Rest in Pixels: Cozy Games with a Deathly Charm

    It's October, and in the witchcraft sphere, that means working with ancestors and thinking about death in its many forms – passing of loved ones, death of greenery, spiritual changes. Well, as it stands, I also enjoy playing games about death, and that's not as morbid as it sounds, so I thought I'd highlight some cozy games on the subject. Now, I know most people don't think of “cozy” and “death” going together, but bear with me here. I've been surrounded by death from an early age, and while these games make me cry, they also bring comfort in a way only cozy games can. So let's explore my top 5, one to avoid, and a secret honorable mention at the end.

     Obviously, this post will touch on heavy subject matter and should be approached carefully. If you're feeling vulnerable about this topic, I recommend reading this later when you feel up to it, or watching the video if that's more digestible. Always take care of yourself first and foremost.

    First off, if we're talking cozy games, we have to mention one with that in the title. Cozy Grove is such a cute, wholesome, and comforting game about death. As a Spirit Scout, it is your task to learn about the spirits of the island. Help them with quests both big and small and, in doing so, learn their stories about their lives. Each has an interesting tale to discover, but they've forgotten most of their lives, and you have to help them remember. In your kindness, you help them come to terms with their actions and deaths, and they finally achieve peace. For those who may live with regrets regarding loved ones who passed, this game is a special comfort in finding happiness.

     Spiritfarer is, like Cozy Grove, a game about helping spirits find peace. However, it's different in the context and outcome: your character, Stella, knew all these spirits in life, and in helping them find peace and move on, you also find peace and comfort for yourself. I especially enjoy this game and how it handles the spirits' final journeys: you can take your time with each character and, once you've finished their stories, you can keep them around indefinitely until you're ready to say goodbye. As someone who's dealt with a lot of unexpected or untimely death in my life, it's important to me that this game gives me the choice of when to say goodbye.

      The First Tree is a story all about finding closure. As a mother fox, you face death in this simple walking sim as the narrator recounts his life and estrangement with his father. It's a fairly simple game, but the story hit close to home in a lot of ways. As someone who lost my father when I was just 15, I didn't have a lifetime of memories with him as the writer did with his, but the sentiments hit me in the feels all the same. The First Tree is a pretty short game, playtime-wise, but it took me a long time to complete it because it's not one you can just run through in one sitting. I took plenty of breaks when I needed them, and I'd recommend others to do the same.

        To the Moon is a different take on the theme of closure in death. As impartial scientists, you travel in the memories of an old, dying man to help him fulfill one wish – to go to the moon. What is normally an easy task for these scientists is hampered by one small detail – in trying to modify his memories, you discover that he never had any desire to go to the moon, despite his final wish. In helping this man, you discover long-forgotten memories and help him find closure on a life not-quite-fully lived. It's a beautiful story that reminds us that, even if someone appears to have had a perfectly happy life full of love, there are always things that we don't see. I dare you to play this whole game without crying. I knew it was sad going into it, but I still sobbed, and it was so good.

        In a completely different direction from the others, What Remains ofEdith Finch is an interesting take on the “cozy death” theme. As another walking sim, you – as the eponymous Edith Finch – explore the family home of the Finches, who historically have disappeared or died in mysterious ways. Learn the fates of Edith's ancestors and siblings through unique storytelling and visual styles as you come to terms with the family legacy. Haunting in the most beautiful way, I just had to include this in my list.

    Now, time for a disappointing review, but I want to be honest. In researching for this video, I came across a game titled Hello Goodboy. It sounded really cute and right up my alley – you're a little boy, accompanied by a dog, helping others out and doing good deeds in the afterlife. I was so excited to play this! But unfortunately, it fell really short of its promise; you're only given the smallest of hints that you're in the afterlife, and your actions, while simple enough, don't lend to any depth in the narrative or feelings about your own journey. You just do a couple good deeds – and I do mean a couple – and then you move on. That's it! So, unfortunately, if you're looking for more games of this niche, I'd skip this one. But if you have any others that you think I or others would enjoy, please let me know!

