In the last couple of years, the term “cozy” has suffered a smidgen of overexposure in the gaming sphere.Where it was previously a user-made term to denote games with relaxing, simple vibes, it’s since made its way into the official industry lexicon.
This has resulted in a bit of a glut of self-described “cozy” games, and as the old saying goes, familiarity breeds contempt.
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Cute visuals and all, but I’m panicking over my Strawberry yield.
It wouldn’t be unreasonable for some players to swear off cozy as a concept just because they’re tired of hearing about it, or because they prefer games that have a little more going for them than just vibes.
However, overexposure aside, cozy games can still maintain their laid-back vibes while keeping you focused on a particular task or novel gameplay mechanics.
If you or someone you know has gotten a bit cozy’d out, maybe they need to move away from the usual slate of farming simulators and idle games andtry something with a little more meat on its proverbial bones.
To clarify, the mission statement here is games that can have calm or cozy vibes, but also feature engaging, distinctive gameplay beyond bumming around and doing nothing.
It’s Only Stressful If You Let It Be
It might seem paradoxical to classifyDredgeas a “cozy” game, considering the entire premise isstaving off isolation-induced insanityin an ocean populated by cosmic horrors. The thing is, though, once you get accustomed to all of that,it’s actually a pretty zen experience, at least when a giant hellfish isn’t bearing down on you.
But when it comes to the actual minute-to-minute core gameplay loop of fishing and salvaging, it’s a pretty simple, absorbing task. You find a spot, you do the fishing minigame, and you arrange the fish in your inventory like guns in an attaché case.
In some ways, playing Dredge is a reflection of real-life quiet work. It’s a good game to play while you have a stream or podcast on in the background, most of the time, but occasionally, you’ll need to take the blinders off and grab the helm in a hurry.
7Wandersong
Sing Songs, Make Friends
Wandersong
Many cozy games are open-world in design because an open world gives you the flexibility to tackle objectives at your own pace. However, a linear game likeWandersongcan be cozy as well, and it’s not just because of its colorful and upbeat vibes, as much as that helps.
Wandersong’s unifying theme is that kindness and music can have unexpectedly large impacts on the world around us. Just walking around and holding a note can make interesting things happen, plot-relevant or otherwise, and it’s oddly pleasant to see whose day you can brighten up with a song next.
It’s a cozy game, yes, but it’s also a rhythm game, which means you need to pay attention, match the time, and memorize sequences. It may look like a kid’s bedtime story, but you have to pay attention while you play to catch the beat.
Wandersong’s tone-based interactions also provide some naturally satisfying puzzle-solving. I’m no virtuoso, but I admit I felt a little shot of pride every time I was able to identify a note by sound alone and parrot it back for a puzzle.
Soap-Surfin’
The core concept behind just about any open-world game is “explore, get stronger, explore more.”
In the case of Tinykin,exploring rewards you with more abilities and a larger supply of Tinykin, both of which open up new pathways and avenues to additional abilities and Tinykin. It’s self-sustaining exploration gameplay, engaging even without major action setpieces or combat.
One thing I particularly enjoy about Tinykin is its mildly floaty physics, which allows you to explore and potentially even sequence-break with greater efficiency. Getting up speed on your soapboard allows you to zoom all over the place, which is naturally fun in a Pro Skater kind of way, while traveling often uncovers new secrets and side objectives.
Tinykin’s environments are massive, and for the most part, you’re free to explore them at your leisure. I guarantee you, once you pick a direction and start walking (or sliding), it’ll turn into a proverbial conga line of interesting discoveries.
5Thank Goodness You’re Here
You’ll Laugh Too Much To Relax
Thank Goodness You’re Here!
Some have said that they dislike cozy games because they find their stories too benign and quiet. I don’t particularly agree with that, but even so,if you want something simple to play that’s anything but benign and quiet, you’d probably get a kick out of Thank Goodness You’re Here.
While Thank Goodness You’re Here isn’t exactly what I’d call challenging literature, it still manages to be engaging by being a near-constant barrage of wordplay and sight gags, a cavalcade of comedy, if you will. The thing about humor-oriented media is that, when you experience it, it puts you in a receptive state of mind for more humor.
