Reviews

Rusty’s Retirement Review: This Automation Farming Idler Is a Masterpiece!

Cozy Bear1 Comment

And I really don’t say that lightly either!

Every once in a while, I run into a game that really makes me go Wow. And Rusty’s Retirement is the most recent. This farming idler was introduced to me by a friend, who is also hugely into cozy titles, and after getting a “highly recommend” from her, I decided to swipe it up during Steam’s Farming Fest, which actually ends TODAY (May 6) at 10 am PT. So if you love farming sims, this is your chance to pick up some of the best ones, including Rusty’s Retirement for $6.29!

What makes Rusty’s Retirement so unique is it’s actually designed to sit on the side or bottom of your screen. Although I’ve already plugged 80+ hours into this game, majority of the time I’ve had it open, but idle, on the right side of my screen. My bots and villagers do their best to manage Rusty’s farm while I play FFXIV, watch Bojack Horseman, or check emails. If you’re busy, working, or studying, you can turn on Focus Mode, which doubles production times, allowing you to safely ignore the game while washing dishes or getting a short workout in. That doesn’t mean I’m not looking at it often. In fact, I love watching Rusty water his carrots while the robot-spider harvest bot follows behind him.

For a $6 game, Rusty’s Retirement offers a generous amount of content. Not only are there different maps you can unlock, but there’s so many different crops, berry bushes, decorations, and even farm animals. What I really love the most about this game is how relaxing it can be. Although it may require a little strategy, especially as you unlock and start a play-through on the Desert map, it’s still relaxing and idle enough where you can multitask. If you’re like me, and you love to multitask, and you love being engaged my multiple different stimuli at once, you will really love Rusty’s Retirement. Now, I find myself checking Rusty’s farm, while playing another game, while also scrolling through Spotify playlists.

Another special feature is how much room for customization there is. You start with a nearly blank slate and it’s your job to design the perfect farm. Can you balance efficiency with aesthetics? That’s the challenge I’ve given myself! To help with your task of efficient automation, you can unlock and build “houses”, which are the equivalent to villagers. These villagers come with a variety of perks including access to decorations (which provide a wide variety of flowers, bushes, rocks, paths, mechanics, cacti and even fungi), bot upgrades, bee keeping, and animals. Another villager allows you to view statistics, while another replants seeds. There is also, supposedly, a secret villager. An Easter egg. Or so I’ve heard…

With already 3,800+ reviews on Steam, and a Overwhelmingly Positive rating, it’s pretty clear how much the community loves this game! Also, after selling 100,000 copies within the first 5 days, it looks like this indie developer has inadvertently started a new trend too!

Developer Nine Finger Games also recently announced their Tamagotchi-inspired life sim that operates on the bottom of your screen called My Little Life. Similar to the farming sim, players can idly play the game while getting on with other things, or be completely distracted by it and neglect any work they were supposed to get done.

I’m super excited to see where this trend goes, and I’m also excited to see more pixel farming sims, with a little bit of automation, and a lot of adorableness – as far as I’m concerned, there is never enough of them :’)

Reviews

Lil Gator Game Review: A Cozy Game To Heal My Childhood Self

Cozy Bear2 Comments

Here’s another extra cozy game included with Xbox GamePass!

If there was an official “Wholesome Tier List”, I’m convinced Lil Gator Game would be at the top, and it would take a lot to move it from that top spot.

Lil Gator Game follows a little alligator who explores, what I believe to be, a national park or campgrounds with his older sister. He spends all of his time trying to motivate her to play with him like they used to (before she grew up and became a gator teenager!)

While he fails time and time again to get her to put down her studies, he still finds a way to enjoy the park. The story continues as the little alligator and his childhood friends design their own adventure game, complete with quests and attractions to entertain himself and other kids at the park. He makes use of cardboard from trashcans, and with paint, lines the trails with monsters.

