RGN Feature Article: Top 5 List
What the fudge is a Cozy Game??
I am a veteran video gamer of nearly 40 years, having been playing games ever since I could walk, possibly even before and I have only just recently heard of the term “Cozy Game”. From what I’ve researched online this term has only started being used from around 2021 to describe a group of games from multiple genres that have a generally slow pace, low stakes and low intensity of gameplay. Many games are based around testing one’s coordination skills and reflexes, and the earliest games fall into this category. A good way to think about it is that those kind of games are like sports, where you compete with a clear goal in mind like getting a high score or the most kills. Games that you can speedrun or that lend themselves to speed running are not cozy games. This leaves the question as to where real-time strategy games stand as they could be either, but if they are intense or require constant vigilance to be able to succeed then I would say they could not be considered to be in the cozy category. The reason why I like this term is that it clearly divides games into two categories while (generally) over-arching or encompassing all the genres. Looking at the games that I like to play and what I’ve previously enjoyed, a lot of the games I like are cozy games. I believe the purpose of video games (at least for me) is to de-stress, forget about the problems of life and relax. These are the most enjoyable types of games while other games that test your skills are more for when you are in a specific mood and looking for a challenge to complete. Then there are games that are hybrid or a bit of both, like RPG’s or action-adventure games where you have the cozy part of the game when you are in a town and walk around speaking and interacting with NPC’s and then when you leave the town you have the overworld battles and dungeons which require attention and concentration to be able to successfully negotiate.
Adventure Games are Cozy Games
Ok so now that we have established or have some understanding of this new term we can have a look at some of the games that fall into this category. One of the earliest types of cozy games that have been around since the beginning of video and computer gaming is the genre known as “Adventure Games”. These games have long been one of my most favorite of game genre’s as it could sustain my interest for long periods of time due to their low intensity, not requiring fast reflexes or being able to kill enemies effectively or anything like that. These games rely of immersion into the gaming world to hold the players’ attention. For those who don’t know what an adventure game truly is let me explain as it is one of the most commonly mislabeled game genres. People with limited understanding of video and computer games often label many non-adventure games as adventure, as well as confusing the “action adventure” label as adventure. True adventure games don’t have typical action elements in them, games labelled “action adventure” are completely different, they are usually action games with elements of exploration making up the “adventure” part of the description. True adventure games put the player into a world they can walk around in, explore and interact with much like the real world. It takes place in a set location like a city where you are free to wander around in a leisurely fashion and explore different locations, talking with NPCs on the way, examining the environment and picking up items and interacting with the environment. That is a somewhat vague description so let me give an actual example to further illustrate the point.
If you’ve owned a Windows/DOS PC in the 90’s then you will probably be familiar with this example. The first Leisure Suit Larry game puts the player in the shoes of a middle-aged single man in the heart of the streets in a large city. You start off on the street in front of a bar called Lefty’s with nothing in your pocket. You are free to explore the surrounding environment at your leisure (no pun intended), you can talk to the bar patrons, the bar keeper and other NPC’s. There is no-one to fight or enemies to kill just an objective to accomplish (to get laid). This is one of the very first adventure games which required you to type in literal commands to be able to interact in very specific ways with the environment. You would use the computer keyboard to enter things like “use pay phone” or “call for taxi”, there was no action button or anything. Everything was completely controlled by typing sentence fragments into the parser. With this type of game there is no rush to do anything, you can walk around and do things as slowly or as quickly as you like. You could do what you need to complete the game or you can spend your time fully exploring every bit of the game environment that you are able to interact with. This almost literally puts you in the game world, you essentially are a part of that virtual world by the proxy of the main character “Larry Laffer”. This is an example of cozy game and most adventure games fall into this category. There are some adventures that will blend some action elements into them but overall should still have that relaxed and un-rushed atmosphere.
