"Cozy" games: do you enjoy, and your favorites?

I spent far too long fishing in red dead 2 if that counts.

I love fishing games...

Well, most of the time. lolol :P

Yeah I think that's definitely something that can count towards the "cozy game" vibe lol

I found myself fishing in WoW for a period of time recently until I was like "OK why am I doing this?". I think that's when I decided to cancel my sub; I had officially ran out of meaningful things to do.

I don't play that many relaxing games. I don't even play that many RTS or city builders anymore.

But I guess platformers still do it for me. Mario games are nice and easy, but they can also kill you in one hit if you fall down a bottomless pit. I like that kind of "ease you in but punish you really hard" style.

Anyway I just bought Flock because Capcom is delisting it, gonna give it a try tonight :)

Adventure games like Harold Halibut.

Most recently that game for me was Dave the Diver.

Real cozy. And after fishing, you went and executed some cowboys, right?

Hehe.

I enjoyed Soccer Story. Real cozy game. Relaxing music, charming old'-school 2D graphics and mostly slow-paced gameplay. What's not to like?

Minecraft and No man's sky are probably the two cozy games I've spent most time in... Games where I feel mostly non threatened but have task oriented work to do.... Ahhh....

Lightyear Frontier is on my wishlist to look into since I enjoy building sim games. Banished is a classic builder and Patron is a newer, upgraded Banished. More recently I've gotten into Satisfactory which is a super in depth factory builder on other planets, and Timberborn which is a solid builder with with - you guessed it- BEAVERS.

My best friend loves Animal Crossing. She has sunk well over 1k hours into that game on her Nintendo Switch. She told me that the game had a co-op feature, so I had the idea that I should get the game and play with her some time. I purchased it full price at GameStop. It started off well enough. I slowly got rid of grass to make a clearing for my house, but it was taking so long. And then I found out I could get a lawn mower!! Spent some time trying to get it, but I eventually did. Then I found out that Animal Crossing is a house decor game with little to no interactivity with the items you get, such as the lawn mower. BORING!!!! I need objectives to stay interested in a game.

tl;dr Cozy game ain't my jam.

Same here, been enjoying it so far.

I've answered this type of question in Games Discussion weeks ago, so I'll just copy/paste my answer here.

Just playing anything helps me relaxed but if I want to play a real relaxing game, games like No Man's Sky and Yu-Gi-Oh: Legacy of the Duelist Link Evolution are my main games for relaxing but playing Yu-Gi-Oh truly helps me relaxed more so. Animal Crossing: New Horizons is truly the ultimate relaxing, cozy game you can get is one one of my favorites to play.

I dabble in these. Played some Sim Ant and Sim City back in the day, but the first deep dive I remember was the Chow Gardens in the Sonic Adventure games. I think going back and forth between that and the sonic levels was what really kept me hooked. Each part provided a bit of respite from the other.

Have tried a bit of Animal Crossing, Sims, Harvest Moon and had a good time, but usually fall off after a while. The one dedicated cosy game where I played through the whole story mode is Endless Ocean: Blue World. Looking forward to Luminous, but the procedurally generated world has me worried.

There are this kind of story telling platformers that are more about telling you a story or easing you into a certain atmosphere than they are about punishing gameplay:

Braid, Limbo, Somerville, etc

I think Harold fits that category as well?

Glad to hear someone else finally playing it here besides myself. Indie gem certified.

In reality the Tomb Raider games, the proper ones, are slow paced with very little action. It's one of the great lies in gaming that it's a fast paced action game, like Ghost pretending Metro isn't Call Of Duty in a tunnel. or OOT being the best game ever made.

So.....just casual games? lol sure why not.

I do enjoy dabbling in “cozy” games from time to time. Really like playing Minecraft and puzzle type games.

Dabble. I liked Flower and Abzu, but they both have moments of tension. Darkfall was a fairly hardcore MMO with full loot. So you had to keep your head on a swivel looking for jerks trying to gank you and stealing all your stuff. That said, I too had a wonderful moment fishing. It was just a pretty area in the middle of nowhere, and it felt great to calmly sit down and perform a simple task. The juxtaposition of this with the real threat in the world felt great.

I tried Stardew but couldn't get into it. I get why people like it, and there were moments, but I knew I didn't want to sink that much time and effort into that world.

Not for me, nah. But I have nothing against them.

No not explicitly casual. I wouldn't lump a factory builder like Factorio or Satisfactory in there as those games can induce some stress when your supply chain breaks down or your plan didn't quite come together. Though I'd still consider those titles mostly-casual since there isn't really anything to beat, it's just a sandbox (though definitions of course vary).

I'm referring strictly to the "cozy" casual label I've seen pop up lately; your Stardew Valleys, your Dave the Divers, your Lightspeed Frontiers, and so on and so forth.

Yes I know I am being nitpicky 😁

Definitely on my list! I heard great things.

Banished had some serious challenge to it though, and is arguably a survival game.

I don't know if an outright survival game really counts as "cozy" or "casual".

I get it, though; I play games like that to relax too so I guess it could count. But if anyone comes in here telling me they think Frostpunk is casual, well....

Never got into Stardew Valley, but may try it one day. I tried Dave the Diver a few months back and the gameplay loop was really fun.

I’ve never actually played any of those kinds of games, if I want to just veg out and relax to a game I’ll play magic the gathering: Arena or something turn based.

Coral Island (also on Game Pass).

It is a surprisingly good game, with a really compelling story and characters. I did not expect that at all. Its supposed to be a farming game, but its also a bit of a life sim, as there are a ton of characters to interact and build relationships with.

I went into it testing it for my son and fell in love with it.

You guys should definitely try it if you have Game Pass

I would say the coziest games I play are Forza Horizon because you can just drive and have fun going over jumps, flying down the highway at top speed, drifting and just having a good time.

Oh other games I say is like that and that's Just Cause 3 & 4, just messing around with the tethers like knee camping a person, hook a tether up to them, then hook the other end to a gas cylinder and shooting it only to see it take off into the air with the guy attached, just good old relaxing fun. Or attaching one end of the tether to your car and the other end to a wind turbine and it shoot you and the car miles into the air, you just can't beat it for fun.

@mrbojangles25: Yeah, it's a shame Gamespot didn't bother reviewing Dave the Diver. I know some people here live and die by the Gamespot review, but everywhere else including IGN raved about it, and even more popular with audiences.

Definitely want to spread the word that Dave the Diver is worth it, since Gamespot couldn't do it.

I thought I like farming sims but I just have immense nostalgia for Harvest Moon Back to Nature. I could play that game (and its remakes, enhanced ver, gba ver) for long stretch and not get bored.

Really enjoyed Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Very cozy game indeed.

fallout 4 specifically settlement building, mod in additional assets, build anywhere and dump a bunch of crafting resources into my inventory, let the creativity go from there.

haha ya I did that the other day. Gotta love console commands.

I like Bejeweled. It's easy to get into, yet hard to master.

I play Animal Crossing sometimes, which is just pure cozy. Otherwise I find many other games I like cozy, such as Valheim. Yeah, you can go and slay a giant troll, but you can also build upon your neat little cottage in the forest with nice weather and calming music. Or when you set sail in Wind Waker or Phantom Hourglass and then set foot on a calm island. Cozy af.

Wish there were more cozy stuff I liked. Tried Stardew Valley, but it made me more stressed than Doom.

What are you 10?....gsus. But if you are, i can understand lol.