        Okay, I teased at the beginning that there would be an honorable mention on this list, so here it is: Animal Crossing. Now, this series isn't explicitly about death, hence only the honorable mention, but there has been, since its creation, a persistent fan theory about it. In this theory, your character is dead, which explains the childlike utopia of a town filled with animal friends, no disease, and virtually no aging – besides certain NPCs between games, but not in the games themselves. What's more, throughout your time, you get letters from your “mom”, one-way communication that suspiciously sounds like a mother talking to her dead child. These letters have brought a lot of comfort to people who have lost family – either by death or estrangement – and so, I wanted to include it here for that reason. While I don't necessarily subscribe to this theory myself, I did create my childhood friend Jenna in one of my towns upon her death, and the letters from Mom to her definitely have brought comfort.

    What do you think of this Animal Crossing theory? Are there any other games you'd recommend for this list? Let me know down below. Thanks for reading! Have a wonderful, magical day.

Sims 4 Legacy Challenge: Animal Crossing Style!

    I love Animal Crossing, and one of the things I always joke is that it's my goal in every game to play Animal Crossing. Whether that's decorating my dream house, befriending my neighbors, or trying to catch all the unique fish in a game, the ways I play my other favorite games all resemble Animal Crossing gameplay when it gets down to it. And, probably to nobody's surprise, the Sims is no exception. I've spent years making an Animal Crossing world in my Sims 4 game, and I'm finally ready to play it! So I made a legacy challenge to capture the heart of Animal Crossing, and thought I'd share it with others. Starting in September, I'll be uploading my own playthrough of this challenge on my YouTube channel, so check it out if you want to see it in action!

    As a note, I started this build in 2018 so it's based on New Leaf, and yes I will cry if you make me update all the buildings for New Horizons. I probably wouldn't finish until the next Animal Crossing game if I tried to do that. But if you'd like to use my buildings to fill out your world, they're all CC free and on the gallery under EA ID “fuchsiarascal”. I've also got some Animal Crossing NPCs up there, and will be making more as I play more.

Video more your style? Check out the challenge (and lots of shots of my Animal Crossing world!) here!

SETUP 

1. In Create a Sim, make your Sim for generation 1. Specific guidelines are down below, but you'll be starting with a "normal" personality, any gender.

2. Evict all townies, and refill homes with villagers and NPCs.

3. Turn auto-age and stories OFF for non-played household. This makes it easier to keep our iconic NPCs around and unchanging as shopkeepers and neighbors as our own story progresses.

4. Create a single room (plus bathroom) Animal Crossing-inspired house to start, and place it on a 20x30 lot. I have a starter house also uploaded to the gallery for this if you want.

5. Set lifespan to normal.

6. Make a museum to house collections. As a lot of the goals are collections oriented, this will be very important! At the moment, I'm still working on my functional museum so it's not on the gallery yet (just the New Leaf inspired one), but any place to put items that isn't your home lot will do!

    Optional setup includes filling worlds with Animal Crossing buildings, like the ones on my gallery. I love to use Newcrest as my “base world” for all these buildings and set it up to really look like a New Leaf town as much as possible! Then, if you want to use a mod, I set up NPCs with the Live-in-Business mod, which is helpful for businesses to work in a way that the Sims 4 doesn't really support, like Brewster owning and working at the Roost. And although my gallery builds don't have custom content in them, I have a ton that I'll be using in my house and throughout my gameplay. If you want to fill your world with Animal Crossing inspired custom content too, I use a lot from Talia's Witchy Sims CC.

RULES

Okay, with setup all done, let's go over the rules of the challenge!

1. Start with a single young adult sim with “normal” traits, move them into the Animal Crossing starter lot, and then zero out your money.

2. Each generation has a specific personality with their own aspirations and collections to focus on. Each personality has one defining trait that they must have; choose one other from the list, and the third trait can be your choice or randomized. Also, personalities do not have to be tied to gender!

3. A sim can have multiple children, but only one can be the heir. You can choose who this will be, as long as they have the defining traits for the next generation. The others must move out upon becoming young adults.

