BEST Cozy Games of 2023 (and WORST!)

hi cozy friends happy end of 2023 it's been a while since we've talked about exclusively gaming on a video and that's really just because I've been exploring my other hobbies and interests on this channel this year however we are returning to the roots today one of my goals this past year was engaging with gaming in a more authentic way in a way that felt honest to me I started this because gaming is my passion and it's my safe space to go to and it started to become more of an obligation and as

soon as I felt that I was like oh no no no no no no no we need to step back and we need to look at how I'm engaging with gaming but now after having done that for a full year and having had all of the time to like play the games I wanna play focus on the games I wanna play for however long I wanna play them I feel like I can come to you with this best of...and worst of list for 2023 and give you truly thought out authentic impressions so let's just jump right into it okay these are my favorite

and best in my opinion cozy games from 2023 these aren't in any particular order by the way but I'm starting with Lego Fortnite because it is near and dear to my heart right now in this moment it is my current obsession I can't stop playing it and I'm having so much fun playing it with friends I never thought I would have a Fortnite game on my best of Cozy Games list never never never never never but here we are Lego Fortnite Lego Fortnite is a survival resource adventure game where you collect

resources you build and upgrade villages you adventure with your IRL friends or with villagers you fight off some enemies and you explore new biomes it's very much Minecraft with a Lego skin basically what I love about this game specifically is the scenery is beautiful it definitely runs better on PC than it does on switch on switch you're getting a little bit of like lagging and background loading as a little bit slower a realistic visual but not because it's also Lego it's just such a cool mas

hup and such a unique environment to be in when you're playing so I love that and then I also love that the survival mode is fully customizable similar to Minecraft like there's all of these customizable ways that you can play the survival mode so that it's most enjoyable for you or even just like easier or more difficult and then I love that they have a full sandbox mode again similar Minecraft it's really just Minecraft but Lego they have a full sandbox mode where you can just build your heart

's content and like insert animals insert enemies and like kind of just do whatever you want I also love that they've been doing updates like there was a storage stacking update like an inventory stacking update that they did recently that I was like oh my gosh y'all are listening to us, thank you! so I love the idea that they'll continue to like listen to players and update as needed I really enjoy the village progression system you have this village square that's kind of your central point whe

re new Lego characters new NPCs will come in and be like "I like your village! I might stay here" and you're like "please stay here!" and they're like I need a bed so then you build them a bed and then you can kind of build up your village from there my hopes for the future of this game is that they continue to add new biomes and new like build types! there's endless opportunity for them they can just keep adding stuff if they like to so I really hope they do my only complaint about this game is

the building is so insufferable to me I tried it on PC I tried it on switch and I tried it on like mobile iPad and mobile with Amazon Luna you can do like cloud based gaming all of them were so frustrating to build with at the core of Lego is building a Lego set right and I just was so disincentivized to build it's very tedious and blocky you kind of have to like hop around and put each piece up and then go back to the menu to pick a new piece and it's...it's it's just so tedious that's my only

complaint though in a game of otherwise amazing features packed with so much fun I typically like to play alone versus playing with people but this is the game that I'm like bugging my friends to play I'm like come on come on another round another round let's go it came out like last month I think? foresee myself playing this for months and months months my next favorite game that came out this year is Venba Venba is a narrative based cooking simulator where you're following an Indian mom Venba

and her journey with her husband and her son in a new country and throughout it you really see in such a touching way how cooking is such a language of love and also how that can pass down through generations I struggle to think of another narrative game that I've been so invested in each and every character because I think the character work is just so well done the individual motivations are fleshed out I also love and appreciate a narrative story that has purpose and intent to the emotions i

s trying to evoke if that makes sense not just having a sad character moment or putting a sad plotline in just to be an emotional storyline this is sad because it's true it's sad because it's honest and genuine and that's what makes it a truly touching story not just because someone threw in something and said like let's...let's make this a sad one you know what I mean and then apart from the storyline the actual cooking element and gameplay element of this was so enjoyable the recipes were so f

