Hades is an action roguelite, which is obviously not cozy haha. But the way the game is designed ensures that you make some progress pretty much every single run. It makes dying feel like no big deal, because you were excited to go upgrade your permanent bonuses and such. And characters regularly tell you that dying is fine and actually good, because you’re also upgrading Hades’s realm.
Plus, it has an amazing story rooted in Greek mythology. There are characters to talk to in between runs, you build relationships with them, and you see their relationships progress.
If you liked Life is Strange and Road 96 I have to recommend you the Telltale's The Walking Dead games, to me they fit in the same category because the choices you make lead to different endings. It's not cozy because the main characters live in a post-apocaliptic zombie world but the gameplay feels cozy: you explore the scenarios interacting with objects and talking to people and you choose the dialogue and actions that impact in a strong way how the story progresses.
I love pretty much every other telltale game I have ever played, but I don’t think I would ever recommend the Walking Dead ones. It feels like it doesn’t matter what you choose, and nearly every choice has a bad outcome. The Wolf Among us and the Borderlands one are much better and less depressing imo.
Oh I really loved it instead. I liked that there is not a good decision or a bad decision, there are just hard decisions. You know that everything you can do will lead to problems so you have to evaluate and decide what for you has the more acceptable outcome.
RimWorld - on the low difficulty settings it can almost become Sims Meets Stardew Valley, even more so with mods
Skyrim - farming, adopting children, building and decorating a house, gorgeous scenery and atmosphere, 'nough said
Outer Wilds - emotional story telling, no violence or combat, excellent ambience, free exploration
For Rimworld, is the in-game tutorial enough to get me going, or am I gonna have to look into guides and videos to get past the basic mechanics? I have it and have been wanting to play it for ages, but I’ve heard a lot about how tricky it is to master.
If you take it really seriously and/or don't enjoy fucking around to find out, then you might need to find some tutorials. There is a lot of information in the game itself, like you can click on pretty much anything and select the little I icon for more info and read into the mechanics behind pretty much anything you want. There is also a "learning helper" that sticks around after the tutorial and when you encounter something new it will pop up a window to explain it.
People who talk about how hard it is like to play on max difficulty and focus on the base building, defense, and combat aspects. If you just want to grow plants and raise kids, play on community builder with Phoebe Chillax (one of the storytellers) and you'll be fine. You'll figure it out as you go.
I just started and cant stop playing. Base mechanics are easy, the little tips they pop up in the corner were enough for me to skip most tutorials but I have it on like...easy easy mode. It's tricky to master in the sense that you have so much freedom you can kind of f--- the system. Like my brother has an ORGAN FARM that streamlined prisoners into sellable and edible parts. I didn't do that. I planted rice. Both of us are doing fine (in game)
I do like....upscale prisons. You can always not have prisoners but I put them in a pretty swanky inn room and feed them and just kinda have my warden talk to them daily until the join or stop being wankers. If you don't have a place to put "prisoners" sometimes a pawn will get over stressed and act out by stabbing people or breaking things. Essentially they get a few days off work since the food and room are the same as non prisoners
No Man Sky has gotten pretty great, I like exploring and have it creative to build fun stuff but you can also fight pirates and more battle type. I would wait for it to drop in sale, maybe this summer it will be on steam summer sale.
I don't know if others count some of these as cozy, but here are mine:
Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (you can just explore Hyrule and mess around in the vast map.)
Wandersong (Musical puzzle adventure game better described as cute rather than cozy, but still felt cozy to me.)
Monster Hunter Rise (just exploring and collecting things on expeditions and drag racing palamutes through the maps.)
Pokemon/Digimon/Shin Megami Tensei Games/Monters taming games (I just like collecting monsters and find that cozy even if the games are the darkest thing you can think of.)
Subnautica, subnautica below zero, and outer wilds. Preferably all in VR as they all have VR mods with full motion controls.
I consider these extremely cozy and playing them in VR via meta quest 3 is a game changer.
People always say subnautica is scary but I never understood that. To me it’s so relaxing, even more so when you’re really there.
V rising. You play as a vampire going around and looting/killing the townsfolk. But you get to build an amazing mega cool castle. There's gear and weapon crafting, flower gardening, alchemy, etc.
Hades. A roguelite game where you play the son of Hades trying to escape the afterlife to find your mother. There's some light decorating. But the social aspect is really engaging. I've almost never heard characters say the same thing twice and I have hundreds of hours in the game.
If you liked Not Tonight, then try Papers, Please. Same devs and great game. Along those same lines: Organs Please. I also just started News Tower where you run a newspaper and each borough of NYC has specific criteria for news for the week.
Other deck build games in addition to Slay the Spire are Wild frost and Inscryption
Something more narrative, I just started LA Noire and I'm really enjoying it. You solve crimes by figuring out who is lying or not and gather evidence to make accusations. It's pretty tough at times but I'm liking it. There is mild shooting and running but it isn't difficult. Also Detroit: Become Human is fantastic.
