Feel free to follow my cozy games curator page!
🇫🇷 Premières impressions, plus complètes et illustrées, aussi disponibles en français sur mon blog![rabgon.substack.com]

I rarely write and post reviews of brand-new games I’ve just started, but this time I feel like it. The last demo doesn’t do justice to the full game. A shame since many people have a wrong idea of what the game really is. Even I was a bit worried about the direction the game was going because of the demo (seemingly very small map, not much lore…).
I got the game as soon it was released, as I’ve been waiting for it ever since I first heard about it years ago. One of my most anticipated cozy games of the last decade!
So far, this is exactly what I expected. I love it. This is soothing, beautiful, and I know I’ll stick with it for hours and hours, even though… there are quite some design decisions (or lack thereof) that look like big oversights in this type of game.

---

• This is absolutely GORGEOUS! Not surprised here, as I’ve followed the artists' progress. Environments and houses are filled with handcrafted elements and lots of details. A LOT of time, care, and love were poured into designing the game's aesthetics. I’ve never seen NPCs' houses designed with so much detail. I've spent a whole in-game day visiting all the houses just for admiring them!
  
• The map isn’t tiny at all, it’s HUGE: to the point I’m getting lost all the time, lol… I’m relieved it’s not as tiny as I thought from the demo, but I’ve never opened a map so often in a game. On one hand, I’m happy the world's vast, on the other hand, it’s annoying to frequently have to check the map 'cause I don’t know where I am lol.
  
• No penalty for passing out: you just get teleported to your house for the next night without losing money nor inventory! 
  
• In-game time seems to pass way slower than in similar games.
  
• Lore without being a visual novel: characters are introduced through their own stories. Outside of cinematics, the NPCs don’t have much to say, which can be a letdown for some types of players, but I don't mind (like I didn't in Fae Farm).
  
• Tutorial/progression through stories: the more stuff you unlock and progress toward is directly attached to residents' stories. Many cutscenes lead to quests you have to fulfill, which usually unlock new features, places and mechanics (like making copper bars). If you can't reach some place or do something yet, don't worry, you will at some point.
  
• Basic tools (unbreakable), crafting and cooking are available from the beginning!
  
• Love the way those chibi characters express themselves. It’s funny, detailed, and different.
  
• Great cast of characters: I usually don't care about NPCs, but here I do!
  
• Full in-game keybinding.

---

Note that I know the game just released, which is the best time for feedbacks. I’m not expecting nor demanding to see them added right away. Overall, I'm quite surprised of many things missing.

• Manual save: PLEASE! Saving only at sleep is an outdated mechanic not matching current audience needs (adults with stuff to attend to unexpectedly, or any reason forcing to quit the game before the current day ends, etc.). Their response to this is, I quote: “This [manual save] was attempted but it caused full corruptions of saves which is worse. We'd rather you lose some progress than having to completely start over”. Hope they can figure it out as other indie devs did before them.
  
• A mini-map toggle: with quests/NPCs marks/pins.
  
• Better sound effects mixing: even at 30%, there are still SFX sounds that are way too loud and grating.
  
• Better inventory/storage/crafting/cooking information, filtering and sorting options, and selling price.
  
• Showing how much time do things take: such as crafting, and for crops in the inventory (how much days until they're totally grown). I'm quite suprised those basic info aren't there yet. Devs replied this is indicated in the almanac but we shouldn't have to jump into menus, or run back to the shop, to know such simple info.
  
• Pinning quests/crafting requirements: having to go back to your house/farm, or to wait for the carpenter shop to open to check doesn't make sense. Lots of the game currently requires good memory for too much basic stuff, which is overwhelming, especially for someone with ADHD.
  
• Less time-consuming fishing: I do appreciate that fishing is mind-numbingly easy in the game, but it takes too long… The pattern is always the same (I fell asleep while fishing in a row…).
  
• Better relationship tracking: hearts are either completely empty or filled, instead of a progressive filling.
  
• Better stamina usage & bug catching: trying to catch a bug and failing uses stamina. Just swinging the net uses some. Catching bugs is a tad hard and unbalanced compared to fishing. A sneaking mechanic would be appreciated!
  
• Food should give more stamina.
  
• Day of the week in the clock.
  
• Retina compatibility for macOS: resolution is stuck at 1512 x 982 pixels, half my screen resolution, which makes everything a tad blurry.

---

• Outdoors and house indoors are incredibly detailed, but lack… interactivity? You can’t do anything outside of sitting, and admiring. Maybe that’s my “zillennial” brain enjoying having a lil’ phrase when clicking on some items like back in old RPGs. That’d add so much more to NPCs' personality/lore.

---

• Loading times: they are long and terribly frequent… Every single time you enter or go out of a building or map area. Apparently, this is a known issue impacting all platforms, and the devs are already looking into it!
  
• No French, nor Spanish, nor Portuguese.
  
• NPCs teleport themselves within seconds. I’m looking for them on the map, go toward them, I reach the place, and they’re suddenly at the complete opposite side of the map, or nowhere to be found…

---

After following development for 4 years, the price feels justified to me. I've played for 14 hours and barely scratched the surface.
Regional pricing is another matter, and that's on the publisher (Marvelous), not Little Chicken Studio.
Comparing the game to Stardew Valley isn't very meaningful nor fair. SV launched under completely different circumstances, sold millions of copies, and ConcernedApe no longer faces the same financial realities as a small studio releasing simultaneously on 5 platforms nowadays.
Whether the game is worth the price is subjective, but claiming the developers are greedy or that the game has no value before even experiencing it is not fair. From what I've played, this easily feels like a ±50 hours long game.

