hundreds of pokemon that the professor manages. The logistics of the nutritional requirements for a diverse range of pokemon would be a job all on it's own, though the anime just goes, "yea, all pokemon just eat berries and premade pokemon food, and they can eat human food just fine, too." as if none of them are carnivorous. Then there's grooming. Good luck figuring out how to "groom" the living trash and sludge pokemon, anything poisonous, or anything made of mostly fire or ice.

[@SentientIrisu]

There's 'Hey, you, Pikachu!' for the N64, which is a game where you kind of take care of a Pikachu.

[@ItsCostnerAgain]

I've always thought a Nintendogs-like game for Pokemon woulda been an interesting concept. Or doing something like the Pokemon Day Care.

[@gamemaniac2013]

You won't believe how upset I've gotten over this before, and I'm not even a goddamn pokemon fan lmao There's so much potential in the world. Pokemon snap is a great example of leveraging the fact you have an entire goddamn roster of cute creatures, but I always thought you could go further. Simulation/Management games are an easy place to start, since you're basically doing "Theme Hospital but you also hire/treat Pokémon", and other reskins/reinterpretations of other management sims to throw in Pokemon shaped curveballs. the Pokemon construction crew manager game, the pokemon hospital manager game, the pokemon theme park manager game, etc. then you get your adventure games. Imagine exploring ruins with a dedicated team of pokemon characters in some sort of puzzle/platformer. I'm gonna stop here becuase I'm kinda stalling on ideas but you get the point I'm making here.

[@designerwookiee]

I hear ya. It's kinda ironic. The Pokemon brand is so large that they make a tremendous amount of money every year, earning several hundred million in profits. The fans are clamoring for more content, (and better quality content, but that seems unlikely since people continue to buy broken / shoddy games on release), and yet The Pokemon Company seems to have no interest in exploring other niches that could make them even more money. Just monster battling and collection, and selling all that sweet, sweet merch. Who cares about the absolutely huge portion of the fanbase that have grown up into adults at this point and are willing to pay for a wider array of content? Who cares if there's a plethora of cozy fanart? Better stick to the proven formula and keep raking in money.@@gamemaniac2013

[@doe9000]

the coziest game of pokemon that i can think of is pokepark 1 and 2. You play as the pokemon. Yeah, you still battle some of the time, but they have plenty of other fun mini-games thats basically just consists of playing with the other pokemon (the whole game being about making friends with everyone else and playing with them). Its really cute and i love it

[@limediamond3657]

I’m really hoping that when Concerned Ape releases Haunted Chocolatier it can be another revolutionary semi-cozy game, this time without farming. A game where you can simply college things and make new chocolates for ghosts, while also going out and fighting if you want

[@Onni-vh1wu]

Haunted Chocolatier is going to be focused mainly on combat

[@limediamond3657]

@@Onni-vh1wu that’s why I said semi-cozy

[@ghekor]

@Onni-vh1wu I consider that cozy enough, if he improves upon thr SDV combat a bit it will be even better... its a rather trivial thing plus instead of farming plants we gonna farm monsters for ingredients

[@Onni-vh1wu]

@@ghekor ik i totally agree. I love skull caverns in SDV and i'm so excited for Haunted Chocolatier

[@TheFamousMockingbird]

i have a feeling it will be very similar to stardew valley for some reason

[@tomdekler9280]

I think "A Short Hike" should be the new standard for cozy games :) It's not tedious, it's charming, it's got risk (missing a jump and losing progress up the mountain) without being stressful. Games like Little Gator Game really scratch my itch for neo-Zelda gameplay without massive empty desert areas and generic mob battles. Just chill collectathon vibes in a condensed, focussed map.

[@ooooneeee]

Seconded, A Short Hike is a perfect short journey that has better writing than a lot of cozy games.

[@Corrade_]

Yep, A Short Hike is a genuine masterpiece and a terrific open world game.

[@randomsanctum]

Just saw this video today and was ready to comment "check out A Short Hike". Great game, and cheap to boot!

[@formerbabyfutureghost]

A short hike is my absolute favorite

[@Assosmusi]

literally finished short hike 2 minutes ago, this video pooped on my youtube and see this comment first, what a coincidence

[@ST4R_L1GHTx]

Another thing I’ve noticed is that in most cozy games, they tend to be very interesting and full of life at the start, and then once you get better, it gets really dried out and more of a grind instead of staying fun

[@happytofu5]

Yes and even Stardew Valley has this problem. The question is, what would one expect to come after a while?

[@thedeadpoolwhochuckles.6852]

Slime Rancher.

[@CrimsonA1]

At that point, cozy games would either have to make multiple sequels, or become a live service thing like some competitive games out there. What you're asking for long-term are many game updates and expansions.

[@olaf5929]

​@@CrimsonA1 why? It's a different product for a different market. These games are supposed to slow down your pace and relax you that way to break you out of the daily grind because you're stressed or in a rush.

[@mynameisvincent.]

@@happytofu5 i know it has this problem but i still wanted to answer. new updates, you could start a new save, decorate the entire town, and just waste all your money for fun

[@blackgalaxite6448]

I think the biggest issue is most of these "cozy" games seem to confuse relaxing and calming with understimulating. These games tend to make you wait incredibly long periods of time and force you to play at the game's pace, not yours. They typically lack a large variety of activities to do to keep you engaged and usually lack expansive mechanics and typically rely on super basic gameplay loops that are nothing short of mind-numbing and downright stressful. From what I know, games like Stardew Valley avoid this by providing wide varieties of simple, but enjoyable activities and minorly puzzling elements that make you feel like you accomplished something without distracting from the relaxing elements the game is based around.

[@rockypikmin4493]

I mean Animal crossing did the same thing. Most of why I quit playing was because I was forced to wait a full 24 hours for diminishing rewards

[@Learner0012]

Slime Rancher also did a good job at this since your movement speed was very high. It then offered a world to explore and quite a sizable amount of tasks to achieve in said world.

[@Eat_shit--die_mad]

This is why patch quest is my favorite coxy game, it's cute and light-hearted, with so many things to explore and see, and it's a bullet hell, megalomania rougelike, thats really hard in a amazingly fluid polished way

[@elliottcoleman8225]

YES I play a lot of games that I consider relaxing, despite it being full of things to do. Or the game has a limited set of things with higher stakes. Lots of animal sim games I've played are beautiful, relaxing, and your goals are simple and easy to understand, but they're engaging and require more than 5% of your focus for rewards you genuinely want.

[@gotgunpowder]

the fact that you use the term "understimulating" shows this is a problem with you, not the games. you clearly just have an unhealthy dopamine addiction and expect your entertainment to constantly keep shoveling new things down your gullet to keep you distracted and sufficiently "stimulated".

[@foulprophet]

turnip boy commits tax evasion is one of my all time favorites! it’s short and sweet, with a main plot, and when you complete the game there’s a fun, endless thing you can do (i won’t spoil it).

[@genericgorilla]

does it involve tax evasion

[@foulprophet]

@@genericgorilla so much! and melee style fighting, funny plot. it’s a quick game to get through, and there’s a lotta after-game fun. 10/10 imo

[@scarletkittyeyes]

i played the trial and was laughing the whole time ♡

[@Flutters_Shygal]

This all reminds me of when my friends and I were playing modded Minecraft. I was in charge of the farms and the food, and with the installed mods, there was a LOT of different food. Since varied food was important, and eating more types of food gave you benefits, my task was quite important. Despite this, I found it all really relaxing, without getting boring. I would explore to get new seeds I didn't have yet, expand and revise farming areas and experiment with ingredients. I had also set up an energy system that worked on burning excess food. My journey of just wanting to cook for my friends was very expansive, and allowed me to do so much more. And I still count this as a "cozy" experience, since there was nothing to stress me out, yet there still was a certain challenge in figuring everything out.

[@nikolaibredahl9433]

I had such a great, cozy time joining my friends on their Valheim server because my old computer has such a low FPS during combat that I had to stay at home while the others went adventuring. After building myself a house with a little garden and a cobbled path, I set about paving the whole village and planting flowers everywhere, and repurposed our old portal room for a trophy museum/map room. Beautifying the village was my self-appointed, if a bit useless job. I miss it :/

[@bagelisdead]

Vanilla Minecraft imo is already pretty cozy and I love modded multiplayer. My friends and I used to have a server with a bunch of mob mods and we'd just go out exploring, finding them, and bringing them back to base. Depending on where the particular mob spawned, it was either an exciting adventure or just traversing the world and enjoying the modded biomes.

[@FierceCat04]

As a person who tried getting their grandma to play animal crossing, it’s not as easy as I thought it would be, she gave up within 5 minutes and I had to remove her tent

[@BeverlyBevHamilton]

😂😂😂

[@MaryGershwin]

oh nooooo :D

[@MaeRose26]

aww if only granny gave it more time and patience

[@andrewhooper7603]

cold blooded, but granny has to pull her weight too.

[@korinoriz]

My mom was able to get into Animal Crossing. Granted, that was Wild World which doesn't gate you as bad as New Horizons.

[@Czarewich]

I think the real problem with cozy games is that what one person finds cozy, another will find boring or bad, or even annoying. You can't really set out to make a "cozy" game because there are people out there who outright find the least cozy games as cozy (like the atmosphere of the first night hiding in a hole in Minecraft), or they enjoy the cozy aspects of non-cozy games (like base building in 7 Days to Die or something). I think sometimes you need something decidedly not-cozy to emphasize the cozy parts.

[@Kalvinjj]

Chilling out on the cuter zones of MMORPGs was one of those for me, you've got all those monsters to kill, guilds to battle (if you're in one of those guilds), dungeons to clear and whole lot of stuff to grind, but just playing dress-up with the cute girl characters in TERA and doing barely anything on the more calm and pretty zones were a lot of the time I've put into that game. ...heck I mostly grinded stuff there for costumes alone. Not alone on that either, a bunch of people said the end-game was dress up simulator, some jokingly....some not joking.

[@FrannyFrancisca]

FNaF is cozy for me

[@DemonCat]

Exactly. Hell, my cozy game is literally rdr2. Catching horses, riding around endlessly, hunting, just...Existing. AND NO FARMING. I'm tired of self-titled "cozy" games because they are just repetitive and damn boring. There is nothing new any more. It's shallow content with even more shallow mechanics. I want games that have cozy aspects among something else!