4. The current generation progresses when the heir becomes a young adult; parents can either stay and contribute to the household with collections, aspirations, etc. or move out – that's up to you! If they move out, they can no longer contribute to the collections, and they must be played occasionally to age up or die, or do this manually. Because of this, you may want to keep them in the household – so it's a good thing that you'll be able to expand your house!

5. Each personality and generation has a few careers to choose from. Some fit multiple personalities, so you can choose, but only one can have that career. So, for example, if your Normal sim in generation 1 is a gardener, your Uchi sim in generation 6 has to be something else.

6. You can marry placed villagers, and you can bring your spouse's funds into the family, with a maximum of 20,000 simoleons. Remember, we kicked all the rich townies out, so nobody should have more than that.

7. House expansions are based on money, not generations. This does not include the lot value, but rather how much money your sim has in spending cash.

8. You can move lots twice: at the 3^rd expansion to a 30x40 lot, and at the final expansion to a 60x60 lot.

COLLECTIONS RULES:

• Each generation has specific collections to complete; see details later in this video or in the blog post. Obviously, only count the collections for DLC that you own. I tried to split them up evenly but also fit with what each personality would be interested in.

• Items collected in previous generations count as inheritance, but that generation's collections must be completed before they move out or die.

• To “donate” something to the museum, edit the museum in build buy mode to place the item, and then delete, do not sell, that item from your sim's inventory. A bit clunky, but unless you want your sim to own the museum as a retail store and pay bills on it, this is the best way.

The goal of this challenge is to experience different personalities and ambitions in the lens of the sims while also completing the many collections the game has to offer. Enjoy!

 GENERATIONS

    Now, onto the generations, what personality accompanies which and what you'll be focusing on with each one! 

GENERATION 1: NORMAL

You are sweet and well-rounded, but mostly focused on establishing a solid foundation for your family – friends, career, education, bonding.

career options: gardening, writing, or culinary arts
goals: best friends with 8 villagers (excluding family); read 20 books
aspiration: family
collections: frogs, fossils, decorative eggs, village fair ribbons
required trait: cheerful
optional traits: creative, art lover, bookworm, foodie, animal enthusiast (or cat/dog lover), neat

 GENERATION 2: CRANKY

Your parent(s) instilled a strong sense of learning, but growing up with little made you want more. you value success over relationships.

career options: physician, business, scientist, politician
goals: no more than 2 best friends (excluding family); reach top of chosen career
aspiration: knowledge
collections: microscope prints, space prints, aliens, batuu records, moonwood relics
required trait: loner
optional traits: gloomy, unflirty, genius, socially awkward, paranoid

 GENERATION 3: SNOOTY

You learned from your parent(s) to be selective with relationships, but you are more social than them. you enjoy the finer things in life and society.

career options: home decorator, critic, style influencer
goals: join 3 clubs; travel on 5 luxury vacations
aspiration: fortune
collections: metals, crystals, elements, snow globes
required trait: snob
optional traits: high maintenance, romantic, art lover, ambitious, materialistic, proper, animal enthusiast (or cat/dog lover)

GENERATION 4: PEPPY

Growing up surrounded by your parent(s)’ club friends, you want to be popular! Your parents involved you in lots of activities– and you want to do it all!

career options: pop star, actor, child star, spell caster
goals: achieve “global superstar”; own a hot tub
aspiration: popularity
collections: postcards, feathers, seashells, magical artifacts
required trait: outgoing
optional traits: cheerful, romantic, music lover, dance machine, squeamish, insider

  

GENERATION 5: SMUG

Your famous parents leave you with a sense of superiority – it’s up to you whether you earn it, or just ride on your parents’ coattails. You like to flirt, but finding someone to settle down with will be a challenge.

career options: detective, secret agent
goals: 10 romantic relationships, no marriage (but can hire a nanny)
aspiration: love
collections: fish, sugar skulls, city posters, message in a bottle
required trait: self-absorbed
optional traits: romantic, self-assured, art lover, ambitious, eratic, snob, insider, jealous, non-committal