NPCs are whimsical and friendly, and quickly you’ll find yourself yearning for simpler times – when all you had to worry about was imaginary monsters and restoring the splash pad! As you make new friends and help the various visitors at the campgrounds, you pick up new items including a water gun, funny hats and a rafter for speed down rivers!

Just because Lil Gator Game is a simple and cute game, doesn’t mean there isn’t good writing to enjoy. There are some memorable NPCs that I will surely remember for years to come. In one quest, with a group of “cool kids”, our little gator teaches us that the coolest thing of all is to support one another, stand up for ourselves and….be kind. Isn’t that so true?

This game took me back to my childhood, wandering around with friends, in the town I grew up in. Back then we had nothing to worry about besides where our next adventure would take place. I’d like to think there’s still that kid inside me, even today.

Maybe that’s why we love video games so much. Perhaps it helps us connect to that adventurous, imaginative child inside us.

Reviews

A First Look at Tinkerlands: A Shipwrecked Adventure

Cozy BearLeave a comment

Cozy Pals,

I’ve always had quite a soft spot for pixel games. Not only are they often accessible on even your microwave-status laptop, but they’re just so cute! I love swinging my little sword around. It’s also impressive to see the kind of talent that comes with pixel art.

Now, on to Tinkerlands: A Shipwrecked Adventure. This is actually the prologue to the full game Tinkerlands. Luckily for all of us, we can start playing the prologue for free today!

There are of course many pixel open world survival craft games. There is Terraria, Starbound, Core Keeper, Farworld Pioneers, and my absolute favorite Necesse (a mix of Terraria and Rimworld with colony management). It is worth mentioning that Tinkerlands is top view verses side scrolling, and I personally prefer that. What makes this title unique and one I think I will continue putting time into is the fact that is blends a little bit of colony sim into it. It feels a bit like a lighter and cozier, simplified version of what you’d find in Necesse.

The prologue gets you started with a handful of villagers and tasks you with providing them houses. Crafts and crafting tables are limited, and furnishings are slim. For the most part, most of your crafting will be focused on gearing your character with better armor and weapons so you can continue to exploring the map, fighting more difficult monsters, and bosses. I was able to easily take down the first boss once I upgraded my gear and weapons the first time. Will every biome have it’s own boss?

There is very little village management, at least not at this point, and I think the purpose of the villagers are more so access to merchants and building a functional town that the player can make use of. (A traveling merchant in the village, as well as a blacksmith that can upgrade your gear.)

Another interesting feature is you’re not really able to access the other biomes without the proper gear, giving the player more of a linear progression. You will have to find and build a house for the bard and craft the goggles before you’re able to see in the desert. You will need to also properly gear your character before heading into the snowy region, as your health will quickly drop otherwise!

Overall, I’m very excited to see where this game goes. I am hoping there will be significantly more crafting recipes, especially for the villager homes. I hope there will be a bit more village management features, such as farming and hunger needs for the village. Perhaps even village raids from the nearby goblins that come out at night. Let me put armor on my little villagers and give them a sword to defend themselves! Another feature that I often appreciate is good inventory management. So far it looks like they’re off to a good start with item stacking to nearby chests, however I am hoping we’ll also be able to craft from nearby chests as well.

Have you tried the Tinkerlands prologue? What did you think?

If you adore pixel games as much as I do, you can find a former review for Nova Lands here, as well as a beginner’s guide, which was also published by HypeTrain Digital.

Reviews

First Impressions: Lightyear Frontier

Cozy Bear2 Comments

Happy Friday, Cozy Friends!

Here’s another cozy game FREE with Xbox/PC Game Pass! It’s actually quite a new game too, released just last month!

(I realized in my last post I did not mention that Xbox Game Pass has both a PC version, as well as a console version, and I do think, a combined version as well.) In a nutshell, if you don’t have a console, you can still take advantage of it!

Lately I’ve been exploring what games are offered through Xbox/PC Game Pass and it’s honestly been a lot more miss than hit. This may not be the case for you though, as everyone has completely different tastes when it comes to games!