[@DemonCat]

@@Kalvinjj God I miss Tera so much. I absolutely agree with you on that

[@theofficialretardschanneld1260]

Yea my cozy game is gta v and gta 4 lollll

[@akemiknowsbest3671]

A simple cozy game I've really enjoyed is Calico! It's a game where you run around gathering pets for your cat cafe (or any animal cafe really) and you design your cafe and stuff. There's little quests from the villagers too. It's a short game (about 10 hours) but there's cooking mini games, fun design tools, and a cute world to explore/collect in! I recommend if you want something cute and fun, but not overly time consuming.

[@dh.151]

Another one I really like on my iOS devices is Hello Kitty Island Adventure! It’s not farming either. You basically complete quests and decorate cabins and become friends with different Sanrio characters on an island 🏝️ it’s one of my favorites these last few months. It can get a little slow, but a must for any Sanrio fans with an iOS device.

[@liuzumi8544]

I love that game so much. I spend so much time running around and finding animals to put in my cafe, then decorating my cafe and unlocking all the areas

[@victoriarandle5190]

Calico fan here too 💗🐈

[@nomoretwitterhandles]

Thank you for talking about this!! My biggest gripe with "cozy games" is the toxic positivity surrounding them. You're never allowed to criticize a cozy game without facing a ton of backlash, no matter how justified your criticisms are. Now I will say, I think Palia absolutely sucks. For context, I played Palia for one week (ended the week today). It started out as a mildly interesting beta for a cozy-game-to-be, then swiftly turned into an anxiety-inducing, angering grind fest with little rewards and few things to do. The community aspect of the game (as it is an MMO) is, by far, the worst aspect of it. You are FORCED to play this game with strangers; the devs claim you can "play solo", but unless you want to get mass-reported by sweats after you mined a rock they wanted, you really cannot play by yourself. Resources are so limited it's almost impossible to play solo unless you want to waste HOURS farming resources, only to make minimal progress. Not only that, but the developers are not being transparent about their roadmap for the game's future, and they let their community run rampant, spreading nothing but toxic positivity (aka pure hatred). The Discord and Reddit for Palia are a toxic mess (not that I blame the devs for social media). When that toxicity crosses over into the game itself, then I have a problem. I seriously think this game would be better as a single-player game. I'm thinking of uninstalling it after this one week of playing it, which is a shame because I do like some of the NPCs; though, as some people have started to point out, the NPCs reinforce some really... iffy stereotypes. I think the coziest games let players just... play the game. I consider many Mario games to be "cozy" just because they're cute and fun and I can play at my own pace. I don't need to wait 3 days to harvest a super star in Super Mario Galaxy 2; I can just hop on and play at my pace. If I want to grind in a game, then I should be allowed to grind--that's what makes ACNH so fun (yay time-traveling!). Even Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom are "cozy" to me because I can do whatever I effing want to do at any time I want to do it!! I don't care if I have to sneak around monsters because I LIKE the challenge, but I can also just walk around and absorb the scenery and I can cook a bunch of stuff if I want to! Hell, even Skyrim is cozy to me. Basically, what I've taken from this video (and what I've taken from my own personal experience), is that when a game prioritizes "coziness" over the game itself, it simply will not work out. I love cozy games; I fell in love with ACNL and Tale of Two Towns back in the day, and even now I look back on those memories with fondness. But those games were truly cozy because they were enjoyable. Coziness should simply be an inherent trait of the game itself--NOT the priority.

[@TheSpaceOctopus]

Super Mario Sunshine might be one of the chillest/coziest games I ever played

[@Arvak]

Palia is terrible. I was so desperate to love it, I followed it's development, I played in the closed beta, etc. But it's just bad. Every single task feels like a chore, you spend hours grinding a skill just to barely get enough cash to buy a couple items of furniture. It's unrewarding, dull, repetitive, and boring. Such a shame as it had a lot of potential, but maybe they'll fix it in the future. Skyrim is one of the cosiest games ever imo! I used to spend hours roleplaying in it, gathering my own materials from the mines and hunting, then crafting my own armour in my home blacksmith until I was able to make the highest level armour. Hunting for meat and gathering herbs to cook meals, etc. I agree that developing a game with the intention of making a cosy game is just the wrong approach - all the cosiest games to me are ones with exceptional storytelling or rewarding gameplay, e.g. Outer Wilds, Valheim, The Witcher 3, A Short Hike

[@silverally4572]

yess great points! i do love my animal crossing island, but whenever i'm upset and need to decompress, i hop right onto breath of the wild and hang out in hateno village, tarrey town, kakariko village, rito village, or like, some random mountain somewhere. literally anywhere, i just find it so beautiful and comforting. a few of my friends were very interested in palia when it first came out but i never managed to get into it, and the more things evolve the more it just seems like it's not my kind of game.

[@kyx5631]

I like your point about botw and totk. I know it got decisive reviews, but one of my cozy games is Legends Arceus. I can just sneak around, watch wild monsters go about their day. Or I can challenge myself to catch an alpha without being seen. It feels somewhat immersive in that regard. But at least I don'T have to grind for basically nothing...

[@TheCivildecay]

basically Nintendo fans...

[@anaissalla]

I am currently solo developing a cozy game. It's a decoration game with rhythm mini games, but my main thing is that I want it to feel like a 2000s web game, like a dress-up or make-up game, where you can simply pick and choose stuff because you think it looks good and there's little to no confrontation. I've talked to many people in the industry that are worried about "well, how long can you keep players playing? What keeps them coming back every day?", and I'm a little confused because I want players to come back if they want to, not because I give them daily chores that feel like... chores. I also want to push free updates, though I understand that the game need to generate revenue to make the hours it takes to develop updates worth it... But I want to avoid micro transactions and paid DLCs as much as possible. I feel like im swiming against the current on this, but who knows!! A girl can dream!!

[@sectorzisnumbuhone]

Awesome! :D

[@lightheal]

your idea sounds wonderful, i love how nostalgic and pleasant that concept is! your attitude is admirable for wanting to make a game that is fun over one that takes up a person's time, i wish you good luck on it ^o^

[@AnAnonymousPenguin]

I had a look at your channel, and your game seems amazing, I hope it becomes successful since you're clearly putting a lot of time and care into it. And most importantly it looks really fun! :)

[@anaissalla]

@@AnAnonymousPenguin thank you!

[@anaissalla]

@@lightheal thank you! Hopefully the concept works! Most of the people I've seen who played the demo during the Steam Next Fest liked it!

[@n0rice4u39]

"A short hike" is a great 1-2 hour cozy game where climbing to the top of a mountain gives you a good sense of accomplishment

[@julie4300]

That's the first one I thought of too! Loved that game

[@backupschmliff1156]

I completely agree.

[@backupschmliff1156]

Wait wtf I thought you were talking about a literal hike LMAO

[@danielhodson6411]

Yeah doing that in real life is also cozy. (mentally, not physically)

[@julie4300]

@@placekpie You can go almost anywhere, idk what u mean by place to glitch in? Maybe you couldn't climb the mountain because you didn't look for feathers? And there's other stuff you can do too, like talk to and help npcs, catch lots of different types of fish, parkour, beachstickball, boating and visiting different islands, eat toast, and more!

[@PsychicAlchemy]

I hadn't heard of the term "cozy game" before, but I like it. I wish more big games emphasized these sorts of mechanics. Take Skyrim for example; I love the epic adventure in a fantastic world, but the thing that really keeps me coming back to the game is the feeling of traversing the beautiful wilderness to my next destination, where I can warm up next to the fire at a tavern. A few small cozy mechanics here and there would go a long way toward making the world feel more alive.

[@Wft-bu5zc]

Skyrim isn't a "cozy game" by genre but it is one of the coziest games.

[@jp_craftbr9974]

@Wft-bu5zc "cozy game" shouldnt be a genre to begin with imo. Everyone defines coziness differently. Defining "cozy game" as the genre of the game is probably what led this video's main topic to exist, developers started making games that are supposed to be cozy just for the sake of it, and I think that there's where the problem lies. A cozy game should be that which the player themselves defines it as, the player is the one getting cozy after all. If I said that I got cozy playing a "non-cozy game", that doesnt mean that I'm not cozy, you feel me?

[@zoyadulzura7490]

A game like Palia has kind of a "grand adventure" feel to it, and you level up skills, go on quests, and the like, but there's no actual risk. It's the first "cozy" game I've gotten into, since the others I've tried have left me with a feeling of "what's the point?" It's in beta and still has some kinks they need to work out, but I love it.

[@haley9442]

I absolutely love skyrim!! My favorite game of all time!! i loved building houses:)

[@PsychicAlchemy]

I wish more modern RPGs would go the simulationist route like Daggerfall did. It was entirely possible to play as a merchant, take out a loan from the bank, start a business and such. It would go a long way to making games feel more alive. (And it would make selling all that loot easier.)

[@finpin2622]

One of my favorite cozy games was Harvest Moon: Grand Bazaar and I’ve been chasing that experience ever since. It didn’t have a super interesting story (i dont remember if it did have a story at all), but the farming had a REASON. You farmed crops so you could make products to sell at the weekly bazaar, you raised money to upgrade your machinery, you upgraded your machinery to make better products, you sold products to upgrade your stand to attract more customers…. UGH IT WAS SO SATISFYING. Ringing the little bell to have people come over and having conversations with the customers to persuade them to buy your stuff or just gain a better reputation. Chef’s kiss. I also love the cooking aspect of harvest moon, where you gradually discover recipes and the more you cook something the better you get at it, plus better quality ingredients. Having cooking competitions every once in a while gave you a reason to find some recipe to get really frickin’ good at. And I loved when you could find recipes by rummaging around people’s houses. It’s a shame that Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons isn’t really as good anymore. (ALSO i loved some of the rune factory games as well, cuz it had the cozy aspects of harvest moon but plus fantasy and combat. Being able to tame monsters and bring them to your farm was everything I’ve ever wanted. A rune factory game with a shop mechanic like Grand Bazaar would be my dream.)

[@envyrem]

The only thing that puts me off of new horizons is how tedious everything is, and the low quality of life. When I was very first starting, this was not an issue, but as I continued, even crafting was so unbearable I no longer wanted to play. I love the creative aspect, but the incredibly slow pace actually stressed me out more than being relaxing.

