Animal Crossing Fans! Keep An Eye Out For Cozy Grove

Cozy Grove will be coming out on April 8th for Nintendo Switch, PC, Xbox, PlayStation, and iOS. We talked about the game before but after reading a recent article by Gamasutra, we figured it was time to talk about the game again. What new things do we learn about the game and what does our Animal Crossing obsessed writer Daniel Fugate have to say about it?

Cozy Grove is another game, like Animal Crossing, Harvest Moon, Story of Seasons or Stardew Valley, that can be described as “wholesome”. It firmly in the simulation genre. And just like Animal Crossing…it runs on a real time clock.

In our previous article, we assumed it would run on a Harvest Moon sped up clock. That is not the case. In an article at Gamasutra, developer’s studio head talks about how they “we dole out those stories, of which we’ve written a couple dozen, in bite-sized chunks over the course of several months.”

We get to know the characters in the game inch by inch as if the game was a TV show. In fact the studio head said that “Hopefully the net result is an experience similar to following along with a TV series that you adore as it is being developed, or a web-comic you love as it is being written.”

I love how Animal Crossing does this. In New Horizons, our island starts out one way and over the course of months it transforms from an island into a full blown town. Of course Cozy Grove is a bit more story focused than Animal Crossing. It wants to you to get to know each of your neighbors, their back stories and to help them with their problems. That reminds me of Spiritfarer a bit. In fact, you could say that Cozy Grove is Animal Crossing meets Spiritfarer.

The studio head said that “one of your jobs is to restore color to the world, which you do in part by helping the ghosts on the island with whatever it is they are struggling with in the moment. Recoloring the island causes trees to sprout fruit, flowers to bloom, and that sort of thing. You can then harvest those items and use them to craft other items. One loop feeds another. ”

I’m very excited about the story and restoring that island. I also think its wonderful that there will be fishing, crafting, and other things to distract you. I am such a sucker for fishing in video games, so I hope its a great fishing mini-game. The easier it is, the more addicting in my opinion.

Overall, Cozy Grove looks like a game that Animal Crossing fans, especially, should keep an eye out for! This could be another game that you’ll want to check in on every day.

Cozy Grove will be out on April 8th! We’ll continue to the cover as much as possible. Are you looking forward to Cozy Grove?