August and September had some good and bad when it comes to cozy game reviews. If you thought we were going to sail by August and not do a highlight reel, then don’t worry. We didn’t forget. We missed posting the August roundup because we were moving.

It took a long two weeks to get everything moved over and by the time we were done, it just made more sense to mash the two months together. Normally, we add links to news and press releases, but we’ll just focus on cozy game reviews, previews, and demos this go around.

August Cozy Game Review Roundup

Thank Goodness You’re Here! takes every weird thought you’ve ever had and makes it seem normal by comparison. It’s an experience more than anything and I would play this again time and time again. 

Love, Ghostie isn’t just a cute little matchmaking game. Everyone in the house is accepted and even celebrated for their different interests/traits. The art is charming, the dialogue is engaging, and I feel pretty fulfilled in the matches I made. While the game is short, the replayability nullifies that.

Gourdlets sought to create a hassle-free, “good vibes” sandbox city-builder and it mostly succeeded. I, personally, want more out of my games, but it was the controls that sucked out all the cozy potential this game had for me. It seems like I may have had a bug, though. So, the controls may be kinder to your gameplay experience.

Vampire Therapist, at its core, is a linear visual novel. But, as you meet more vampires, you just want to see how they resolve their problems by the end. The game is quirky, funny, and full of real-world therapy techniques that make you question if these characters feel more real than the game lets on.

While there’s not anything uniquely dissimilar to the previous installment, Myths and Magic; Hidden Through Time 2: Discovery was still fun to play. I enjoyed the new eras and liked returning to a familiar, chill gaming world.

September Cozy Game Review Roundup

I enjoyed getting to play around with Oddada. It doesn’t hide the fact that it’s not a game. So, if tinkering with a music maker isn’t your speed, you may want to skip this one. I’m not musical in any form, but I had fun making the most atrociously god-awful sounds all the same.

Rugrats: Adventures in Gameland is a nostalgic platformer that is great for a gamer that enjoys a heavy challenge, but may frustrate those that want something more relaxed. It’s probably safe to say that my enjoyment hinged on it being Rugrats. If it lacked the nostalgic wrapper, I’d probably have had a lot less fun.

If the execution was half as good as the ideas were for My Museum: Treasure Hunter, then it’d be a decent game. Unfortunately, there are innumerable issues that keep this from being a good title.

If you’re looking for a cozy exploration game, Caravan SandWitch is your next big obsession. I love how we unravel the story with every completed quest and I adore not being on rails for the gameplay. Things happen as I want and not in a guided way. 

Fabledom is pretty standard as far as colony-building sims go. It’s guided enough that you don’t have to be aware of everything, but you still need a strategic mindset when playing it to keep all resources stocked and your villagers happy.

If you’re looking for a really nice-looking glasses frame that feels comfortable on your head, the GUNNAR Plaid is not the worst thing you can choose. They are light, frame a face well, and don’t feel like they’re going to fall apart due to the material used. I give it high praise among the company’s more subtle offerings.

Preview: All I can is that I recommend TCG Card Shop Simulator if you’re into this genre. They’ve got a lot of things that they’re going to be adding before full release, so I expect the game to get even better.

Demo: I sank a good hour into Mystopia and had a lot of fun doing it, there’s not much substance game-wise. This is something you’ll grab if you just want to putter around and try to create things. It’s almost like a sandbox, but with a random generator attached.

Other

Neoduelers: Backpack Battler – So, I went into Neoduelers with the best of intentions. I’m normally not big on dueling, but I really liked the idea of dropping monsters into the blocks they fit in and letting them battle it out.

Unfortunately, I didn’t realize that the entire game was going to be tournament based and PVP only. As of September 30th, the listing on Steam doesn’t mention that you will lose progress and have to start over. This one simple fact of gameplay design kind of ruined the whole vibe for me.

Just when I’d start to get the hang of the monsters I was able to cultivate, I’d lose one too many battles resulting in all of my efforts being scrapped.

You buy monsters to battle with them and, if you’re lucky, you’ll make a good team that works well together and fuse some higher-level monsters. What you may not realize at first – I certainly didn’t – is that the battles aren’t the game. The battles add up to either a loss or a win in the overall tournament.

I think it’s 5 losses and you lose. When you lose, you’re reset. The team you built is completely wiped clean and you start over from zero.

Neoduelers relies on a random generator to offer pets for you to buy, so when you start over, you’re not even necessarily starting with familiar monsters. You’ll, of course, learn what they do as you play. But, there’s something really disheartening about building up a team and then having it yoinked out from under you.

I guess it’s the definition of “git gud, scrub”. But, man, is it a bummer. I really wish it’d been clear in the listing that there is technically no progression. You start from zero every new tournament and, if you’re not winning hands, you can lose in as few as five battles.

Whomp whomp.

All in all, it’s a fine game. If you like heavy strategy-based games and don’t mind the rinse-repeat of restarting your team, you’ll enjoy it. I decided not to give it a scored review because I didn’t feel I’d be able to be impartial about the fact that getting your team nerfed repeatedly wasn’t disclosed in the listing.