---

The game just released, and I know I’ll spend so much time in Moonlight Peaks (this is big for me since I can’t stick to long games as much as I used to). For now, this is exactly what I expected, I love it, but I’m quite surprised by some game design decisions and many oversights (hence the long QOLs list), especially in this day and age of video gaming.
Nevertheless, I still enjoy the game how it is, and hope for QOLs. I don’t expect the team to implement all of them in a snap of fingers. In the meanwhile, I’ll keep playing what we have for now, and can’t wait to learn more about Moonlight Peaks and its quirky residents.

Despite all I've said above, I do love it so much! ♡

For other honest cozy games reviews, feel free to follow my curator page: Rabgon’s Cozy Corner ♡ ~ 🇫🇷 Review également dispo en français sur mon blog ![rabgon.substack.com]

After +200 hours, I’ve finally achieved the last achievement; and I think it’s the perfect time to finally review Spirit City, a productivity tool game that may be considered the pioneer of this subgenre of full-screen idler focus tool.

With similar games on the market (Gogh, Chill with You, Ithya, etc.), this one stands out with its high-quality visuals, richness of customisation and creative freedom, and, evidently the goal of the game: finding and collecting all Spirit critters through your different activities, your location in the room, lighting and background sounds.

As for “active” activities, there are none. Your character will do whatever activity you tell them to, but there aren’t actions required by the players, no mini-games or anything.

This is a 100% distraction-free focus tool with a Pomodoro, a to-do list, an habit tracker and a diary.

---

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3717966852

For in-game currency and leveling up, you get some automatically every minute the game is running (you’ll get more when you discover new spirits, check a list item, let the pomodoro run…). For critters, there are hints to find them that are unlocked through leveling up.

To find and discover new spirits, there are different conditions to meet depending on the spirit; of course, those are more and more complex the farther you are in the game:

1. Room spot (desk, bed…)
   
2. Activity (typing, reading, relaxing…)
   
3. Time/light (morning, afternoon, evening, night)
   
4. Background sounds (fireplace, rain…)
   
5. Spirit to have with you (for DLC critters)

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3717967841

This game has helped me to… sleep again (insomniac here). Nighttime is kind of the only moment I can “play” the game without it to crash and quit (see “big issues” section below 🫠). The visuals and animations are soothing, not distracting. The background/ambiance sounds selection is rich; I let them run at low volume during the night.
As someone with ADHD, Spirit City (same as with “Chill with you”) has helped me keep focused on ONE task at a time. For the rare occasions I could let the game run without it crashing while doing anything else on my computer, it has helped me doing dull numbing tasks for work as well.

I adore customisation and decoration in video games, and this game has been a treat! You can decorate every room spot in detail, even saving custom colours to apply to other items. Same for your character, lots of body features and clothing options! You can save up to 5 decor and dress-up presets.

This creative freedom applies to the DLC locations as well (kitchen, garden, and train; the train is the most limited imho). Also, the spirits all have different colours!

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3717968616
I was a bit skeptical about those DLCs, wondering if the base game was the type to be affordable with not much content at launch, then filling up the content with paid DLCs that could have been in the base game. It’s not.
I’m personally OK with DLCs that do add quality content that extends the base game, not just cosmetics or micro-transactions sold as DLCs. In SC:LS, it’s a bit peculiar since the game is all about aesthetics, but they also do add additional locations that genuinely required a great amount of work.
What bothers me is that those DLCs are always discounted at the same cut.

Note that you don’t need any of the DLCs to 100% the game!

1. I’ve never had a game crashing so much. Either it simply doesn’t start, or it’ll crash then close for the most basic action within the game, or outside of it! (yes). The issue was already there months ago when I originally bought the game. I didn’t play it then, waiting for patches, but same problem to this day…

Is it because of my hardware? I don’t think so. If BG3, Cybperpunk, and No Man’s Sky can run just fine, GPU at max 70°C, and never ever crashing, I don’t see why SC:LS would. Some memory leak issue somewhere?

To be sure it won’t crash, I let it run with nothing else open on my computer, at night, 99% of the time. This is insane for a game that’s supposed to sit on a secondary monitor while you’re doing other things, like… working.


2. Impossible to use text fields in French (ditto for Portuguese): the character “^” will crash and close the whole game (it’s hitting Windows users too from what I’ve read). Forced to use it in English, but to be honest, I wanted to use the game (diary) in my own language for once… It’s such a shame because the French localisation of the game is very good otherwise.


3. I’ve contacted the team about those issues. They quickly opened a ticket on Discord, then… well, they ghosted me since they’ve never gotten back to me, even after I asked for a follow-up. Given these issues have apparently been known for a while, this is a big yikes to be ignored like that.

Fortunately, I was still able to enjoy it, but it was quite stressful to decorate or be about to discover a new Spirit just for the game to crash to my face. It runs on Steam Deck, but it makes it sound like a rocket launch (again, it’s fine with BG3 or CP2077) *shrug*.

---

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3717968072

I know I enjoy a game when I’m looking forward to having all its achievements. I usually don’t care about “100% games”, but this one has clear goals and achievements, and not stuff requiring whatever obscure stuff you would never think about.

Finding all the Spirits through hints was really fun! The game takes lots of time to “finish” so I didn’t mind to sometimes clicking randomly here and there until I heard the “ding” notification for a closeby new spirit.

I recommend both of these guides made by iamrure and November Brightshroom ♡
Despite the crashes, I really did enjoy it!