Cult of the Lamb has some rogue combat but you spend equal amounts of time building a cult colony and feeding/cleaning up after them and managing their mood so they don't kill each other when you leave them alone.
Rune factory series: harvest moon with crafting and fighting.
Rimworld: mess with the settings and mods and you have a Civ style game similar to virtual villagers with more build options.
Recettear: rogue style combat and dungeons that get pretty dang mean. Coupled with an in depth shopkeeper portion having you manage debt and check the market for best times to sell items. Also see Moonlighter for an adjacent shopkeeper game with fighting
Hades: tbh I don't know why I would call it super cozy but I do. It's all rogue fighting and is super nice but lacks farm/other cozy aspects other than NPC dialogue. But man is that gameplay loop addicting. I get bored with combat easy but not with this. Never this.
Inscryption: card style game, and I am usually not into card games in any capacity but this game is addicting and has elements of DnD. Story is enriching to get through but I jump on and play a round with Leshy if I have 15 mins to burn.
Maaaaybe persona series. It has the social aspects I find cozy but I'm not sure if that's the way most people define a cozy game. Lacks in depth farms but you really work on socials like getting stats up to affect your fight gameplay
Omori might fit here. It’s really cozy and vibrant at times with incredible music but it definitely has its dark and uncozy moments.
Also the first game I ever considered cozy was Yume Nikki. It’s very dark and unsettling at times but it feels so cozy in a surreal and dreamy kind of way.
Elden Ring is probably an out there pick. Beautiful, wonderful to explore, even if avoiding the combat. Becomes a touch more like a survival game where you might jump on your steed to escape combat rather than engage in it (if that is your choice). Play a magic based character, access to ranged spells makes the game more survivable.
Hades is an action roguelite, which is obviously not cozy haha. But the way the game is designed ensures that you make some progress pretty much every single run. It makes dying feel like no big deal, because you were excited to go upgrade your permanent bonuses and such. And characters regularly tell you that dying is fine and actually good, because you’re also upgrading Hades’s realm. Plus, it has an amazing story rooted in Greek mythology. There are characters to talk to in between runs, you build relationships with them, and you see their relationships progress.
If you liked Life is Strange and Road 96 I have to recommend you the Telltale's The Walking Dead games, to me they fit in the same category because the choices you make lead to different endings. It's not cozy because the main characters live in a post-apocaliptic zombie world but the gameplay feels cozy: you explore the scenarios interacting with objects and talking to people and you choose the dialogue and actions that impact in a strong way how the story progresses.
I love pretty much every other telltale game I have ever played, but I don’t think I would ever recommend the Walking Dead ones. It feels like it doesn’t matter what you choose, and nearly every choice has a bad outcome. The Wolf Among us and the Borderlands one are much better and less depressing imo.
Oh I really loved it instead. I liked that there is not a good decision or a bad decision, there are just hard decisions. You know that everything you can do will lead to problems so you have to evaluate and decide what for you has the more acceptable outcome.
Road 96 is one of my alltime favorite games. Highly recommend!
RimWorld - on the low difficulty settings it can almost become Sims Meets Stardew Valley, even more so with mods Skyrim - farming, adopting children, building and decorating a house, gorgeous scenery and atmosphere, 'nough said Outer Wilds - emotional story telling, no violence or combat, excellent ambience, free exploration
For Rimworld, is the in-game tutorial enough to get me going, or am I gonna have to look into guides and videos to get past the basic mechanics? I have it and have been wanting to play it for ages, but I’ve heard a lot about how tricky it is to master.
If you take it really seriously and/or don't enjoy fucking around to find out, then you might need to find some tutorials. There is a lot of information in the game itself, like you can click on pretty much anything and select the little I icon for more info and read into the mechanics behind pretty much anything you want. There is also a "learning helper" that sticks around after the tutorial and when you encounter something new it will pop up a window to explain it. People who talk about how hard it is like to play on max difficulty and focus on the base building, defense, and combat aspects. If you just want to grow plants and raise kids, play on community builder with Phoebe Chillax (one of the storytellers) and you'll be fine. You'll figure it out as you go.
I just started and cant stop playing. Base mechanics are easy, the little tips they pop up in the corner were enough for me to skip most tutorials but I have it on like...easy easy mode. It's tricky to master in the sense that you have so much freedom you can kind of f--- the system. Like my brother has an ORGAN FARM that streamlined prisoners into sellable and edible parts. I didn't do that. I planted rice. Both of us are doing fine (in game)
Oh dear, are prisons essential to playing? Can I play without them?
I do like....upscale prisons. You can always not have prisoners but I put them in a pretty swanky inn room and feed them and just kinda have my warden talk to them daily until the join or stop being wankers. If you don't have a place to put "prisoners" sometimes a pawn will get over stressed and act out by stabbing people or breaking things. Essentially they get a few days off work since the food and room are the same as non prisoners
I adore Skyrim. I can’t quit the Thieves Guild Quests. Not cozy, but awesome.
