When the fire tells you that there's nothing more to do for the day, he means it - and it's a real shame. There's a basic cooking mechanic, but it involves throwing food into the fire, and doesn't include fish. You might be tempted to stick around, but beyond the ghost quests, there's basically just fishing and foraging, neither of which really lead anywhere.Įverything you find can be donated to one of the ghosts, who has a 'Collection' (think of it like a Museum, but it's in his pockets, and you can't physically explore it) or sold to a really tall travelling merchant fox, who's a non-dead permanent fixture of the island. After just thirty-to-sixty minutes or so, you'll have completed all the ghosts' tasks, so the fire will tell you that there's nothing more to do for the day, and to come back tomorrow. It's a pleasant enough loop - help people out, do a bit of fishing, forage all the mushrooms and sticks from around the place, feed the fire, repeat - but there's not really much to do, and it feels like the game knows it, too. The campfire, who is basically a less-mean Calcifer from Howl's Moving Castle, serves as your main guide for Cozy Grove, telling you what to do next and also taking care of your storage and tent upgrades. They'll also give you a Spirit Log, which is used to feed the campfire back at your tent. However, each little quest will bring you closer to the ghost, and perhaps give you a fragment of memory, a new tool, or something to learn about the island. Like Animal Crossing, its goals are pretty freeform, but gentle guidance will steer you in the direction of upgrading your tent, growing fruit trees, and raising pets. The Animal Crossing-inspired game is all about tending to an island and its inhabitants, providing the comforts that they need while also building and maintaining your own. As the CEO of developer Spry Fox puts it: 'Cozy Grove doesn't make you feel like you need to play for 8 hours in a single sitting to 'maximize' your experience, and it doesn't make you feel like you've seen everything there is to see in a few days either.' To put it succinctly, Cozy Grove respects your time.

In any case, we don't listen to her either when she tells us to go outside and play.Ĭozy Grove is an extension of that ethos: it really, really wants to make sure you're not playing video games all day. We're no strangers to the Animal Crossing all-nighter, and it seemed like Nintendo was finally starting to worry about our health, but very few people actually heeded the gentle warning. Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld/Undocked)īack in the Wii and DS era, Nintendo tried something new: telling its players to take breaks.

Cozy grove cooked food