[@Flameclaw123]

I think part of the reason for that is because you're being forced to play at a slow pace rather than choosing to relax and take your time. Cozy games are great chill fodder, but there's a reason why people think of "go at your own pace" as relaxing, and "get stuck behind a car going 10 under the speed limit" infuriating Take Stardew Valley, where you can easily waste away each in-game day if you choose, but you can just as easily run outside, plant/harvest, and fall immediately back asleep to progress the game. You can progress through 3 in-game years in a matter of real-life weeks if you really wanted to, but most players choose to take it slow, seeing this as the more fun option. The game doesn't have to force or even bribe them into playing slow - it just happens naturally for 90% of people. Now I actually like limitations like Animal Crossing's real-life clock, especially as someone who occasionally has trouble pulling myself away from fixating on a game long into the night. Having break points where I can stop playing guilt-free is great for me (though idc if people choose to time travel). But outside of this, far too many in-game actions just took way too long. Crafting animations go from charming to a pain with no option to circumvent them (ex. unbreakable golden tools). You can't enter a business without the same slow and repetitive cutscene playing. There's no overhead controls for terraforming so you need to sit through every painstaking animation, routinely making mistakes because you're too hasty with the buttons once you finally get control back after each shovel swing. Moving residents' houses around could take multiple DAYS per house. Having the FREEDOM to go slow is fun. Being told you CAN'T go any faster is just cruel.

[@Kryxx07]

@@Flameclaw123 Great comment. I can totally relate to the car analogy, heheh.

[@ILLTURI]

I like the fact that real world time is involved, I just hate how the mechanics are so slow, for example crafting like you said, it's soooo slow. Having to talk to the damn owl with the same dialogue everytime you have to donate... slow.

[@EveningClouds]

Yeah I just want K.K slider on my island and nobody except (not gonna lie) ugly looking villagers show up

[@nya55155]

I got burnt out from terraforming and dropped the game til this day. Just thinking about it stresses me so much.

[@angel_of_history]

Coffee Talk is a great cozy game about running a late night coffee shop. For someone who still wishes you could work for Brewster in ACNH, this scratches that itch. The music is great too, and there’s a sequel as well.

[@WhoCaresAlisha]

I love this one too! I was just about to say this.

[@vianneyb.8776]

Oh, I had never heard about this game. Sounds nice! And as a fan of VA-11 HALL-A, I like this sort of talking your heart out interactions. I wonder which game got inspired by the other.

[@SewMyHeartTogether]

I absolutely adore coffee talk! I haven't gotten around to playing the second game but the first ep was really good!

[@mushr--m]

@@vianneyb.8776 eh, as someone who loved VA-11 HAll-A, i found myself kind of disappointed by coffee talk and ended up refunding it. it just felt to me like a less interesting VA-11 HALL-A. a lot of people seem to like it though, so maybe you'll enjoy it! i just don't know if it really manages to scratch the same itch tbh

[@staciii]

Loved Coffee Talk

[@Kokomiii]

I've been looking forward to the "Little witch in the woods" game for a good while now, and I'm very excited for the full release. Love the art style and cozy vibes

[@patrickpol6156]

im currently playing the early access, you better wait for full release, the game is kinda bare bones right now and not worth the full price.

[@irlANG3L]

the little witch in the woods demo was so good! i felt really captivated by the story and the visuals were so cute

[@VictorHernandez-vc5zo]

Monster hunter tri was an amazing game for me. It's probably the same as all the other older monster hunters, but I love how it was such a cozy little island. You have a little farm you use to make more plants which can be used to craft herbs or traps. Then for material you go out and grab some seeds or just more plants from the wildlife. Even though it's all about monster hunting, something about the game makes it split with a life sim with having to wait days for your plants to grow and for your ship to return with fish.

[@twitchydragon]

One of my favourite cosy games of the last few years is Spiritfarer. Visually stunning, genuinely adorable characters and impactful storytelling with its themes around death, grief and acceptance. The story really shines and it's filled with gutpunch emotional moments. Highly recommend it!

[@westwardsongs]

Spiritfarer is genuinely one of my favorite games of all time. While there was the occasional bit of grinding for resources, it was all worth it for the emotional reward (and oh, the emotions!) I wish I could updoot your comment 100×, I feel like more people should know about Spiritfarer.

[@balmmilk8759]

YESSS it's so good TT_TT

[@roradye]

i second this! Spiritfarer made me bawl my eyes out

[@TheScientistAndThePainter]

I came to the comments to see if anybody else recommended it already

[@supernova42x35]

@@TheScientistAndThePainter same 😂

[@Songofthestitchblog]

For me the lack of interesting characters or character development in so many "cosy" games is a big enjoyment killer. After getting mad with Story of Seasons villagers for only ever saying one of two things, I played Hades (not a cosy game perhaps but definitely a masterpiece) for the first time this year and was blown away by just how much well written dialogue there is. After that it was hard to go back to SoS with the same character interactions day after day after day. I'm now having a wonderfully cosy experience playing Divinity Original Sin II on Switch, probably not a cosy game in the traditional sense but the story and the characters and your interactions with them are so very good, and I find the turn based combat to be quite mentally stimulating without being stressful!

[@spacedisaster9923]

same about turn based combat! it gives time for strategic planning and thinking, without being too fast and stressful, i generally prefer it over real time battles. fire emblem my beloved

[@evana8751]

Hades ❤ still playing after a year

[@deerlyXO]

Hades is actually my cozy game!!! I get hooked and I felt constantly rewarded while playing it. I’m nostalgic for the first few play throughs I had 😭

[@DaftnPunk]

Hades 100% spoiled me when it comes to dialogue and characters since you rarely get the same interactions or dialogue more than once. Also the fact that characters often disappear or talk to each other and you can’t interrupt their convos makes it more real.

[@nertylle2945]

the more recent story of season games are a let down. i really recommend playing the older ones, specifically trio of towns, its their best one by far when it comes to character development :)

[@itslumika]

I loved Unpacking. It was very different, only telling you about your character’s life through the things they have, showing the nonexistent comparability with the coffee guy since you can barely fit your own things in his flat etc. It’s cosy and not too long, and tells a very different story to the typical farming sim

[@wandereringshadow8658]

Potion Craft (An Cozy game based off being an alchemist) is a fun game (at least up until the endgame) since there are decent enough stakes and a clear endgoal (become the best alchemist possible.) It does run into the "endgame content" issue though most other cozy games do. Its like the devs are afraid to put some kind of ending in.

[@suffering8948]

I’ve played that one as well and I can definitely agree, The game handles itself great and I loved it in the early game, finally finishing exploring (what I thought was) the ends of the water base only for oil to come out felt wonderful. That’s really where the game started to fall off though The salts you make through the game are 100% the weakest part, making 7 different potions only to get the material needed for the salt just feels awful. The salts themselves aren’t even that good to begin with. Void salt does nothing. Moon and sun salt don’t even feel like actual tools, just walls to get tier 3 oil potions, life and the philosophers salt are the only one I could potentially see value in, getting some fringe recipes to work, but by the time you make it, you should basically already have every single potion recipe completely mapped and ingredients should hardly be an issue with the shopkeeper upgrading system. Once you finally make all 5 salts you don’t even really get anything, you complete the main “story” and that’s it, no new ingredients, bases, or even a single potion. (I don’t know for sure though, I stopped playing at the philosophers stone because fuck that)

[@thevoidcritter]

I find that there needs to be some amount of darkness for me to appreciate the light. Stardew Valley struck the right balance by having its villagers' stories deal with some heavy issues (which I think is why Shane is so popular)

[@Kris-wo4pj]

When i figured out Leah likes wine more than anything i stockpiled it and kept giving them to her on yr 2. It haunts me that i might have made her an alcoholic on my first play through. So flowers only now on. Same with Pam after i realized she is one and i shouldnt be giving her beer.

[@Sonic-qc5cq]

Idk, sometimes someone just want something silly, depends on the player

[@mercury9641]

@@Kris-wo4pj its me getting Sam diabetes with all the cola I grinded from fishing🤣

[@thisgoddamusernamestoodamnlong]

that's why I love Sky, and Spiritfarer

[@emigdiovargas8960]

@@thisgoddamusernamestoodamnlong Which game is Sky? Is it just called Sky?

[@flowerpeachh]

For me, I consider the BOTW/TOTK games cozy games since I love the scenery, music, people, jobs, enemies, & life. I love imagining myself riding my horse to my house which is halfway across the map, going inside and sleeping in a soft bed with the breeze blowing through the house. There’s also so much story & exploration that I love.

[@DaakkkuYRS]

Despite being difficult games, I agree. Just climbing in BOTW is relaxing due to superb wolrd design. Add this to collecting plants, and hunting animals, make them good cozy games.

[@d00p58]

as someone with like 300 screenshots across botw and totk of just scenery alone, i certainly agree

[@arvinsim]

BoTW stopped being cozy when I died many times to the Lynel in the castle. I just dropped it because there are so much more games to play.

[@stingrae919]

@@arvinsim the lynel is completely optional. I didn’t even try fighting a single lynel for the first 5 years that I played BOTW. I just always avoided them. It’s possible to not fight lynels and still beat the game/have fun with it.

[@perspii2808]

Tbh I feel this way about a lot of open world games as well as zelda. Like the witcher 3, skyrim, sable, red dead 2, etc They’re not inherently cozy or comforting, but just existing in or traversing certain game worlds can evoke that sensation I like watching any austin’s videos about weird half-space spots in different games More generally, hopefully more devs broaden their scope of what defines a cozy game

[@MeinTofu]

The coziest game I have played recently has to be unpacking. Like A little to the left, it has amazing soundeffects, and it's just a quiet and cozy relaxing time to arrange some packed up stuff into a new home. It is short, it ends, and it has a beautifully told story you gleam through the places and the objects that get brought along or change.

[@ProxMackintosh]

Exactly why I started replaying old ones like Animal Parade. Real gem, that one.

[@Lacillyn]

I think one of the things more people need to remember is that Stardew Valley - as amazing as it is - is an exception and not the rule. I agree that it's fantastic that we got a game that gave us hundreds (or thousands) of hours and major free content updates years after release for 15 dollars... And the fact that it was nearly entirely built by a single developer IS incredible - but that sort of lightning generally doesn't strike twice. I'm a MASSIVE Stardew fan (As my 5600 hours in Stardew across 4 platforms can attest), but I try NOT to use it as comparable for that very reason. When people look at a game and leave comments on YT trailers or posting in Discord or on whatever Twitter is called these days that say "Well, it looks good, but not Stardew Valley good and at three times the price? Pass"... it just makes me sad. Eric didn't NEED a million copies to sell in the first two months just to not shut the company down - and many developers and teams today DO need big sales or ongoing revenue from things like DLC - just to survive. Instead, I look to the movies: If I'm willing to pay 15 dollars for a ticket for 2 hours of (non-interactive) entertainment, then why shouldn't I be able to justify $30.00 for a 10 hour game? Or 20 hours? My entertainment dollars go MUCH further in video games.