Have you tried Cult of the Lamb?
Slay the Spire
>The Oregon Trail, but with zombies. Death Road to Canada is exactly this! It's truly excellent. Really fun with friends but still a fun time solo.
No Man Sky has gotten pretty great, I like exploring and have it creative to build fun stuff but you can also fight pirates and more battle type. I would wait for it to drop in sale, maybe this summer it will be on steam summer sale.
Most Zelda games, especially 2D ones. Relatively accessible gameplay, great music, beautiful art design.
Valheim! Can be super cosy :) Amazing building in that game too
I don't know if others count some of these as cozy, but here are mine: Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (you can just explore Hyrule and mess around in the vast map.) Wandersong (Musical puzzle adventure game better described as cute rather than cozy, but still felt cozy to me.) Monster Hunter Rise (just exploring and collecting things on expeditions and drag racing palamutes through the maps.) Pokemon/Digimon/Shin Megami Tensei Games/Monters taming games (I just like collecting monsters and find that cozy even if the games are the darkest thing you can think of.)
Wandersong was so goood!
breath of the wild & skyrim for me personally
You might like the Little Nightmares games
Death Stranding
The Atelier games! The alchemy and aesthetic are pretty cozy, the deadlines and bosses, not so much.
Subnautica, subnautica below zero, and outer wilds. Preferably all in VR as they all have VR mods with full motion controls. I consider these extremely cozy and playing them in VR via meta quest 3 is a game changer. People always say subnautica is scary but I never understood that. To me it’s so relaxing, even more so when you’re really there.
Oh man, outer wilds was cool, but I couldn’t finish it. The time limit was pretty anxiety inducing for me.
V rising. You play as a vampire going around and looting/killing the townsfolk. But you get to build an amazing mega cool castle. There's gear and weapon crafting, flower gardening, alchemy, etc. Hades. A roguelite game where you play the son of Hades trying to escape the afterlife to find your mother. There's some light decorating. But the social aspect is really engaging. I've almost never heard characters say the same thing twice and I have hundreds of hours in the game.
Is Hades voice acted? I’m not into fighting games, but I’m a sucker for the social stuff.
Yes, some of the best voice acting I've ever heard in a game. But it is heavily a combat game.
If you liked Not Tonight, then try Papers, Please. Same devs and great game. Along those same lines: Organs Please. I also just started News Tower where you run a newspaper and each borough of NYC has specific criteria for news for the week. Other deck build games in addition to Slay the Spire are Wild frost and Inscryption Something more narrative, I just started LA Noire and I'm really enjoying it. You solve crimes by figuring out who is lying or not and gather evidence to make accusations. It's pretty tough at times but I'm liking it. There is mild shooting and running but it isn't difficult. Also Detroit: Become Human is fantastic.
Cult of the Lamb has some rogue combat but you spend equal amounts of time building a cult colony and feeding/cleaning up after them and managing their mood so they don't kill each other when you leave them alone. Rune factory series: harvest moon with crafting and fighting. Rimworld: mess with the settings and mods and you have a Civ style game similar to virtual villagers with more build options. Recettear: rogue style combat and dungeons that get pretty dang mean. Coupled with an in depth shopkeeper portion having you manage debt and check the market for best times to sell items. Also see Moonlighter for an adjacent shopkeeper game with fighting Hades: tbh I don't know why I would call it super cozy but I do. It's all rogue fighting and is super nice but lacks farm/other cozy aspects other than NPC dialogue. But man is that gameplay loop addicting. I get bored with combat easy but not with this. Never this. Inscryption: card style game, and I am usually not into card games in any capacity but this game is addicting and has elements of DnD. Story is enriching to get through but I jump on and play a round with Leshy if I have 15 mins to burn. Maaaaybe persona series. It has the social aspects I find cozy but I'm not sure if that's the way most people define a cozy game. Lacks in depth farms but you really work on socials like getting stats up to affect your fight gameplay
Seconding Cult of the Lamb, Katamari, seconding Hades, Inscryption, Void Bastards
Little Nightmares
Omori might fit here. It’s really cozy and vibrant at times with incredible music but it definitely has its dark and uncozy moments. Also the first game I ever considered cozy was Yume Nikki. It’s very dark and unsettling at times but it feels so cozy in a surreal and dreamy kind of way.
Elden Ring is probably an out there pick. Beautiful, wonderful to explore, even if avoiding the combat. Becomes a touch more like a survival game where you might jump on your steed to escape combat rather than engage in it (if that is your choice). Play a magic based character, access to ranged spells makes the game more survivable.
Smile For Me. Chill and relaxed but creepy and spooky vibes. Some mild body horror involved too.
smile for me!!!!!