Hosted on Steam, the celebration of Cozy Family Friendly games immediately caught my attention. I am, to the surprise of nobody, a fan of cozy games! Do I enjoy it when there’s an unsettling, eerie, horror element to them? Immensely so, but with winter coming in sometimes it’s nice to just curl up with something that makes you feel warm inside, even if you’re spending the next few months wondering what it’s like to feel your extremities on a consistent basis. I picked three demos to try out, and one made the tentative “to pick up later” list. Which is most interesting to you? Let me know below!
Snufkin: Melody of Moomin Valley
Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley is a story-rich musical adventure game about Snufkin restoring the valley and helping the quirky and memorable characters and critters who call it home. A series of hideous parks have cropped up in Moominvalley, disrupting the landscape and its harmonious nature. As Snufkin you will distract police officers, pull out signs, and knock over misplaced statues as you vigorously try to restore nature and the inhabitants’ home while putting an end to the industrious Park Keeper’s plans…
I found this a cozy adventure game in a relaxed environment. The art style is beautiful, following the aesthetic established by other Moomin media and the music supports the feeling of the game nicely. The controls are straightforward and easy to grasp, which is always a concern of mine, and when you need to hide from the police patrolling the parks there’s plenty of time to do so – and many places to tuck yourself away. The quests are charming and don’t require you to go out of your way, progressing in a linear fashion.
I like the harmonica mechanic! Wandering around nature to collect inspiration in order to play songs for various woodland creatures to help you out is delightful. The most difficult part of the demo for me was aiming the crowd-friends while playing music for them – they’d shoot out to collect something/bother someone and that one took me a few tries to get the hang of. I feel like this is such a good game for Switch – makes me want to get cozy on the couch when there’s a gentle snowfall outside! Of the three, this is the one I’m mostly likely to pick up.
Everholm
Lilly is searching for her lost sister, Melanie. During her search, she happens upon a magical portal that lures her into Everholm: a cute, cozy little island where everyone seems to recognize her. Gathering her wits, she sets out to uncover the mysteries of this little slice of heaven, with the help of a local witch…
Everholm is an open-ended role playing game, focusing less on punching your way through the island’s wildlife, and more on interpersonal relationships. Meet the residents of Everholm, gain their trust, and figure out why they’re stuck with her on this enigmatic island.
The demo is a good tutorial for introducing basic growing mechanics and fishing, but at no point actually tells you how to use your tools. There’s a nice variety of fruits, vegetables and flowers to grow and each will grow in different seasons, and take a different number of days to grow. This makes sense, and someone with more patience than me would probably plot out a growing schedule to make sure the gardens have something to harvest each day. I’m not that person!
There’s a lot of future potential to have cute gardens and little upgrades you can get to make caring for them easier, like sprinklers so that you don’t need to manually water each plant. If there is a way to pick up, say, a piece of fence, after putting it down I did not figure out what it was and found that frustrating as there’s no room for error when placing… anything. What if I change my mind? I promise I will, I’m indecisive!
Reminds me of My Time at Portia meets Little Witch in the Woods. Demo bugged while I was saving and so I lost a letter and couldn’t finish the “story” aspect of the demo which introduces you to different characters and places around town. Biggest drawback for me is that it isn’t controller compatible, and that you can ONLY navigate with WASD. Feel this would benefit from being able to drag your mouse or point/click to move. Cute and fun! Not for me.
Tavern Talk
You are the owner of the Wayfarer’s Inn, a popular watering hole in the fantasy land of Asteria.
But you’re no ordinary barkeep. Be it a potion of seething fury or prancing swords, the drinks you serve can change your customer’s destiny forever. You can also turn the rumours you hear at work into intrepid quests for your patrons!
I’m a fan of Coffee Talk so in theory? Tavern Talk is right up my alley. Adding a more medieval fantasy feel to the story? Giving us adventurers and would-be adventurers coming into a very cute tavern? Working with magical ingredients to make (beautiful) drinks that increase stats I know and love from RPGs? It should all be great for me! I used to co-run a bi-monthly tavern night in World of Warcraft, the degrees to which this should be “up my alley” is MANY.
It didn’t quite work though for me though. I wasn’t quite taken with any of the characters – who are diverse in personality, appearance, and motivations – and quickly found myself skimming the text. Maybe it’s because I was tired as this was the third demo I was trying, that’s very possible. It’s neat that there are opportunities where you get to influence the story of your customers – make them a drink granting them strength and swiftness and the resolution to their problem will probably be quite different than if you gave them charisma and wisdom, for instance!
I do like the rumour system and how, once you collect enough rumours about a given topic you’re then able to post a quest relating to it. That was very cool, and made the tavern feel more interactive and lived in as opposed to being like Coffee Talk but in a tavern (which honestly I’d have been fine with as that’s legitimately what I thought this was but, as it turns out, it isn’t even the same developer). Charming, beautiful art, it’s definitely for someone but not for me. That said, I might pick it up on sale sometime far down the line.
That’s all from me this week! Until next time, stay cozy.
The Cozy Cauldron 