A Review of Cozy Grove: Ghost Bears, Spirit Logs, and Death, Oh My!!!
“If you like Animal Crossing you’ll totally like this game!”
As a person with an aversion to games being compared to other, more popular titles, I could not say if that assessment rings true. I’ve been fooled before most recently by Code Vein, with people claiming it’s like Dark Souls, but anime ( fun fact, it’s not ). I have played life simulator games before, and I do like interesting stories. So judging the game on its own merits, could I recommend Cozy Grove…..?
I honestly would, and I’m gonna do it without comparing it to Animal Crossing.
Cozy Grove was released April 7th, 2021 by Spry Fox and Quantum Astrophysics Guild for Steam, Nintendo Switch, Playstation, and Xbox. It’s a cute life-simulator about a Spirit Scout (think Girl Scouts/Boy Scouts who specialize in helping the supernatural) trapped on the haunted island of Cozy Grove and their quest to help every ghost bear on the island. To help these bears, we have to solve the mystery of what’s keeping them on the mortal plane. As a Spirit Scout, our help involves a lot of fetch quests, fishing, baking, and decorating! The gameplay is very easy to get into, and there’s no shortage of things to do on the island. Cozy Grove does a very good job of keeping the player busy.
It’s also very good for getting on my nerves when my campfire tells me to come back later! That’s right. The campfire, Campy (see below), talks to you, and was sent to help you on your ghostly quest. Most missions are time gated, and many are meant to take a couple days for certain items, or requirements to be met. This is not a game for speed runners at all. You’re supposed to take your time and enjoy it piece by piece.
Charlotte Pine: Caretaker of Cozy Grove
When you start out on the island, the real world is drab and sepia toned. As you help the residents of Cozy Grove, they light up the area surrounding them, then you’re able to interact with more things. When an area lights up, you’ll be able to pick fruits, flowers, and feed your spirit animals. You can also keep areas lit by making, or buying lamps, then linking them bit by bit. Remember those Highlight Magazine hiding puzzles at the dentist's office? If you have fond memories of those puzzles, then I have some great news for you! All the missions are fetch quests, and depending on how well lit an area is, can help or hinder how easily you find objects. Or you could pay Charlotte Pine some cash to give you a hint. I wouldn’t suggest it when the island is small, but when the island gets larger and you help multiple bears at once, she helps out a ton! Every island generates different landmark locations, so the internet won’t help as much as you think. However you do get clues for everything you’re looking for. There are times what you’ll need is at Mr.Kit’s store! Depending on who you are, you can try to use critical thinking, or run around like a chicken without a head. I’ve definitely done the latter when I’m one item away from finishing a quest and it’s taken me more than ten minutes to finish!
Dowsing Rod Scene
There are five primary tools you’ll receive from the bears. The fishing rod, pickaxe, machete, shovel, and dowsing rod. You won’t get these all at the same time, nor an explanation on how to use everything when you first get them. These help you gather the materials all over the island, such as minerals, food, coins, and artifacts. They do lose durability as you use them however, but are pretty easy to fix at the Woodworking Bench. As you level up your tools, the materials needed to fix them does increase, so make sure you have plenty of extra materials in your storage, just in case. Your tools do eat up prime space in your inventory which continues to bug me, but that’s because I’m a hoarder.
From Nintendo
Captain Billweather Snout - A Sea Gull
As you collect more spirit logs and open up the world, you’ll meet more ghost bears. Most are dressed up in their uniforms such as the chef, the postmaster, and a scout master. Others take on a form befitting their regrets such as a seagull, corn, and one that looks like a tree. It makes trying to figure the mystery behind each ghost an intriguing process. Each bear is surrounded by different themed surroundings. For example Allison Fisher, the chef, is surrounded by her store and tables covered in food, or Capt. Seagull is around nautical themed stuff. Don’t get used to the placement of everything, the island is still home to the dead, and everything is mutable. The only things that will never change places are mineral rocks, your campfire, and Mr.Kit’s store location.
Imps Ahead!!!
You can help more than just the ghost bears on Cozy Grove. Running around the island are these cute creatures called imps. They’re not harmful, and if you pay attention to their needs they give you extra resources. Notice what an imp needs, toss some food in their direction ( don’t sneak up on them, they disappear out of fright), then reap in the rewards. Most of the time you’ll need to do this to farm for imp essence, an ingredient needed in some cooking/workshop recipes. But they also drop coins, or quartz rocks as well. Great for when you want to stock up on supplies.
How could I forget about customization? When creating your scout, you start with your basic choices such as eye color, hair type/color, and skin tone. Everyone starts out in a spirit scout uniform. Once you meet the merchant Mr. Kit, the game then introduces more clothing options, as well as different hairstyles you can wear. Everything rotates daily, so don’t be upset if you don’t find all your favorite items in one day. The clothes can be put into your closet storage, but your hair options cannot be saved for later. You can change everything constantly to look as cute as you want, at the cost of the old coins you constantly find. Unique furniture and decorations are also rotated in the store, and the collection does increase over time. However, to get more options you must grind and save up to upgrade Mr. Kit’s store. Best way to collect cash is to do all the daily quests given by the island's residents, help imps, and sell a ton of baked goods.
Sometimes the problem with reviewing a modern game is more than likely not, most of the problems you were ready to discuss get patched out pretty quick. Case in point; when I first started the game, certain food items looked identical to each other (the roasted mushrooms, and roasted roots were the same thing I swear) and some of the UI wasn’t really user friendly. When you begin to decorate your areas, all of your items can stack over each other, making it difficult to select one thing at a time. I can’t really complain about it when they fixed a lot of my gripes when I started out, so I commend Spry Fox for their quick work to make the players' experience seamless.
But no game is 100% perfect so here is where I list some things that hindered some of my enjoyment:
Why is it when I cook something, I have to pick it up from the postmaster an hour later?
Shouldn’t I be able to pick up my food from the chef immediately?
Going to the postmaster all away across the island just drags out the process. The timed mechanic works for a phone or Facebook game, or when it doesn’t take forever for a game to load. I played this on a Playstation 4, but for some reason the loading time for me is about five+ minutes. I honestly don’t know why it took that long. I have theories and I’d have to compare it to other platforms, but for a game that’s padding out its story mode already, it shouldn't take that long. It’s even more jarring if I’m helping bears and they don’t give me a spirit log for my trouble ,or if Campy tells me to come back later.
I wish the days weren’t on 24 hour cycles or at the very least, give the players more to do on the island to justify those who want to spend hours making their island as unique as possible (still holding out hope I can cut down trees to clear more space for my animals).
I know the game boasts about being 40+ hours of enjoyment, but most of that is due to padding. At the time of this writing, I’ve only met 10 bears so far. I feel like I’ve figured out what many of their regrets are based on their dialogue, but I can only work with what the game gives me.
I almost wish the story mode was separate because I am curious and impatient.
Cozy Grove is a slow burn of a game, but that’s one of the reasons why I enjoyed it. You can take your time and make the island yours, while helping the spirits of haunted bears trapped by their own guilt and mistakes. The text boxes do a good job of reminding me that this world is more accustomed to supernatural occurrences than ours, yet, the underlying horror of the situation and your task is covered in a veneer of cuteness and repetitive fetch quests.
I give this game 4.5 out of five stars…..