[@theyoftheravens]

This is a lovely comment. I really like the movie tickets comparison, that puts it into a good perspective.

[@juliesnoot2818]

i do fully agree except SOME of these new cozy games ARE pretty overpriced for not rlly bringing anything new to the table. but only some! most are honestly reasonably priced and ppl just like to complain

[@Lacillyn]

@@juliesnoot2818 And I think that's a super fair take and totally agree! It's perfectly valid to look at a game and think "You know, $50.00 is a bit much for the 45 minutes of entertainment value I'll get out of this particular title" so long as it's being judged on its own merits.

[@Qrtuop]

I'm not paying 50 euros for a non AAA game, I don't know what you're on about. Some games are way overpriced

[@paddyq3235]

@@Qrtuop That's fair but I also feel like you're assuming 50 euro AAA games are gonna be high quality. Nowadays they don't come out polished enough or with enough content to be worth 50 dollars. But I do agree not every game is worth the amount of money that they are but thats also a subjective thing.

[@Jenna_Talia]

My problem with cozy games is how so many of them bog the player down with montonous, slow tasks, and never implement automation. Can't do the fun thing, you're late into the game and have 3 farms to harvest/water, chickens cows and pigs to feed, fish to catch, and townspeople to talk to. This was how Spiritfarer felt for me. Started off very cozy and slow going, but quickly spiralled into a stressful rush to water my crops, feed and hug the spirits and do side quests. I went from admiring the art style to thinking "huh, I've actually got nothing to do right now. That's not right at all."

[@jeweleitri4111]

Actually, that reminds me of one of my major gripes in games sometimes. Most normal games have you start out slower, but eventually gain ways to traverse around the map more quickly, and otherwise ways to not have to spend all your time on monotonous stuff any more. Wuppo is the biggest offender off the top of my head, having it take several minutes just to ride the train one direction. There's... there's no point. And then it gets praised for being "realistic" (because we all play games to get more of real life), but it's just... it's boring, and frustrating, and I want to continue the game, not take a forced pause for "realism". With Spiritfarer specifically (which I did play with a friend), I didn't feel like there was always too much, but I also often swapped up what I was doing, and usually only had a few spirits at a time. And sometimes we ended up with a lot of excess of some things. But I could definitely see how some of the mechanics could be problematic at times.

[@St1ckyGrape]

@@jeweleitri4111 i was not expecting wuppo slander but i'm so glad to see it, fuck wuppo i despise that game

[@aileen_7292]

Have you found any games you ended up liking? I work and do college full time. So I really rely on solid recs to save time, I chase the high stardew left me with 🥲

[@BMoser-bv6kn]

One of the things I learned about Harvest Moon is using my gigachad hyper-optimizer gamer brain is... not the most fun way to play the game. You can exploit every square bit of farmland you can do make money at the fastest pace possible, but that's just actively making yourself miserable if that's not what you want to do. Just make exactly as many crops as you want to (zero is a valid number) and enjoy yourself, gosh darn it. One day you'll stop playing the game and everything you've "achieved" in it will be meaningless. Your life won't be improved if you ship 2,000 bushels of corn in your first game year. ....won't it?

[@jeweleitri4111]

@@St1ckyGrape I like the overall game enough, but I feel like they definitely made some bad decisions in the design. Mostly the train. Some other things, but the train is by far my biggest gripe. Followed second by the "mysterious ruins puzzle" that made me stop playing. You're supposed to put _something_ on the pedestal, and are given zero indication what. Might look it up one day. Or not.

[@KaiserDaGaemer]

Im not even a cozy gamer but this was such a nice analysis. I really enjoyed listening to you talk about this. Great work

[@izzylamb2516]

Great video, I agree with you on all points!! Though I'm sure it'll be a relatively short game, and the age demographic is a bit low, I'm really looking forward to Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley, which is meant to be released in March! The game aesthetics look so so cute and like the creators are also fans of the work they're drawing from, which is something you really don't get from games like Disney Dreamlight Village

[@_eggwife]

Unpacking is a cozy game I really love. It's finite, tells a story through stellar environmental story telling, good sfx, and gives me the best organizational brain itch, lol.

[@mobiusscholkowfsky5412]

just came here to recommend unpacking! it was one of the first PC games i played when i started getting really into them. it was ultra-cozy, super cute, and has an adorable lgbtq plotline later on that's super worth solving the puzzle of it for

[@alicegibelli3266]

i'm sorry bur for the price it costs the game is terribly short, i was so mad it was literally 2-3 hours of gaming for 20 euros. i wish there were other rooms or more stories, the concept is cool but it was not worth the price

[@_eggwife]

@@alicegibelli3266 different strokes for different folks!! I have 10+ hours logged into the game and enjoy returning to certain levels from time to time when I want to vibe. I do agree another story line would be super awesome to pad out the content, but I’m happy enough with the quality of the game for the price esp when a game is made by a small studio.

[@jheyjuneice]

@@alicegibelli3266 I agree. I was also disappointed that the game was so short and that the develoeprs had no plans to add anything more. Considering it costs around the same price as games like Cult of the Lamb, it's not worth it.

[@aspillust]

i loved unpacking! i did grind it and ended up finishing it in under a week lol and i wish it was longer, but it scratched that little organizer itch in my brain SO well and it's both aesthetically pleasing and super cute story wise

[@Things-with-wings]

A weirdly cozy game(to me) is Dredge, despite being a horror game. It’s just a game where you fish.. and learn about the eldritch horrors of the ocean. While there are quite a few spooky moments and dark themes, I found the fishing in that game quite cozy. It’s got relatively good progression and risk (dying from creatures and running into rocks).. While it is still horror game and it does get scary.. Once you become more accustomed it is a lot more manageable. It’s certainly not for everyone in terms of cozy but I find myself enjoying it Edit: grammar fix

[@TheP1x3l]

I wish there were more cozy horror games like Dredge (and I don't really count Cult of the Lamb because it's not really scary or anything.) It just feels like an underrated combination.

[@jazzyj7834]

Cozy Horror absolutely needs to be a new genre. Dredge was an awesome game where the risk of the cozy fishing was legitimately a risk. "You gotta travel out to the reef to get this fish, but traveling that far is going to put you out on the ocean at night. And there's literal monsters out there waiting for you, driving you insane until you fall for their tricks and they devour you." That's a game that really keeps you engaged with the rather monotonous fishing minigame for hours on end.

[@Kryxx07]

I usually love fishing in games. Dredge sounds super interesting; I'm going to have to check it out.

[@silvercandra4275]

Dredge was honestly amazing and I was sad when I finished it ^^; It's just so incredibly serene to ride your little boat across the waves, with that soft and somewhat sad music playing in the background... I think the nighttime horror element of it only added to the serenity, because of the stark contrast it gave to the safety of daylight.

[@ilikecookies230]

@@silvercandra4275they’re planning for dlc in dredge 🎉

[@leahaf808]

Graveyard Keeper is one of my favourite cosy games - and it actually has an interesting storyline, with an end too

[@SelfieMasters]

In a sea of what seems like endless cozy games with no depthful content that repeats over and over again, My Time At Sandrock definitely shines out imo. There's a well written story (really rare lately), well written characters with actually a good humor and lots of events that are actually well planned out and not just added for sake of it. There's many minigames, there's combat, there's racing and what not but it's all polished.

[@BenkaiDebussy]

Sandrock is the only game of this general type I've ever been able to get into.

[@eliott_animations8067]

Is it better than My Time At Portia? I liked that game but it felt like it had no plot or reason to care for the npcs, idk if it was just me not paying attention.

[@SelfieMasters]

Much much better. My Time At Portia is pale in comparision. The gameplay loop remains the same however but the story and NPCs are much more rich.@@eliott_animations8067

[@futrecacao]

@@eliott_animations8067 way, way better

[@theenami]

it's not a traditional "cozy" game but a game i personally find extremely cozy is persona 4, spending time with your friends in a small town just feels nice, even if you spend the majority of that time trying to stop a murderer

[@nightynightlayla374]

That’s one reason I like the Persona games so much is the back and forth of social links and gameplay. You can choose to go at your own pace as long as you’re done before the deadline.

[@theenami]

@@nightynightlayla374 for real, and with how much time you have to clear each dungeon it's not like there's that much pressure on you so you really can just get around to it when you want to, or you can try to get as much of it done as possible day one

[@haruhirogrimgar6047]

​@@theenami The best way to play in my experience is just get all the dungeon crawling done day 1. Then just spend the rest of the week messing around. Unless you install a mod that improves the combat it isn't even worth playing on higher difficulties. Just grind that money, play some shuffle time. And then move on to the social sim.

[@dannysmi7162]

True. Absolutely. Also Rise is in the game, so automatic 10/10

[@nightynightlayla374]

@@haruhirogrimgar6047 , I do the same thing too along with the rest of the Persona games. It’s sort of a added challenge to make it towards the end without wasting all your sp, and you get plan out the rest of your days however you want. Sometimes it can be a pain with certain dungeons though. I’M LOOKING AT YOU OKUMURA!

[@CaptainAstronaut]

My favorite Cozy Game is sleeping under a big blanket

[@emi7916]

Such a good video. I love calming and relaxing games but you hit the nail on the head. So many of them are about quantity over quality. Or everything is watered down to make it more accessible because that's 'cosier'. There are literally no stakes. I've spent a lot of time playing Palia and I feel like not many people share this opinion. The funny thing is they added a form of a competitive game in the new event and it's extremely successful. I think sometimes 'cosy game' players don't know what they want.

[@animesoul167]

What was that competitive update about? It seems like a lot of the cozy gaming community are just getting into video games in general, and are nervous about attempting challenges and the danger of failing them.

[@soniadomaradzka3120]

Currently playing Bear and Breakfast, and although the character navigation around the map is a bit long winded, I absolutely love managing the resorts and the dialogue is truly hilarious!

[@charlizechurcher443]

Spiritfarer was such a refreshing cosy game for me and I cannot recommend it enough. I loved it and all the characters were so lovely. slowly learning their stories and getting to love them was such a lovely experience. So much so that I genuinely feel sad saying goodbye to them.