In the last couple of weeks I’ve tried a handful of different titles including Farworld Pioneers, Astroneer, While the Iron’s Hot, Spirittea, Open Roads, and Coral Island, and while Coral Island was actually great, sometimes it’s just not the right time for a game. Do you know what I mean? Also, sometimes I try a game that, in many ways, I *should* enjoy, but I just end up…not. Does this ever happen to you too? It’s such a peculiar feeling. Like an itch you just can’t seem to scratch. Like a kind of restlessness that’s only applied to video games. (Am I describing some kind of *panics* gaming addiction…oh God I hope not…)

Okay but then FINALLY! there it was – the game that clicked. It took a while, but I found it!

Lightyear Frontier offers a unique spin on the farming sim genre. It has much of what we expect and enjoy from a farming sim. What makes this title stand out is how much exploration (of an abandoned alien planet) is the heart of the game. While farming and homestead development is a major part of the game, and necessary for progression, you will spend much more time exploring the planet, restoring the surrounding regions, and scouting for resources.

First Impressions:

  • While the game runs very smoothly and what is there feels very well done, it is also obvious that the title is still in it’s Early Access stage. While it is a farming sim, it is very small scale farming. In fact, there are only 4 crops thus far. Additionally, there aren’t many crafting recipes available yet either.
  • I think the idea of traversing a large alien planet via mech is a very cool concept. Later, when you’re able to craft a landing pad for a merchant, you’ll be able to customize your mech’s parts. Although the different styles come at different costs, it is not clear if those upgrades have any specific traits or stats that enhance your mech. Considering it is an advanced machine, it would make the most sense for these upgrades to offer more than a simple cosmetic change. But there’s no indication of this, as far as I’ve seen.
  • The map is quite huge! I often return to a biome, and while wandering around, discover I haven’t seen this part of the map yet. It’s a huge open world with lots of areas to explore.
  • There is clearly some lore to be uncovered, and I really do hope this part of the game will be greatly expanded on. As you explore the planet, data is processed, and little bits of lore is cataloged about the planet. Slowly you’re able to learn more about these abandoned locations on the map. I really hope to learn more about what happened here!
  • This game sprinkles just a tiny bit of eco-awareness. While exploring, you’ll run across different biomes that are polluted and you’re tasked with clearing that pollution with your mech. You’ll see how restoring these areas allows wild crops to regrow, as well as wildlife to re-inhabit the area.

Overall, Lightyear Frontier is a very slow-paced game. It was definitely designed to be enjoyed at your own pace, with as little sense of urgency as possible. Games like this can really be fantastic for those days you just want to relax and unwind. If cozy is what you’re after, this definitely hits the mark.

Over and out,

Cozy Bear

Reviews

SteamWorld Build Review: A Cute, Charming & Relaxing City Builder🤖

Cozy Bear4 Comments

I love city builders. I’ve played so many of them. My favorites include Timberborn and The Immortal Mayor, which are both very unique titles in the genre. The thing about city builders is there really are so many of them. Many of which are quite the same. Because of this I’m always on the lookout for something different, and that’s why I was so excited to see SteamWorld Build on Xbox Game Pass!

What makes SteamWorld Build stand out is the story element, and also their different maps. SteamWorld Build is a western-themed city builder with a steampunk twist. In this game you’ll help a colony of robots dig underground for relics of the past. With help from a curious stranger you’ll discover answers to the mysteries of this barren land.

Pros:

  • It is by far one of the most relaxing city builders I’ve seen, while still being very engaging! I think what really makes SteamWorld Build unique is it is engaging, but it is still relaxing, especially with how forgiving the game really is. Other more intense city builders, such as Banished, require a lot more strategy, with a much less forgiving learning curve – within a matter of minutes everyone in your colony can die from starvation if you don’t design your city perfectly. This won’t happen in SteamWorld Build! Progression is much slower, and you don’t have to worry about the game ending at any moments due to colony-wide starvation.
  • It’s not JUST a city builder. Under your city there’s several levels of mines to explore. This is by far what makes this game so fun. Watch as your robots dig dig dig in search of relics, scraps and gold. While this does require some strategy, it’s very light and straight forward. The game guides you through everything.
  • The story cut scenes are charming, and adds a lot of flavor to the genre. Stylistically, it reminds me a lot of Fallout. I’ve never seen a city builder or colony sim that utilized this kind of storytelling. Although the story is simple, it’s cute and engaging enough to motivate you to keep playing to see what happens next.

