A lot of good recommendations in here, some I’ve played, some I’m adding to my list!
I’ll share one that I haven’t seen in the thread yet: Crypt Custodian. You play as a ghost cat sentenced to clean garbage in the afterlife. Good mix of exploration and combat. I personally hate when combat keeps me from progressing in a story, so I like that they have Easy/Normal/Hard modes but that you can also further customize assists, like adding up to 3 extra hit points. You can also buy a market to show you the next place to go when you’re feeling stuck. Very good cozy-gamer territory.
The story wasn’t overly complex, but very sweet–the ending made me cry. I loved elements of the story like one of the bosses being the personification of grief.
I played it on XBox Game Pass, but it was worth paying for.
I love that the whole reason he even became a video game composer is because his boss promised an extra day off to anyone who could learn enough about the music computer to demo it to customers. Just floating through life by happenstance, and then becoming the most revolutionary person in the field.