[@JadeTheAdventurer]

For real, I think personally Stanley was the spirit I wanted to keep forever :(

[@crono92]

Spiritfarer is the perfect cozy platformer with crafting minigames. Also some of the passengers have really interesting stories. So sad for me to let Astrid or Summer go, but it was the better for them T_T

[@panda_boy2689]

OMG id was gonna talk about it! I still didn't finish it but the whole cast is so memorable

[@thedrawingquill2059]

Spiritfarer is such a good game but it always leaves me in a bit of a slump afterwards because of how attached I get. it's so hard to say goodbye to everyone T ^ T

[@sparklingsora]

tbh i personally feel like spiritfarer could benefit from letting you actually talk to the characters more outside of dedicated quest lines, but i really enjoyed it as well, got a real good vibe

[@aiaoi5048]

I think one of the main "problem" with cozy games is they have little to no late-game and ultra late-game content. However, the charm is there while you're grinding to the top from the bottom. I personally find after you are "successful" in the game, it kinda feel nothing left to do even though the world is vast and filled with content.

[@gotgunpowder]

that seems like your problem given you see gaming as a constant stream of content to consume, not an experience to enjoy and then put away when done.

[@BogBod436]

I recommend the upcoming fantasy life i game 😊 you can play at your own pace and choose many different „jobs“ to master. Some even set up to be late game jobs (or the old one on the 3ds)

[@jasperjazzie]

i adore stardew valley but this is one of my biggest issues with the game, once you achieve perfection there's not much to do, since by that point so much of the game is automated, and you've got full hearts with everyone so there's not much to do with them, unless you use mods after a while you start running out of things to do besides decorate your farm and find new ways to maximize profits (which by that point there's nothing to buy so it doesn't matter all that much) i'm looking forward to the new update and i hope it fixes that issue, and i'm melancholic that this'll probably be the last major update to the game and anything that comes next will probably just be bug fixes, so i hope that it'll be something that we can keep playing even long after.

[@emmjaygames]

I would agree. I noticed it a lot with Pokemon Scarlet and Arceus-- both had meh late game content and as I'm not a huge pokemon head, I did not feel incentivized to continue just to fill the pokedex.

[@ChrisStoneinator]

????????????? Press new game you dense twat

[@Xixihahahehe]

One of the games from the 'Cozy' genre I believe that is totally underrated is the Hungry Hearts series. Story follows a grandma starting up a cooking shop and is totally wholesome. The games all have a storyline, the characters are all really cute and likeable, and gameplay is alright with not too much action. Some parts of the game do require some wait, and I personally find that more or less annoying, but besides that the game is pretty solid. Barley any ads unless you click on one, there's three games I believe and each one you can complete within a few hours, or maybe a few days or so. Really cute game I and genuinely think it should be one of the face's of the cozy game genre.

[@archerelms]

I appreciate that part of your gripes were something I relate to on a broad scale... too many live service games! I can't play ten different games daily or even sometimes weekly just to try to keep up with the ever growing and constant demands! I can barely keep up with games that don't even want me to do that!

[@darzipan]

This person has never played Russian Fishing 4

[@Thatbighippo]

Lol sounds epic

[@Im_Iconic-Youre_Ironic]

I'm gonna have to get that 🤣

[@samanthot_]

peak gaming

[@kipkazoo0116]

honestly my favorite cozy game atm is probably Sky: Children of the Light. It's not what you'd really think of as a cozy game, but the visuals are gorgeous, it's an MMO so there's always people everywhere, and my favorite part is that it's completely free. There's a lot of lore and adventure in it if you pay attention to it

[@Cajun_Seasoning]

the krill tho

[@elliot1873]

i knew i'd find a sky cotl mention in the comments 👀

[@OkamiLyra]

Fellow Sky enjoyer :3

[@cryptid_in_your_closet]

@@Cajun_Seasoning *cough* *cough* eden

[@bard2555]

as a veteran who does daily candle runs (one of the only ways to get in game currency reliably) it does get stale, that's all it is- pretty relaxing maps to socialize in right now I feel like the game is more worried about cosmetics, there's a lot of issues and it would do good with a QOL update I'd recommend it just to relax in, but not as an actual game game

[@slayersfinal]

Unpacking is an excellent cozy game. And honestly, Dysmantle is great - even with the battle mechanics it's just a great story that has cozy elements!

[@kernel-pult]

unpacking is over and done with in 4 hours, and each level is exactly the same with no reward except moving to the next level. If it were free I'd say its good but it's way overpriced

[@slayersfinal]

@@kernel-pult It's unfortunate that was your experience with it, and $25 is pretty steep - but as a joint player couch experience it was a very fun game learning about the story and adding our own narratives about why things changed how they did :)

[@SushiFlavoured]

There's a game which has been out for quite some time and i personally haven't heard a lot of people talking about it, it's called Coffee Talk. It's an dialog focussed game in which you are a barista and talk to your customers about their lives. The world is quite interresting because there are a lot of fictional characters like elves, vampires and orks. The game discusses things like ethnic deprivation (i hope i used that correctly), family bonds as well as regular daily lives and the jobs of the customers. I highly recommend it.

[@concordjuniper33]

I got to play a cute cozy game after my cat died. It's called Cattails. It's like Stardew Valley but entirely cat-themed. While it may not have the most immersive story and it's a game you probably would want to put down after getting done what you want to in it (that was my experience), it does make a cute twist on the genre and has a really nice soundtrack. It is a game I highly recommend--especially if you're a cat person!

[@thedrawingquill2059]

I never here anyone talk about Cattails! I love that game so much, it's such a hidden gem

[@Swabblydoo]

I love cattails!!! I really loved it because I read the warriors books as a kid and it's like a cozy game version of them

[@Dark_Side_Productions]

I play Cattails, would recommend

[@lizardlizard9581]

Cattails wildwood is recently out and I found it more appealing than the original! I'd check it out

[@kelsey917]

I love cattails!!! Literally the only cozy game that hasn't gotten unbearable for me to play...!

[@sammauceri5266]

I have the most satisfying experience longterm when I alternate between "sandbox-play-forever" games (Animal Crossing, Cozy Grove) and "story-centered, you've reached the end, that's it" games (Night in the Woods, Gone Home, A Little to the Left).

[@lis2974]

I think Stacklands does a good job of being a cozy game that innovates on the genre. It’s a cute card game where yes you can farm, but the main focus of the game is building your community fighting off evil witches that like to spawn portals filled with monsters, and most importantly not letting your villagers die normally via starvation. I don’t think I can talk this game up enough. I also really appreciated that Cult of the Lamb was mentioned, it’s definitely one of my top 10 games of all times.

[@ShireenPlaysIndie]

I'm so glad I stumbled across this video in my recommendations, I can't agree enough and this video is so well made! The one thing you didn't mention is early access games. The amount of cozy access games that get released in early access, then get an official release a year later in a state that can still be described as "beta" after taking our money frankly takes the piss (worlds feel empty, limited dialogue, quests that can't be completed or missing features). Games that I recommend (short sweet, lack of farming and great stories): Full Void, Planet of Lana, Tsioque, Cleo a Pirate's Tale, Loddlenaut and Smushi).

[@Romans5.8Gospel]

I've experienced this a lot with Pokemon clones, the games that work are those that try to be their own thing, Stardew Valley doesn't limit itself to being Harvest Moon under another name, it's Stardew Valley. Animal Crossing works because it IS Animal Crossing and has the wealth of well known and loved characters/items. Games fail when they try to just do what works without trying anything new, it just feels like a copy without a soul. You almost need to build up unique branding or you are sure to fail as a game.

[@Flameclaw123]

Totally agree, and imo this is why Temtem failed to capture Pokemon's audience. If I want to play Pokemon, I'll just go play actual Pokemon. Give me something unique that makes your game more fun (or at least distinct!)

[@MrMrvotie]

I have to disagree with these takes. 1. TEMTEM sold 1 Million Copies and is likely still selling (Look at Gym Leader Ed's Channel if you're interested) 2. Pokemon wasn't the 1st japanese game that allowed gamers to recruit creatures, train them and use them to battle other creatures. The Megami Tensei/Shin Megami Tensei Franchise (1987) came before Pokemon, so you could say Pokemon is a clone. 3. During the 2010's Pokemon Fans have been critiquing Pokemon for being stagnant and for rushing games with less content and fan favorite features than the previous Pokemon Games for years. The Publishers/Developers have been ignoring critical fans for years now and the Pokemon Fandom have been suppressing other Pokemon Fans Criticisms, telling them to go somewhere else if they don't like the newer Pokemon Games. 4. Other Developers (Crema) noticed the older Pokemon Fans Criticisms and made a game for them, when The Publisher/Developers/Pokemon Fandom didn't want to here their criticisms. So Crema made TEMTEM that was for Pokemon Fans that wanted an Official PokeMMO like game because GameFreak didn't want to make it. 5. I would argue TEMTEM is different, since it's an MMO lite w/ Coop, House Customization, Character Customization, Creatures Following You Feature, Post Game Battle Facility (Battle Frontier Like), Battle Simulator (Pokemon Showdown), Arcade (Game Corner Like), Official Online Multiplayer Tournaments and More that people strangely seem to leave out for whatever reason when talking negatively about TEMTEM... Things that Pokemon hasn't done or hasn't brought back all in a single game. LASTLY, I don't think it was targeting the "WHOLE Pokemon Fandom" but the "PokeMMO Fandom". Another part of the Pokemon community that seems to get left out of the conversation. T_T

[@Flameclaw123]

@@MrMrvotie Sorry, didn't mean to come off like I'm just straight-up bashing Temtem. It wasn't my favorite but it's certainly got some great components. I just mean in terms of really giving Pokemon a run for its money, it didn't have the cultural impact some were hoping for, and I think that's because the bulk of the gameplay boils down to "Pokemon with multiplayer," when I guess I was hoping to see it shake up the formula a little more. Compare that to something like Bugsnax, which has the same "creature catching" base gameplay (albeit without battling) but still does enough different that it doesn't really feel like a Pokemon clone at all. For me at least, at its best Temtem is "good Pokemon MMO," when I moreso wanted it to be its own thing past its Pokemon inspirations As for SMT, I know that predated Pokemon (and never stated otherwise), but while SMT/Persona are huge IPs in their own right, they're different enough from base game Pokemon to let both series stand on their own merits. I actually do prefer Persona to Pokemon, but that's because the deeper stories and life sim angle give it something new and different that I can't really get from Pokemon or elsewhere - I just don't get the same excitement from Temtem. To clarify, I'm not saying any of these games are bad. Best case scenario, I get to play Pokemon AND Temtem happily - two cakes! I'm saying that I think if Temtem and games like it want to become household IPs, they've got to differentiate themselves

[@zipzap8937]

@@MrMrvotie Shame they did such an awful job making it an MMO though. It's a pretty good entry as a monster-catcher, but it could be so much more.