un there were so many different types mechanics within them were always differed so it kind of felt like separate minigames with each new recipe and some of the recipes had this kind of like figuring out puzzling element to it where you're like okay is it this stage or this stage as soon as it got to a point where I got a little bit impatient with that you figure it out it never gets to a point where you're sitting there like oh my god I can't figure this out and I have to do it over and over an

d over because then that kind of takes away from the overall experience and even the narrative so I feel like it does a really good job of setting you up for success in each of the recipes but not too much like not so that it's so easy that you mindlessly go through it it really feels like the joy and nostalgia of Cooking Mama but grown up grown up with this incredibly moving narrative and characters that you are so so invested in my only critique on this one is I wish it were longer which is no

t even a critique really it's just like please just give us some DLC or something like I want more from the characters and I just want more recipes next is Palia Palia is free by the way which is crazy still to me this day it's a cozy adventure role playing MMO which is a massive multiplayer online game if you don't know so in the game you're playing with like other random people on the internet who are also running around in the same town and doing their own thing and fishing and catching bugs

and stuff like that but you don't have to like interact or anything it kind of just feels more alive in my opinion it's the first cozy MMO I've ever played and it really really left an impression this year I think they did so so well there's a lot of grinding in the beginning you had to do a lot of resource collecting but I think that's okay because the resource collecting is fun fishing is unique and engaging the bug catching is really fun and then the hunting it kind of reminds me of Breath of

the Wild it feels very natural and smooth I love that they update the game often and do events and stuff the events were so fun it felt like everybody kind of partaking in this real life event I guess that's the point of MMO is this it feels like you're all kind of experiencing this game together in real life like the Chappa hunting event was so cute and so fun I also really loved how it feels like you can spend your day doing anything you want there's no like time constraint there's no quests

that are like do this now do this now there's no constraints coming from any one place that are keeping you from just doing what you wanna do every day I think I would feel a little bit differently about that pacing if this were just like a regular degular farming sim but I think in the context of MMOs it makes so much sense and it feels like this hideaway that you can pop into and just chill like you can just chill I also love the uniqueness of it I think it's really creative like the special a

nimals and characters they come up with doesn't just feel like another farming sound you kind of get invested in it cause you're like oh my a Chappa! it just feels distinct and I think that makes you wanna come back to it more my disclaimer with this one is that I haven't tried it on switch yet but I have heard it's a little bit more buggy and slow on switch because it's a super like intense resource heavy game and it's an MMO so it's gonna be a little bit harder to run on switch but also it's f

ree so like idk... it's free next is Storyteller I live for the drama okay and Storyteller supplies it Storyteller is a narrative puzzle game where you shift around characters and plot points on kind of a grid of panels to achieve the right story outcome and move through the chapters so when I first tried this game which I played on Netflix cause it was free on Netflix and I was like I might as well try it I thought it was kind of like a free for all kind of like a sandboxy style like test out d

ifferent outcomes like make your own story I thought that's what it was but it's not it's more of like this thought exercise puzzle style game where you're trying to reach a specific outcome and you have to organize all of the characters and plot points to get to this outcome and that alone like added this little challenge that made it so fun and interesting and dynamic and like keeps you in it keeps you invested for hours and some of them are hard some of them are like actually difficult you're

staring at this blank panel of six boxes and you're like I don't know like I don't...bestie I don't know! I think this one would be really really fun to sit down and play with like friends or family like all together in a room just shouting at the screen like "no! the murder goes there and then the Romeo goes here and Juliet goes here!" because aren't cozy games that much more fun when we add a little chaos to it right next is one I did not see coming this year at all and that is Hello Kitty Is

land Adventure hello Kitty is a town building simulator but it's also kind of an adventure game think Animal Crossing mixed with Zelda games like classic Zelda games I was not expecting this I picked up this game thinking it was truly just gonna be like Animal Crossing style town building and that's kind of how it starts you're you're dropped down into this island after a plane crash....whichi is... kind of morbid but everyone survives! and all of these hello Kitty Sanrio characters are on this-

- I'm yelling because that's so cute. that's like... what more could you want from a cute cozy game all of the Sanrio characters in one island! together! please! you're all dropped down on this island you immediately are there with Hello Kitty my girl okay and your aim is to like gift people gifts befriend people do little quest for people and then get them to stay on this island so at first I really thought that was it and I was like okay this is cool I'm I'm vibing with this like you kind of w

alk around and you unlock new items at the store just cutesy cutesy fun Animal Crossing but then one of the quest is like oh go unlock you know these areas and you're like okay how do I do that all of a sudden you end up in this puzzle room very reminiscent of classic Zelda games so you end up in this little puzzle room where you kind of have to like puzzle your way through and get this star I was shocked I was like giddy when I was doing I was like oh my god there's like there's a puzzle elemen

t to it there's a puzzle element to it it was so much fun to discover that and then know that there's still all of this really cute town village building game to explore and the map is really big! I will say this is definitely like a quick burn for me is that the phrase what's the phrase too bright too fast I was obsessed with this for like two weeks played it nonstop and then I kind of dropped it but really so many games came out after that that stole my attention away that I don't think it say

s anything about the game itself I wish I wish it were on other platforms because I think it would be getting a lot more attention and a lot more accolades and flowers than it's getting right now because it's just on Apple Arcade a lot of people don't even know about Apple Arcade but alas alas it's kind of tucked away in the Apple Arcade world which if you're willing to journey out there you will have a lovely time next is Mail Time which is a cottage core delivery like mail delivery simulator m

y immediate disclaimers for this cause I know this game had mixed reviews I love loved it I feel like it was a cozy gamers dream come to life but I know some people didn't vibe with it as much so here are my disclaimers for you have to really love and appreciate dialogue you have to be someone who reads funny cutesy dialogue and you're like oh my god that just made my day I was so cute!! if you are someone who kind of impatiently clicks through dialogue....that's me usually okay all the time I d

o not be reading dialogue at all and it affects my gameplay cause I'm like what am I supposed to do? however when a game is dialogue focused then I'll be like okay I'll I'll look at the dialogue and this game most of its charm is in the dialogue unique and cute and quirky little characters so cute and they stay with you forever like I still think about one of them to this day okay so No. 1 you have to like dialogue No. 2 you have to like fetch task games and those are games where basically the w

hole point of it is you going hey villager hey NPC what can I do for you great thank you for that quest I will go do it and I will go bring it back to you and that's kind of what the whole game is which makes sense because it is a mail delivery game No. 1 like dialogue No. 2 like fetch task and No. 3 it's really a platformer at its core which I didn't really think about until people kind of started commenting about it and I was like y'all are right so I think not every cozy gamer is used to or l

ikes platformers but for me Mail Time the platforming was really straightforward and it's not like meant to be a totally difficult platformer but it is kind of a platform at its core you are like gliding and hopping and strategically getting up to different places to like deliver mail and see new characters so I think all of those things are something to consider when you think about if you are going to like Mail Time as much as I do but here's why I do like Mail Time I feel like just a world wi

thin a game existing is important enough to me especially when that world is something that like is a comfort to me and to me the world within Mail Time is a comfort to me it is a cozy cottagecore dream the characters are lovely and charming and whimsical so admittedly this is very much an environment based favorite for me I'm just happy that somebody created this world that exists in a game that I can go like bop around in I wouldn't say like the narrative elements of it are like touching and a

re gonna stay with me forever but what will stay with me forever and why it is a favorite of mine is the world that was built I think it was just so beautiful and so important like I just feel like we needed just to have this world exist and it does now in mail time and it makes me so happy next is Witchy Life Story and this is on my favorites list for a very similar reason to Mail Time I feel like this was plucked from the brains of every cozy gamer out there like if you were to say what would

the art direction look like of the absolute cutest witchy cozy cottagecore game? this would be it the art design the UI of all of the menus the character design the outfit design to perfection I will say you do have to appreciate dialogue and point and clicks I'm a big point and click girly I love me some Artifex Mundi games I love a little check off boxes get things done collect an item give it to somebody that is something that's very calming and cozy for me so this game was that plus the perf

ect aesthetic ever it's very low stakes task based simple straightforward and it's pretty I think that's valid I think it's valid to just have a game that is kind of like a comfort environment for you and these two are really that for me next on my list is Coral Island which is a classic classic farming sim when you think of farming sim that is Coral Island but I think it adds so much to the genre and it expands on the genre literally in scale of the actual game and it expands on it in terms of

expectation the things you expect from a farming sim it goes a little bit further like it adds this conservationist diving element that I think is really really unique so you're not just like okay I have to farm and then I have to mine and then I have to talk to villagers it's also like oh I can also go dive in the ocean and I think adding little things like that is always appreciated in the cozy game community where we are inundated with farming sims thank you...I-- I do love it but sometimes w

e want a little a little sprinkle sprinkle a little something different and I think Coral Island does it so well and then like I said with the scale it is a huge game it's massive there's so many characters so much to explore in the map like in the map is huge the houses are huge the art style I love don't even get me started on the love interests! oh my gosh! the love interest! *screams* Rafael! my man, my man my man! Rafael! my gosh y'all the love interests are phenomenal they're like diversit

y...phenomenal! it's like they took the farming some genre and said we're gonna take this to the farthest reach as we can we're going to expand this as far as we possibly can you can tell so much work was put into it one of the last things I love about this game is the events I feel like the events are so fun and unique for far reasons so it's giving you the the events are on the calendar you're booked and busy but the events themselves are unique and interesting there's like cultural elements t

o some of them and then there's like many games you could play and I think it's very reasonably priced! next is one that I think is very divisive, very contentious in this community and that is Fae Farm...listen I'm 10 toes down I'm sticking to the fact that I love this dang game y'all I think it got a lot of criticism because of the price point I think really it would not have gotten any real criticism if it weren't for the price point and I get that I feel that I get it however I do think it i

s a solid solid game price aside let's just let's just shove price aside for now I think it's so unique and the quality of life features in this game? unmatched this is like a fairy adventure farming sim that was made with ease of play in mind like the developers specifically talk about how they are people who have played Farming Sims forever and ever and ever and they know the little quality of life things that make it actually enjoyable to play and and kind of take away certain hurdles and fru

strations about farming sims and take those away so that it's enjoyable to play there are so many little things I couldn't even point out like unlimited inventory and inventory pulling when you're crafting all things like that just quality of life things that make it so enjoyable to play that you almost don't think about it you're like this is how it should be at first you're like oh my gosh this is a breath of fresh air and then after a while you're like yeah this is how it should be and then y

ou go back to other farming sims and you're like hmm I wanna go to my chest I love that there are kind of no bounds to the map you can like hop around on anything you can swim on anything I think that's super unique to the farming some genre I love the little tea feature that you can make like a cold or hot tea on like a cold or hot day I love the bug catching not the biggest fan of the fishing to be honest I wish the fishing were a little bit different I am a huge fan of the caves mining combat

part of this game especially when you're playing with friends genuinely enjoyable to get through verses sometimes I feel like in farming since I'm like oh my god please I don't wanna do this anymore I'm tired of this grandpa I will say in the beginning I think it was a little bit buggier especially on switch to play with friends but they have 1 improved that and then 2 on PC it was never a problem like it ran so well now let's let's call back in 60 dollar price tag you can come back in now than

k you is it worth 60 dollars? I think that's up to you I would pay 60 dollars for it but also this is like my job and I am unhealthily obsessed with cozy games and trying every cozy game ever so for me it makes sense for somebody who's like really trying to save their money for specific games that they will know that they love and continue to play I would maybe wait for a sale I would wait for a sale or do a lot more research on people's like gameplay and things like that to see if it has the si

milar mechanics of farming sims that you know you really get into and kind of become addicted to look out for those and then decide if you wanna pay $60 for I really think that it could be worth it for some people and it may not be worth it for other people I know that's not answer but I think that ultimately that's how you kind of have to approach any game like I can't tell you that it's gonna be worth $60 for you but we will talk about games being objectively too expensive later on okay becaus

