Though “cozy” may be one of the more difficult genre trends to pin a definition on, there are ever more of us looking for the next game that’s chill, creative, cute, or some mix thereof. And in response to that growing audience, our choices for best cozy games just keep multiplying. This year looks like it’s going to be even bigger, so here are the 10 cozy games I’m most looking forward to in 2024.
In addition to the below, I’m rather looking forward to serial killer farm sim Grave Seasons, frog rescue game Kamaeru, and vampire farm sim Moonlight Peaks, though none of them have committed to a 2024 window yet—I’m just having wishful thinking on those.
Reka
I’ve been seriously psyched about Reka since last year. It’s a building and witchcrafting game infused with slavic mythology, its developers told me. As the apprentice to Baba Jaga, you’ll build your own chicken-legged cottage to follow you around the world as you collect ingredients, craft potions, decorate your home, and pacify ghosts or the spirits of animals. I’m fully ready for a witch game that’s not about a cute girl in a pointed cap but a woman practicing her craft in the woods.
Fields of Mistria
But let’s be real, I still also do want cute farm sims with pastel colors and Fields of Mistria is exactly that. Inspired by magical girl anime and RPGs of the ’90s, Mistria looks like it’s following the Stardew style of fishing, farming, ranching, marriage, and property ownership that many of us still have an appetite for. Mistria looks intensely adorable and I’ve already caught myself humming that catchy theme song. Looking at the cast though, I’m not sure how I’m supposed to choose just one potential spouse.
Tales of the Shire
Private Division says “your cosy Hobbit life awaits” and calls this a “heart-warming” game. We don’t know much about Tales of the Shire other than sketchy clues and conjecture from its reveal trailer: some hobbit homes, foods, highland cows, and signposts. The most recent Lord of the Rings games haven’t been all that great, between Return to Moria and Gollum, so I’m really hoping that Weta Workshop nails this cozy take on Middle-Earth.
Nivalis
The studio behind well-liked Cloudpunk is taking us back to its cyberpunk city Nivalis not as a driving simulation, but as a life sim. This time we’ll be able to own and manage businesses, buy and decorate apartments, go boating and fishing, and pursue romance in the highly vertical, neon city. This is definitely going to be on the darker side of “cozy” but I can’t wait to hit the streets of this city.
Europa
This Ghibli-inspired adventure is obviously lovely to look at, and I’ve got a good feeling about the exploration by gliding and surfing. It’s set on Jupiter’s terraformed moon Europa where your little android child Zee jetpacks through the sky to solve puzzles and uncover the history of the last human. This one actually has a demo available on Steam now, and it’s planning to launch in April 2024.
Tiny Glade
This adorable game is for the folks who just love building. Like Townscaper, this is a lovely digital sandbox that responds to the way you build, but with way more detail and control. You can construct provincial little hamlets or rustic castles, drawing walking paths and walls, plopping in windows, terrain editing, and aging your builds into ruins. Even more than playing it myself, I think I most want to see all the creative builds that others create with it.
Lightyear Frontier
I didn’t realize that farm sims needed mechs until I saw this space-y take on crafting, and now it seems so obvious. What are mechs but personified tractors? Honestly the customization of mechs looks just as fun as plotting out fields. Oh, and Lightyear Frontier is going to have multiplayer as well, which is a big plus in a crafting game for me. It will start off in early access in March, 2024.
Sky: Children of the Light
I’ve already played plenty of this online social puzzle game from Journey’s developer but it’s finally, finally coming to PC in 2024 after several years on mobile and console. It’s got all the heart and goosebump-inducing soundtrack of Journey but in an MMO-lite type experience and I’m very ready to share it with PC players. Thatgamecompany has done a lot of adding new areas and events to Sky since its launch, meaning there’s going to be plenty for new players to chew on when it shows up.
Echoes of the Plum Grove
There’s a special place in my heart for the Paper Mario-inspired aesthetic Plum Grove has. As with other farm sims, it begins with inheriting a property you’ll need to fix up as you learn the lay of town, cook, farm, and forage. This one is all about leaving a legacy though, as your character will eventually die and pass on the farm to future generations. It seems to have a shade of Fable to it also, with the option to insult and make enemies of your neighbors and not just friends.
The new Story of Seasons
OK, so Marvelous hasn’t actually revealed a name or release date for the next Story of Seasons game yet, but I’m feeling really optimistic about it. The Story of Seasons farm games (formerly known as Harvest Moon before that name was taken on by different developers) are what we have to thank for inspiring our modern crop of cozy farm sims and Marvelous is working on two new games in the series.
Marvelous showed just a few quick scenes in a summer reveal for the next game and it seems that the “extra effort into the visual presentation” it references is paying off. It recently did a much better job than I expected with a remake of Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life, so I’m really hoping that these efforts to modernize the series will give us a classic cozy game in the near future.
www.pcgamer.com