bite sized - cozy gaming

Hey, welcome back to another bite sized episode of the Backlog Breakdown, where today I am recording this on a lovely autumn afternoon. I woke up this morning, temperatures are. They've dropped, right? It's autumn. They were in the 30s this morning as I woke up, the days are getting shorter. You know, it gets dark earlier and the leaves that still remain on the trees pretty much all changed color. In fact, we're looking at getting our first snowfall here next week, possibly according to the. According to the weather report. At least what I'm looking at, we could be getting some snow, which is crazy. Again, native Texan, I haven't experienced this before. Autumn, snow. In autumn I would rarely see snow anyways, but in autumn. Wow, this is crazy. So I come to you today with all this in mind to talk about a, well, a type of game, a feeling, I'll call it a mood, right? It's just the perfect time to play a cozy video game, right? And on a personal note, as in addition to the changing of seasons, right, with autumn and all that, I just finished up some bigger games, some stuff that has more in depth story content, stuff that I've been playing for the podcast. The last game I played was a pretty tense thriller in the Evil Within. Plus I've been able to knock off a handful of games lately that were patron requests or stuff to do, particularly with the podcast. So I'm in a nice spot right now where I can actually just leisurely choose to play whatever it is that I want to play. And I get like, oh yeah, you know, feels so high and mighty. Oh, you get to choose what you want to play. Of course, that's what everyone does, right? And yes, I get it, but I just mean I'm feeling a certain freedom that I do want to play some video games, right? I don't want to set the hobby aside just yet, but I also don't feel super compelled to have to play a particular game. It's like, no, I can. What am I feeling like right now? So maybe some more cozier video games will be pretty nice. But actually the real impetus in doing this episode is actually a combination of my place as a dad and a current sale that I saw on the Nintendo Eshop. Okay, there's a game on sale right now for the next week or so. It's called Story of Friends of Mineral Town. This is a remake of a reimagining of Harvest Moon Old school games. Right now its Digital download is 10 bucks on the eShop. Also, Rune Factory 4 is only $9 on the eShop right now. And my son has been playing Animal Crossing over the past few months. So I'm looking at these other cozy games that might challenge him in some new areas where you have some very particular things that you want to do throughout the year instead of just Animal Crossing, which is very like choose whatever you want to do, man. In that game there are some cool goals to chase after. But you know, with something like Story of Seasons or even Rune Factory, like you are trying to build up this area, this thing, your domain, right? You're trying to take dominion over this farm that you have, right. So anyways, I think he's going to enjoy either of these games. I'll probably be introducing one of them to him here pretty soon. These are some of the experiences again as a dad that I'd like my son to partake in. It's not, you know, the Roblox that he enjoys or some of the. More I'm trying to think the proper words for this, but more of those games that really kind of rely on the big flashy graphics and fast paced things. It's like I want something with a little bit slower pace for him to enjoy himself with which I think he is really going to take it really well. So I'm stoked to pick up one of those or maybe both of them, but maybe one of them here soon anyways. Me, myself, I have been playing Sakuna of Rice and Ruin, which has elements of Farming Sims in it. It's like half the game and I've been enjoying that game quite a bit as well. So all these things kind of coalesce together. The changing of seasons, what my son has been into, what I've been into, what I'd like to introduce my son to. All of this kind of comes together and this is just where my head's been at. So I want to do this bite sized about cozy video games. Okay, so what is a cozy game? Well, generally it's just a game with a more relaxed pace. Okay. Something that's not as action heavy. In fact, cozy games rarely use violence in order to progress the game itself. Unless you would call, you know, tilling your fields violent. It takes some strength. But anyways, violence against other people, I'll put it that way right now to some people this might be boring. They might be boring games, right? Depending on what you're looking for in a video game at that moment. Sometimes you just want to play something action packed. It's totally fine. But this would types of games that would be considered cozy games generally like Farming Sims. Okay. Or visual novels maybe as well. Or like Walking Simulator, something like that. In fact, actually a lot of games that have simulator in the title might fall under this category of cozy games. And as I've been thinking about it, really cozy games are more of a mood rather than a genre. Okay. It's a game. They're often more quaint, right. More down to earth. Generally there are low stakes and they feel more. They deal with some of the things that we go through as humans rather than, you know, exploring space and meeting fantastical creatures. Yeah. Sometimes there's elements of that, but it feels more earthy, if that makes sense. Yeah. Quaint, I guess, is what I said earlier. So with cozy games, there is still some challenging elements. There's some slight challenge, but usually they're not too difficult. Right. Your decisions and your drive to be productive and to advance in the game, in the story, it matters. But these games would never be described as tense. Okay? You're not going through real tense moments like you do with a lot of other video games. Progress in cozy games comes gradually rather than coming from conquering a huge milestone within the game. I mean, just pull up the soundtrack to Animal New Horizons on Nintendo Music and listen to the soundtrack for a little while and you'll get a good feel of what the mood of cozy games is