[@MrMrvotie]

@@zipzap8937 PokeMMO or TEMTEM? Because ACTUAL Game Developers (Crema) said TEMTEM is an MMO and TEMTEM has Multiple Players in a map, In Game Chat/Emotes, Player Driven Economy, Auction House, PVP, Dojo Wars and Lairs? Features that MMO players say make an MMO?

[@nica.1541]

A fantastic cozy game that I enjoyed was A Short Hike. Such a short game that makes you engage with the world and the characters, even tho they have very simple histories. I played a lot because I wanted to explote everything it has to offer. Also, on a weird note, I found the game "papers, please" really satisfying and cozy, the sounds of the documents being handle and the stamps are so good.

[@pepn]

A short hike is the coziest ive ever felt playing a game ! Paper please being a cozy game is a take i never thought i'd hear but it's a very interesting one haha !

[@toasterturkey]

second this!

[@Ignorance247]

A Short Hike was amazing! Recommend Toem and Lil Gator Game for similar vibes

[@voice_0f_reason]

A Short Hike was awesome!

[@wob6169]

yes!! it's just a really good, funny game that makes you go around a beautiful cozy place and then ends

[@Maddielb45]

I was listening to this at work and, hopefully I didn’t miss it, but Unpacking is a fun, cozy puzzle game with a great story hidden inside. It’s one of my favorite games and has super nice sound effects for everything, I love it so much!

[@missellaneous5142]

I was surprised how much I enjoyed Unpacking, and how many times I've replayed it. The sound design is phenomenal!

[@LyricalViking]

You lowkey just gave me so many game recommendations. I love a good cozy game. Warms my heart on rough cold nights.

[@965musiclover]

I'm so glad I'm not the only one who thinks that dreamlight valley is boring. The game was super hyped and I was excited at first and I put it down one day and never picked it back up.

[@justgio2711]

Definitely not alone! I’m just annoyed I bought it on the switch and couldn’t refund it 😢

[@jyslog]

same here after I finish and went through the entire story it was boring and the amount of crash is ridiculous you think by the time to launch they would’ve fixed it by now

[@Ladywizard]

This new star path I find myself so burned out and here we are last 2 weeks and I'm just now finishing... halloween is copy paste from last year nothing new. Though I guess seeing as sometime they're launching it as free to play...

[@965musiclover]

@@justgio2711 yeah I wished I would have waited and let the hype die down. Even my niece who has played it a couple times likes the Pokémon games because the quest are just not fun to do

[@965musiclover]

@@jyslog yeah I also stopped playing it because of that. I play so many early access games all the time on my pc and never had so many crashes as I did when I played this game

[@Chris-jx4ij]

A cozy game I really enjoyed was Graveyard Keeper. It's a farm game, with a graveyard focus, which builds itself around a week system instead of a season system. It feels a lot less stressful to try and get everything done in time when you know that things will just swing back around within seven days, which you can meditate through.

[@salt3685]

I actually dropped Graveyard Keeper the first time I played it because I found the mechanic system kind of overwhelming. The atmosphere and concept brought me back though, since I am a sucker for the cozy/spooky combo, and have been on the hunt for more of them. I think my favorite so far has been Dredge, the horror fishing game. More horror elements than Graveyard Keeper, but I find the atmosphere super nice.

[@oliviatilleman8055]

@@salt3685 DREDGE MENTIONED!!! :D i wasn't sure if it counted as a cozy game, but it's cozy to _me._ besides the cosmic horror and my personal fear of the ocean, it's really relaxing to just sail around in my little boat looking for fish. i especially like the sound effects; something about them makes it so much more satisfying to do everything. i also really like playing Fish Tetris lol

[@lunnakamargo]

most of the cozy games i try to play feels like a cheap 3d stardew valley, when i started Graveyard Keeper i got so surprised bc it's a lot like stardew BUT the different atmosphere and quests, it was so entertaining and actually got me glue to the story. Sadly, most cozy games can't do what Graveyard did :(

[@hoyhoy852]

I'm surprised there's so much praise for Graveyard Keeper. When i played it, it felt stupidly grindy. But maybe thing changed, it seems to have gotten a lot of updates.

[@JacklynBurn]

@@hoyhoy852 Honestly I think it's just a certain something about the way the game is designed. My first time playing I got sucked in, but hated it by the lategame because of the grind and how little it felt like there was to do. Second time, like one or two years later, I went in expecting to hate it but wanting to give it another chance, and it blossomed in a way I hadn't realized, despite there being no major mechanical changes, really. The thing is, the second time I focused on different mechanics from the first time (started using zombies not too long after they were made available, figuring out good grind paths for the research I wanted instead of following the natural progression, sorta just letting the farms sit there for weeks on end before remembering that was something I had to check, etc) and it made me realize that a lot of different people are going to get a lot of different things out of the game depending on how they play. Not necessarily an issue with the way the game is made or paced (although, it needing a better story than "a series of kicks in the dick" might be), just that it was designed in a certain way and while it won't strictly force you to play that way, it unintentionally wears down on people who play "against the grain", for lack of a better term. That said, I haven't played the DLC's yet, so maybe they're better about it.

[@kosmosXcannon]

When you mentioned the bug catching game it reminded me of an old PS2 game Rogue Galaxy, which was a jrpg. I remember it had a minigame with it where you catch and I think breed bugs and used them to fight other bugs. Idk why but your comment reminded me of it.

[@phil_matic]

3:38 "because you're just lame" idk why but when you said this part, it was really cute lol

[@WilbosWorld]

Yess I'm so glad you made this video! in the future, I hope that we see some new ideas implemented in cozy games. I love the cozy game genre, but some of the recent cozy game releases feel like they're cashing in on the success of New Horizons with no love put into the game. I also totally agree with the point "hey we put farming in this game now, look it's cozy!" and then you don't do anything with the crops lol.

[@celestialmaiden4606]

If you havent already, I would check out Sun Haven. Ive been having a good time with it and theyve been keeping up with updates

[@gypsydanger1013]

My personal recommendation is Spiritfarer:) whats not to love about a cozy game where you get the be The Grim Reaper and build a beautiful ship for you and like 15 of your closest spirit friends? Seriously though, it's an amazing game

[@baalfgames5318]

The main character being a kinda-bland human while the other characters are diverse and creative, tbh?

[@CherryBlossom45]

I was about to comment this!! it's an amazing game, definitely one of my favorites

[@aspillust]

@@baalfgames5318how can you say stella is bland when she's got the coolest hat ever created and this dope ass lil kitty companion 🤨

[@gypsydanger1013]

@baalfgames5318 I felt like Stella was a great character because she was left "bland". They gave her just enough characterization to relate with the spirits she helped guide along. I cried when Astrid left, not because of what she meant to Stella, but what she meant to me personally. And also when Uncle frog suddenly moves on without telling anyone. Leaving her open ended allowed me to insert MYSELF into the story. Stella wasn't letting her loved ones go, I was

[@baalfgames5318]

@@gypsydanger1013 Except she was the character I didn't care about. She was chaacter that made me wish I was playing as, honestly, anyone else in the game. Not everyone relates to bland. Not everyone likes a blank slate. And, honestly, not everyone wants a generic human character, especially when there was actual effort put into the other characters. Just having a generic human protag shows you didn't care about the protag enough to make her interesting.

[@WiseOldBill]

I found the long dark quiet cosy, after struggling through cold and wind, lighting a fire in a cabin and cooking food is such a juxtaposition it's very enjoyable. Not exactly a cosy game but the struggle makes the quiet moments very comfy

[@WickedKillaYT]

Okay this video is amazing! For one thing you managed to beautifully combine a "casual" gamers perspective while clearly and accurately describing major flaws that all too many games nowadays have. Its also insane to think how the problems you described with cozy games are the EXACT same problem with most new AAA games! Lack of satisfying progression/reward, padding the game just for the sake of playtime rather then worthwhile content and not doing enough to stand out from the competition. Edit: I cant believe I forgot to add the biggest thing, everything needing to be live service inducing fomo and keeping you playing everyday! The industry is straying further and further from what anybody wants sadly

[@OliveDasi]

First you are absolutely right. It's essentially Shovelware now. 1 out of 5,000 is maybe okay. But that's basically the entire EShop honestly now. It's an absolute nightmare. If I could suggest a great cozy game that usually flies under the radar for so many (and does not suck!) is - Good Job! It isn't a Farming Sim or Life Sim, but it is an absolutely adorable game with so much humor to it. It is on the Switch.

[@waaa7732]

I love good job! Yet I've never heard anyone else really talk about it until you

[@modelmajorpita]

My Time At Sandrock is a neat cozy game where the focus is more on mining and building up an automated factory to craft stuff. What I really like is the world changes as you do different quests and tasks, taking a job to replace a store's sign actually means there's a new sign. It really feels like you're helping rebuild a community as you can see changes happening all over the place. It also has some of the best inventory management for any game with tons of different pieces of junk to collect.

[@celestialmaiden4606]

+1 to My Time At Sandrock. Ive sunken a decent amount of hours into it/

[@bethanyjones2275]

Definitely agree on the My Time games, I haven't played Sandrock yet but I really enjoyed My Time at Portia

[@explolsivecake2045]

glad to see garden story! :] I’m currently playing through it and they are all so itty bitty and I spend so many leaflets on Concord’s ittiest bittiest cosmetics. Also, I’m just a general sucker for “community work” as a theme/concept… and I really like thinking about ecology/nutrient cycles, so the daily mission system and the whole premise fully sniped me (+I also have a special fondness for frogs + molluscs, so idk what kind of prophet is on the dev team, but)

[@lucyl697]

concernedape and toby fox are like my biggest inspirations ngl. love them both

[@Amy-rp4wq]

Games should be games first, and cozy second, I really agree that its important for games to end, as nice as it is to think about logging in for weeks to get some small bonus or item, it just makes logging onto the game feel like a commitment, my favourite kinds of games are ones you can play straight through in one session and really immerse yourself in the story or characters, theres also something i personally find about creepy elements that make the rest of the game feel cozier and more impactful, i really enjoyed stray and bugsnax for this.

[@nomoretwitterhandles]

Omg yes, exactly this!! I said this in my own comment, but I'll paste it here since we basically said the same thing: "Coziness should simply be an inherent trait of the game itself--NOT the priority." I find that the games that prioritizes "coziness" often wind up being very problematic (looking at Palia...). A game should just be a game. The audience will decide whether or not it is cozy!

[@finpin2622]

I agree they should prioritize being a game over being cozy. Although I don’t prefer one-play through games for my cozy games, I personally like cozy games that have a story you can play through but also do give you a reason to keep coming back like Stardew Valley. It’s annoying if you have to keep logging in for time-based elements like “if you’re gone for 2 real life days you’ve missed our rewards!” but being able to have a consistent game to come back to is cozy for me. I could go years without playing Stardew but come back and jump right back into things, which is nice.

