Cozy Grove Review-in-progress Part 2

In the first part of our Review-in-progress, I talked about Cozy’s Grove’s graphics. And now its time to talk more the actual gameplay and where I’m currently at in the game.

Cozy Grove isn’t just a simulation game. Its gameplay works on a real time clock, as mentioned before, but it has gameplay elements from two other genres: hidden object games and role playing games.

Let’s look at that hidden object aspect.

In Cozy Grove, you’ll be asked to find objects for the various ghosts that live on the islands. These objects will often be hidden either on the ground, under the ground, or some creature will have it. The island isn’t a huge place but with every ghost and setting thats uncovered, the island becomes more crowded. So finding items in this game can be challenging.

Thankfully there is a ghost who will actually point you right to items if you pay them money. Basically, pay the money and an arrow pops up that points you toward an item. If you have multiple items to find, you can’t pick which item that the arrow points you to. Its very random. Still, you can actually find all of the items with this help if you are really stuck or just lazy. I’ve used it a lot.

And then there’s the rpg aspect of the game. I guess this aspect isn’t exclusive to rpgs but I think a lot of us tend to think rpg when we think about this. What am I talking about? Fetch quests of course!

Not only are you finding hidden items, you are fetching them, giving them back to the ghosts and then the next day you’ll get another fetch quest. The fetch quests are not just for hidden items though. Sometimes you’ll have to buy an item or collect crafting material to make an item.

If you don’t like hidden object games and/or fetch quests, then you won’t like Cozy Grove. Finding items and fetching stuff is a lot of the gameplay so far.

Sure there’s fishing, crafting stuff, buying stuff, and putting furniture outside. And everything you do will continue to earn you badges which also helps you make money.

Cozy Grove has the elements of a simulation game. However the hidden objects and fetching seem to be more important than anything else. At least so far. I am hoping that eventually there will be more types of gameplay available.

Currently I’m still pretty early on in the game. There are a lot of ghosts hanging about now but the game is 40+ hours long and there is no way I’ve put in that much time in yet.

The game will typically only let you play about 20-30 minutes each day, though if you are having trouble finding stuff it might take you a little longer than that. And the hidden objects challenge is getting harder. So is finding crafting material.

I did run into my first special visitor yesterday! This was a ghost that was just stopping by the island, much like we see in Animal Crossing New Horizons. I’m hoping that there are more special events like this and maybe even some holidays too. Hopefully as the game goes along there will be more things to do and see in Cozy Grove.

Cozy Grove is a cute, neat game. I like checking in on it each day. Though its not Animal Crossing or Harvest Moon. Its a simulation game that also has you advancing a story with hidden objects and fetching stuff. There will be some people who do not like that. I’m not sure how I’ll feel about the game in the end if it just remains finding objects and fetching stuff all the way through.

Next week on our Review-in-progress, I’ll check in and let you know how the game is progressing. Am I still finding and fetching things? Have there been any special events or cool new gameplay elements? I think I’ll talk about the game’s controls too and I may even give Cozy Grove an initial review score. This won’t be the final review score, that won’t happen for months most likely, but the initial score will be based on what I’ve played so far and how highly I recommend the game.

Please stay tuned to GamesReviews.com for more on Cozy Grove and other simulation games.

By the way, if you want to get a look at gameplay footage of Cozy Grove, check out Adam Roffel’s youtube channel. He’ll be streaming the game some. His first Cozy Grove stream can be found here.

Thank you to The Quantum Astrophysicists Guild for providing a digital code for this review. Cozy Grove is now available on the Nintendo Switch eshop!