I feel like the label of a cozy game is so limited. I feel I play games like Cities Skylines and Planet Coaster like they are cozy games, but no one calls them that!
Absolutely! My favourite cosy game is Fallout 4. I can spend hours building settlements, singing along with the in game radio, getting to know my companions, exploring an unfamiliar landscape and taking in all the sights, collecting items to bring back and put on display in my customisable home… Just because it has violence and mutants and mini guns doesn’t mean it can’t be cosy.
My “cozy” game rn is Hi-Fi Rush. A hack & slash might be a weird choice and I’m not even into rhythm games. But it’s so chill, relaxing, and best part, FUN AF. Oh and Jusant is definitely relaxing and unique too.
the best part of coral island seems to be the depth of the characters and dialogue, which is the opposite of fae farm. but yes overall this farm trend is SO TIRING.
I think I would play Coral Island over Stardew, only because CI is far more visually accessible to me. Being legally blind, the pixel style messes with my eyes and the text is hard to read. But yeah, this just like every other farm game, is the same. There are only a few that do something different.
You should check out Cattails Wildwood Story! It's basically a cozy rpg where you play as a cat and you recruit other cats to build your town, plus you can marry them (npcs can also marry each other!) and have kittens! HIGHLY recommend it to anyone who loves cats. It's so adorable and fun!
I feel like developers missed the idea of cozy games and just thought it meant farming. Lol. There is a game about being a mail carrier, The Courier, coming out and I'm interested. I like games were I can play as a batista, a hiker, or mail carrier. Just give me a job, make it aesthetic and I'd probably play it!
ikr. the developer of stardew valley is making a game where you work as a chocolatier making chocolate, instead of making a stardew valley 2. It's a good idea to branch off to other professions than farming
I think the same thing when I’m playing a new farming game. “is there a reason I shouldn’t just play stardew valley”. But one thing I like about this cozy game boom is that people have so many options to choose from now. Before it was just “Stardew Valley”, “Rune Factory”, or “Story of Seasons”. Hopefully in the future we get more cozy games with a completely unique premise and unique mechanics. I think that all of the farming games coming out at once makes them all blend together a bit. They aren’t bad games, but a lot of them feel really similar to Stardew Valley.
I prefer coral island to stardew valley, personally. I prefer the art style, the slower game speed, I really enjoy diving, more variety to foraging, the fishing doesn’t make me want to break things, the NPCs and their stories hold more appeal. It’s all personal preference. I think the only thing I miss from SV are junimos.
I'm interested in Coral Island but don't like the artstyle all that much personally. The characters just look so... "bad disney movie." That said I'll probably pick it up someday, maybe by then there'll even be new portrait mods like what Stardew has.
idk maybe i'm selfish but personally, i am LOVING this cozy game boom, i adore coral island just as much but in a different way to how i adore stardew, the vibes are different, in ways i can explain and ways i can't. I also love fae farm, ooblets, palia, acnh, etc etc, i think the fact that companys have realized the value in the "cozy" game market means there are more options for people who are pickier, more people thinking about it, more innovation, etc etc, plus the boom of cozy games (aka more femme appealing games) legitimizes them, the way FPS games (and other more masc appealing games) have always been considered legit serious games.
imo it's a factor of recency, if Coral Island was released 5-10 years later it wouldn't feel as samey in the same way Stardew Valley doesn't feel too samey to Harvest Moon as it's had enough time to settle in & for us to yearn for a new replacement in the farming space I could be wrong, just a thought :)
another point that you touched on is that because the game development tools have become more accessible, we're seeing a massive increase in the number of games being released this definitely impacts how we perceive the amount in each niche increasing :)
There are a ton of unique cozy games though, but playing what's popular isn't going to grant you that. EVERY genre is oversaturated. You have to do your own research and find games that interest you. Farming sims are a genre. So just, stop playing farming sims if you are tired of them! I like Coral Island because I am not a fan of the pixel art from Stardew. So I can still get that experience with a game that's more aesthetically pleasing to me! And aside from that and like 2 other games, I don't play any other farming sims, but I still play tons of cozy games bc I make the time to actually look at what's there instead of what's trending. Like everyone should do for any game. There are a billion FPS games. A billion metroidvanias. A billion rougelikes. So on and so forth. That saturation means you have a chance to actually pick what you like! So just do that.
Honestly, the fact that I own Stardew Valley (and ACNH) is the major reason I'm just not interested in purchasing most cozy games. I've had some fun with Ooblets, but mainly because it has other gameplay elements that aren't typically in cozy games. I also love the cottagecore aesthetic, largely because I always lived in rural areas where similar lifestyles are fairly common & it was tiring to see constant negative depictions of a lifestyle that's most common among poor people. However, the cozy game market is absolutely oversaturated with cottagecore games. Building community & a lot of other gameplay features of cozy games wouldn't feel out of place in an urban or heavily industrialized setting. I didn't even notice until recently why I felt this was about most cozy games, but the rural/cottagecore aesthetic of these games end up necessitating gameplay loops that every cozy game ends up copying.
It’s still crazy to me that I would consider most of these “cozy” games (including Stardew Valley) to be quite stressful, yet Metroid Fusion, Red Dead Redemption, and Terraria on Master Mode are my go-to relaxing experiences. This cozy stress comes from me wanting to perfect the daily routine and make sure everything turns out how I want it to, while the difficult combat games are just my muscle memory and skill, less stressing over filling my inventory with gifts to give after watering my crops and tending to my animals. Those non-farming cozy games are also a no-go for me with how they usually don’t have enough substance for me to maintain interest in them. On the topic of what I would want in a cozy game, I’d probably have to say an esoteric feeling. To be specific, The Long Drive has you driving on an endless road on the quest to see your mother after receiving a letter in the mail. You grab your stuff, throw it in your old car, and drive. That feeling of loneliness in an endless open land is so hard to describe, but man do I love it. Cult of the Lamb also gives me that esoteric feeling, but more so in the meta understanding of gaming more so than the in-game feeling. Wow, didn’t expect this comment to become a short essay. (Also, the first time I stepped out of my house during winter in Stardew Valley was an absolutely magical experience I can still recall, with the music being a major contributor to the overall feeling.)
Wanting the perfect daily routine is also me playing these games. The more stuff the game has (e.g. equipments and artisan stuff), the more stressful it is to plan and optimize them. Playing Hi-Fi Rush these days, and it’s more chill and fun for me. If I want a farming game, I’d go back to the simpler FoMT (the remake, I did play the original before the remake from time to time with emu).
I like coral island because it actually has a lot more Javanese culture and stardew valley is very white there’s like two black characters and it’s very binary. Coral island doesn’t make you choose between boy and girl you can be nonbinary. Plus the festivals are actually fun.
The game that scratched that same but different itch for me this year was Ooblets - The art was unique, the soundtrack was on my spotify wrapped cause it slapped so hard and it had farming but not in the same way. I hope they’ll do a DLC cause I live ooblets!
I totally agree with the lesser-budgeted games being the gems out there right now vs the "highly marketed" ones. Aka, Spiritfarer, Roki and Wytchwood have been my favorites lately.
Not sure why its a problem when meanwhile every dungeon crawling game is just zelda in a different font and every platformer game is just mario in a different font, etc🤔 Game Dev is a branch of art and artists copy/be inspired by one another all the time. Even Concerned Ape himself literally built SV inspired by Harvest Moon. I feel there is no need to hate on how huge Coral Island's popularity has been. To me it just shows how much players love the formula! We all eat it up every single time😂
The problem is not inspiration or lack of it. It's about funding of those studios that produce games(or tv shows). They are funded by people who care first and furthermost about guarantees of profit. If you show someone startdew and say: "It was done by just one dude, he made this much, and I have a team that is x10 bigger. Thus we can make x10" - people will be eager to give you that money. The question is can those studios bring back x10. They really try. The reality is that unless you are a household name, people won't fund your "original ideas., because it's less safe gamble then funding something that was done before and capitalizing on nostalgia. Some studios go this way in hopes of making it big and being able to create "their own ideas". Some are solo indies who are self-isolated for the next 5-10 years, and we get an amazing game, but that person has withdrawn from society instead of an "investment".
