Spry Fox, a developer previously known for the mobile hit Triple Town will likely have a new moniker moving forward: 'The Cozy Grove People.' Players who adored Animal Crossing: New Horizons, but have found their interest in their islands waning should look into this charming life-sim. And so should gamers who've farmed, foraged, fished, and fought everything Stardew Valley has to offer. As well as fans of Slime Rancher, Gris, and the list goes on.
Cozy Grove draws from a broad range of influences which will appeal to many different types of gamers, and the reverse is also true. As an indie title with a lower profile than Nintendo's world-building Animal Crossing franchise, it could easily be written off as a low-budget imitator and consigned to cult obscurity. And that would be tragic, because the game is more than the sum of its influences, delivering a nuanced experience that is dark, cute, and occasionally sad, but ultimately warm as a blanket. It is not as free as Animal Crossing, or as structured as an RPG farming sim, but it will appeal to fans of both, and more besides.
Just as the infinite, stress-free bliss of Animal Crossing: New Horizons was the perfect game for the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Cozy Grove is the perfect game for the current moment; a light at the end of a long tunnel; an approaching social thaw. Despite this nearly blinding optimism, the game is still intensely self-aware and sharp thanks to witty writing and a spooky (but not actually spooky) sense of style.
Cottagecore With Spooky Vibes
Cozy Grove follows a Spirit Scout who is sent to an island to help its deceased denizens with their many problems. As players complete quests for the ghosts, they are rewarded with Spirit Logs, which power Flamey, a campfire spirit friend who serves as the heart of the pla base. As Flamey consumes logs, he levels up, revealing new parts of the island, with new ghosts. The vibrant, storybook-style graphics paired with the outdoorsy setting and campfire aesthetic scream 'cottagecore,' and the player's doe-eyed avatar beams with sincere wholesomeness.
It must be said, Cozy Grove does not have the incredible level of customization of Animal Crossing: New Horizons, nor does it possess the huge plurality of mechanics that makes Stardew Valley so engrossing. But it meets somewhere in the middle of both games. To satisfy certain spirit creatures on the island, the player must populate their habitat with items that suit their tastes. There is a broad enough selection, however, that if an item does not belong, the player can safely discard it in favor of something that better suits their personal aesthetic.
Like Animal Crossing, the player is limited by how much they can accomplish in a single play session—especially early on—and the total progression possible is gated by real-time. Fans of mobile games with 'baking' mechanics, and Animal Crossing players are likely accustomed to this convention, but players who have never encountered may find themselves frustrated, and subsequently addicted.
Better When Bittersweet
Initially, the entire island is small and completely colorless. But as Flamey grows, new parts of the island are charted, possessing new spirits to do quests for, and more resources to forage. Even though these areas are detailed now, their palettes are still extremely muted... until a player completes a quest for that spirit. Once a quest is complete, its respective area is washed with a wave of color. It is hard to imagine a clearer visual representation of a cozy game mechanic.
That contrast, the competing forces of sadness and the macabre versus vibrant joy establish an eccentric, but well-balanced rhythm. By rights, the game is sweet enough to give a tooth ache, but its positivity never becomes cloying, because the ghosts' sob stories are either genuinely sad, or darkly humorous. One spirit frequently jokes about starting a crowdfunding campaign for medical expenses.
As the Spirit Scout successfully completes quests, they are rewarded with all sorts of materials which can be combined via crafting, or put to other creative use. The game's core focus though, is acquiring Spirit Logs for Flamey. Lest the questing feel aimless, there is a mystery meta-narrative at the heart of the title. Not long after arriving on the island, players learn that they were not the first Spirit scout to visit Cozy Grove. The details will be hazy, even several real-life days deep into the game, but it is strongly implied that something dark befell the predecessor.
Coziness with Closure
The most distinctive thing about Cozy Grove however, is that it is a life-sim with a narrative. Not just story, but a plot. That kind of structured, dramatic progress is almost antithetical to the blithe, completely stress-free interactions with villagers in Animal Crossing. Cozy Grove's narrative also takes a step beyond the relationship-centric yarns of Stardew Valley and Harvest Moon. While those titles' individual relationships may be deeper, their worlds' are comparatively open-ended, whereas the ghosts of Cozy Grove seem to be working toward a resolution of sorts. At the very least, the player seems to be inching toward an answer to the mystery of the previous Spirit Scout's fate.
Time, (and more Spirit Logs), will tell. Until then, the game has plenty of content to keep fledgling Spirit Scouts occupied. Gamers with a fondness for the spooky-cute, those who prefer their humor to have a touch of sadness, and sleuths who like their intrigues laced with coziness will all feel right at home in Cozy Grove.
Cozy Grove is available now for Mac, PC, PlayStation 4, Switch, and Xbox One.