There’s a new game in town that has been gaining quite a lot of underground attention. Much like Don’t Starve or even Animal Crossing, Spry Fox LLC released Cozy Grove near the beginning of April. This is a simple game that combines maintaining animals, searching for items and ghosts. Sounds like an odd combo, but these elements all work very well together to make an addictive game you must try.
In Cozy Grove, you must help ghosts regain their memories after being stranded on the island. Labeled a life-sim hidden object game, there is more to offer than just finding different items, plus there is one major catch to the game too. You, a spirit scout, talk to every ghost daily and help them advance their own stories. In return, the island becomes lively and starts to regain its former glory when the island was full of activity.
This hand drawn game is stylish and relaxing, and you’ll want to keep playing as long as possible. The biggest catch, however, is that you only get a specific number of tasks to do each day. From there, you must return to the game the next day to keep going. Time management like this can be a turn off for some, and a saving grace for others. For anyone that needs some time management help then these cut offs can be greatly beneficial to getting you back to your daily life. Other people with more time to spare may become quite annoyed and lose interest quickly, not wanting to keep coming back. Cozy Grove has 40+ hours of playtime with side quests so this should keep you busy a little while with stopping and starting.
Your main tasks each day are to talk to each ghost and see what they need to regain themselves. This could be collecting photos, shells, the mail, and many other things. Once you finish the task, they give you a Spirit Log to feed to your campsite fire. Once the fire has enough logs then the island can expand which adds new characters to the game. This cycle repeats but each task gets harder. Sometimes players will have to wait days to complete a task. In the meantime, however, crafting is needed to enhance tools for mining and cooking or seeking out relics that can be used. Everything you collect or make can be used to feed animals you take care of or for the imps running around that constantly want some type of food.
Each character has a set of hearts above their head indicating how much of their story has been advanced so you can choose who you want to help or see how far you’ve already gotten. Usually, the best thing to do is help everyone every day. One of the best parts of helping every character is seeing the art. Cozy Grove is hand drawn with nice bold colors and muted colors. The music is nice too and has a nice beat that keeps players relaxed, yet motivated. There is no battle either so players might like this if they are goal oriented.
I recommend Cozy Grove for anyone that likes a casual game and likes to keep working at the progress they are making. The art and music compliment each other very well and the overall tasks are somewhat easy. The best part is how the story progresses and this keeps players hooked until the very end.
9/10
Available on Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC