Disney Dreamlight Valley is available from Tuesday, September 6, 2022 in Early Access on all platforms. The opportunity for you to discover this magical world and restore it by finding lost Disney and Pixar characters. All means are good: whether it’s exploring the open world by unlocking the passages of nocturnal thorns thanks to the Dreamlight, or going through the castle and its magic paintings.
But once the quests of the 17 characters are completed and their levels rise to level 10, the story ends there for the moment. In the meantime, it is of course possible to raise your own avatar to the maximum level, to decorate your village from top to bottom, to complete your collection or even to concoct all the recipes. In short, the life of the game, even in early access, is quite long but if, like me, you have farmed all this month of September, then you are impatiently awaiting the next content update which will not take place. before 3 weeks.
I’m not saying there’s nothing more to do in the game now, you can still log in daily if only for the Blue Chest, Critters or earning money from pumpkins, but it is possible that you want to spend your evenings or your weekends on other games of the same genre while waiting for the sequel. Unconditional fan of “cozy games”, I have therefore prepared a small list of games that I myself have played and which seem to me to be close to Disney Dreamlight Valley in their gameplay.
Animal Crossing New Horizons
Of course, I couldn’t start this top without mentioning the legendary Animal Crossing New Horizons, released in March 2020 while the whole world was in lockdown. Although I suspect that most of the readers here already have this iconic game, I allow myself to talk about it for those who have not yet taken the plunge and who have discovered this kind of titles thanks to Dreamlight Valley.
ACNH is much more of a simulation game only a farm game but it must be admitted that since the 2.0 update allowing you to grow vegetables and cook good meals, it has set foot in this category. This huge patch also adds new features that were highly anticipated in the game such as Admiral, Robusto’s Café or Joe’s Campsite.
And if that’s not enough for you, a DLC was also released on November 5, 2021 allowing you to work on a new archipelago in order to make the dream houses of the inhabitants.
Hokko Life
Even if this little game independent was released in early access for a year already, I wanted to talk about it for a moment since it received a full release on PC and consoles (Switch, Xbox One, PS4) at the end of September! The opportunity to discover it in good and due form and enjoy twenty hours of play for less than 15€ (currently on sale). Overall, Hokko Life is also strongly compared to Animal Crossing, but it offers a greater freedom of decoration (possibility of creating your own furniture for example).
Of course, you will also have to explore the surroundings and collect many resources by fishing, mining or chasing butterflies, in order to be able to buy some clothes for example.
A small independent game available on Steam, Xbox One, PS4 and Nintendo Switch, Hokko Life intrigues a lot with its resemblance to Animal Crossing. So what’s really different about this shimmering title?
Animal Crossing New Horizons
Story of Seasons Pioneer of Olive Town
Unfortunately, I’m not going to put the latest Harvest Moon in this Top 5 as it disappointed me compared to its predecessors. Especially since the “real” Harvest Moon is now called Story of Seasons and this new opus, Pioneers of Olive Town, has been able to offer a farm game as I like them. With a very good lifespan, SoSPoOT promises a charming story but above all many activities such as cultivation, breeding, fishing, decorating your house or even marriage. With 5 DLC adding a few places to explore and new characters, the gameplay can then be extended.
Kitaria Fables
In this mixing title RPG and farm life, you play as an adorable little cat who has to save the kingdom. Possessing magical powers, you will then have to appropriate them and gain experience in order to fight increasingly ferocious monsters. On your way, you will find countless treasures but you must not forget to take care of your crops.
Cozy Groove
This is a small independent game that will have marked me this year. As a spirit scout, you land on the campsite of a haunted island and will have to help the ghosts find the secrets of their past life in order to set them free. The art direction of Cozy Grove is a pure marvel: initially in black and white, the island will receive colors each time you complete a mission. On the gameplay side, it’s a nice mix between hidden object search, decorating the island and collecting resources. You can fish and collect a multitude of fish depending on the season, make furniture to decorate your campsite or even adopt domestic spirits.
My other favorites
As specified at the beginning of the articles, I’m in love with Cozy Games and I was therefore able to test dozens of them. Here is a list of my favorites, most often on Nintendo Switch, but also on PC:
- Haven Park
- Stardew Valley
- Littlewood
- Summer in Mara
- Moonglow Bay
- My Time At Portia + My time at Sandrock
- Wylde Flowers
- Dinkum
- Cult of the lamb (it’s not a cozy game but I totally fell for the gameplay of the latter),
And finally, here are some other games that I’m looking forward to and that should be released before the end of the year or in 2023:
- Coral Island – Released October 11!
- Big Farm Story
- No Place Like Home
- Kitori Academy
- Roots of Pasha
- lonefarm
- Ova magica
- Harvest Island
- Everafter Falls
- Deiland
- snacko
- aka
- Amber Isle (this one especially deserves your attention).
Don’t hesitate to share your favorite “cozy game” games in the comments!