that I'm trying to describe here. It's a pretty laid back experience. And frankly, this is what I'm feeling right now when it comes to video games. And what's funny to me as I think about it is that I really enjoy more difficult games. Not that I'm a completionist or I make things super difficult for myself, but often when games are more difficult, I enjoy the reasons why I enjoy that challenge in overcoming that challenge with certain types of games. Okay. I like the high of conquering a challenging boss in Elden Ring or getting through an area by the skin of my teeth in Shin Megami Tensei V or Octopath Traveler by digging deep into the systems that are in play in those games and exploiting my character skills so that I can debilitate my enemies. Right. I like the intensity of horror games and the melodrama and the foreboding sense of dread from something like Persona 3. I really enjoy all these things, but sometimes I just want some comfort food when I'm playing something. Right. I don't need or even want a high level level of difficulty for a while. Okay. Just some slow and steady progress, which is something that I think is paramount to these games. Whether that progress is through the story, is through the experience of your characters, or is even just with the interactions between the characters. Okay. And frankly, I think that sense of slow and steady progress is something that feels a little more similar to accomplishing goals in real life when you turn the systems off. So, as I've been considering where I'm at with games and what I want during my game time, at least for right now, okay, this is just for this season. It's a very short amount of time. Again, I really enjoy more difficult games, but as I've been considering it here, I've noticed two things about coziness in games that I've been a little bit surprised by that I'd like to share with you. It's kind of the idea, the, you know, some of these thoughts that I have for this bite sized episode where we just tackle bite sized ideas. We don't have to go deep, we just need to present some things. And so this is what I've noticed about coziness. Hopefully some of these connections can make sense to you as well. Hopefully, Emma, decent enough communicator with a microphone in a laptop, in some recording software that this will actually make sense. So, first of all, this idea of coziness I've found, can often be triggered by a sense of nostalgia combined with familiarity. Okay. So in my case, excuse me before we jump there, um, I've talked about, you know, Farming Sims and things like that. There are, there are games that are. That are made specifically for this mood or to evoke this mood. Okay. But here's some ideas that I wanted to tackle of games that feel cozy to me, even if they might not be necessarily going for that. And one thing I've noticed is this combination of nostalgia and familiarity can often feel cozy to me. Okay. Because in my case, a lot of retro games feel cozy because of my nostalgia. And I'd like to say that it also has something to do with the simplicity of older games, but that nostalgia has to be combined with familiarity. Because a lot of older games also have brutal levels of difficulty or they are more arcadey experiences, big and flashy. As nostalgic as I am for something like Metal or, excuse me, not Metal Gear, but Metal Slug, I would never describe any of those games as cozy. Those are not cozy games. But with games that I am very familiar with, older games that I've played, you know, a dozen times through something like that, even if that game was difficult for me when I was younger, if I've grown accustomed to it, it rarely provides Much of a challenge because I'm used to it, right? And that shaves off those edges for me. And it just feels more cozy. It feels more like comfort food. Like coming back to something that I've enjoyed in the past and. And seeing it maybe with new eyes, but also experiencing it and being familiar with it. It's just a nice experience. I think, of something like a Donkey Kong country on Super Nintendo. It's not a cozy game. In fact, I've heard lots of people say, well, you know, rail about how difficult this game is. It's not difficult for me. I think it's pretty easy. You know, even Mega Man X, while I would not describe that as a cozy game, sometimes I just want to play something older that I'm really familiar with that I can just play through quickly and kind of just turn my brain off. Maybe that's the. Maybe that's the correlation there is the coziness is where you can. You can flip off your brain, or at least the part of your brain that really has to do that has the computing power, you know, to really max out what you need in order to play these games. Maybe that's a connection that I hadn't realized. But anyways, I've just noticed that that combination of nostalgia and familiarity is powerful to bring out this feeling of coziness for even older games or games that, again, that I'm just more familiar with. Maybe for you, if you're younger than I am, that is games from the PlayStation or Nintendo 64 era or something like that, or even later than that. It doesn't have to necessarily be an older game, but I think familiarity actually plays a big part in what feels cozier or what feels like comfort food. Okay. The second idea that I've kind of stumbled on, and again, could be wrong here. Love to hear if you have competing ideas. But the second idea is that I think that long games particularly can hit a point in the middle of the game. You can refer to this as the muddy middle, okay, where the game starts to feel a little cozy because you've been doing similar things for so long in the game, right? When a game starts, that's when it introduces all of its mechanics and gradually you go through. You know, it could be a few hours before you know everything there is to know about the game. But that's generally in the beginning of the game and in the middle of the game is when you start to refine those skills, right? Or sometimes you're coasting. And for long games, this can be an area where in the worst of cases, it feels like a slog, but in the best of cases, it feels more like comfort food. To me, the challenge has