e....ooo! okay and last for my favorite games that came out this year cause I'm gonna talk about some that I just played for the first time this year fresh start oh my god! fresh start I would not have known about Fresh start unless I did a collaboration with them I did a YouTube video with them and sometimes that's what it takes for me to know that a game exists and I'm so so glad that I had the opportunity with them because this game is so---okay power washing simulator but cute and cozy and t

here's progression system and story that I don't know you care about more is more engaging power wash simulator like this is my job and I have to go get money for my job fresh start is like let's save the world let's clean up the world and leave it a better place to restore the cute animals and the nature around us.........hello? like that's so cute so fresh start is a cleaning simulator point blank it's simple it's giving exactly what it's promising you. if you are not a cleaning simulator fan

you probably won't like this I don't know like it's very simple and it's very meditative in it's pacing the point is to kind of check out and calm down and relax while you're cleaning every single inch of this little nature area that you're in so if you are not a fan of games like that this might not be for you! but if you are this is like the one in my opinion this is the one I think you will love this over Power Washing Simulator even though I love Power Washing Simulator but I think this is a

more like cozy nurturing version. next are two games that I played for the first time this year but did not come out this year but they left such an impression that I have to talk about them this year, okay? number one is Bugsnax I feel like I have not stopped talking about Bugsnax since I've played it and I think that's valid I think that's valid because this hands down became one of my like top 10 if not five favorite games of all time as soon as I finished playing honestly while I was playin

g it but then especially after I finished playing it like....let me let me backtrack Bugsnax is....it's kind of hard to describe honestly it's like such a unique setup of a game that I'm like oh my god the developers were geniuses like who were the brains behind this? it's an adventure game I suppose at its core but you are dropped down as a journalist in the town of Snaxburg which is kind of this like settlement community of grumpuses which are..... of grumpuses which are these little guys litt

le guys kay? the grumpuses are the main guys you're a grumpus in the game. Snaxburg is made up of grumpuses who are all passionate in some way about little creatures called Bugsnax which are these little creatures that run around and they look like bugs but also snacks kind of bug and kind of snack you see? they are so cute first of all the bugsnax are just so cute like each time you discover a new bugsnax you're like oh my God!! my God so cute!! look at it it looks like a shish kebab but also l

ike an ant? but one of your tasks as the grumpuses in Snaxburg is to go collect these different Bugsnax and each Bugsnax has a different method of how to catch it so there's this puzzle element of it sometimes it's super easy sometimes it's super difficult and then there's like big boss Bugsnax you have to catch whenever I talk about this game some people are like it was too hard like I couldn't figure out how to catch different Bugsnax and then other people are like this is the best game I've e

ver laid my hands on so I think if you know that you don't like kind of skill based mechanisms in a game maybe it's not for you but I would still try it because I am someone who also typically doesn't like those types of games but something about this game y'all I don't know if it's the cutesy little Bugsnax I don't know if it's like the different tools you have to catch them I don't know if it's like the narrative I think it's I think it's everything everything is woven together so perfectly to

create like a gripping narrative that you're invested in and then like progression in the game and collection and achievements that you're invested in I just think it's so well done and I think it's like the perfect example of a perfectly made game truly not a single note I think it is a perfectly made game and I think that other game developers should look to it as an example of thought put into every single element of a game. every time I played it and I had to stop playing it to go do someth

ing I was like thinking about it and then throughout the whole time playing it I was like I don't want this to end I don't want this to end I don't want this to end and how few games nowadays do you think that while playing you know what I mean? I feel like that's really rare and when you come across a game like that you've got to yell it from the rooftops which is what I've been trying to do with Bugsnax which is why I'm talking about it in 2023 I can cheat a little bit and say that this came o

ut on mobile in 2023 so technically it still did come out it was a 2023 release technically and supposedly it runs better on mobile than it does on switch I would try it on anything other than switch if you only have switch I think it's still worth it to try I would honestly just try it on mobile first cause it's supposed to run like super well so that's Bugsnax I don't think I'll ever stop talking about it you guys oh oh I will say though disclaimer the end has like darker undertones don't go i

