All posts tagged in Life Simulation
Mar 21, 2024
Play as the fierce former Fae Queen in the cozy Final Profit: A Shop RPG by developer Brent Arnold. Your daughter felt your plans to save the realm from financial ruin were too radical so she exiled you. You merely wanted to beat the financial predators at their own game! Even the Fae Council thinks you don’t have a chance at taking down the Bureau of Business, but you’re determined to prove them wrong. Starting with nothing and certainly with no help from your kingdom, you set out to become Lord of Business by creating a successful business!
Final Profit offers a combatless experience where progression is tied to running your shop. Gather products and find customers to buy your wares in order to earn a profit. You can buy different buildings to add to your passive income, as well as invest in stocks. Spend your money on upgrades and paying off your debts. Automating your shop is even possible. Then, set out to explore an exciting world full of quests, minigames, and magic. Learn spells to help you in your adventures. Make decisions as you interact with people that will add to your Generosity or Ruthlessness stats, and affect how the story unfolds for you.
Will you save your people or will you reject your morals and become a ruthless agent of capitalism?
Release Date
Final Profit: A Shop RPG is available now on Steam!
Wonder Wandelier is another fantastic shop management game!
- Mar 20, 2024
Meowjiro is a charming combination of job sim, raising sim, and collection game. You work part-time in a convenience store. There, you need to work hard and complete a number of tasks in order to earn your paycheck. Stock shelves, prepare soft serve ice cream, heat up food, and run the cash register. You want to build your skills as a clerk and make a comfortable life for you and your cat, Meowjiro!
Your goal to become an all-can-do clerk in Meowjiro will take some work and planning. You need to juggle customer needs with basic duties. And when it’s super busy, you’ll need to learn how to prioritize and work quickly to satisfy all of your customers. Many of the tasks are completed through mini-games within the game. Like serving the soft serve ice cream! You must time the machine correctly to achieve the appropriate size for the order and turn it off once it has reached the size needed. As you work, you’ll earn a paycheck, which you can spend on food for Meowjiro. Once your furry friend has enough food, you can also buy furniture and decor for your home to make it cozy!
Release Date
This adorable game is available now on Steam.
- Mar 20, 2024
Little Lives, by solo developer Houndstooth Games, is a life sim game set in the town of Littleton. Featuring semi-realistic graphics, you get to customize your own character, including traits, and set out on that journey known as life! Work a job, build friendships, and face unexpected challenges as you play. Climb the corporate ladder, buy your dream home, and much more in this top-down life sim.
Little Lives has a bustling open-world that you can navigate from the default top-down perspective. Or, hop in your car and drive through the town of Littleton in a captivating 3rd person view. The town has a robust economy and is home to several different shops where all your needs will be met. Find your perfect home from an inventory of rental apartments or homes for sale, then decorate your living space to suit your tastes. Some items even have useful modifiers to improve your skills. Build meaningful relationships with friends or even find someone to romance and marry! Select your ideal furry companion, train your skills, find the perfect job and climb the corporate ladder, and take on hobbies to live the life of your dreams!
How will you live your little life?
Release Date
You can find Little Lives on Steam now!
- Mar 14, 2024
Spirittea is a cozy life sim all about helping out mischievous spirits. Developed by Cheesemaster Games, this relaxing sim is perfect for anyone looking to branch out from the usual farming sim. You play as yourself with some customization options, and you’ve just moved to a tiny town in what feels like the middle of nowhere. It’s generally a peaceful town, but the spirits have become restless and lost now that the townspeople have stopped worshiping them. It’s up to you to not only restore the bath house to give the spirits an outlet, but you’ll need to track them down and solve their problems, too!
Overall, It’s an Enjoyable Game
I’ve followed the development of Spirittea for a while, because as much as I love farming sims, having something different in the cozy game category is great. Plus, I love the idea of living in a rural Japanese-inspired town and running a bath house for spirits. It’s like my own personal Spirited Away without the consequences and bad guys.
The game starts with you meeting all of the townspeople, much like every other life sim out there. This time, though, you have Jan the dog to show you around. Speak to Jan and they’ll lead you to the villager, instead of aimlessly wandering around the town looking for people. It was an enjoyable way to force you to meet everyone and get a chance to see the town as you do it.
Being able to sleep at any time of day to advance the day by a few hours, or all night, is seriously one of Spirittea’s best assets. Sometimes you don’t want to open the bath house. Instead, you want to go fishing and catch some bugs, but you also want to do it at night. So, hop in your cozy bed and advance the clock! It was great when I was just done with the day and wanted to move on period.
Throw in the spirits with their different storylines and histories, and Wonyan being a sassy bit of comic relief, and it’s an intriguing game overall. Each of the spirits shows up in their own way, and requires some type of help that differs from the last. Plus, they look unique and have some great dialogue of their own. The character designs are done well, so everyone looks different from each other and easy to distinguish. The town is easy to navigate and explore, too. Everything together makes for a delightful experience.
There Are Some Cons, Though
As much as I enjoy Spirittea, there are some problems with the game. I thankfully didn’t encounter any bugs or glitches, so I suppose these are more gripes than anything. However, there’s definite room for improvement in some aspects.
My biggest issue is the map. It sways. When you open it, instead of the landmarks, houses, and trees being stationary, the sway and bounce to the music. It was a motion-sickness dilemma that posed a problem throughout my whole play. Plus, trying to find someone in the apartment building can be difficult because the sprites stack on top of each other so it’s hard to distinguish who is who. And if you’re at the apartment trying to see if your target townsperson is there, your marker is huge and covers up a good portion of that stack.
I enjoyed Spirittea’s addition of mini-games, and that they were unique. There was no carbon copy with a slight difference. I initially picked the hardest song possible in karaoke and wondered why it was SO hard, until I realized my mistake. The controls for that mini-game are great, though. My problem was with the fishing mini-game. You move your thumbstick the opposite direction instead of in the direction of the circle you want to select. It’s not very intuitive, and it wasn’t very cozy to have to stop and struggle every time I fished. Worse was the drinking mini-game not telling you anything about how to play or what controls to use. You just have to figure it out. Good luck!
Final Thoughts
I would still recommend Spirittea to cozy gamers looking for something different than the usual farm sim. It really is a delightful game, despite some of the issues. The storyline is unique, the characters are fun, and the visuals are nice. I really enjoy running my own bath house, too. It was simple and easy, and just overall fun!
I give it:
You can find Spirittea on Steam, Switch, and Xbox!
- Mar 7, 2024
Minami Lane, developed by Doot and Blibloop, is a wholesome little street management game set on a Japanese-inspired street. Build homes to attract new villagers and ensure their needs are met by providing food and entertainment options. Green spaces like parks and hot springs beautify the street, which makes everyone happy, too! Decorate each building by picking from a set of colors, and strategically place your buildings to create an inviting environment. Complete missions or engage in sandbox mode to get creative!
Gameplay
Minami Lane is one of those short, but sweet games that lives in your brain just waiting for you to pick it back up and play again. There’s not a lot to the game overall, and it’s about a 2-4 hour playtime type of game. However, it’s so pretty, so cute, and just perfect enough to keep your attention and drag you back for more. It’s easy to pick and learn. You can use only your mouse to accomplish things by clicking. There’s no complicated controls or convoluted mechanics.
The game is perfectly laid-back in concept and actuality. You can pause the day, let it run normally, or even speed it up if you prefer. Plus, you can check the missions for the level at any time. What I found really neat was being able to save each villager’s request for a change to the street, which helped me better accommodate them. For example, some villagers prefer more egg in their ramen, and some wanted more daisies at the florist. I could save each of those comments and come back to them after the day ended so I could update the inventories of each shop. No guesswork or having to make use of my trusty notebook!
The color palette really adds to the charm of Minami Lane, too. It’s soft and pastel so it’s easy on the eyes, but nothing is muddled looking. This extends to the color choices you can make for your buildings, too. Nothing too bright or flashy is available, though I would love to see a larger color palette option for buildings. You can even pick a color for the park, which changes the colors of the trees so you can go for a cheery springtime cherry blossom look, or fun fall cozy look. Throw in the soundtrack with its peppy, but pleasant sound and it’s a perfect mix of visual and aural.
Final Thoughts
I loved every moment of this game. The simplicity, the adorable graphics, the ease of use. All of it. Plus, you get to pet the cats that show up and they make that great little “brrrt” activation noise. Everything about Minami Lane is charming and wonderful, and I can’t recommend it enough!
You can find Minami Lane on Steam now!
- Feb 29, 2024
Your farm in Peppermint Falls by JellyFrog Games is like no other farm you’ve encountered. You’ll grow blueberry muffins, harvest gummy bears from bushes, and nurture ice cream in the winter seasons. Raise farm animals like cows that produce strawberry milk and collect chocolate eggs from your chickens. The town is small, but cozy, and offers much more to do than just farming, too. Cook delicious meals, experiment with alchemy, go mining for resources, or even fish for some fun aquatic creatures. You can even battle monsters or work in the town’s cafe! Don’t forget to forge relationships with the townspeople, too. Learn their backgrounds and earn some great friendships, or even start a family with someone.
When you tire of the small town, set out on an adventure to explore the wide world of Peppermint Falls. Your house, which is made of pancakes, can walk, and will ferry you around the different biomes of the world! It’ll accompany you to the furthest corners of the world and patiently wait for you to complete your adventures. It’ll even sprout new rooms from time to time. While exploring, perhaps you can uncover what happened to the original inhabitants. The world used to be ordinary and not covered in confectionary creatures, after all.
Release Date
Peppermint Falls is coming to Steam sometime soon. Add it to your Wishlist now!
- Feb 22, 2024
Welcome to Minami Lane! This lovely little life sim by indie developers Doot and Blibloop is a short, but wholesome play. It lets you build your very own street where you can decorate and manage shops. Build cozy homes to attract villagers to your street. Choose from a number of different colors for the roof and walls to create the perfect look. Your villagers need more than just a comfortable place to live, though!
Keep the villagers of Minami Lane happy by meeting several of their needs. Beautify the neighborhood with decorations, shops, and attractions. Parks add a beautiful pop of natural color and provide the perfect spot to relax. Ramen shops serve up delicious steaming bowls of food. Boba shops give villagers tasty treats to boost their mood. There are other shops your villagers may want, too. Plus, each shop has its own inventory and effects on the neighborhood. Play missions for a challenge or sandbox mode to focus on the creative side of building.
Release Date
Minami Lane releases in just 5 short days on Steam! Grab the demo now to prepare for the release on February 28th.
If you prefer a free-form building game with no objectives, try Tiny Glade!
- Feb 14, 2024
If you’re unfamiliar with Kynseed, it’s a lovely farming sim that dives deeper and brings more to the table than most farm sims. Run your farm and customize it to your tastes. Run a business of your choice like a blacksmith, apothecary, or general store. Craft items, battle monsters, and get to know the townspeople. Even get married and raise children!
There is so much to do and experience in this gorgeous game, and now there’s a huge update called “The Big Build Update” that has recently been released. If you already own this game, the developers suggest you restart with a brand new character so you can get the full experience of all the new things.
The Big Build Update
The following is the huge list of content this update brings to Kynseed.
- Customize the look of your farm’s interior and exterior.
- Buy new farm plots.
- A certain Fairweather item might also give you a further area to customize
- New farm structures.
- Repair structures like bridges to access new areas.
- Fix statues and stalls to make travel and commerce easier.
- Repair houses that can be destroyed by the encroaching evil creatures of the land.
- New Axe and choppable trees for wood collection
- New Stone resource.
- Track all your progress through Progress Screen with a picture that fills in as you go.
- 400+ challenges to complete
- Items screen gives a breakdown of number found, total collected and the highest rating acquired.
- Relationship screen tracks all current npcs and your relationship with them.
- Story/Event keeps a history of parts of the game you have already discovered.
- Shops give a brief overview of how your shops are doing.
- Customization catalogue shows you all items you can unlock and what activities will unlock them.
- New Noticeboard Tasks
- Talent system means each NPC, including your children, has their own skill which can be used to your benefit.
- New dialogue
- New relationship cutscenes
- The type of an NPC’s like/dislike can now be seen on their info
- NPCs now travel between levels and have had other AI tweaks.
- Your previous family can visit from time to time
Plus so much more! There are bug fixes, some story pacing adjustments, and batch crafting. Unlock proverbs, there’s a star rating for items, and a new instant message system that alerts you to events, tasks, and shop alerts for low stock. And there’s even more than that, which you can go check out on Kynseed’s Steam page!