The problem with not copying also comes down to comparison, as well. So many NEW things get compared to things we love dearly, and it's really hard to climb that mountain, and is why many just become that mountain instead.
Why Frieren is an amazing show: its unique We have farming games~ but where is the individuality /character? How can a farming game be a farming game but Not be stardew or ac? We need something like that in the cozy genre
I'm on the opposite end. Watching crops grow while I use the money to upgrade my digital house and stuff, in an era where most of us don't live in houses and are working off tons of debt + barely scraping by to eat, is so calming to me. I'm playing Dinkum right now and it's the perfect mix as a follow up to ACNH. Crops, bug + fish catching, villagers to move in, furniture, a museum to complete, a mine to explore... If anyone needs a new recommendation, try Dinkum. There's only ONE guy working on it, like Stardew, and man is he going places.
Every time one of these games comes out, even if they're great... they just make me want to replay Stardew. It was too good. Though Dinkum is probably the only other one to grab my attention.
Pathea games have always stood out to me and have always been games I enjoyed playing the most from the "cozy" genre, namely My Time at Sandrock, they did something I've never seen before, where you move into town as a "builder" and take commissions to earn money, instead of cutting trees to get wood, you pick apart wood scraps. Conserving water and not cutting down trees is a big deal in Sandrock so it feels very good doing all those things, unlike in Coral Island where I felt like the environmentalism was way too "in your face" and honestly made me kind of not want to play. For me, video games are supposed to be an escape. I love environmentalist things in real life and do my part every single day, but virtually, I would much rather live in a town where conserving water is important than water my crops and dig out trash from the ocean right afterwards like my life depends on it. So check out the My Time at ... series! It is really unique and really well made. I'm also very hopeful and excited for Palia and can't wait to see what they do!
I think of Stardew every time I play Coral Island😂 Even some of the music is similar. Stardew is an amazing game that a lot if developers copy because they know it will succeed. It's easier to copy than to think of an original idea. As a Stardew lover I was curious what your take on CI would be. 😊
Heck, I never even played Stardew Valley because I took one look at it and said, "Eh, they just ripped off Harvest Moon," and I left it at that. But I am aware that it is its own thing, and it's not really fair of me to dismiss all the cozy farming games as Harvest Moon ripoffs while at the same time being annoyed that every time a new 4X game is announced, everyone immediately compares it to Civilization as though 4X isn't a genre unto itself. So I'll check out Stardew. But, like, later though. I've held off on buying Disney Dreamlight Valley, but they finally put my girl Rapunzel in the game, so I kind of have to play it now.
I feel like this video doesn't address the games with proper context. Stardew valley is a harvest moon clone full stop. It derives everything it has from harvest moon, specifically friends of mineral town and the games which followed that town/story. Harvest moon was a series that built itself on repeating the same thing with different tweaks to gameplay and style. Stardew elaborated on it with modern depth. Animal crossing is an ENTIRELY different game to stardew and harvest moon. As well as most of those other games. A lot of the games you are calling samey, are samey specifically because you are picking games within a particular niche. "Cozy games" isn't a genera. It's just a buzzword for social media. Animal crossing is a social sim. Stardew and harvest and corral are farming Sims with social elements. It seems you are tired of FARMING sims more specifically. Ones that are harvest moon inspired. So... Look elsewhere. Look at core keeper. Look at magicians quest. Even games like slime rancher 2. 🤷 The games you seem to want ARE being made. Unless you specifically want the game to still copy harvest moons formula but... IDK... Make the theme entirely abstract? Cozy grove comes to mind but... IDK. Imo, as an OG harvest moon and animal crossing fan I'll say there are more unconventional high quality life sims out NOW then ever.
LMAO acnh is not a social sim stop. The dialogue is awful. The game is 5 steps back from past animal crossings. And the fact you got so mad over cozy games is why i see you’d shill for a shitty version of animal crossing
Am i the only one who thinks farm games are NOT cozy at all? They stress the hell out of me with the day time limit and seasonal changes (all crops dying!)
It’s definitely giving me cozy game fatigue to be honest! Nothing is making me go, “I MUST PLAY THIS!” And if they do, once I play it, it’s just like “Meh.”
That's why (cozy) games that try something new often are my favs (like Ooblets and Spiritfarer). But Animal Crossing is and will always be very special to me.
I had this idea (like I know how to code) to make a game with a travel mechanic where I would use real-world locations as inspiration. This game I can see so well with its souvenirs you decorate your house with.
While I wait for Stardew 1.6 I've been getting my cozy 'fix' with My Time at Sandrock and been loving it so far, less farming and more building, that said my ultimate 'cozy' game won't come out til march... Dragon's Dogma 2 Baybee! Aside from farming it has all the same things... crafting, romance, exploration, mining, fighting... instead of raising animals you raise talkative pawn companions - beautiful lol... and instead of a dead grandpa we get our heart torn out. In all seriousness, Sandrock is a great time and called out to me more than Coral Island has - I may give it a try later down the line, but the building up a town aspect is more satisfying than the ''farming game = Cozy" worn out formula.
a huge issue w all these farming games is they dont give a reason to progress, the gameplay loop is always so half-baked. rune factory was a genius idea and its insane that the only farming game weve seen inspired by that (afaik) has been harvestella. obviously stuff like stardew and fae farm took inspiration from rune factory too, but those devs clearly just saw combat as an extra rather than a key element of the gameplay loop. rune factory is the only farming series i havent grown tired of and its because the devs realised that a farming game needs more than just attending crops. i would love to see farming in games be treated as a core aspect while not being the ONLY aspect of the gameplay
Honestly one of the biggest ones for me is the cast is actually super diverse and openly representative. Not to mention actually interesting. I'm an ethnic minority and so whenever I see games that are still popular in 2023 with an all white cast without some lore reason it actually just makes me feel really disconnected from it and kinda unincluded. As much as I like all the QOL and graphic updates to Coral island I think the thing that made my heart happiest was the npc's in it and the festivals that weren't just plain and a bland ego boost. They're interactive and really go all out. By far the best festivals out of any farm sim I've ever played.
Yoku's Island Express is a cozy game that is wholly unique, being an open world, pinball, action/adventure, metroidvania... thing, lol. Man I wish I could both play that game for the first time again, and get a sequel to it. Bought it on a whim because it was dirt cheap on Switch and was blown away that I had never heard of it before. How are more people not talking about it? Real under the radar gem. And I 100% agree that the Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons games feel hollow ever since i played Stardew. I used to enjoy them, but I really don't anymore. Stardew just did what they did so much better that it feels like... why bother? I'd rather just replay Stardew.
First, a recommendation for 2 games I consider cozy that are not traditional and have no farming: merchant of the skies (kind of like the Tradewinds games for anyone that knows them) and heaven’s vault (exploring worlds, learning to interpret an ancient language for clues, thinking through puzzles- and while the main storyline will be the same each time, you have multiple choices with each conversation that lead to different options, different clues you might not get otherwise) Things I look for in cozy games: Game speed/reduced consequences of not having the PERFECT routine to get everything done each day and each season. Coral island lets you adjust the speed, Wylde Flowers the season doesn’t change until you change it, DDLV there’s no sleep and no seasons, you just carry food or deal with the monotony of running home when you’re out of stamina, Yonder you can play for an entire in game season without sleeping. I choose cozy games for chill- I do not want to be stressed or annoyed at myself if I run out of time in the day or season to do something important. Foraging is my favourite skill/mechanic in almost every game that offers it. In most games it costs no stamina, and if they do it right, finding some of the ones that blend in more is very satisfying. It’s not a good way to get rich in any of the games I’ve played, so I still have to do other things, but it’s still fun for me. Exploration and variety. Give me all the plants and animals and colours etc, just give me as much variety as you can without breaking the game or making it ugly. Waterfalls and rivers and lakes and ponds and towns and cities and vast wild areas of every type. I like games with magic/alchemy/crafting mechanics, where they don’t make it too tedious. I like the idea of games that are heavily focused on clothes or decorating and landscaping etc, but I’m picky about the aesthetics of what I like, and I figure most people are and tastes vary a lot, so I can see how it’s hard to make a good game in that space.