[@Faeree]

Same problem with RPGS. Baldurs Gate 3, even before release, was having devs shaking in their boots cause it was going to be an "anomaly" and raise the bar too high. And it's like...right, because you know they put love and care into this carefully crafted game and you don't. We can tell when a game is just...pointless, cozy or otherwise. I really hope devs start understanding this.

[@cherrytries2922]

Devs were more worried about the unhealthy standard it would set. The amount of work put into this game is usually enough to get a studio bankrupt, it’s not about devs not wanting to make good games, it’s about the player base expecting every single game to have the same or more amount of detail as Baldurs Gate 3. For most developers, making a Baldurs gate 3 is risky, because it either sells millions upon MILLIONS of copies and you get profit and renowned fame, or you get a good amount of sales, but because the project was so expensive, you get bankrupt anyway.

[@Faeree]

@@cherrytries2922 If the devs feared that, they are so far disconnected from their player base any way that my point still stands. No active gamer has demanded anything like that. In fact, gamers often shout at how AAA companies abuse their devs time and workload. It's been a huge thing for years, so I disagree to a point. They were shouting this BEFORE the game even came out. There was no real standard cause we had no idea what the game was gonna be like (EA means little and no one expects things to stay the same from them.) What we, consumers DID know, was that it was going to be a complete game (narratively, beginning, middle, end) with no pay to wins, no micro transactions, no bull crap shoveling at us, just a completed game with as few bugs as possible by a company who LOVES it. (And with the bugs it did have, Larian has been working hard with breaks to fix in a timely manner). I do not think it impossible for AAA companies (who's CEOs and art designers commented in fear of BG3s attention as well) to not be able to shove just a LITTLE of their millions of dollars to at least COMPLETE a game, maybe even stop a micro transaction or two. Literally all the people expect is a finished product that won't cost 70-80 dollars and we haven't gotten that out of any big name in years. Most of the player base don't care that we can see the peach fuzz on Alloys cheek we just want a good game. There was no love in the saints row reboot. Square enix is milking a huge cow with one IP and and releasing half baked, completely unplayable games to the side (Forespoken, Balan, whatever that Wild title was, forgive me I didn't even attempt to play that one so I can't remember.) Blizzard should be absolutely shut down. Diablo is so bad with their BS scam with the battle pass. It's things like that. I wouldn't be so chapped about the "anomaly" complaint if it wasn't a ton of AAA big shots standing behind it telling us, the consumer, to lower our standards cause they can't be bothered lol. I get there's a balance to the finance side, but no one can tell me they give a crap about what they are doing more than just doing their job at a company they probably don't even care for themselves.

[@iRywo]

@@cherrytries2922 I think Baldurs Gate 3 is an example of long term revenue focus. Yes, if a gamestudio were to try and make it without any prior experience/development time then absolutely they go broke. But Larian studios actually spend years and multiple games building up their engine, tools, experience, etc. Before embarking on Baldurs gate. Yes it still took them a few years to make it, but without that prior time spent (on which they earned revenue from making for example divinity original sin 2 with the then existing tools) they would've taken something around 10 to 15 years to craft Baldurs Gate. Instead, triple A developers focus their time on short time earnings and CEO's are pushed to focus on quarterly earnings. Might work in other branches of Tech, but gaming is long term. They can't hop onto trends such as the cosy game because by the time the game comes out, the trend is already over. The bar isn't raised too high, unless you don't build up your resources long term. Baldurs gate feels like a proper triple A game, while games like starfield feels empty, buggy and uninteresting. Production cycle differences kill these companies when they don't approach it the right way, and long term thinking sadly isn't the norm with a few exceptions.

[@NyoBleu]

​@@Faeree I agree that AAA companies should put FAR more effort into their products and actually finish their game with minimal bugs on launch, but the issue with Baldur's Gate 3 was that developers, including INDIE DEVS with SMALLER BUDGETS felt like gamers were making this game be the new, high standard that all developers should strive for -- an *industry* standard. Larger companies should be held accountable, but the standard shouldn't apply to smaller dev teams who are trying to get their foot in the door. That just makes the bar of entry MUCH higher.

[@baalfgames5318]

What I don’t get is why Insomniac, a company that actually DOES put effort and care into their games, was among those companies.

[@dantethespoon1087]

THANK YOU!! I've been trying to remember the name of Grave Seasons for ages, I saw it on my TikTok FYP once and then it disappeared

[@thekrazykraken298]

I got this in my fyp page, right next to a trailer for a game called cozy caravan

[@Im.A1ex]

I hate the term “cozy game”. What does that even mean. Cozy is so subjective, like I think sitting in the dark and grinding dungeons in elder scrolls online is cozy and chill. Sometimes I think farming in stardew is cozy and chill. Lazy developers think a cast of ‘villagers’ and farming is all people want and that’s all they do, and it’s boring.

[@ripbraincells8534]

Most cozy game I've played has to have been Night in the Woods, even if the storyline itself isn't cozy, the characters and environment make me wanna just spend time chilling around in the world, great video ❤

[@silence2314]

The soundtrack of that game was awesome. I still listen to it every fall because it really fits the fall mood

[@lokiijustwannasleep7865]

and the bass minigame is a ton of fun

[@lonchafina4642]

I love that game dude

[@ripbraincells8534]

@jfloww personally disagree, and most people I've heard from seem to love this game too. Maybe it just wasn't for you, unfortunately.

[@Kruhojedec3862]

Yess i love night in the woods 😭💜

[@willsith9762]

One of the most exhausting things is seeing my newsfeed full of "this game is Stardew Valley crossed with [insert other game]" Happens to Terraria too.

[@fancifulgamer28]

Man remember that one Nintendo Direct that was wholly focused on farming sims? Man that was a fun laugh

[@ragnarockerbunny]

A lot of developers confuse people wanting *gentle* pushback with having *no* pushback. You know what's actually pretty cozy? Using DS Gadget and making your Dark Souls character max level with the best gear and just kinda... Walking through the game. And what I find is interesting is that no death/no damage mode isn't actually any fun. That little bit of pushback is good! It is what makes the experience worth doing!

[@bluester7177]

I think it depends, cozy games can be anything, I am actually the person who does not want any pushback, I don't want it to be challenging in any way and that's why I cheat every game of every genre other tha multi player I play.

[@leyeamatcha8481]

Dark Souls is such a cozy game. I love playing with a video or podcast in the background. Gives my ADHD a lot to chew on.

[@spugelo359]

What I've found out in this comment section that quite many do not really seem to understand what cozy means, just that it's a positive word that involves positive emotions. And this aint even matter of preference. If playing Dark Souls makes you feel similar emotions that you experience while petting a cat, then either your cat has a massive HP bar or you're just very easy to please. In most cases, relaxing is the correct word, or at least more accurate. Or from the sound of it, satisfying in this case... or maybe both?

[@dinohunter6450]

​@@spugelo359Dark Souls, to me, is the same as letting my dog in a rainy day while drinking coffee. It's comfy, it's a bit somber, and it's relaxing. When I think cozy, that's what my mind goes to. Your feelings on a game don't represent everyone's feelings on a game. That's really all there is to it.

[@oddishsmile7368]

It's not a traditionally cozy game, but The Coin Game hits cozy nail on the head if you're willing to look past its mildly unsettling exterior. It's an arcade simulator wrapped in a warm blanket of nostalgia and unnecessary effort and love that makes it my favorite game.

[@felixcaskey4193]

I do like games that play themselves, but not like that. A good example is the Create mod for minecraft. I love being able to automate things, but also make my house extra cozy/pretty. I should be able to mass-produce the cute decorations, but have other options.

[@liuzumi8544]

Slime rancher is my go to cozy game nowadays. It has such a good story when you read the info things, you can progress as fast or slow as you want, so much things you can unlock, cute slimes you can take care of or throw in the ocean, mini games that are optional and the game isn't hard but has its puzzles. And its cheap! I love the game so much❤ they made slime rancher 2 but I'm a switch player so hopefully it will get there soon

[@catato4259]

I can really recommend My Sims as a cozy game. I loved it as a child, and it's still one of my favorite cozy games. With building houses and furniture for villagers, all with their own personalities. I consider it to be a fun game that lets you use your creativity while still having a structure.

[@jeweleitri4111]

Yeah, that was a really fun one! I played all the way through My Sims Kingdom (we only ever rented a couple of them, I think), and it was a lot of fun. Cozy, customizable, varied characters, and just generally is fun to mess around with.

[@justsomejoyousj]

Now that is a name I’ve heard in awhile…

[@backupschmliff1156]

My sims💀

[@starrykev]

highly recommend a short hike, it's sweet, lovely music and visuals, and the main mechanic of flying feels so satisfying! i was very invested in the characters and world as well. and once you finish the story, you can go around and explore, do competitions that you maybe skipped before

[@Link_the_Cryptid]

Potions permit and Smushi come home are games I really enjoyed and I’m actually not really into the cozy game genre. But these games had a story and you had something to work towards.

[@EnergyBurst2]

It's funny you brought up the farming thing since even back in the days of Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life back on the GCN and PS2 I often found that farming was the aspect I cared about and was interested in the least and that I much preferred doing the once-a-day archeology minigameish thing and fishing as well as (though a bit less than the previous 2) the other tasks around the farm.

[@katiecadigan9529]

Might actually recommend Legend of Zelda: Minish Cap as a cozy game. Might not think that for Zelda but it has: nostalgia factor (made in 2004 and is now on Switch), fairytale vibe with making friends with the shoemaker elves after shrinking down to their little cute elf world, and also having the adventure while coming back to the lively town to check in and interact with villagers. You really believe Link and Zelda's friendship so you want to save her too!

[@InvaderGIR98]

Minish Cap is one of my favorite games, I never thought of it that way but it really is cozy. The Minish, the chill town, I loved Ezlo as a cranky mentor figure for Link. One of the cutest things I discovered in the game is if you go to your house and go to bed, Ezlo will pop off of Link's head and sleep next to him.

[@Jane-oz7pp]

They're not elves, they're Minish.

[@flitefulwantssubs402]

Huh, I’d never heard of it!

[@starryvoid8488]

This was my first video game as a kid! I never really wanted to beat it, just go through again and again collecting items and treasure. The music is by far my favorite of any video game

[@yeetusthefetusthencommitse204]

I think a lot of Zelda games have cozy aspects I found breath of the wild super relaxing to play. Just walking around hyrule felt nice as everything was so beautiful.

