Hello all! I would like to know what games give you that cozy, fuzzy feeling of simple happiness.
I’m currently experiencing this with Tchia, a wholesome game about a girl doing fun stuff on an island.
Weirdly enough I have a similar thing going with Doom (2016) at the moment. Something about the intensity of the levels and the interesting map design make me feel really satisfied and immersed.
Lastly, Super Mario 3D World really has a similar effect to Tchia, we’re I immediately get a happy feeling just by booting it up and looking at the wonderful colors en design.
What is your go-to game for feeling relaxes or happy?
Minecraft with friends
Alba is a really sweet game with a photography mechanic. It’s short and usually cheap and well worth the time you’ll spend with it if it sends like something you’d like.
- Persona 5 Royal
- Captain Toad Tracker
- Mario 3D World
A Short Hike, definitely. I just wish it was longer.
Perhaps they’ll make a sequel, A Slightly Longer Hike.
I just do the hikes irl, nothing’s more relaxing than being in the mountains alone or with a good friend.
I do both, because people can do more than one thing. This is called a false dichotomy, and in this case with an unsubtle whiff of moralizing.
Spiritfarer.
The soundtrack, art direction, color palette, and gameplay all come together in a relaxing loop. I have spent hours just drifting along spot to spot, taking care of the spirits in my care until their times came to depart, and still go back to it when I just want to have some time to relax.
As a warning, the game does deal with some emotional tones, so there’s a bit of melancholy mixed in. My wife and I both had times where we teared up because it felt like saying goodbye to someone again. It’s handled well, though. Really gives the feeling of everything being put to rest, and there’s still everything they taught you right there as a reminder of the effect they had.
I remember just sitting there after helping the first spirit depart and thinking - wow. Which doesn’t happen a lot in games, but the combination of the music, the storylines for each spirit and the time when I started playing (early in the pandemic) cemented the game in my mind as a piece of art.
@knokelmaat Not sure if it’s a certain category, but here are some that really made me so:
- Stardew Valley
- Life is Strange (for now I only played the first series)
I’ll edit the list when I remember more.
- Book of Hours. It’s a strange game, set in the Secret Histories, the same setting that Cultist Simulator had. Unlike Cultist Simulator, which was rather gruesome, Book of Hours is a relaxed game, about cleaning out and restoring an abandoned library, reading the occult books left in it, and drinking tea with your guests.
- Potionomics. While it’s primarily a puzzle game about brewing potions, it has a lot of heartwarming dialogue.
- Settlers 2 (the original DOS game, not the remake). The Settlers series was what brought up the term “Wuselfaktor” (No clue how to translate this. There is an English explanation of the term in this article.), and imho Settlers 2 is (by far) the best part of that series.
- Kerbal Space Program. I can’t say why this game makes me happy, but it does. There’s something strangely relaxing about drifting through space in free-fall, seeing the planetary surface pass by at high speed below.
Fallout: New Vegas, with mods, is one game I always return to. Same with Borderlands 2. They never get old, for me!
For general games with very happy and uplifting messages, Outer Wilds, In Stars and Time and Celeste are wonderful experiences.
Toy Story 2 PSX
Super Mario 64
New Super Mario Bros DS
Mario Kart DS, 7, and 8 Deluxe
I love going back and replaying Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy on my PS2; awesome memories there. I really want to try out the OpenGOAL project
Slime rancher and Subnautica for sure.
Subnautica and Raft are my go-to relaxed-fuzzy-happy games. Being able to do things at my own pace and just noodle around with whatever I feel like is nice.
Forza Horizon 5 is my comfort game, but lately Rocket league is making me all extatic
Zelda OOT. I’ve been playing it before bed to wind down. It gives me good feels.
I’m like that with OG Doom. Its half nostalgia and half it just being a fun game to play.