GENERATION 6: UCHI

After watching your parent play with hearts your whole life, you’re very protective and caring. You have close friends that you’d die for, but you keep your circle small. You tend towards physical activities to get your negativity out.

career options: gardening, crafter, astronaut
goals: start a “club” of close friends; make lot eco-friendly
aspiration: location
collections: gardening, space rocks, magic beans, geodes, village fair ribbons
required trait: loves outdoors
optional traits: neat, family oriented, creative, cheerful, active, maker, freegan, hot headed

GENERATION 7: JOCK

Your parent(s) showed you the mental importance of endorphins, and you took that and ran (literally). You work everything out through physical activity, and you love it!

career options: athletic career, lifeguard, adventurer
goals: 5 “adventure” trips (jungle, ski resort, etc.); university – party school!
aspiration: athletic
collections: holiday cracker plushies, artifacts, buried treasure, lightsaber parts
required trait: active
optional traits: adventurous, loves outdoors, bro, party animal

 

GENERATION 8: LAZY

Your parent(s) forced you to do sports as a kid, and you hated it. You’d rather sit around playing video games and reading comics! You’ve inherited a lot of wealth and a big house; why work hard when you could enjoy it?

career options: tech guru, barista, culinary arts
goals: have a butler/maid; taste all city/festival foods
aspiration: foodie
collections: mysims, insects, experimental food photos, voidcritters, simmies
required trait: lazy
optional traits: goofball, foodie, geek, animal enthusiast (or cat/dog lover), childish, clumsy, glutton, slob

 HOUSING UPGRADES:

    As the final part of the challenge, let's talk about house expansions. As I mentioned, these are monetarily based. These are also the numbers I'm not quite sure about, as I don't really know what's realistic in the Sims currency, so this may be heavily edited in the future. But for now, this is the rundown for expansions and moves. And remember, these are obtained when you have this amount in household funds, not counting lot value.

        50K – Add a separate bedroom

        100k – Add two additional rooms

        250k – Add a bathroom and one addition, such as a porch, greenhouse, shed, etc. At this expansion, you can move to the 30x40 lot.

        500k – Add an attic room.

        750k – Add two more rooms in the attic

        1 million – Add a basement and an additional bathroom

        1.2 million – Add two rooms in the basement

        1.5 million – One addition (porch, greenhouse, etc.) and you can move to the largest size lot in the game

Finding Comfort in Gaming: Discover the Most Heartwarming Video Games

    Hey everyone! Today, I thought I'd talk about some of my favorite comfort games-- the ones I consistently turn to when my soul is heavy and I need a major pick me up. I just came out of a *really* rough month, so I thought it was time that I visited this topic. Games, particularly Animal Crossing, and the communities I've found from them have helped me out of deep depressions and traumatic experiences. And while there are plenty of games that are great for tuning out the world when I need it, today's topic is instead focused on those that help me re-find myself in the world when I need it most.

    As a content warning, while this discussion and these games are positive and focused on the uplifting, there will be vague mention of depression, death, and other heavy subjects. That said, I'll try to keep things fairly light, but if you're feeling vulnerable, feel free to come back to this when you feel ready. I've also got this up in a video if that format is easier.

 

    First on my list is Spiritfarer, a calm story about ferrying the spirits of the dead to the afterlife. In this game, you help spirits with tasks as you learn their stories -- and slowly remember yours. Meanwhile, you travel between islands, gathering various resources and expanding your boat. You can choose how you want to outfit it -- whether that's heavy on gardening, carpentry, or just making your guests comfortable. There are plenty of activities to do, and fun little minigames like catching lightning in a bottle or flying jellyfish are great events that you can trigger at will when you want a break from the narrative.

 

    This game is all about accepting death, saying goodbye, and all that comes with it. It's about enjoying the moments and memories we do have, and not dwelling on the end of it. You can take each character's story at your own pace, so there's no rush to say goodbye until you're ready. That's an important part to me -- as someone who's dealt with a lot of unexpected or untimely death throughout my life, having time to say goodbye is a luxury I've often wished for. This game provides that, and it is a comfort that can't be understated.