Cons:

  • While the decorations are plenty, they don’t seem to add any kind of function to the game. Because of this, I spent little time looking at that, or caring much about it.
  • The final trek of the story line really falls flat. In the last level, there isn’t much to do but let the game play on max speed and wait for your scientists to produce lots and lots of rocket fuel.
  • The maps are small. I think the purpose of this might be to challenge the player in designing an optimal colony with little space.

Overall, if you enjoy city builders, base building, or colony sims, I highly recommend giving it a try! It’s unique and refreshing spin on the genre.

Links:

FREE with Xbox Game Pass

$24.99 on Steam

Reviews

My First 320 Hours in Lost Ark

Cozy Bear2 Comments

So, this post is way overdue. I’ve just been…at a lost for words! There is so much to experience and so much I want to share! I truly wanted to write a thorough and well-rounded first impression of Lost Ark, and to do that, I really needed to explore every inch and corner of this game.

As you know, most players spend significantly more than 300 hours in any MMO, and that’s coming from someone who has 6,000 hours in FFXIV, several thousand in ESO, 400 in Guild Wars 2, and about 100 in New World. But at only 320 hours in Lost Ark, I can confidently say Lost Ark is very much worth your time, especially for a free-to-play game.

Highlights:

First off, it isn’t your average MMO. Not only is it fairly new, with it’s 2-year anniversary having just ended, but it also offers a lot of unique elements that I haven’t seen in any other MMO.

  1. Even as a free-to-play title, the map is huge, and it’s all included in the base game. To give you some insight into how big the game actually is:
    1. There are currently 17 zones/continents to explore.
    2. 98 islands, and yes, the entire sea of the map can be traversed by ship.
  2. There are many hidden collectables to find and gather.
  3. Similar to collectables, there are also cards. They aren’t just for collecting though. Build decks to apply buffs to your character!
  4. There is a relationship ranking system called “Rapport” that is very similar to those in life sims such as Stardew Valley. You can give gifts, play songs, and display your emotes for some of the most memorable NPCs in the game. As you rank up, you can unlock quests and story/lore dialogue.
  5. You unlock a “Stronghold” at level 30, which is the equivalent to player housing or FFXIV’s “Island Sanctuary”. Here you can farm, craft, build ships, and send them out to collect items for you, among many other things. You can also decorate the entire space with tons of different furnishings.
  6. The game offers many of the MMO features we like, including trade skills, guilds, skins/glamours, mounts, pets, dailies, weeklies, dungeons, raids, but it’s unique in design and personally I find it very refreshing.

Pros:

  • There is a lot of content, and a lot of different kinds of content. For the solo player, it offers a lot of variety. I especially enjoy how there are many dailies and weeklies that can be completed solo.
  • The community, while it feels small, is very friendly.
  • There are tons of classes (advanced classes) and they’re all unique and different. You are bound to find something you like. Some are much more complex than others, as well. Additionally, each class, including advanced classes, offer different styles in regards to their skins.
  • There are tons of combat skills. To be honest, at first, I found this very overwhelming. However, you can have the game apply the recommended combat skills, which is something I did for the first 200 hours of playing.
  • Each skill has 10 skill levels, and at skill level 3, 7, and 10, you unlock a new tier where you can morph that skill into something different. If you’ve played ESO, it’s very similar to ESO skill morphs.