For me the coziest gaming experiences I've had in the past year weren't in cozy games, things like hiking over green hills in Death Stranding, chatting with coworkers about how our jobs suck in Hardspace Shipbreaker, and listening to records in the hotel lobby in Lies Of P. I want games with cozy moments like that, not another stupid farm sim or house designer, not another "I moved away from the big city to find myself" game, for me cities are cozy but so few "cozy" games take place in urban areas! I know Death Stranding isn't urban but it also doesn't have that "small town charm" thing that SO many indies do nowadays. I grew up in a small town, I left that small town, I AM SICK OF SMALL TOWNS! The city of Krat from Lies Of P is a city with a vibrant culture and art districts, and when you listen to the records you collect it's like you're a part of it all, a tourist of a new exciting place! And so many cozy games have you winning at capitalism, but there's a camaraderie in being on the bottom rung with one another, helping each other out. Hardspace Shipbreaker has that in spades; you aren't some new godlike specimen who moved to town and conquered every friendship and business, you're just a worker at a crummy job, finding the silver lining with the people in the same boat. I dunno where that rant was going, I'm just tired of farming and small towns and feeling like I have to have money to be happy even in game.
I only picked up Stardew all those years ago ( jeez nearly 7 ! ) because I loved Harvest Moon as a kid. I read about it, thought “aw that reminds me of Harvest Moon” and now I own it on three separate platforms !!! Do I want a clone of this “clone” ? Nope !
farming has never been all that interesting to me, honestly. cozy games appeal because i don't get enjoyment out of fighting mechanics, but more often than not farming in games just becomes a chore. i go to easygoing games for mechanics such as collecting things (i.e. ac's museum), for forming relationships with fictional characters, for an escape to a world that is pretty and pleasant to be in. genshin impact and league of legends intrigue me because of the lore and the characters they have, and i don't see why that has to be tacked onto other mechanics, like relationships and people are interesting in, and of themselves. it's a really wild dream, but i wish there was some kind of game where you were a librarian of sorts, or just a game centered around books. like maybe you're tasked with restoring an ancient library, you have to track down and organise volumes, you'd get insight into the authors' lives and thoughts whilst they were making their works. or maybe there would be a more fantastical twist where you track down forbidden texts in a fantasy realm, to uncover the history of magic and the reason why it was outlawed from public knowledge. ideas like that are out there, but _books_ are what i find cosy, and i think there's untapped potential in exploring how integral storytelling is to humanity, as a form of communication, or teaching, or connection. and i think defining cosy as farming, or daily chores that replace real life ones is a misstep. i really enjoy animal crossing, but i struggle to get into and stay into stardew. i also love games like spiritfarer, where the concept is somber, and more adult in places, but the core idea of doing things at your own pace is still intact, or slime rancher where you're learning about these fictional creatures as well as making money because thye're cute and their poop sells for a lot. i have hope that the genre will get its feet under itself, that now that there is a clear market for games like harvest moon and stardew and animal crossing, that steps can be taken to flesh it into something other than cases of thinly disguised plagarism.
??? There has been a market for farming sims for a very long time. Stardew got popular BECAUSE there was a desire, and after the story of seasons/harvest moon split fiasco there was a serious desire for that classic experience.
I’m with you on the books, and that sounds like an amazing game. You might (maybe) enjoy heaven’s vault- you get asked to go looking for your old mentor’s missing partner, and the gameplay involves multiple choice conversations where your options depend on your previous choices, exploring multiple worlds with different cultures, and learning to understand an ancient language- you find fragments at a time, you choose what you believe a word means, and it will read as that every time unless a later phrase makes you reassess- and to travel between planets your ship acts like windsurfing, with solar winds you need to lean into or away from. Also, the character you play has their own history with some of the places you go, and you discover more of their backstory and their relationships as you travel and investigate.
That "heavy inspiration" quote when you were talking about Coral Island must have been a reference to that video made by Charles The French named "DID THE STOKES TWINS COPY US?" where he said "HEAVILY inspired" on that vid.
Not really a cozy game but I really really love the farming in Sakuna Of Rice and Ruin. There are multiple process and depth in Farming than just watering every day. Plus, it's also an action game and since you are the god of rice. the stat of your farm also the stat of your character in combat. The game only have Action and Farming mechanic but it blends together so well and having so much depth to it both. Playing it, I realize I didn't enjoy Farming in Cozy game all that much. I just love the town people and always trying to quickly pass through these minigame just to progress the story.
Our upcoming cozy game Button City Soccer Days is all about a cute animal soccer team so I think it's a little bit different... though maybe we should add a farming mechanic just for kicks.
Thanks for another great video ! Would love to pick your brain one day about my game design. Will def follow the comments about what people would like to see :)
Hey Koramora , if you like cleaning trash in games, there is a game where you have to do that before you can farm or can go to certain spots. It's a game from 2022. For me it was really satisfying and it has an end to it.
What I have been doing is stepping outside my comfort zone. I went from Baldurs Gate 3 to Cyberpunk to finally finishing Persona 5, in Xenoblade 1. Somehow the diversity became the comfort! Because each game was so different each got to shine and made the gaming landscape seem more powerful and satisfying.
Same I have recently decided to step outside of my cozy gaming comfort zone as I’ve found a lot of cozy games to be a bit samey and wanted more of a challenge.really got into tears of kingdom and Baldur gate. Baldurs gates turn based combat system actually feels pretty relaxing!
I actually prefer the pixel art style of stardew over the way coral island and other newer cozy games seem to often have. it reminds me of the like modern corporate art style...
I felt this in more core. I don’t like coral island or fae farm- I almost feel left out because of the hype over both of them. But, I am just over farm sims. I’m enjoying spirittea right now and waiting for my little blood cult to release next week. I’m excited for little nightmares 3 and silksong next year. I just can’t be bothered with another one of the same game. Excited to see some different types of cozy games next year.
Spirittea is too lacking on the gameplay front IMO. There's no real mechanical interaction with running the bathhouse other than seating the different spirits. It needed to "gameify" more of the day-to-day operation of the bathhouse, as it is, it's kind of just putting pegs into holes and standing around waiting.
The only game that i prefer over Stardew is Fae Farm. It is quite similar, but with so many QOL that when i get back to sdv from fae farm, it feels so difficult and annoying at times.
You sound no better than the dudebros who dumped thousands of hours into GTA and Minecraft and only buy the newest CODs, Fifas, NBA2Ks, and whatever only to call modern video games boring when they have never played anything else in the past decade and a half.
I agree with you on so much of this. I've skipped a lot of these games actually. But I *really* enjoyed Cult of the Lamb - I thought it was a perfect example of how to make a fun (and funny) "cozy" game without just semi-plagerizing Stardew Edit: but I don't want my overall support of this entire message to get lost in that one minor point. Our brains crave routine but thrive on a degree of novelty. Most games have me either bored or overwhelmed - maybe I am due to go be terrible at Valorant for a while too
Stardew valley is not an original game or idea. It's already "semi plagiarism". Younger people who are just now entering this genera through stardew always talk like stardew somehow INVENTED this genera. Like its only popular bc of stardew. Stardew is a fantastic entry point, but it's not the best farming sim experience. That would be rune factory imo.