These types of games are great for when you want to be immersed in a virtual world and be able to explore and interact without the usual danger of possibly getting killed and having to re-start if you make a mistake. Usually they need a fair amount of time investment to get satisfaction of achieving a goal which is sometimes very rewarding just figuring out what to do next. They are a great way to spend a relaxing evening at home as opposed to watching a movie which is over in 2 hours and you are at best just a passive observer. So now let’s have a look at five great cozy retro games which transport you to into a virtual world from your couch or computer desk.
Five Great Cozy Retro Games
#5. Harvest Moon : Back to Nature (1999) [Sony PlayStation]
This is a game that I have owned for a long time. I’ve been following the Harvest Moon series since it’s first iteration came out on the Super Nintendo in Australia in 1996. The sequel on PS1 is an all round upgrade of the excellent Super NES original, giving you more crops to grow, animals to raise, a bigger town with more townspeople to interact with, more house upgrades and so forth. They have taken every element of the first game and improved on it by giving you more choice and more interactivity. This game really is the definition of cozy as it’s pace is very slow, so slow that many gamers may consider it too boring. It’s best suited to true fans of the series or for those that like low intensity, slow progressing games which require a large time investment. However it gets very rewarding once you get livestock, your house upgraded and marry a spouse. All that takes a lot of time though but when you have it, you know that you’ve really earned it. You even have individual relationships with all the townspeople, the more you talk to each townsperson the more they open up to you. Initially no-one will let you into their private quarters but if you keep talking to them and giving them gifts eventually when they are comfortable with you they will give you access to their private bedrooms. This is a long term game, it’s not a game you can quickly blast through or finish, it’s definitely a very slow burning candle of a game. That is good, especially back in the day when you would save up a long time to buy a game, you would expect that it keeps you busy for quite some time. And this one definitely has that replay value that will keep you hooked for months. Just a word of warning the PAL version has a bug when you get married the game freezes. You are greeted with a black screen the day after you get married and you are unable to progress any further. I found that out the hard way and so wasted so many hours building my farm and life on the PAL version only to have it all be for naught. How did it get past quality control anyway, you would think they would have tested to see if getting married works. Natsume really dropped the ball on that one! So if you are going to play this game make sure it is the NTSC-US version.
#4. Boku no Natsuyasumi 2 : Umi no Bouken Hen (My Summer Vacation 2 : Sea Adventure Chapter) (1999) [Sony PlayStation 2]
#3. Aquanauts Holiday: Kakusareta Kiroku / Hidden Memories (2008) [Sony PlayStation 3]
Yet another awesome game that can be described as a cozy game. In this game you are a reporter investigating the disappearance of a missing researcher at a scientific research station on an atoll. For some reason you get full unrestricted access to the organization’s submersible vehicle and for some reason it’s up to you to catalogue all the different underwater species which you would think would be the job of the people working there. Despite the little plot-holes it’s a truly awesome game, again there are no enemies and no way to die. It’s all just underwater exploration but it’s not boring at all. The things you discover quickly turn metaphysical as the mystery of the disappearance takes some very unexpected twists. You will be contemplating Shroedinger’s cat and other existential mysteries as you work through your investigation. Singing fish, strange noises underwaters, out of place artifacts and stones that are alive are some of the crazy anomalies you will come across. It’s an incredibly unique game, extremely fascinating as you never know what crazy thing you will discover next. There are some small elements of an RPG as you gather money from discoveries which you can then use to upgrade some parts and equipment on your submarine. This game was released only in Asian territories but thankfully they have the option of playing in English, which is something more games should do to give people from different regions a chance to experience otherwise inaccessible games due to the language barrier. If you like the Everblue series of games that span across the PS2 and Wii then you should like this game too. The stereotyped characters will make you laugh as they say some really funny things and act just like the stereotypes they are portraying. You got the ditsy young girl who is the daughter of an important researcher and then you got the boss who thinks his research is so interesting to everyone and doesn’t believe anything that mainstream science hasn’t discovered yet. This game will keep you occupied for quite some time as their is quite a lot to explore and discover in this game.