Cons:

  • Because the community is small, it’s a bit difficult to do group content, especially at lower ilvls. Boosts, although they do take care of the issue of having to level up alts, this makes it so there are significantly less players at those lower levels.
  • Although there is dungeon matching, players don’t use it. I have found this kind of frustrating as constantly looking at and posting in Group Finder can be a pain in the butt.
  • Many have criticized Lost Ark for being very grindy, especially in regards to leveling up gear. I can understand this frustration, as it does require a lot of silver, and a lot of upgrade materials to do this. I personally did not find it bothersome, at least all the way up to the beginning of Tier 3 (last tier, end-game gear), but I can’t speak for what it will be like over the next 400 ilvls. It may become much more of a grind, I just haven’t reached that point yet.

My Favorite Things:

  • Class/Advanced Class: Assassin, Souleater
  • Race: Delain (half-demon)
  • Zones: Arthentine, Yorn, Feiton
  • Content: Chaos Dungeons, Stronghold, Rapport
Reviews

Garden In! A Cozy Idler for Plant Enthusiasts 🪴🌱

Cozy BearLeave a comment

Happy Saturday, Cozy Friends!

I know that I said I’d share some adventures about Lost Ark, but before I do that, I wanted to show you folks this adorable plant game I’ve been enjoying for the past couple of days!

When I’m trying to manage my stress, I find games like these to be very helpful. My mortal life can involve a lot of mentally exhausting research and writing, and so, giving my brain a break every so often is really important in maintaining my mental health, as well as preventing burnout. This is when idlers can actually be really helpful during work breaks.

I’ve been curious about idlers since I found Tsuki’s Odyssey on mobile. But you know, mobile games tend to have ads, sometimes developed right into the gameplay. For me, the last thing I want is an ad, especially when I’m relaxing with my cozy games. But that is probably to be expected on both mobile games, as well as free games on the Google Play store.

So, I thought, maybe I should look into idlers on Steam, or games tagged with “relaxing” or “casual”. As I clicked through my Discovery Queue, I ran into this amazing game: Garden In!

I have to say, I was immediately drawn in to this game, even within the first couple of minutes. Already I have logged 12 hours into Garden In! and every moment I’ve felt engaged and relaxed. I love to collect plants at home, so of course, I knew this would be something I’d enjoy.

In Garden In! your plants can’t wither and die, so you can safely put the game down whenever you want or need to. The purpose of this game is to simply grow many different types of plants and build your plant encyclopedia.

You start off in a small studio space with a desk and a couple of shelves. From there you can fill your space with dozens of plants. As you water them, they flower and bloom. As you grow different plants, you can open up your encyclopedia and learn their scientific name, family free, and soil type. One of my favorite parts about this game is being able to keep track of every plant and enjoy the illustrations in the encyclopedia. The art style is really cute and colorful! As you gain achievements, which you can also track, you will unlock more furniture, decor, and even larger rooms!

The best part of all? You can pet them! Yes, you can pet your plants! When your plants are happy, they’ll have little pink hearts above them, and that’s when they’ll want a little affection from their virtual plant Mom or Dad.

If you enjoy games where you can decorate your own little space, such as in the Sims, Animal Crossing, or even Disney Dreamlight Valley, I think you will really enjoy this cute little plant idler. It is, of course, just a small snippet in comparison to these other titles, but can really be enjoyed casually.

Guides

Nova Lands Beginner’s Guide: 6 Tips for Getting Started☄️

Cozy Bear1 Comment

Hello again, cozy gamers!

Here is a beginner’s guide for Nova Lands. Although this Cozy Bear has only played 15 hours or so, I believe I’ve progressed enough through the game to give you folks a bit of an idea of what to expect, as well as tips to getting started.

As mentioned in my last post, Nova Lands is a factory building, exploration, and island management game designed around this super adorable pixel space themed universe. In this game, you’re a cute little explorer who has just landed on a remote planet, and it’s your job to bring industry and grow your community amongst the stars!