@@digitalclown2008 I fear I'm about to make a mistake engaging on this, but let's find out! I think everyone is (edit: most people are) pretty aware that Stardew was heavily inspired by the Harvest Moon games (it's been said by the creator enough, and was said in the video). I guess it depends on how you define "young people" - I'm around Kora's age and old enough to have been around for the lifespan of Harvest Moon/SoS. And don't really consider myself that young, but maybe you're engaging with actual youths. Stardew and Rune Factory (the latter of which admittedly I haven't played any of, but maybe I will) are different branches of the Harvest Moon tree, right? That seems like a good thing to me
I wonder if i should try Stardew Valley again. I didn't really like the aesthetic of the game plus the plot and characters felt plain to me, or not enough to get interested in. But did complete it back when multiplayer was a new patch and i do know theres new updates so maybe it's changed enough to try again. I do love Coral Island and Palia so maybe i should give SV another shot.
I just want to say I’m honored that I have a second long cameo in this video. I can now say I am in a Koramora video 😭👏 Shoutout to the RUclips search bar for showing me when you look up Coral island
I'm trying to make my own cosy game, actually. I won't go into too much detail about it coz I'm worried about copycats, but it's a virtual pet homage that covers issues such as loneliness, neglect and getting the strength and support to move on from losing an old friend. And you can adopt and look after your own v-pets too. That's the cosy part.
it seems like people (especially game producers and devs) think that a cozy game = farming sim. which has resulted in soo many games having similar farming mechanics and it being overdone. I like seeing cozy games that aren't related to farming and are unique in some way. A few examples: venba, melatonin, sticky business, unpacking, lake and stray (this was cozy to me lol, I like playing as animal).
Another reason for games taking elements and sometimes whole concepts from existing games is that it is easier to explain your idea to other people if your audience shares a frame of reference. "It's a sandbox game with no clear end or win condition, no combat, no pre-written story" proved highly successful with SimCity and The Sims, but both were seen as weird oddballs before release. Way easier to tell publishers, investors, general audiences, "It's the next [insert successful game here]" or "It's a [genre that has already been shown to work well as an indie game]" or, maybe, "It's [this thing] meeting [this other thing]". And this is not unique to video games. My observation/prediction is that "The Sims"-like life simulation games are the next type of game were there was nothing for a long time (besides the original The Sims franchise, that is) and in the near future there will be a bunch of games hitting the market around the same time. Life by You and Tiny Lives are in early access right now, Paralives has been posting development updates for years, Nintendo fans screaming for a sequel to Tomodachi Life might get their wish at some point (though this is more of an adjacent genre), and seemingly every other month RUclips gets flooded with a bunch of videos about yet another Sims competitor, the most recent one being InZOI. At the moment it does not look as overcrowded as the farming game genre, and maybe multiple games for different target audiences will mean less pressure on the devs of one specific game to include every feature while also running on every old PC. But there probably won't be "the next The Sims" that completely takes the market away from EA, or from each other. There will be multiple games.
@@koramora Ahhh!!! I'm so glad you've played them! Theses just something so charming about the series and the storys are so well done!!! I really hope we'll get a port of the original games before New world of steam.
I uninstalled Coral Island after a few hours of playing. I really wanted to love it, but the developers are just hell bent on wasting a players time. I'm someone who legit hated Harvest Moon. I spent a lot of summers being absolutely frustrated with Harvest Moon on PS2, and I never got to enjoy it because of being forced to prioritize marriage over the farm. My best friend had to convince me to give SDV a try. I ended up enjoying the fishing mini game, and came around to progressing the river farm. I hate the mines, but I just liked that I had some means of getting around certain mechanics I didnt enjoy. Could not do that with Coral Island. Developers prioritize making the game an absolute chore.
dude you built your entire channel off of cosy games now all you do is make videos complaining about them now that they’ve lost the 2020 hype. it comes off really negative and inauthentic
Seems to me that you tried too many farm sims at the same time or very close to each other and now you're a bit burned out. I haven't played Stardew Valley so I never got into CI with expectations and since this is the only farm sim genre game I play, I also enjoy the experience a lot. And whenever I get itchy because there's not much action going on, I just switch to HP: Magic Awakened to satisfy my competitiveness.
I think there are way to many farming games now, there are few that even tack farming on to game for seemingly no reason other than to capitalize on the trend. I usually go for action/adventure games with the rare exception being animal crossing so it looks even worse when you're on the outside of a trend.
Honestly, this whole point is just gonna get a lot worse from now on with the dawn of large AI models. Think about it, AIs learn from current human knowledge to remix it into "new" content. This just creates an endless loop of the same contents being reworked over and over.
Coral Island's portrait art is a type I just... Really dislike. It's this generic, very common style that seems popular, but I hate. A lot of indie games seem to adopt it as well, I am not sure why, but it's so unlikeable to me, and since it's so common, feels incredibly generic.
Iirc with Coral Island the art style is based on Disney’s 2D art style, so it makes sense that such an art style wouldn’t be unique. Mind you I could be misremembering where I heard that so it might not be the case
Yup, picked up coral island as well with the hope that the romance and different environnement would make it more special than the other million other stardew copies only to find out Coral Island ripped off the most of SV🤣 there is a lot of cute stuff it does, but its unfinished, the romance nonexistant (yet) and is just... dissapointing. Still willing to wait for the updates, but SV is the best and the only Farm Sim I like. I want othee cozy games that DONT INVOLVE FARMING. Make it about shops, or building shit or something, im too jaded by crazy amount of farm sims.
Call me whatever for my opinion, but i think they tend to suck because they're only aiming to impress preteen girls with them..... People generally like genres of any form of media when they give them variety. I'm a 35 year old woman and I've always been bored with cozy games since i can remember except with animal crossing and the sims category games. I mainly like animal crossing and sims type games because they're unique and very specific, they were also the OGs of their kind whereas other games like the many farming games seem to be copying each other and they all feel like they're aiming for the same exact demographic..... I'm tired of seeing the same characters, the same lack luster stories, the same chibi kawaii flat soulless characters and even the same types of people promoting them. They all feel like they're only made for 1 group of people that i'm not part of and i'm over it. There are people i specifically subscribed to for just animal crossing content to get inspiration for my island building but every time they get into a new game i end up ignoring their content for months because i just don't care at all for the other games they play because they always feel the same, flat, boring, and i can tell they're going to be yet another pointless fad that people momentarily become obsessed with for like 2 weeks and then they get bored and move on from...
So many "cozy farm sims" meh. • Dredge is a "cozy" fishing game with a sinister twist. • FAR Lone Sails & Changing Tides are both so good 🥹✨️ • Sable offers a beautiful and unique story Those are the kinda of "cozy" games I enjoy
I feel like the label of a cozy game is so limited. I feel I play games like Cities Skylines and Planet Coaster like they are cozy games, but no one calls them that!
Absolutely! My favourite cosy game is Fallout 4. I can spend hours building settlements, singing along with the in game radio, getting to know my companions, exploring an unfamiliar landscape and taking in all the sights, collecting items to bring back and put on display in my customisable home… Just because it has violence and mutants and mini guns doesn’t mean it can’t be cosy.
My “cozy” game rn is Hi-Fi Rush. A hack & slash might be a weird choice and I’m not even into rhythm games.
But it’s so chill, relaxing, and best part, FUN AF.
Oh and Jusant is definitely relaxing and unique too.
the best part of coral island seems to be the depth of the characters and dialogue, which is the opposite of fae farm. but yes overall this farm trend is SO TIRING.
Stardew Valley: allow us to introduce ourselves
I think I would play Coral Island over Stardew, only because CI is far more visually accessible to me. Being legally blind, the pixel style messes with my eyes and the text is hard to read. But yeah, this just like every other farm game, is the same. There are only a few that do something different.
Makes sense
As a visually impaired person I also find accessibility can be an issue with certain games too.
You should check out the Rune Factory series. I constantly find myself missing it over every other farming game.
You should check out Cattails Wildwood Story! It's basically a cozy rpg where you play as a cat and you recruit other cats to build your town, plus you can marry them (npcs can also marry each other!) and have kittens!
HIGHLY recommend it to anyone who loves cats. It's so adorable and fun!