#2. Metal Slader Glory: Director’s Cut (2000) [Super Nintendo]
As you can tell I’m trying to cover a range of systems here, starting with a game for each of the first 3 PlayStation consoles. Now we are looking at a game for the Super Nintendo for some diversity. Actually this game was initially released for the Famicom believe it or not, it got re-released and re-made with better graphics and extra content for the Super Nintendo. They did an awesome job, having recently finished this game I can tell you it’s thoroughly enjoyable from start to finish. If you want to be transported into a world inside a video game then this game should be right up your alley. It does an excellent job of creating an atmosphere of wonder as you are immersed into a future world where human civilization has started colonizing world’s outside of our own planet. If you are familiar with the anime Gall Force series of movies then you will love this game as it served as inspiration for this story. The main character Tadashi is a young man who lives on Earth and mysteriously inherits a construction robo, or at least that what he thinks until he discovers that it’s actually a metal slader or combat mech. These machines are only owned by the military so he is quite surprised at this but is even more surprised when he starts the machine and get’s a message telling him to seek the creator as the Earth is in danger. So Tadashi, his female friend and his younger sister follow the leads to find out the origin of the message and what it means. You don’t spend long on Earth as you need to make some enquiries at a giant spaceport to find out about the metal slader. With no information besides the cryptic message, a military disc and the metal slader’s serial number they go on an exciting detective mission through space. This game seems like it may have served as inspiration for Policenauts on PlayStation 1 as the setting and atmosphere are very similar. The main character is a bit of a playboy, ogling every single attractive female that he comes across. There’s a lot of humor in this game which adds to the festive feel of the first half of the game. It does get serious later on, quite unexpectedly actually as the reality of the situation finally get’s revealed. Unfortunately this is one of the only adventure games for the SNES and it’s native to the Famicom just like Famicom Detective Club. Another reason why Cronela’s Mansion will be a welcome addition to the Super Nintendo library when it comes out late this year.
#1. Chibi-Robo! Plug Into Adventure! (2005 / 2006) [Nintendo GameCube]
Now this game is the most action-orientated out of all the games in the list. If none of the other games are your cup of tea then maybe this one will be more to your liking. It has a lot more traditional gaming elements of platforming and action-adventure games however it transcends genre’s as despite this it is still a relaxing and fun explorative game. I have not really played anything like it before, it’s a very unique game with a really unique setting and story. You play as a miniature robot that the Sanderson family purchases for their daughter’s birthday. You are Chibi-Robo! A little robot whose job it is to help the family by serving them and making them happy. They set you up in their house with your own little home pod which is where you retreat to after each work shift for recharging. You have two shifts each day, from morning to daytime after which you go back to your pod to recharge and then back out in the evening to night for your second shift. You are given the freedom to explore the house and interact with it’s many inhabitants who are the toy’s that live there. Surprisingly all the toys at the Sanderson’s actually come to life when the humans aren’t looking. This leads to some very quirky and unusual situations that are very entertaining and amusing. There are lots of things to discover in the house and there is also history that you have to uncover in order to help the family. For example the young girl think’s she’s a frog, her parent’s think that she’s just pretending but there’s more to it than that. It’s up to you, Chibi-Robo! to discover what’s happening to family and it’s inhabitants. As you discover things you will get upgrades that help you explore further. The game doesn’t appear to have any total time limit, however each shift only lasts a certain amount of time. In that way you are free to explore at your own pace as there is always tomorrow if you don’t get done what you need to in that day. It puts you into the world of a tiny robot who is able to converse with animals and toys as well as the resident human’s of the house. This is an extremely unique game, you will have a blast exploring the house and uncovering the mysteries and events that take place at the Sanderson’s. You can easily enjoy this game at a leisurely pace which gives it a unique designation as an active cozy game.