As I’ve played through the first 15 hours, here are a few things I wish I knew, or thought of, as well as things I’ve missed along the way. I hope these tips will give you a smoother, more enjoyable experience while getting into the game! 🚀

  • Update your equipment early on. Once you’ve discovered the first couple of biomes, you’ll meet the characters who will set up shop and sell you upgrades for your gear and tools. I recommend prioritizing these upgrades because it really does make the first couple of hours in the game a lot easier and less grindy.
  • As you start building production machines and farms, consider moving your farms off the first primary island you start on. That first island really does get crowded very quickly! However, you’ll want to take note of which machines require coal, and make sure those machines, as well as your coal generator are kept together. As you unlock solar panels and the biofuel generator, you can expand to the outer islands.
  • Expanding to the outer islands will require logistics. The transporter arm is very helpful. I recommend crafting it as soon as possible if you plan to move materials from one island to another. As for bots, you will need a bot antenna, collector bots, as well as a logistics bot on your primary island as well as any other island you plan to move materials to and from. If there are hostile animals, you will also need a fighting bot to protect your other bots! They can and do lose health rather quickly, so unlock and craft the bot healing module as soon as you can – otherwise you’ll be running around your islands healing your bots constantly!
  • When unlocking skills, prioritize the skills in the left column. This is actually something I missed! You’ll see that at level 18, 24, 30, and 36, you can unlock a skill that reduces the materials you need for each building. This can surely be really useful as grow your production. As early as level 18, stones and modular bricks will no longer be needed. This means you won’t need to produce modular bricks anymore by level 18!
  • In terms of skills, I also recommend focusing on the skills that will optimize your machines. Production skills go a very long way! I recommend unlocking Hot Bricks (Furnaces Now Work 25% Faster) as soon as possible, as well as Solar Power, Charged Roast, Centrifugal Speed and Extra Fuel early on. Personal skills are also very helpful early on. Fast Learner gives you 15% more XP, while Breath Refill (auto-uses oxygen bottles) and Smart Med (auto-uses med kits) are also very useful.
  • Take your time, go at your own pace, and play the game how you want! If you want to focus on completing the museum, go for it! If you want to max out your equipment and go fight bosses, you can do that too! If you want to focus on growing your industry and becoming the richest alien in all the galaxy, that’s also an option!

Overall, I hope you enjoy this game as much as I do, and you discover a newfound love for the automation genre through this adorable title! 💕

Reviews

Nova Lands Review: Adding Adorableness to Base Building 🚀✨

Cozy Bear2 Comments

Dear Cozy Friends,

I apologize for going silent for the last month and a half. My human life has been hectic, to say the least. I’ve also been sick, busy with other responsibilities, and haven’t made time to play my cozy little games, and in turn, share with you my cozy little adventures.

With that said, you can look forward to a few posts about Nova Lands – a review, as well as a guide, and an introduction to a new MMO I’ve been excited about – Lost Ark.

Without further ado, here’s a review of Nova Lands:

To start, Nova Lands is a factory building, exploration, and island management game designed around this super adorable pixel space themed universe. In this game, you’re a cute little explorer who has just landed on a remote planet, and it’s your job to bring industry and grow your community amongst the stars! 🚀✨

As you progress through the game, you’ll be able to build yourself your own little rocket ship, which will take you to the space station. It’s up to you to bring this once thriving intergalactic marketplace back to life! “End game” involves crafting difficult items, shipping them off to be sold, and further growing and developing the space station. Meet cute characters with adorable art along the way!

What makes this title different from others in this genre is it really is designed to be casual, relaxing experience. If you’ve played other automation, factory building or management type games, you may recall that they can be quite stressful and overwhelming. Unlike other titles, such as Satisfactory, Nova Lands isn’t as expansive, and therefore, likely much less stressful. It does not require a ton of strategy to master.

Beyond factory building, there is a lot more to be done in Nova Lands. As you continue to unlock other biomes and explore the planet, you’ll discover monuments and their guardians. These are tough bosses to overcome. Here’s the interesting thing about that, though – you don’t have to fight them. You can, instead, befriend these guardians. How adorable is that?!