YESSS CATTAILS IS SUCH A GOOD SERIES
I feel like developers missed the idea of cozy games and just thought it meant farming. Lol. There is a game about being a mail carrier, The Courier, coming out and I'm interested. I like games were I can play as a batista, a hiker, or mail carrier. Just give me a job, make it aesthetic and I'd probably play it!
ikr. the developer of stardew valley is making a game where you work as a chocolatier making chocolate, instead of making a stardew valley 2. It's a good idea to branch off to other professions than farming
Good to know I’m not missing out every time a new one comes out😅 love stardew
I think the same thing when I’m playing a new farming game. “is there a reason I shouldn’t just play stardew valley”. But one thing I like about this cozy game boom is that people have so many options to choose from now. Before it was just “Stardew Valley”, “Rune Factory”, or “Story of Seasons”. Hopefully in the future we get more cozy games with a completely unique premise and unique mechanics. I think that all of the farming games coming out at once makes them all blend together a bit. They aren’t bad games, but a lot of them feel really similar to Stardew Valley.
I prefer coral island to stardew valley, personally. I prefer the art style, the slower game speed, I really enjoy diving, more variety to foraging, the fishing doesn’t make me want to break things, the NPCs and their stories hold more appeal. It’s all personal preference. I think the only thing I miss from SV are junimos.
Looking at it in this video, it seems like it's more geared to mouse input than Stardew is.
I'm interested in Coral Island but don't like the artstyle all that much personally. The characters just look so... "bad disney movie."
That said I'll probably pick it up someday, maybe by then there'll even be new portrait mods like what Stardew has.
idk maybe i'm selfish but personally, i am LOVING this cozy game boom, i adore coral island just as much but in a different way to how i adore stardew, the vibes are different, in ways i can explain and ways i can't. I also love fae farm, ooblets, palia, acnh, etc etc, i think the fact that companys have realized the value in the "cozy" game market means there are more options for people who are pickier, more people thinking about it, more innovation, etc etc, plus the boom of cozy games (aka more femme appealing games) legitimizes them, the way FPS games (and other more masc appealing games) have always been considered legit serious games.
Why would that make you selfish?
imo it's a factor of recency, if Coral Island was released 5-10 years later it wouldn't feel as samey
in the same way Stardew Valley doesn't feel too samey to Harvest Moon as it's had enough time to settle in & for us to yearn for a new replacement in the farming space
I could be wrong, just a thought :)
another point that you touched on is that because the game development tools have become more accessible, we're seeing a massive increase in the number of games being released
this definitely impacts how we perceive the amount in each niche increasing :)
There are a ton of unique cozy games though, but playing what's popular isn't going to grant you that. EVERY genre is oversaturated. You have to do your own research and find games that interest you. Farming sims are a genre. So just, stop playing farming sims if you are tired of them! I like Coral Island because I am not a fan of the pixel art from Stardew. So I can still get that experience with a game that's more aesthetically pleasing to me! And aside from that and like 2 other games, I don't play any other farming sims, but I still play tons of cozy games bc I make the time to actually look at what's there instead of what's trending. Like everyone should do for any game. There are a billion FPS games. A billion metroidvanias. A billion rougelikes. So on and so forth. That saturation means you have a chance to actually pick what you like! So just do that.
Honestly, the fact that I own Stardew Valley (and ACNH) is the major reason I'm just not interested in purchasing most cozy games. I've had some fun with Ooblets, but mainly because it has other gameplay elements that aren't typically in cozy games. I also love the cottagecore aesthetic, largely because I always lived in rural areas where similar lifestyles are fairly common & it was tiring to see constant negative depictions of a lifestyle that's most common among poor people. However, the cozy game market is absolutely oversaturated with cottagecore games. Building community & a lot of other gameplay features of cozy games wouldn't feel out of place in an urban or heavily industrialized setting. I didn't even notice until recently why I felt this was about most cozy games, but the rural/cottagecore aesthetic of these games end up necessitating gameplay loops that every cozy game ends up copying.
It’s still crazy to me that I would consider most of these “cozy” games (including Stardew Valley) to be quite stressful, yet Metroid Fusion, Red Dead Redemption, and Terraria on Master Mode are my go-to relaxing experiences. This cozy stress comes from me wanting to perfect the daily routine and make sure everything turns out how I want it to, while the difficult combat games are just my muscle memory and skill, less stressing over filling my inventory with gifts to give after watering my crops and tending to my animals. Those non-farming cozy games are also a no-go for me with how they usually don’t have enough substance for me to maintain interest in them.
On the topic of what I would want in a cozy game, I’d probably have to say an esoteric feeling. To be specific, The Long Drive has you driving on an endless road on the quest to see your mother after receiving a letter in the mail. You grab your stuff, throw it in your old car, and drive. That feeling of loneliness in an endless open land is so hard to describe, but man do I love it. Cult of the Lamb also gives me that esoteric feeling, but more so in the meta understanding of gaming more so than the in-game feeling.
Wow, didn’t expect this comment to become a short essay.
(Also, the first time I stepped out of my house during winter in Stardew Valley was an absolutely magical experience I can still recall, with the music being a major contributor to the overall feeling.)
Wanting the perfect daily routine is also me playing these games.
The more stuff the game has (e.g. equipments and artisan stuff), the more stressful it is to plan and optimize them.
Playing Hi-Fi Rush these days, and it’s more chill and fun for me. If I want a farming game, I’d go back to the simpler FoMT (the remake, I did play the original before the remake from time to time with emu).
I like coral island because it actually has a lot more Javanese culture and stardew valley is very white there’s like two black characters and it’s very binary. Coral island doesn’t make you choose between boy and girl you can be nonbinary. Plus the festivals are actually fun.
The game that scratched that same but different itch for me this year was Ooblets - The art was unique, the soundtrack was on my spotify wrapped cause it slapped so hard and it had farming but not in the same way. I hope they’ll do a DLC cause I live ooblets!
Yeah same with slime rancher for me
I totally agree with the lesser-budgeted games being the gems out there right now vs the "highly marketed" ones. Aka, Spiritfarer, Roki and Wytchwood have been my favorites lately.
Only real fans didn’t stop watching Kora when the ACNH hype died
i mean stardew is also heavily influenced by harvest moon. Stardew Valley wasn’t the first ‘cozy game’
Did anyone say it's the first one?
Not sure why its a problem when meanwhile every dungeon crawling game is just zelda in a different font and every platformer game is just mario in a different font, etc🤔 Game Dev is a branch of art and artists copy/be inspired by one another all the time. Even Concerned Ape himself literally built SV inspired by Harvest Moon. I feel there is no need to hate on how huge Coral Island's popularity has been. To me it just shows how much players love the formula! We all eat it up every single time😂
The problem is not inspiration or lack of it. It's about funding of those studios that produce games(or tv shows). They are funded by people who care first and furthermost about guarantees of profit. If you show someone startdew and say: "It was done by just one dude, he made this much, and I have a team that is x10 bigger. Thus we can make x10" - people will be eager to give you that money. The question is can those studios bring back x10. They really try. The reality is that unless you are a household name, people won't fund your "original ideas., because it's less safe gamble then funding something that was done before and capitalizing on nostalgia. Some studios go this way in hopes of making it big and being able to create "their own ideas". Some are solo indies who are self-isolated for the next 5-10 years, and we get an amazing game, but that person has withdrawn from society instead of an "investment".
The problem with not copying also comes down to comparison, as well. So many NEW things get compared to things we love dearly, and it's really hard to climb that mountain, and is why many just become that mountain instead.
Why Frieren is an amazing show: its unique
We have farming games~ but where is the individuality /character?
How can a farming game be a farming game but Not be stardew or ac?
We need something like that in the cozy genre
Whoa squidmin watches good anime?!
I'm on the opposite end. Watching crops grow while I use the money to upgrade my digital house and stuff, in an era where most of us don't live in houses and are working off tons of debt + barely scraping by to eat, is so calming to me. I'm playing Dinkum right now and it's the perfect mix as a follow up to ACNH. Crops, bug + fish catching, villagers to move in, furniture, a museum to complete, a mine to explore... If anyone needs a new recommendation, try Dinkum. There's only ONE guy working on it, like Stardew, and man is he going places.