just kind of worn away. And the game doesn't necessarily do anything drastic throughout that middle portion of the game, which, you know, longer games, they tend to wait till the end until, you know, they start. They start really kind of challenging you or doing something drastic. But anyways, you kind of feel like you're just going through the motions throughout the middle of the game, which, again, can be bad. And it could also be good. And that's kind of where I'm drifting with this right now, because it could be a good thing. You could be just really. Yeah. Again, comforted. You feel good about how you've grasped mechanics of the game, and maybe you're not even looking for a challenge. There is a progression throughout this period, this middle period of the game. You're progressing, but that progress might feel slow and steady, but it's also kind of nice, I think, of something like Breath of the Wild. While I wouldn't say it's a cozy game, there's tons of time where you just kind of run off into a field or into a forest and explore for a little while. And I think there is something cozy about that, where you're not necessarily challenged, but you just want to see what there is to do. You just kind of want to spend a few hours in the game world and you might progress. You know, you might get some upgrades and things like that, but that's not necessarily why you're doing it. It is. It is. It's part of it. It's part of what. What pushes you forward. But that might not be the entire reason. Maybe it's just to see what the game has. You know, I think this connection is even stronger when it's combined with some of the more human elements of games, like character interaction and growth. You know, like with Breath of the Wild, I think there is something to the fact that the game feels real earthy. You know, that you're doing things in forests and caves and it's a fantasy world, but it doesn't feel super fantastical. You know, I can go off into the woods and imagine some of these same adventures that Link is going on. Obviously, yeah, there's fantastical elements, but there's something there. Another game. And I can't go into details without spoiling it, but I've thought a lot About Xenoblade Chronicles 3 as I've been kicking this idea around, and some of the things in that game that really stick out to me because it's a long game, right? And it's huge. There's tons to explore and the character interactions are so strong throughout the game, but particularly because of how long you get to exist in that world and with those characters and you get to hear their points of view and you get to see their arcs and their character progression, right? So that when the game does pick up, there are huge payoffs and it actually feels earned throughout those lulls in the game, as again, you're making slow and steady progress. There are things that are happening, but it doesn't feel as huge and revelatory as stuff in the beginning or the end of the game. Right? Now, I wouldn't Describe Xenoblade Chronicles 3 as a cozy game, okay? What I'm saying is that I get some of the similar feelings as cozy games in the middle of really long games. And again, I think that's kind of the best case scenario with the lulling periods of these long games. It can be a slog. I get it. That's the worst case. But I think of games that I really, really enjoy, that I've put a ton of hours into, and I think it evokes some of this feeling of just like a comfort food, and it just feels nice and cozy that I get to play it for a couple hours or whatever it is, just interacting in that world. So maybe what it is is this idea of the muddy middle of a video game. Maybe it would just make for a good episode all to itself. But that's all that I'll say about that for right now. Maybe we can tackle it again in the future. In fact, that's. That's about all that I have on my thoughts on. On some cozy games and again, this time of year and what I've been into lately. I guess the last thing I'll say, and I don't want to take this too far, but I do think that there's something to be said about cozy games and cultivating patience. When you play these kinds of games, it bucks against the bigger, more bombastic things in video games that cause your dopamine to spike when you play them. And again, look, don't. Don't mishear me. There's nothing wrong with that, okay? If that's what you're looking for in a video game right now, go for it. It's fun. It's fun. I enjoy it too, you know, But I just think that there's something to be said about enjoying yourself at a more relaxed pace. It feels a little bit more like recreation in the sense of relaxing and it's a bit more restful, you know. Anyways, I'll let that one sit there. I think I said it earlier, okay. But to me it seems like this progress curve is a little closer to real life in how you grow over time as a person and how you relate to other people. It doesn't just happen quickly like we often see in video games. That gives us this distorted sense of what it can be like. And I get it. Video games are condensed. You don't want a thousand hour game, right? Like something that close to real life. But I do think that again, there's something to be said about just the patience that you have to exhibit when you're doing, when you're doing your daily chores in Story of Seasons or Stardew Valley or something like that. Is it better than other types of games? No, that's not what I'm saying. But I think there's something special in these kinds of games. Something a little more earthy. I think of a short hike that I played earlier this year and there's just something charming about games like this. So maybe this is the time of year when you enjoy some comfort food in gaming as well. I'd love to hear what types of games you like to play here in autumn as we move forward towards winter. I hope you enjoyed this bite sized breakdown of cozy games, but this is the part where you get to join in the conversation. Okay, go to linktree.com thebacklogbreakdown hit us up on social media and let us know what you think. And maybe we can turn some of your ideas into future bite sized episodes. But until then, keep beating down your backlogs and we'll keep breaking down.