Cozy Grove – Nindie Spotlight – Settle Down and Get Cosy

Howdy, all! Welcome to Saturday and another Nindie Spotlight. This time, we’re focusing on a game that is perhaps the most relaxing game I’ve ever played. But also one that is subtle in its approach. Welcome to your Nindie Spotlight for today – Cozy Grove.

Cozy Grove

Picture this. I’m scrolling through the ‘Coming Soon’ section of the Nintendo eShop, looking for new games to look forward to, when I notice a name that piques my interest straight away – Crazy Grove. The initial logo screen was all it took for me to want to see more. I’m so glad it did.

Cozy Grove is a life-sim game that is all about camping on a haunted island. Don’t worry, it’s not scary. In fact, it’s actually quite adorable. This island is haunted by cute, friendly, and somewhat helpful ghosts that seem to have lost their way. Your job is simple – help these spirits finish their stories and ultimately, help them move on.

So, who are you? You are what’s known as a Spirit Scout, sort of like the Scouts but for ghosts. You will wander the forest each day, completing tasks for the ghosts that linger here as well as exploring this ever-changing island.

Each spirit you come across in Cozy Grove has its own story; its own reason for being unable to move on from this island. It’s up to you to help them uncover their story and you will do this day-by-day. Each day, every spirit on your island will give you a single, random task to complete for them. Usually, requiring you to deliver an item to them or find an item. Upon completing this task, you will gain a log (I’ll explain about these shortly) and also the area surrounding that ghost will regain its colour.

See, each day when you start Cozy Grove, there is no colour. It’s a bland, lifeless area. The reason for this is unclear, but what is clear is that this island needs some colour! As the spirits become happier and more fulfilled, so does the island, and in doing so you are able to not only see more of what the island has to offer but able to collect more items that were before unseen.

As well as completing tasks for the spirits that occupy Cozy Grove, there are a lot of things you can do to pass the time. There’s foraging, fishing, crafting, and my personal favourite, decorating. Yep, you can decorate your island. You will be able to craft various decoration items (As well as receive them as rewards) that will add a little bit of personality to your island. Adding these to your own personal campsite will provide various perks or just simply makes it look better.

As I touched upon earlier, completing tasks will reward you with a log. But what’s so special about that? It’s a spirit log. You have your very own campfire. But not just any campfire, this one’s special. I mean, it has a face, it can talk, and its name is Flamey. This flame will consistently give you updates on what you should be doing and how many logs are on your island each day. Feed those logs to the flame and eventually, it will ‘level up’ and expand its light. This will also uncover more spirits for you to learn about.

Here’s the interesting thing. When I say ‘each day’ in Cozy Grove, I actually mean each day. See, this game takes a much more relaxed approach to gaming, limiting your playtime to not only extend your total time with the game but to also show you that there is more to life than playing games (I know, right?). Each day of ‘chores’ will last roughly around 60 minutes, then after that you can’t progress any further until the following day.

This will be something that will deter some people from playing, but for me it was perfect. I often get bored very easily and can get overwhelmed by having too much to do in a game. Playing this way allows the game to last months as apposed to days.

Two parts of Cozy Grove stand out to the player straight away – or at least, they did to me. These are the games art style and the soundtrack. This game features an extremely detailed, hand-drawn landscape that is incredibly pleasing to the eye. As for the soundtrack, it’s incredibly relaxing. It’s a soothing tune that’s enough to send a baby to sleep.

Cozy Grove is not a game that you should sleep on. If you’re into life-sim games and you want something that is extremely chill, then get downloading on this one. You won’t be disappointed.

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There we have it! There is your Nindie Spotlight on Cozy Grove. Join us next time for another brief look into the Nintendo Switch’s best Nindie titles. What are some of your favorite indie games? Let us know in the comments below! Thank you for visiting Nintendo Link. Happy gaming, everyone!