Every time one of these games comes out, even if they're great... they just make me want to replay Stardew. It was too good.
Though Dinkum is probably the only other one to grab my attention.
@@planescaped oh believe me the second Stardew's update drops, that is ALL I WILL BE PLAYING lmao
Really enjoying My time at Sandrock as an alternative! the storyline with it is more involved and its set in a sandy desert which makes a change :)
Pathea games have always stood out to me and have always been games I enjoyed playing the most from the "cozy" genre, namely My Time at Sandrock, they did something I've never seen before, where you move into town as a "builder" and take commissions to earn money, instead of cutting trees to get wood, you pick apart wood scraps. Conserving water and not cutting down trees is a big deal in Sandrock so it feels very good doing all those things, unlike in Coral Island where I felt like the environmentalism was way too "in your face" and honestly made me kind of not want to play. For me, video games are supposed to be an escape. I love environmentalist things in real life and do my part every single day, but virtually, I would much rather live in a town where conserving water is important than water my crops and dig out trash from the ocean right afterwards like my life depends on it.
So check out the My Time at ... series! It is really unique and really well made. I'm also very hopeful and excited for Palia and can't wait to see what they do!
I think of Stardew every time I play Coral Island😂 Even some of the music is similar. Stardew is an amazing game that a lot if developers copy because they know it will succeed. It's easier to copy than to think of an original idea. As a Stardew lover I was curious what your take on CI would be. 😊
Heck, I never even played Stardew Valley because I took one look at it and said, "Eh, they just ripped off Harvest Moon," and I left it at that. But I am aware that it is its own thing, and it's not really fair of me to dismiss all the cozy farming games as Harvest Moon ripoffs while at the same time being annoyed that every time a new 4X game is announced, everyone immediately compares it to Civilization as though 4X isn't a genre unto itself. So I'll check out Stardew. But, like, later though. I've held off on buying Disney Dreamlight Valley, but they finally put my girl Rapunzel in the game, so I kind of have to play it now.
I feel like this video doesn't address the games with proper context. Stardew valley is a harvest moon clone full stop. It derives everything it has from harvest moon, specifically friends of mineral town and the games which followed that town/story.
Harvest moon was a series that built itself on repeating the same thing with different tweaks to gameplay and style. Stardew elaborated on it with modern depth.
Animal crossing is an ENTIRELY different game to stardew and harvest moon. As well as most of those other games. A lot of the games you are calling samey, are samey specifically because you are picking games within a particular niche. "Cozy games" isn't a genera. It's just a buzzword for social media.
Animal crossing is a social sim. Stardew and harvest and corral are farming Sims with social elements. It seems you are tired of FARMING sims more specifically. Ones that are harvest moon inspired. So... Look elsewhere. Look at core keeper. Look at magicians quest. Even games like slime rancher 2.
🤷 The games you seem to want ARE being made. Unless you specifically want the game to still copy harvest moons formula but... IDK... Make the theme entirely abstract? Cozy grove comes to mind but... IDK.
Imo, as an OG harvest moon and animal crossing fan I'll say there are more unconventional high quality life sims out NOW then ever.
LMAO acnh is not a social sim stop. The dialogue is awful. The game is 5 steps back from past animal crossings. And the fact you got so mad over cozy games is why i see you’d shill for a shitty version of animal crossing
Am i the only one who thinks farm games are NOT cozy at all?
They stress the hell out of me with the day time limit and seasonal changes (all crops dying!)
It’s definitely giving me cozy game fatigue to be honest! Nothing is making me go, “I MUST PLAY THIS!” And if they do, once I play it, it’s just like “Meh.”
That's why (cozy) games that try something new often are my favs (like Ooblets and Spiritfarer). But Animal Crossing is and will always be very special to me.
I had this idea (like I know how to code) to make a game with a travel mechanic where I would use real-world locations as inspiration. This game I can see so well with its souvenirs you decorate your house with.
While I wait for Stardew 1.6 I've been getting my cozy 'fix' with My Time at Sandrock and been loving it so far, less farming and more building, that said my ultimate 'cozy' game won't come out til march... Dragon's Dogma 2 Baybee! Aside from farming it has all the same things... crafting, romance, exploration, mining, fighting... instead of raising animals you raise talkative pawn companions - beautiful lol... and instead of a dead grandpa we get our heart torn out. In all seriousness, Sandrock is a great time and called out to me more than Coral Island has - I may give it a try later down the line, but the building up a town aspect is more satisfying than the ''farming game = Cozy" worn out formula.
They should add Yoshi to Coral Island, that would get me to play it
because they’re all copying harvest moon or animal crossing
This was a good explanation. Love your sense of humour as well!
a huge issue w all these farming games is they dont give a reason to progress, the gameplay loop is always so half-baked. rune factory was a genius idea and its insane that the only farming game weve seen inspired by that (afaik) has been harvestella. obviously stuff like stardew and fae farm took inspiration from rune factory too, but those devs clearly just saw combat as an extra rather than a key element of the gameplay loop. rune factory is the only farming series i havent grown tired of and its because the devs realised that a farming game needs more than just attending crops. i would love to see farming in games be treated as a core aspect while not being the ONLY aspect of the gameplay
Need a "shit in the wild and don't die of cholera" cozy game. 😊
sooooo Don't Starve minus the fear that tonight is the night the hounds will come?
Honestly one of the biggest ones for me is the cast is actually super diverse and openly representative. Not to mention actually interesting. I'm an ethnic minority and so whenever I see games that are still popular in 2023 with an all white cast without some lore reason it actually just makes me feel really disconnected from it and kinda unincluded. As much as I like all the QOL and graphic updates to Coral island I think the thing that made my heart happiest was the npc's in it and the festivals that weren't just plain and a bland ego boost. They're interactive and really go all out. By far the best festivals out of any farm sim I've ever played.
I think my favorite cozy game as of recently has been Dinkum, I like it alot so far
Yoku's Island Express is a cozy game that is wholly unique, being an open world, pinball, action/adventure, metroidvania... thing, lol. Man I wish I could both play that game for the first time again, and get a sequel to it. Bought it on a whim because it was dirt cheap on Switch and was blown away that I had never heard of it before. How are more people not talking about it? Real under the radar gem.
And I 100% agree that the Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons games feel hollow ever since i played Stardew. I used to enjoy them, but I really don't anymore. Stardew just did what they did so much better that it feels like... why bother? I'd rather just replay Stardew.
First, a recommendation for 2 games I consider cozy that are not traditional and have no farming: merchant of the skies (kind of like the Tradewinds games for anyone that knows them) and heaven’s vault (exploring worlds, learning to interpret an ancient language for clues, thinking through puzzles- and while the main storyline will be the same each time, you have multiple choices with each conversation that lead to different options, different clues you might not get otherwise)
Things I look for in cozy games:
Game speed/reduced consequences of not having the PERFECT routine to get everything done each day and each season. Coral island lets you adjust the speed, Wylde Flowers the season doesn’t change until you change it, DDLV there’s no sleep and no seasons, you just carry food or deal with the monotony of running home when you’re out of stamina, Yonder you can play for an entire in game season without sleeping. I choose cozy games for chill- I do not want to be stressed or annoyed at myself if I run out of time in the day or season to do something important.
Foraging is my favourite skill/mechanic in almost every game that offers it. In most games it costs no stamina, and if they do it right, finding some of the ones that blend in more is very satisfying. It’s not a good way to get rich in any of the games I’ve played, so I still have to do other things, but it’s still fun for me.
Exploration and variety. Give me all the plants and animals and colours etc, just give me as much variety as you can without breaking the game or making it ugly. Waterfalls and rivers and lakes and ponds and towns and cities and vast wild areas of every type.
I like games with magic/alchemy/crafting mechanics, where they don’t make it too tedious.
