Cozy Grove is a Warm and Charming Journey
If you want to play something colorful, warm, and soft-paced, Cozy Grove is for you.
Cozy Grove, developed by Spry Fox, is a cute, slice of life simulator on a haunted island that expects you to check in daily to progress and unlock secrets. Right off the bat, I’ll tell you that if you are someone who likes to dive into a game for hours and get as much done as you can, this is not the game for you. Similar to mobile titles, this game has a limit to how much you can do per day. The expected playtime is 20-30 a day with 40+ hours of a campaign to last for months. Your goal is to check back each day to help out the NPCs who are ghost bears (bear ghosts?) which will slowly unfold a beautiful island with a lot of charm. If Animal Crossing is your thing, but you don’t want the stress of doing the most in one day, less of the colonialism, and slower in-game progression, then Cozy Grove might be for you.
In Cozy Grove, you are a “Spirit Scout” who is here to help the spirits of this island out. Each time you do, the world morphs from monochromatic to colorful. Unlike Animal Crossing, here you are not changing the landscape, building homes for new characters (that you pick and choose based on your preference in NPC) to live, or giving money to a higher official for their own greed. Each day, a small number of spirits will give you a quest to go fetch something for them, and in return, you’ll get a spirit log to feed to Flamey–who is basically Calcifer from Howl’s Moving Castle. In doing this, the more you feed him the more he will unlock on the island. Since you’re only allowed 3-5 logs a day (depending on the day), you can see how the pace of the game feels extremely slow.
I’ve been playing for just over 2 weeks, and I’ve just recently unlocked my 7th bear. The more you unlock, the more shops and options to play open up as well. There is a baker, a recycler, a post office bear, a crafting bear, etc. Each spirit has their own backstory and purpose on the island, and you learn more about them as you progress each day with their quests. One of the most rewarding things about the game has been the goods tracking system with the sea bird/bear. If you give him a new good that you have discovered (similar to the museum with Blathers in Animal Crossing) he will not only log it for you but reward you with goods for it. It’s mostly gems and coins, but you can recycle the gems for big-time coins to upgrade your tent. You can also buy new clothes in the shop every day, and the options are actually really cute! My character went from wearing a witch outfit yesterday to overalls and a pink patterned knot wrap the next. Also, something to note is that you can change the way your character looks at any time in the game at the same spot that you buy clothes.
Some other ways you can make money in the game is to fish, dig up findings in the ground, and shave off some bushes for goods, but the easiest path is to help out the spirits. A frustration that I’m finding right now is that my backpack fills up way too fast. I haven’t come across an upgrade for this in my 2 weeks of play, but I’m going to assume I will eventually get an upgrade as time passes. What you can upgrade as soon as you start is your tent size, where you can store clothes and items in the meantime. Often you’re given quests that you can’t finish in one day, or you’re given an item that will come in handy in another quest line down the road, so the tent is the best place to store items since your backpack space is so sparse. You can also build and design the space to your liking. In the progress I’ve made in the game so far, I’ve been gifted a lot of “common” material to put around my camp, but over time you should unlock more types of items to craft. I’ve placed a bird near my camp who seems to like “spooky” decor, so I’m waiting to see when that will be available for me to customize my campsite.
Overall, I’m enjoying my time with Cozy Grove. It’s a nice part of the chaos of my day to sit down and say, “Oh yeah, let me do my quick quests in Cozy Grove and help out these bears!” There’s something really satisfying for me when I finish a quest, the area around the bear will light up with color, coins drop everywhere for me, and then my Switch uncontrollably vibrates until it’s finished. It’s a small boost of serotonin for me and then I continue on with my day. I think the story has been really sweet and haunting, and if you would like to re-access the small memory comics that appear every once in a while when the story progresses, you can do so by interacting with the ranger bear, Charlotte. If there was a menu item for me to see these again, I would feel more connected to the island. The NPCs are all very charming and I’m actively trying to cook every pastry with the baker bear. If you want to play something colorful, warm, and soft-paced, Cozy Grove is for you.
(Code provided to Uppercut from popagenda)