 

    On a similar note -- and sorry for the continuing theme of death -- next on my list is Cozy Grove. In this game, you slowly bring color back onto this island by helping ghost bears day by day. Learn their stories, help them process their lives and deaths, and support them in finding peace. Unlike Spiritfarer, your character in Cozy Grove has no previous connections with these ghosts -- although they do to each other. Still, despite initially having no attachment to the other characters, you quickly come to care for these spirits and their intertwined stories.

    Harmony is a big aspect of this game -- not just to help the bears achieve peace, but to also bring harmony to the island. There are numerous items to place around the grove, but there's a catch -- all the decorations have styles, and certain plants and animals like and dislike different styles. So decorating your island is more than just putting things where you like them -- if you want to maximize harvests from flowers, trees, and animals, you have to strategize placement so everyone enjoys it. It's an optional mechanic, and you can definitely ignore it, but it adds another layer of bringing peace to the island. And that's ultimately what this cozy game is all about -- finding peace, even if it seems unlikely.

 

    Now let's talk about games that aren't about death! Sorry, I guess you can kinda tell what I've been dealing with lately with those two games. Well, for my third choice, I wanted to highlight Cartomancy Anthology, a collection of short games that explore the major arcana in tarot. If you haven't seen it, I have a review of this anthology that you can read here or watch here. And if you're not familiar with tarot, it's a tool that I personally use a lot to heal my soul and receive messages from the universe. The Cartomancy Anthology is a great extension of this, as a lot of the games explore the cards' themes in calm, uplifting ways. If you need a pick-me-up for your soul, cards like the Star, Strength, and the Magician are great experiences to open yourself up to.

 

    Fourth on the list is the Sims. This has been a staple in my gaming catalog since the very first release, and has provided both an escape and a comfort as needed. The Sims has it all for when the real world gets too tough: affordable housing, steady jobs with actual career progression, easy relationships. You can build the house, or family, of your dreams, or just recreate your current living space to plan out redesigns before committing actual money. Sure, all this freedom means you can also play in a completely different direction, taking your revenge out on the world, but let's keep this wholesome, shall we?

    Unlike the other games here, I tend not to get attached to the characters -- Simlish means there's a disconnect, and no explicit uplifting dialogue like in the other games on this list. And that's why it's great as an escape when I need it -- but this isn't a list about escapism, that can come later. But rather, this game is great because it lets me envision the life I want, the house I can hope to have one day, and the money cheats that millennials can only dream of. And, okay, sorry to mention death again, but after recently losing my beloved cat Avocado, having him in the game with a pet immortality mod is absolutely priceless.

 

    The fifth and final game, to no surprise if you're familiar with my content, is Animal Crossing. This series, primarily New Leaf, got me through so many struggles in my life. When I was in my deepest depression and feeling alone in the world, it was invaluable to boot up the game and be met with villagers who were always happy to see me. Their cheerful messages and nuggets of wisdom were, and are, a comfort to me. I've unfortunately abandoned my "Comfort Crossing" project over time, but if you ever need some cute villagers to lift your spirits, take a scroll through its twitter or tumblr tag.

    I'm keeping my commentary on Animal Crossing brief here, but only because it's a subject that I've talked about at length through the years and in many places. It could be, and has been, its own video, in all the ways it cheers me up and has positively impacted many people. So, if you're feeling down, I always recommend Animal Crossing first and foremost. And if you're about to say, "but New Horizons has less varied and more shallow dialogue", I urge you to play again and become better friends with the villagers. The game did add a ton of great, new dialogue, but they're hidden within friendship levels and between more common pleasantries.

 

    So, there you have it. My "Chicken Soup for the Gamer's Soul" list, if you will. Each of these games offers a great pick-me-up when the world just wants to drag you down, and I encourage you to check them out when you need a little comfort. Do you have any other games that I should consider for this list? Let me know in the comments below! And keep an eye out for more cozy gaming content, including my top video games to escape the world in. Have a wonderful, magical day!