I like the idea of games that are heavily focused on clothes or decorating and landscaping etc, but I’m picky about the aesthetics of what I like, and I figure most people are and tastes vary a lot, so I can see how it’s hard to make a good game in that space.
For me the coziest gaming experiences I've had in the past year weren't in cozy games, things like hiking over green hills in Death Stranding, chatting with coworkers about how our jobs suck in Hardspace Shipbreaker, and listening to records in the hotel lobby in Lies Of P. I want games with cozy moments like that, not another stupid farm sim or house designer, not another "I moved away from the big city to find myself" game, for me cities are cozy but so few "cozy" games take place in urban areas! I know Death Stranding isn't urban but it also doesn't have that "small town charm" thing that SO many indies do nowadays. I grew up in a small town, I left that small town, I AM SICK OF SMALL TOWNS! The city of Krat from Lies Of P is a city with a vibrant culture and art districts, and when you listen to the records you collect it's like you're a part of it all, a tourist of a new exciting place! And so many cozy games have you winning at capitalism, but there's a camaraderie in being on the bottom rung with one another, helping each other out. Hardspace Shipbreaker has that in spades; you aren't some new godlike specimen who moved to town and conquered every friendship and business, you're just a worker at a crummy job, finding the silver lining with the people in the same boat.
I dunno where that rant was going, I'm just tired of farming and small towns and feeling like I have to have money to be happy even in game.
1:12 I feel called out
I only picked up Stardew all those years ago ( jeez nearly 7 ! ) because I loved Harvest Moon as a kid.
I read about it, thought “aw that reminds me of Harvest Moon” and now I own it on three separate platforms !!! Do I want a clone of this “clone” ? Nope !
I prefer coral island over stardew because of the control over time passing in-game
Have you tried roots of pacha
farming has never been all that interesting to me, honestly. cozy games appeal because i don't get enjoyment out of fighting mechanics, but more often than not farming in games just becomes a chore.
i go to easygoing games for mechanics such as collecting things (i.e. ac's museum), for forming relationships with fictional characters, for an escape to a world that is pretty and pleasant to be in. genshin impact and league of legends intrigue me because of the lore and the characters they have, and i don't see why that has to be tacked onto other mechanics, like relationships and people are interesting in, and of themselves.
it's a really wild dream, but i wish there was some kind of game where you were a librarian of sorts, or just a game centered around books. like maybe you're tasked with restoring an ancient library, you have to track down and organise volumes, you'd get insight into the authors' lives and thoughts whilst they were making their works. or maybe there would be a more fantastical twist where you track down forbidden texts in a fantasy realm, to uncover the history of magic and the reason why it was outlawed from public knowledge.
ideas like that are out there, but _books_ are what i find cosy, and i think there's untapped potential in exploring how integral storytelling is to humanity, as a form of communication, or teaching, or connection. and i think defining cosy as farming, or daily chores that replace real life ones is a misstep. i really enjoy animal crossing, but i struggle to get into and stay into stardew. i also love games like spiritfarer, where the concept is somber, and more adult in places, but the core idea of doing things at your own pace is still intact, or slime rancher where you're learning about these fictional creatures as well as making money because thye're cute and their poop sells for a lot.
i have hope that the genre will get its feet under itself, that now that there is a clear market for games like harvest moon and stardew and animal crossing, that steps can be taken to flesh it into something other than cases of thinly disguised plagarism.
??? There has been a market for farming sims for a very long time. Stardew got popular BECAUSE there was a desire, and after the story of seasons/harvest moon split fiasco there was a serious desire for that classic experience.
I’m with you on the books, and that sounds like an amazing game.
You might (maybe) enjoy heaven’s vault- you get asked to go looking for your old mentor’s missing partner, and the gameplay involves multiple choice conversations where your options depend on your previous choices, exploring multiple worlds with different cultures, and learning to understand an ancient language- you find fragments at a time, you choose what you believe a word means, and it will read as that every time unless a later phrase makes you reassess- and to travel between planets your ship acts like windsurfing, with solar winds you need to lean into or away from. Also, the character you play has their own history with some of the places you go, and you discover more of their backstory and their relationships as you travel and investigate.
That "heavy inspiration" quote when you were talking about Coral Island must have been a reference to that video made by Charles The French named "DID THE STOKES TWINS COPY US?" where he said "HEAVILY inspired" on that vid.
Not really a cozy game but I really really love the farming in Sakuna Of Rice and Ruin.
There are multiple process and depth in Farming than just watering every day. Plus, it's also an action game and since you are the god of rice. the stat of your farm also the stat of your character in combat.
The game only have Action and Farming mechanic but it blends together so well and having so much depth to it both.
Playing it, I realize I didn't enjoy Farming in Cozy game all that much. I just love the town people and always trying to quickly pass through these minigame just to progress the story.
Our upcoming cozy game Button City Soccer Days is all about a cute animal soccer team so I think it's a little bit different... though maybe we should add a farming mechanic just for kicks.
Thanks for another great video ! Would love to pick your brain one day about my game design. Will def follow the comments about what people would like to see :)
Hey Koramora , if you like cleaning trash in games, there is a game where you have to do that before you can farm or can go to certain spots. It's a game from 2022. For me it was really satisfying and it has an end to it.
What I have been doing is stepping outside my comfort zone. I went from Baldurs Gate 3 to Cyberpunk to finally finishing Persona 5, in Xenoblade 1. Somehow the diversity became the comfort! Because each game was so different each got to shine and made the gaming landscape seem more powerful and satisfying.
Same I have recently decided to step outside of my cozy gaming comfort zone as I’ve found a lot of cozy games to be a bit samey and wanted more of a challenge.really got into tears of kingdom and Baldur gate. Baldurs gates turn based combat system actually feels pretty relaxing!
I actually prefer the pixel art style of stardew over the way coral island and other newer cozy games seem to often have. it reminds me of the like modern corporate art style...
I felt this in more core. I don’t like coral island or fae farm- I almost feel left out because of the hype over both of them. But, I am just over farm sims. I’m enjoying spirittea right now and waiting for my little blood cult to release next week. I’m excited for little nightmares 3 and silksong next year. I just can’t be bothered with another one of the same game. Excited to see some different types of cozy games next year.
Spirittea is too lacking on the gameplay front IMO. There's no real mechanical interaction with running the bathhouse other than seating the different spirits.
It needed to "gameify" more of the day-to-day operation of the bathhouse, as it is, it's kind of just putting pegs into holes and standing around waiting.
The only game that i prefer over Stardew is Fae Farm. It is quite similar, but with so many QOL that when i get back to sdv from fae farm, it feels so difficult and annoying at times.
You sound no better than the dudebros who dumped thousands of hours into GTA and Minecraft and only buy the newest CODs, Fifas, NBA2Ks, and whatever only to call modern video games boring when they have never played anything else in the past decade and a half.
I agree with you on so much of this. I've skipped a lot of these games actually. But I *really* enjoyed Cult of the Lamb - I thought it was a perfect example of how to make a fun (and funny) "cozy" game without just semi-plagerizing Stardew
Edit: but I don't want my overall support of this entire message to get lost in that one minor point. Our brains crave routine but thrive on a degree of novelty. Most games have me either bored or overwhelmed - maybe I am due to go be terrible at Valorant for a while too
Stardew valley is not an original game or idea. It's already "semi plagiarism". Younger people who are just now entering this genera through stardew always talk like stardew somehow INVENTED this genera. Like its only popular bc of stardew. Stardew is a fantastic entry point, but it's not the best farming sim experience. That would be rune factory imo.
@@digitalclown2008 I fear I'm about to make a mistake engaging on this, but let's find out! I think everyone is (edit: most people are) pretty aware that Stardew was heavily inspired by the Harvest Moon games (it's been said by the creator enough, and was said in the video). I guess it depends on how you define "young people" - I'm around Kora's age and old enough to have been around for the lifespan of Harvest Moon/SoS. And don't really consider myself that young, but maybe you're engaging with actual youths.
