I like Paleo Pines myself. It’s like Stardew and Animal Crossing had a baby about dinosaurs. It’s absolutely adorable.
Chao Resort Island. A fan game that’s basically a 2D/3D Chao Garden from SA2. It uses some sprites from the old Sonic Advance games, but it’s just a fun little virtual caregiver thing.
Sonic Adventure 2 Battle: Chao Garden. The “true” Chao Garden experience according to fans online. I have the steam version so I have the popular Extended Chao World mods to make it better/easier to raise Chao.
A lot of survival crafting games (base building and decorating and such) can be cozy too, if you want them to be.
G.R.I.S is short and not replayable but it’s beatiful and deep from start to end. Cried a few times during the playthrough and felt relieved afterwards :)
Anyone who’s looking for a great new(ish) cozy game, check out Natsu-Mon.
It would probably help to watch the Action Button review of Boku no Natsuyasumi for some context (yes, I know it is 6 hours long lol… but it’s a really good video).
As a writer, this is why I’ll never condemn cozy books with happy endings. This type of media, whether it’s games or books or music, helps real people get through crappy times intact, even if elitists sneer that overly happy stuff isn’t this or that. Usually people who are going through the worst times irl are the ones who need avenues of escape most. If you’re already living through crap, you don’t need media to remind you of the crap, you already know good and well that crappy things exist.
As a reader, that’s definitely why I do condemn overly negative books and other media. Even after reading all horror books available in the library as a teenager. Life’s complicated enough by itself.
As a reader, I say “not for me” and leave overly negative things there for others to enjoy. The way I feel better is not reexposing myself to a reflection of all the ills in this world that I’m constantly being shown can be awful. But some people find catharsis in it! One man’s trash is another man’s treasure, after all. I am sure some people would dismiss some things I like as too saccharine and not realistic aka gritty enough.
I’m trying to write a story, and I struggled with this, especially when confronting certain realities:
While fantasy, the story is meant to reflect some harsh political realities
Multiple villains are killed, but the heartfelt good guys live.
The ending has everything fixed and everyone’s happy.
I’m aware most stories don’t come anywhere close to a full happy ending like this. Every Batman story ends with Gotham still a miserable shithole. Every noir story ends with the case solved but everyone broken for it and the city still a dystopia. It generally has good reasoning, to reflect harshness of reality, but that’s a realm of fantasy I really want to venture into; one where things just work out.
Yeah, because we were all doing mentally fantastic when Animal Crossing New Horizons launched. Remind me again, when was that again? Oh right. Just in the heart of 2020 pandemic quarantine when everybody was losing their shit, and storming state capitol buildings trying to force the government to reopen businesses, and doing pushups outside gyms as cops killed black men and triggered riots across the country.
Yeah. And it allowed people to communicate and socialize without risk. It allowed people to have fun despite the dire circumstances and show off their creativity and goof off with friends amd stangers instead of focusing on the doom and giving into it.
It helped people’s mental wellness during a time where everything was not okay. To some, it made it bearable. That’s all. Ain’t nothing wrong with that.
My brain accepted this new piece of information and immediately tried to recalibrate my sense of wellbeing based on how much time I spend playing cozy games.
So there was a bizarre moment where I felt positively dandy.
Did anyone else get a mental health buff just from reading this headline?
This console generation is ending already? Like, logically I know it's been six years, but it still feels short for a console generation. Curious to see if the handheld rumors pan out and what confusing name they give it.
At this point what would make the most sense is an “Xbox Series Z” for people that want higher-performing games. I just don’t see thousands of people buying another $600 console for like 5 games, when most will continue to support the Xbox One. (Yes, Xbox One - most games on the front page of their store still support their old console)
PS5 Pro wanted to do RT at smooth framerates but turned out to be way too undercooked. We’re seeing glimpses of that on XSX too with Indiana Jones and Dragon’s Dogma 2 (that 40 FPS VRR window makes it work). It’s working as a tech demo that’s building appetite for more because of how transformative to the experience in both games that is. If Microsoft could deliver it at this timing it would be extra awkward for Sony who need to keep on going with current hardware for a couple more years not to look like Sega with 32X and Saturn. Even if Nvidia shows something revolutionary with new line of GPUs it will be prohibitively expensive in the context of consoles anyway.
Yes, I think it’s going to be quite expensive. They’ve been saying it’s going to be an enormous leap in performance, and that’s not going to come cheap.
IF 2026 was a real date that wouldn’t matter that much. Microsoft wants to be the first one to sell you the last console you will need be able to afford to. People will get it for generationally better experience but there’s not much else to look out for on the horizon. Hardware got too expensive for the consumer and games beyond certain budgets are much too risky. Consider upcoming trade wars and overall bleak economic outlook and you have to assume every player is looking for a survival strategy. Market analysts say that Microsoft is going to become software publisher primarily again but this makes no sense to me. Game Pass Cloud and Xbox are the only places where they don’t have to share the spoils with owners of other platforms. Obviously they’ll want to keep it going regardless of circumstances. Microsoft could be banking on getting high-end market for now and transition with revisions of the same hardware into lower segments with time as market conditions improve.
I’m very stoned currently so I can’t vouch for the quality of my analysis long term but I will stand by it for now.
gamespot.com
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