Hokko Life

Adorable, cute, and kawaii, this simulation is a worthy rival to Animal Crossing, with one major difference: it's not in real-time! Your job is to turn a gloomy village into a thriving rural town. With your hammer and paintbrush, you'll be building and decorating the houses and interiors of all your animal-headed friends. PS: there's also fishing! 100% non-violent.

In this game, you play as a cute character who has just moved to a sleepy little village inhabited by even cuter animals, and whose only mission is to make life better for both yourself and your neighbours. Catching butterflies, fishing, collecting flowers or shells, growing crops, cutting wood, home improvements, and crafting items... Sound like your thing?

Well, welcome to Hokko Life!

A game inspired by Animal Crossing or even Harvest Moon, but that has its own character and comes with some totally new ways of crafting and decorating.

In Hokko Life, you play as a character (whose appearance you can customise) who falls asleep on a train, only to wake up in the quiet little village of Hokko. In Hokko, the residents – all with animal heads – are always happy and welcoming.

The village has known better days, but thanks to you it will soon be back on the way to becoming a prosperous little town filled with happy residents.

Our favourite part? The sense of goodwill and happiness found in the little things that can be felt throughout the game. There are no pretentious, egotistical, or self-centred neighbours here. And the graphics are just as pleasant. The homes and their interiors are full of charm. The game's different areas are nice and spacious, and it all plays out to some soothing little tunes. It's a simpler way of life!

It's worth noting that the game doesn't play out in real time. If you want to speed up time or welcome the next day, you just need to head to bed. Time also goes by much quicker, with one hour in the game taking around three minutes here in the real world.

We liked the gameplay that's really intuitive and enjoyable: simply select a tool to change what your character is doing. Only the fishing and crafting involve minigames, but they are also perfectly accessible. The dialogue is short and easy to understand for ages 8+.

We loved the freedom that comes with Hokko Life. As soon as you've completed a few compulsory quests at the start of the game to unlock all of the gameplay components, you're free to do as you please.

Here's a little tip for anyone who values absolute freedom: although you can't turn down your neighbours' requests, they are all timed, and you can just let the clock run down if you don't feel like doing them.

But take pride in bringing the village back to life and seeing it grow as you progress through the game.

To help you on your way, make sure you listen to the "important" residents, people like Oma, Moss and Rosa (the estate agent). While the first two will ask you to help the village grow by building bridges and stairways, Rosa has a selection of houses for you to build, for which you'll need money and resources... You can even choose where you want to call home in the village, and even evict some residents. A heart-breaking choice with them all being so nice!

But by far the most important thing about Hokko Life is the customisation and decoration options. You can craft and customise furniture, or craft, paint, and brighten up items. Plenty to create a world that's truly in your own image.

Hokko Life is the perfect game for kids, as well as any adults who fancy building a nice, cute, and cool world to spend a few hours in.