[@bingmybong9257]

I really love unexpected cozy games. Playing with Survival Mode in things like Skyrim or Fallout 4 turns them from typical 'kill baddies, get gear, repeat' into something oddly cozy! Having to eat and drink regularly, managing your fatigue, inventory capacity being reduced so you have to decide what's really worth picking up or not. I especially love it in Skyrim when you have to prepare hot meals and plan warmer outfits if you're going to a colder part of the map. And the joy of finally reaching an Inn and standing by the fire as you warm up, before eating and drinking and renting your room for the night! Or when you finally return home and can greet your children and spouse, dumping your cool collectibles in your chest or displaying them in the house. It's so unexpectedly cozy and wholesome!

[@tuckerdidit5890]

Yeah, it's honestly an immersion thing. For me 'cozy' often tends to mean 'relaxed pace, immersive, letting me relax myself into a story of my character or another's.

[@spugelo359]

​@@tuckerdidit5890 That's just relaxing... cozy isn't just about relaxation, but also comfort and 'warmth' (not literal warmth). Like petting a cat for many would be cozy. Other commonly cozy things: hugging, cat videos, warming by campfire (literal and figurative warmth)... in general things that are able to uplift your mood after experience something unpleasant. Merely relaxing does't really do that very effectively, but very great at preventing mood from worsening if it's not too bad already. Far better for clearing your mind and/or letting thoughts wander.

[@Amoebatirith]

The game I love that I got recently after it came out was Wildmender. It has a "farming" aspect but it's more like gardening. The difficulty settings can be very much adjusted so you can make it as casual or as difficult as you want. I love the game because it has some challenges and eventually you can finish the game, but you can also just keep a save going as long as you want and just come back to it to scratch a gardening itch when you have it. Since I do not have the ability to have a real life garden, Wildmender has been awesome. The main thing kind of bad about it is there's only so much variation in the flora so it's a bit bland but you can make some really nice gardens and green spaces in it. It is $25 but it's not overly pricey and I think it gives some great gameplay and challenge while also having coziness to it that is different than many games. It doesn't advertise as cozy since it can be a difficult survival game if you really up the difficulty settings but you can also make it almost just completely a gardening sim if you really want to avoid combat and survival aspects.

[@hentikirby7142]

"Put your shovel away Walt, stop digging up my flowers."

[@balloon3174]

I’m actually very surprised I haven’t seen anyone mention potionomics here. It has amazing characters and an interesting gameplay loop which actually gives a reason to interact with the characters. The art style is super charming and the sound design and music is great. I recommend it for someone who wants a cozy game but doesn’t want to feel babied, because you can fail in this game quite easily if your not prepared.

[@cardomajig24]

Well that's just it, potionomics is an incredibly brutal work/economy sim. At no point is it cozy or comforting lol. Moonlighter is a better contender imo, and that's saying something, because it's a lot closer to COTL

[@windwaker407]

@@cardomajig24 Big agree. I love the aesthetic and characters of potionomics, but actually trying to keep up with the increasing demand made it so that the game wasn't relaxing. I want to finish it but haggling to perfection is a pain, but if I don't haggle to perfection, I have less money. Less money means less ingredients. Less ingredients means poorer quality potions which then sell for even less money. Then all of a sudden you are lagging behind while strict deadlines keep getting closer and closer. I couldn't just relax.

[@milogop3574]

Yeah I love potionomics and the art and music is some of the best I’ve seen in a game. I never found the limited ‘actions per day’ particularly stressful because I was happy to reset a day if I ended in a way that I wasn’t happy with - but I can see how it would make it harder for other people to fully relax with the game. (The lack of an endless-mode / post-game is my main criticism with the game, and it would definitely have the added benefit of removing that time pressure)

[@anonanonymous9670]

Only reason I even know that game exists is because of the cute Egyptian girl

[@mufcdiver]

Wanna cosy game? Get up one Sunday before everyone else, brew some coffee and get yourself warm and then play a Short Hike! I still think about the Sunday I did myself that favour two years down the road. Perfect game, perfect length. ['Bout 4 hours] 💕

[@zenreddog]

A Short hike is amazing- such a fun and surprising little game!

[@chevvy427]

2 years ago? Sounds like it's time to go again!!

[@guidedexplosiveprojectileg9943]

Yes encourging excerise is a great thing

[@Serjohn]

my friends are into lofi, one day they were playing lofi songs they like to each other and i heard this diamond phrase ''nah nah this aint chill enough'' and ''bro im relaxing so hard right now'' and '' i have my top 5 lchill songs when i need an emergency chill that chills pretty hard'' i was like you are doing this all wrong, somehow you made relaxing competitive

[@ney.sa.v]

a pretty cozy game i recommend is Carto!! it's a fairly short puzzle game with the cutest artstyle and a good silly story. you play as carto, the granddaughter of a map-maker who's trying to find her grandma bc they got separated in a storm. the gameplay revolves around putting map pieces to solve puzzles (some easy, some tricky) and finishing little tasks from the npcs :] quite cozy imo

[@MsRRabbit]

Thoroughly agree with you here. There are a lot of games, particularly on Steam, which have the mechanics typically used in cosy games (farming, fishing, friendship) but that don't allow the player to grow into the world or engage with characters or mechanics in engaging ways. Ive had a few experiences where I feel like I should have that satisfied feeling from playing a cosy game but just feel a bit empty instead.

[@yourlocaldemon2195]

This is why Spiritfarer truly is one of the best gaming experiences I’ve had. It has an amazing art style, amazing soundtrack, and deep and heartfelt stories from every NPC that intrigues you and makes you want to do the grinding to progress. You run a boat in the afterlife that you upgrade to accommodate the souls you pick up along your journey. The tasks never feel boring to me since it immerses you, and it truly felt like I was just doing daily chores as Captain of the ship. You get to go out and explore, gain new abilities, find new resources, engage in new challenges and stories. It’s cozy, yes, but it’s adventurous and emotional as well.

[@audreybee9604]

TOTALLY agree. like spiritfarer went beyond a game, it was like a piece of art

[@fearfulwolf]

I got it the other day, and oh my god it’s such a good game. I do have a few minor gripes, but nothing that ruins the game for me. It constantly has you doing something, since you can’t do one thing without doing another as well. The spirits going through the Everdoor makes me so sad, and my two favorites, Gwen and Alice, already went through 😭 Such a nice game. It’s perfect for long car rides or a flight.

[@rueabbey]

Came here to recommend this one as well. It’s lovely.

[@rmsgrey]

I will say (after having played the game to completion 4 times) that Spiritfarer does have some minor issues, particularly with the late-game. - while each of the spirits has at least some redeeming qualities, there's a definite trend from popular to unpopular spirits over the course of the game, which puts a damper on the late game. - the Portolan Charts are reversed as a puzzle - the interesting bit of the puzzle (figuring out where in the world the map points to) is the easy bit of solving them, while the boring bit (finding the precise pixel on the navigation map) is hard - or at least tedious and time consuming as you sail round a small area hoping to stumble across the treasure's precise location. It's made worse by this being a solved problem in game design - Wind Waker had it figured out over twenty years ago - just have the ship appear on the treasure map when you get close... And, of course, going for full completion (ignoring the fact that two of the achievements are mutually exclusive) takes time and effort, but that's not really a problem with the game - getting the full range of collectibles in pretty much any game is going to be an issue.

[@bookshelfhoney]

Hm I couldn't get into it, I felt like I was just being railroaded along doing what I had to do and couldn't explore or do my own thing. To be fair I didn't play very long maybe I'll go back and give it another chance

[@Zsilu3]

Alba : a wildlife adventure is such a nice little cozy adventure ! I really recommend it. It's easy to finish within few hours, there's NO farming haha, the story is simple yet satisfying and it's such a place I wish I could go on holidays !

[@LittleSpaceCase]

I waited forever for one lonely outpost to come out but I guess even early on it feels repetitive and like I'm not making much progress or able to customize

[@SomeHumbleOnion]

Oh hey a game I created is in this vid! I couldn't really tell if it was on the good or bad side of cozy games in your analysis, but regardless I'm happy to see Smushi Come Home in one of your videos so thanks for sharing it!

[@wintermute5974]

So that's what it's called! I'm already enchanted by it, it's going on my wishlist for sure.

[@o0kaelas]

I was literally hoping somebody would mention the game name. It looked interesting, loved the visuals.

[@itslucyluck]

LOVED your game! Played it on my channel a while back and really enjoyed the style and humor. Super cozy and heartwarming. ❤️

[@koramora]

I actually really enjoyed Smushi Come Home!! I love adventuring around the whole world!

[@ralphdro-6783]

It's not exactly a cozy game per se, but Shenmue games always made me veeeeery comfy with their simulation aspect: waiting for the bus, going to work, and investigating at your own pace. But the combat system and the deadline still made it engaging and very fun for me! Definitely one of my favorites

[@tsunfish9443]

That's so funny you said that cuz my boyfriend showed me this vid and told me his cozy games is Yakuza XD

[@niono1587]

Fuken yes man. Shenmue to me is so cozy to me cuz you are just living life under your own pace but there is a bigger and cooler story over everythin to keep you going. Not to mention the voices are really clam

[@thomriley1036]

Gonna be the weirdo, but my cozy game is Fallout 4. I installed mods to make it look all Christmasy, turned off settlement attacks, turned on some easy listening radio and dressed all my settlers up in cozy holiday sweaters. When the mood strikes, I just roam about a snowy town watching people sip warm drinks by the fire and avoid Preston Garvey... Of course, I have the ability to whip out a rifle and snipe Ghouls across the river, but nothing is forcing me to do that.

[@more_less]

Shenmue sucks ass. Horrible writing. Horrible combat. Decent graphics. And a waste of time game that ends in cliffhanger.

[@tsunfish9443]

​@@more_less I mean jeez, no need to march up to someone who says they love it and shit all over the game to their face. Doesn't that seem like something you wouldn't want to happen to yourself?

[@Madara8989]

@8:34, you made a comment about how 4 games releasing on the same day made you question how you were expected to play all four of them, but the reality is that you're not. You're expected to make a decision between these four games concerning which is most worthy of financial support, and to let the other 3 financially fail. These game releases are meant to be competition with one another, not "staggered out" so players get the chance to play every game in a given genre. The other reason you're not expected to play all 4 of them is because game devs *know* that it's impossible to play every game ever released, much less every game released in a given genre. We don't have unlimited time to play 10+ hour long video game and most people have responsibilities beyond just playing video games.