There is some combat in this game, but there are ways to develop your gaming experience to avoid as much combat as possible. As you unlock skills each level, you can make certain animals docile, as well as craft fighter bots to do the combat for you. Along with befriending the guardians, you can nearly skip most combat available in this game if you choose to.

If collectathons are your thing (games that involve creature collecting, or some kind of collection/museum activity) there is a bit of that too in Nova Lands!

Overall, I think Nova Lands is a great introduction to the factory building and automation genre, especially if you haven’t tried them before. If you have, but you find those games kind of stressful or challenging, I recommend starting here. This is a great game to learn the genre! Also ALIENS! And space travel! I love aliens and space travel!

If you decide to give Nova Lands a try, or have played it before, I’d love to hear what you think in the comments.

Also, I’d like to note that the game is on sale right now for $13.99, and ends March 21.

Over and out! – Cozy Bear

Reviews

More Thoughts On Roots of Pacha 🦬

Cozy Bear3 Comments

Hey Cozy Gamers!

Now that I’m 75 hours into Roots of Pacha (I know, crazy right?!) as well as 25 achievements (also quite impressive if you ask me!) I wanted to return with an even more thorough discussion of the game.

Alright so…if a Stardew Valley was designed specifically for me, this is what it would look like. And that’s not to say Stardew Valley isn’t a fantastic game. It is one of the most well-loved titles that has made way for this mysterious genre we call cozy games. But, wow, Roots of Pacha has my heart in a way I never expected.

If you compared the two side by side, Roots of Pacha is just so much more dense – like a satisfying full course meal verses a beloved sundae at your favorite ice cream shop. In a nutshell, Roots of Pacha has so much more to offer than other similar titles, more than you could even imagine without really getting into it.

Exploration: Roots of Pacha is a huge game. There are 5 biomes, and while each are a different size, they all offer something unique that will have you coming back every season. As your clan realizes new Prophecies, the world around you changes, you grow and evolve with it. Your village is constantly evolving, and so is the world and characters around you. There are new seeds, new fruit trees, new fish and even new wild life to discover as the seasons change and the years pass. Over time you’ll see your clan erect new buildings and structures and the world around you evolves.

Relationships: One of my favorite aspects of this game is how interactive the character relationships are, as well as the theme of community. I love watching my clan gather for seasonal gatherings. On rainy days, and during the cold of winter, you’ll see clan members gather around the fire for dancing and quality time. Every day you can gift an item to each member of your clan, and eventually, members of other clans as well. As you gift items and they discover “ideas”, your relationship grows and you learn more about them and their families. All of this information is also tracked, so you can easily reference which clan member loved that wheel of goat cheese and who didn’t like the plate of roasted meat.

Wholesome: There is no combat in this game. While there is hunting, it’s primarily setting traps alongside a little mini game. Instead, you’ll be playing your flute for baby boars and moving a mammoth into your hut. You can hand-feed your animals, treat them for colds, and give them lots of love each day.

The Wholesome Message: What’s most wholesome? The theme of community. It is by far the most memorable and genius mechanic developed into this game. The currency system is entirely designed around the concept of community, doing your part, and providing for your clan. The success of your clan is entirely based on Contribution, both your own, and the other clan members. Everyone provides in their own way. Some are hunters, cooks, musicians and even painters. Each and every one is a crucial part of the community and brings equal value to the clan. This is a message that, I think, we all still need to be reminded of.

Mines: Or, in this case, the Caves, are very uniquely designed in this game as well. The Caves are designed as a maze, with entrances to each biome. There are also fast travel points, and puzzles required to unlock other parts of the Caves. The majority of the mining nodes appear as simply rocks, and you can’t determine the type of node it is without mining them. The Caves are very expansive, with so many rooms to unlock and explore. There are also tons of different gems and ore used for tool upgrades and jewelry.

75 hours later, I am still fawning over Roots of Pacha, and am hoping others will have the opportunity to enjoy it as much as I have too. If you’ve been on the fence about this one, I highly recommend giving it a chance. It might end up becoming one of your favorite games!