One of the things that never crossed my mind for some reason when I decided to create this blog was that I would basically be required to get a whole lot of cozy games. Thankfully, the Steam Summer Sale came just in time! I maybe bought too many of games.. but I’d say it’s justified since they were all on sale hahaha.
I’ve played each one of these games for just a few hours, so as the blog post title states, this will simply be my first impressions. However, I will ensure to post full reviews of all of these games in the future, so please stay tuned!
Cozy Caravan
In Cozy Caravan, you and your cute little frog friend, Bubba, become Guild Rookies to help your aunty and the rest of the guild with the caravan. Your caravan is your mode of travel that is pulled by a humongous bee, it’s where you cook, store items, and sleep at the end of the night, and it’s where you set up your market every weekend.
Out of all of the cozy games I bought during Steam’s Summer Sale, this one is by far my favorite. It is definitely the most different as well because it actually isn’t a farming sim. The main points of Cozy Caravan are to spread kindness to everyone you meet by helping them with side quests or giving them a quick wave hello, gather wild crops or crops from farms you pass by on your travels, hold successful market days, and explore the land.
This game has many similarities to Garden Paws, which is my absolute favorite cozy game. If you’ve never heard of it, you can read all about Garden Paws in my Cozy Game Spotlight post here.
All of the characters in Cozy Caravan are adorable little animals of varying species and colors. For your own character, you can even customize their outfit and voice! Like Animal Crossing, when the characters speak, it sounds like a whole bunch of gibberish, but it’s cute gibberish nonetheless. I love how this game basically forces you to explore because since you can’t have your own farm, you need to go out into the world to find the crops that you can use to sell at the market and cook with.
Cozy Caravan is an early access game, so I am SUPER excited to see what it’s like in its final form!
- Available on Steam
Snacko
Snacko is about two childhood friends who decide to leave the city life and their grueling 9 to 5 behind and start anew on an almost completely abandoned island. Basically, they’re able to live out the dream that I’m sure most of us adults would love to do lol.
Out of all of the games listed here, Snacko is by far my favorite in terms of its art style. On top of that, all of the characters in this game are cats, which is a major plus. Aside from having the usual elements of a cozy, farming game such as building relationships with NPCs and crafting, it also includes puzzles which are part of the main story line. This game is still in early access, so I am very excited to continue playing the game and see what else the developers have in store.
I’d also like to quickly note that something I really appreciate about this game is the developers because they seem to take their relationship with the community quite seriously. On their website, they have blog posts of updates, patch notes, a dedicated Discord server, merch, and more. You even get to learn about the developers AND their six cats! It is very evident to me that the developers put a lot of effort into Snacko, so I have no doubt that the end result will be enjoyable for so many people.
- Currently available on Steam
- Will be available in the future on the Nintendo Switch, PS4, and PS5
Chill Town
Chill Town is an early access game that is all about relaxing, positive vibes, and escaping from reality. When you first arrive at (you guessed it) Chill Town on Chill Island, the mayor sums up his vision for not only his town, but also the game itself: “To build a paradise where visitors from all corners of the globe can retreat and relax.”
This game is from the same developers of Chill Corner where you can customize your playlist, character, room, and pets. It’s meant to be one of those idle games that you can have going on in the background while you do other things on your PC. Chill Town includes all of those same elements as well as the normal aspects of a cozy, farming game too!
I love that in Chill Town, you get to choose what playlist you listen to while you play. The selection is perfect for me because whenever I am playing cozy games like this, reading, doing chores around my apartment, etc. I am always listening to lo-fi or instrumental music.
What I am looking forward to the most with this game is learning more about the little plant-looking animals that you randomly come upon and are able to catch. Since I’ve only played this for a few hours, all I know is that..
- They’re adorable, and
- You can either treat them as a pet that follows you around or you can plant them
I’m assuming that you’ll be able to gather either crops or maybe some type of loot from them when they’re planted? I’ll make sure to try it out and let you all know once I post an in-depth review!
- Available on Steam
Garden Life: A Cozy Simulator
Garden Life: A Cozy Simulator is a beautiful sandbox game where you plant your own garden with real life flowers and decorate it with objects you can craft such as little stone frogs and ducks for the community to enjoy. While I do like the gardening aspect of this game as it is something I enjoy in real life, what really drew me in was the story.
Before I started playing this game, I knew that I wanted it to be included in this First Impressions post. However, it was honestly hard for me to cut myself off at just a few hours of gameplay because I really wanted to know how the story would unfold.
At the beginning of the game, you find out that your predecessor, Robin, had passed away, and with it, so did everything within the garden. When you first start your job as the new gardener, the garden is void of life and beauty; it is not a place where anyone would want to relax and spend their time like they use to when Robin was around. While you work on bringing the garden back to its former glory, you get to see how the different characters in the story deal with loss and how bringing the garden back to life helps them ease their pain.
Available on the following platforms:
- Steam
- Nintendo Switch
- Xbox One, Series X, and Series S
- PS4 and PS5
Wylde Flowers
Wylde Flowers is about a woman named Tara who travels from the city to Fairhaven to help out her gramma, Hazel Wylde. This game may seem like just the tried and true cozy, farming game at first, but you quickly find out that Wylde Flowers is imbued with magic!
As someone who has always loved reading and watching fantasy, being able to play a cozy game where I have powers of my own as a witch has been incredibly fun thus far. Plus, at the beginning of the game, Tara has no idea that gramma is a witch, nor does she know that she is one herself. Therefore, you’re able to play as Tara while she’s a little witchling who learns and grows into her newfound powers.
What stands out the most to me about this game isn’t the entertaining storyline or the vibrant graphics; it’s surprisingly, the music. There is nothing like a great game that also has a great soundtrack to top it off.
Wylde Flowers starts off strong by having an amazing musical piece during the cutscene where Tara sees her gramma for the first time since she arrived in town. It immediately made me think of something that would come out of a Disney movie and it successfully transported me into the fantastical land of Fairhaven so I could truly immerse myself into the game.
Furthermore, I am definitely not alone in my high regard for this game’s music because I learned from their website that Wylde Flowers was even nominated for the Excellence in Audio category in the DevGAMM Awards. I’m sure that their music composition was a big factor in that decision.
Available on the following platforms:
- Steam
- Nintendo Switch
- Apple App Store
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