Cozy Grove is Animal Crossings' laid-back, haunted neighbor

I log in every day Cozy grovethe paint was drained from the otherwise abundant island. The lush greenery – tall pines, flowering fruit bushes, and twisted vines – is covered in gray. This happens every time I log out. The world I’ve been working on is slowly returning to those muted tones.

Cozy grove, developed by Spry Fox, is very similar Animal Crossing: New Horizons – the video game we all spent a large part of our lives in in 2020. Nintendo’s island life simulator was inevitable. Life on a desert island was designed the way you want it to be. As long as you gather enough resources to grow it, of course. Cozy groveThe resemblance to this can be seen as a blessing or a challenge to Spry Fox. it is The Island Life game is always compared to Nintendo’s, but that at least gives players a little familiarity with the genre.

A ghost bear talks to a Cozy Grove Spirit Scout

And Cozy grove has something that New Horizons not – a very clear structure. Players take on daily chores from the ghosts on the island, each of which has a clear end goal. These quests are different every day and all of them help build relationships with the ghosts on the island.

Cozy grove is the perfect game for anyone who has ever been stressed out by Animal Crossing because my goals don’t feel overwhelming or endless, a stark contrast to what I’ve felt in a few months New Horizons

A cozy, haunted island

Cozy grove takes place on the title island, inhabited by a group of bizarre, dead, bear-like creatures that have been stuck there for a while. I am a “Spirit Scout”, a kind of girl scout who collects badges to be affixed to her green Spirit Scout sash. The goal is to do Spirit Scout things – like help the island’s ghost mail bear find lost mail – to bring the colorless island back to life. The stylized ghost bears give me ghost wood after I help them, and a sentient campfire called Flamey consumes the ghost wood and the flames light up the world making it full and lush. This is where the color comes back into the world and happens in such a way that you can feel the warmth spreading around you. Flamey’s light Likewise reveals new parts of the world and ghosts to help, expanding the island’s scope each time.

A typical day worth Cozy grove It takes me about half an hour to run from mind to mind, always with a clear task in front of me. When I can’t find something, there is a spirit there too that can help – it points me in the right direction for whatever I’m looking for. I never think too long about what to do or where to go.

Everyone who played New Horizons will be familiar with the types of errands necessary to complete the duties of the spirits. Most of the time the ghosts have lost things that the player has to find on the island. There is a lot of fishing, resources harvesting and items being collected. These tasks can be completed in half an hour most of the time, especially if I just need to find a recipe book hidden in a pile of sheets of paper, but sometimes a task may require me to log into a task for several days. For example, let’s say I have to bring salt to the liquor baker on the island. This can only be bought through the Cozy Grove shopkeeper, and I’ll have to wait if it’s not there the day I need it.

That helps too Cozy groveThe writing is delightful; It captures the same warmth of the game’s animations but puts it into words. There is humor there too, which gives the otherwise red tasks an additional element of curiosity. The reward for completing these activities is more the game itself and its charming characters.

It’s okay to sign out

One of the most interesting things Cozy grove is that Spry Fox doesn’t seem to want to keep the player there all day. Flamey will tell me that after a certain point there will be no more liquor wood available and I have to come back tomorrow to keep feeding him.

I’m glad Spry Fox is encouraging me to opt out. At least most of the time. But the world of Cozy grove is so charming that I often want to spend more time there. Sometimes I rummage around a bit, tidy up my campsite and add new decorations or collect extra resources so that I am overly prepared for the next day’s chores. But I don’t feel compelled to stay after my assignments are finished, partly because there is simply not enough to do.

I would like to spend more time on the island, but I appreciate that Cozy grove don’t want to use all of my time. There is no stalk market equivalent in Cozy grove That said, there’s no stress I’m going to miss with Timmy and Tommy’s good, good prices. I like that I can play Cozy grove in short bursts and how New HorizonsIt has become a daily kind of ritual – my virtual, calming chores. I loved my time in New Horizonsand that’s why I’ve decided to spend hours and hours every day looking after my virtual island. But after a while it became difficult at times; There were times when I felt overwhelmed by the amount of work I had to do to manage Sears, my island, and I wasn’t alone with that.

This is what ultimately makes up the daily outbursts Cozy grove, something to be embedded in for 20 to 30 minutes a day, a perfect balance for my life right now. New Horizons was perfect for its time in 2020, but my brain needs something even simpler today. Play Cozy grove it only takes a short time in a meaningful way, and it is something that I do not need to devote valuable mental energy to.

Better still, because of this, it’s a ritual I look forward to every day.

Cozy grove will be released on April 8th on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Windows PC and Xbox One. It is currently available in Apple Arcade. The game has been verified on Windows PCs and Apple Arcade using Quantum Astrophysics Guild download codes and a personal Apple Arcade subscription. Vox Media maintains partner partnerships. These do not affect the editorial content, although Vox Media may earn commissions on products purchased through affiliate links. You can find You can find more information on Polygon’s ethical policy here.