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Even though there’s little in the way of proper objectives in Thank Goodness You’re Here, the game never lost my focus because I was alwayson the lookout for laughs. I checked every nook and cranny, smacked every NPC on the bum, all to uncover whatever ridiculous thing was going to happen next. In a way, the pursuit of humor became an objective in itself.
4Dave The Diver
The Beauty And Terror Of The Deep
Dave the Diver
There’s a reason people like to go to the beach for vacations: the ocean is very relaxing, whether you’re next to it or in it. Deep-sea diving and fishing are quite pleasant for similar reasons. These are the reasons I’d callDave the Divera cozy game, though the addition of the sushi shop as a focal point helps to keep everything on task.
Just about every time I went below water in Dave the Diver, it was for a good reason, whether it was hunting fish or scavenging materials. For the most part, though, my goal was developing the sushi shop’s menu and infrastructure, which, more often than not, happened to go hand-in-hand with moving the story forward.Getting the right ingredients and serving customers keeps you busy, but the mechanics of it are just simple enough that you can get into a pleasant rhythm.
As it so happens, advancing the story also helps move you into some of the game’s moreaction-centric setpieces and boss fights. If you ever feel like you’ve gotten in a rut, odds are good you’re not far from a little something that’ll get your attention again.
3Wanderstop
Illustrating The Importance Of Cozy
Wanderstop
If you’re not a fan of cozy games because they’re lacking in explicit objectives, it might be a good idea for you to play Wanderstop. That’s not because Wanderstop has explicit objectives, but specifically because it doesn’t. The central conceit of the game is that, whether in games or life, things don’t always need to have a definitive conclusion.
In a similar vein to other cozy games,Wanderstop gives you plenty to do from moment to moment, whether it’s harvesting ingredients or brewing tea. However, the game rarely puts hard time limits on you, and more often than not, you may find yourself forced to move along in the story before your activities reach natural conclusions.
This is kind ofa good test case for cozy games in general; the point is to just lose yourself in something, not “accomplish” it. I know I was blindsided the first time the game cut off a seemingly developing plot thread, but that’s just kind of life. Things change very spontaneously, even if you feel like you’re pursuing everything “properly.”
2Cult of the Lamb
Half Cozy, Half Roguelite
Cult of the Lamb
If ever there were a polar opposite to cozy games, it’d be roguelikes and roguelites. It doesn’t get much more not-cozy than delving into randomly-generated dungeons where your success or failure are dictated largely by RNG and raw skill. But what if you took something like that and combined it with a cozy village-building simulator? Well, then you’d have the bizarre half-demon child that isCult of the Lamb.
Cult of the Lamb has two dominating gameplay loops: on the one hand, you have to raise up your cult commune, ensuring your followers are provided for and cleaning up their poop. On the other hand, you enter dungeons to progress the story and secure resources. Successful crusades ensure your cult is happy, and a happy cult provides you with newer and better weapons and abilities.
Even if you don’t usually like cozy base-building stuff, the feedback loop that comes from adding the roguelite element helps keep you invested. If you really don’t like interacting with your followers, you can also justmake ‘em miserable for laughs.
1A Hat in Time
Cute, Colorful, Occasionally Terrifying
A Hat in Time
The cute and colorful 3D mascot platformers of the late 90s, early 2000s were generally about as harmless as gaming got. Even if they had their tough spots, they were fairly straightforward and easy to get into, which gave them cozy vibes before “cozy” was even a thing.A Hat in Timeshares a lot of that DNA, though it also isn’t afraid to pump the gas when necessary.
A lot of the moment-to-moment gameplay is the kind of laid-back exploration platforming you’d expect, but on occasion, the game throws a massive curveball at you.
Sometimes you have to keep running around to avoid getting run over by a jazz band, sometimes you need to hide from an enormous, screaming specter, and sometimes you need to platform as fast as you can to escape a derailing train.
The original cute premise was what got me interested in A Hat in Time (andbacking it on Kickstarter), but the breakneck pace of gameplay was what kept me coming back for more. It is a cute game, but even cute things can smack you in the face.
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