Often, these quests are to unlock aspects of gameplay that shouldn’t be new to players, such as getting an axe to chop trees, crafting your first furniture item, and planting flowers. The first few hours of the game will feel tedious, you'll spend much of the game running to and from the same NPCs whilst completing fetch quests. The town's innkeeper seems to have a multi-purpose role of feeding the village and organising community issues such as housing. Has The Game Started Yet?Īs with most farming and crafting games, your protagonist is unceremoniously dropped off at the station during a stormy night, this is where you'll meet your first two NPCs. The music fits into the cosy theme well, with light melodic tunes to keep you company on your crafting journey. The village is bright and colourful and features changeable weather, making the game more visually appealing.

Luckily, where the villagers fall short, the background design is better. Whilst some players may find the villagers cute, for the most part, it seems as though Hokko Life misses the mark. Giving the villagers a voice – even if it isn’t English but instead a garbled algorithm of noises – could help bring them to life. The sound design doesn’t help as there is no 'talking' noise from the villagers, just the speech bubble and typing noise. The villagers seem one-note, their sole purpose is to populate your village and give you busy work as a means to make money. Whilst, it is not uncommon for games like these to have less appealing characters, unlike Animal Crossing which celebrated this by leaning into the character's personalities, all the characters in Hokko Life meld into one. This doesn’t end with the animal villagers they too seem to drift the line between animalistic and human a tad too closely. The customisable options for the player avatar are lacking, with only a select few hairstyles to choose from, and with the same pair of unblinking eyes looking back at you, the facial features just seem a little off. Unfortunately, although cosy, it is not a cutesy game. As a trend, these games have found similar success with titles like Stardew Valley, Ooblets, Night in The Woods, and Animal Crossing New Horizons. As Autumn rolls on and we gather our Pumpkin Spiced Lattes, blankets, and Halloween decorations close to us, Hokko Life establishes itself as the newest of cosy games to tuck into with the turn of the season.

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