Stardew and Rune Factory (the latter of which admittedly I haven't played any of, but maybe I will) are different branches of the Harvest Moon tree, right? That seems like a good thing to me
I tried to get into Stardew Valley but it just isn't for me.
I wonder if i should try Stardew Valley again. I didn't really like the aesthetic of the game plus the plot and characters felt plain to me, or not enough to get interested in. But did complete it back when multiplayer was a new patch and i do know theres new updates so maybe it's changed enough to try again.
I do love Coral Island and Palia so maybe i should give SV another shot.
Time to go blow some ish up in Fallout 4 again! Wooooo! :P Also Mario Wonder is AMAZINGLY fun!
Stardew Valley is missing good graphics. That’s why I would never play it. So yes, bring on the clones
I just want to say I’m honored that I have a second long cameo in this video. I can now say I am in a Koramora video 😭👏
Shoutout to the RUclips search bar for showing me when you look up Coral island
literally like the second video 😂
I'm trying to make my own cosy game, actually. I won't go into too much detail about it coz I'm worried about copycats, but it's a virtual pet homage that covers issues such as loneliness, neglect and getting the strength and support to move on from losing an old friend. And you can adopt and look after your own v-pets too. That's the cosy part.
Ooo good luck
@@SweetAsSugarr Thank you so much!! ^-^
I'm making a cozy game set in space, with focus on space exploration :) 🚀
I literally had the same exact visceral reaction to coral island being identical to Stardew I literally stopped playing because of it
it seems like people (especially game producers and devs) think that a cozy game = farming sim. which has resulted in soo many games having similar farming mechanics and it being overdone. I like seeing cozy games that aren't related to farming and are unique in some way. A few examples: venba, melatonin, sticky business, unpacking, lake and stray (this was cozy to me lol, I like playing as animal).
Another reason for games taking elements and sometimes whole concepts from existing games is that it is easier to explain your idea to other people if your audience shares a frame of reference. "It's a sandbox game with no clear end or win condition, no combat, no pre-written story" proved highly successful with SimCity and The Sims, but both were seen as weird oddballs before release. Way easier to tell publishers, investors, general audiences, "It's the next [insert successful game here]" or "It's a [genre that has already been shown to work well as an indie game]" or, maybe, "It's [this thing] meeting [this other thing]". And this is not unique to video games.
My observation/prediction is that "The Sims"-like life simulation games are the next type of game were there was nothing for a long time (besides the original The Sims franchise, that is) and in the near future there will be a bunch of games hitting the market around the same time. Life by You and Tiny Lives are in early access right now, Paralives has been posting development updates for years, Nintendo fans screaming for a sequel to Tomodachi Life might get their wish at some point (though this is more of an adjacent genre), and seemingly every other month RUclips gets flooded with a bunch of videos about yet another Sims competitor, the most recent one being InZOI. At the moment it does not look as overcrowded as the farming game genre, and maybe multiple games for different target audiences will mean less pressure on the devs of one specific game to include every feature while also running on every old PC. But there probably won't be "the next The Sims" that completely takes the market away from EA, or from each other. There will be multiple games.
Please look into the professor Layton series. It's a cosy game without farming or money making. And it's only a Nintendo exclusive.
i LOVE the Professor Layton games. Really excited for the next one to release!
@@koramora Ahhh!!! I'm so glad you've played them! Theses just something so charming about the series and the storys are so well done!!! I really hope we'll get a port of the original games before New world of steam.
Stardew is great. Palia is still my favorite.
It definitely gets tiring seeing games that feel the same.
I got bored of Coral Island after about 40 hours. It just felt like I’ve played it before
Have you tried playing Dragon Quest Builders 2?
Have you tried My Time At Portia or Sandrock? Idk if you made a video about it but Sandrock is technically better than Portia.
I can’t seem to get into stardew valley
Palia is now quite controversial.
Cozy games…..
I uninstalled Coral Island after a few hours of playing. I really wanted to love it, but the developers are just hell bent on wasting a players time. I'm someone who legit hated Harvest Moon. I spent a lot of summers being absolutely frustrated with Harvest Moon on PS2, and I never got to enjoy it because of being forced to prioritize marriage over the farm. My best friend had to convince me to give SDV a try. I ended up enjoying the fishing mini game, and came around to progressing the river farm. I hate the mines, but I just liked that I had some means of getting around certain mechanics I didnt enjoy. Could not do that with Coral Island. Developers prioritize making the game an absolute chore.
Best cozy games are slime rancher and Acnh
Fire ♨now ❤❤❤❤❤
So many games take a lot from Stardew Valley, I wish they would take the pricing as well lol 😢
dude you built your entire channel off of cosy games now all you do is make videos complaining about them now that they’ve lost the 2020 hype. it comes off really negative and inauthentic
i still like animal crossing though lol
Seems to me that you tried too many farm sims at the same time or very close to each other and now you're a bit burned out. I haven't played Stardew Valley so I never got into CI with expectations and since this is the only farm sim genre game I play, I also enjoy the experience a lot. And whenever I get itchy because there's not much action going on, I just switch to HP: Magic Awakened to satisfy my competitiveness.
There's too many samey games out
There appears to be some MAJOR borderline copyright infringement going on here...
I think there are way to many farming games now, there are few that even tack farming on to game for seemingly no reason other than to capitalize on the trend. I usually go for action/adventure games with the rare exception being animal crossing so it looks even worse when you're on the outside of a trend.
Honestly, this whole point is just gonna get a lot worse from now on with the dawn of large AI models.
Think about it, AIs learn from current human knowledge to remix it into "new" content. This just creates an endless loop of the same contents being reworked over and over.
Coral Island's portrait art is a type I just... Really dislike. It's this generic, very common style that seems popular, but I hate. A lot of indie games seem to adopt it as well, I am not sure why, but it's so unlikeable to me, and since it's so common, feels incredibly generic.
Iirc with Coral Island the art style is based on Disney’s 2D art style, so it makes sense that such an art style wouldn’t be unique. Mind you I could be misremembering where I heard that so it might not be the case
Coral Island has been real quiet since this video dropped…
Just transition to a Minecraft channel already
NGL my eyes roll every time I see another game described as a "cozy" game. To me it just equates to "this game is not exciting or engaging"
Yup, picked up coral island as well with the hope that the romance and different environnement would make it more special than the other million other stardew copies only to find out Coral Island ripped off the most of SV🤣 there is a lot of cute stuff it does, but its unfinished, the romance nonexistant (yet) and is just... dissapointing. Still willing to wait for the updates, but SV is the best and the only Farm Sim I like. I want othee cozy games that DONT INVOLVE FARMING. Make it about shops, or building shit or something, im too jaded by crazy amount of farm sims.
Call me whatever for my opinion, but i think they tend to suck because they're only aiming to impress preteen girls with them..... People generally like genres of any form of media when they give them variety. I'm a 35 year old woman and I've always been bored with cozy games since i can remember except with animal crossing and the sims category games. I mainly like animal crossing and sims type games because they're unique and very specific, they were also the OGs of their kind whereas other games like the many farming games seem to be copying each other and they all feel like they're aiming for the same exact demographic.....
I'm tired of seeing the same characters, the same lack luster stories, the same chibi kawaii flat soulless characters and even the same types of people promoting them. They all feel like they're only made for 1 group of people that i'm not part of and i'm over it.
There are people i specifically subscribed to for just animal crossing content to get inspiration for my island building but every time they get into a new game i end up ignoring their content for months because i just don't care at all for the other games they play because they always feel the same, flat, boring, and i can tell they're going to be yet another pointless fad that people momentarily become obsessed with for like 2 weeks and then they get bored and move on from...
Is plagiarism not a thing in game development???
So many "cozy farm sims" meh.
• Dredge is a "cozy" fishing game with a sinister twist.
• FAR Lone Sails & Changing Tides are both so good 🥹✨️
• Sable offers a beautiful and unique story
Those are the kinda of "cozy" games I enjoy