nto it thinking it's like purely purely cozy for 90% of it it is it's like the coziest cutest game ever there are some darker undertones at the end but I think it makes it that much more interesting okay the next one that didn't come out this year but I played it for the first time this year is VR chat I had a friend get me into VR in general like VR games I had a VR headset for so long and just never really touched it cause I didn't know where to start and I had a friend who was like wait besti

e I love VR chat I'll show you around and I was like isn't VR chat filled with like strangers and people who are mean to you because they're strangers on the internet and she's like no I'll show you the way I Learned the way which is just this glorious little place where there's so many different worlds to explore so VR Chat works similarly to like Fortnite or Roblox where people can create their own worlds and then you can choose to like go play that game or play that world so VR chats very muc

h the same which I didn't know and you just pick a world to go into so there's like a world where you can just feed ducks in a park like you are looking at it in VR and you are picking up a sandwich and feeding it to a duck how perfect is that? but my absolute favorites were the world where you can just go in like this cozy little world! my friend was like it's basically the cozy ambiance videos on YouTube but in a world like you're inside of one and I was like sign me up and we went to one and

it was exactly like that there was one you can play chess and you can just talk to people and everyone has been so sweet anyone who we've come across is so so so so sweet and there's so many moderation options where you can like immediately block someone if they're being weird but I've never come across that all of the worlds I was going to everyone was looking for the same thing which is just like I wanna chill out here I just wanna chill out here and the best thing about it is that you can go

into any world privately so you can make any world basically a private server where it's just you or it's like just you and your friends is one world where you're just in a cozy room and you can like play stuff so you can watch like a Netflix show you can binge a Netflix show with your friend and it's like cozy VR world and it's so cute and it's free next on my list are honorable mentions and I'll explain what that means the honorable mentions are either games that are not so cozy and/ or games

that for whatever reason I am sure that I would love them because they're widely loved because I played a similar game before because I watched gameplay of it because I played enough of it to know whatever the reason like I know it would for sure be on this list but I just haven't played enough to comfortably be like yeah this is on my list! so instead there are in honorable mentions the first one is Tchia! Ah...Tchia is this beautiful open world adventure game where he plays Tchia this young g

irl exploring the beautiful lands of New Caledonia and she set out on a quest to save her father my favorite part of this game is absolutely hands down the soul jumping I think it makes the game so unique I think it adds such a fun engaging element to this game you. could literally soul jump into like any animal even objects! I soul jumped into a can and was just hopping around having a lovely time it's just such a unique way to adventure and explore in an already open world beautiful land that

you already want to adventure and explore but it kind of adds this additional fun element of like play and whimsy when you can explore as like a sea turtle or as a dog or as a can the world is also beautiful and like rich in culture and the potential for exploration is just like so vast it's such a good open world and I played enough of it and watched enough gameplay on my friends streams that I know I love this game but I haven't finished it yet so that's why it's on honorable mentions okay Dav

e the Diver...it is an adventure management game where you are deep sea exploring in the daytime and then running a sushi restaurant in the night, so it's kind of like light casual combat rogue like elements when you're out there catching fish and then classic restaurant manager game diner dash type style by night where you're like collecting new recipes based on new fish you catch and like pouring drinks for people and like getting people in and out the door I sat down, played a bit of this gam

e and I said this game is gonna take a week of my life knock a week of my life off the calendar get its claws and grasp a whole week of my life and take it down into the depths so that's why I didn't get into it as much as I wanted to because I simply didn't have a week to give to this game. I am like dying to give that week up to Dave the Diver cause I know I love it I think you like this if you like the action kind of combat elements where it's more rogue like and you're going out there and yo

u catch as many fish as you can and you like that like high tempo restaurant management I don't think this is necessarily a like cozy calm game but it's definitely one of those like comfort satisfying, diner dash style that I think can be really comforting it can be a time suck in the best way my last honorable mention is tears of the Kingdom now I have like 100 hours in tears of the Kingdom but that is solely in map exploration and side quests because that is my jam like when I played breath of

the wild I think I have over like 300/400 something hours in breath of the wild because I just loved adventuring I love riding around my horse I loved hunting I love selling things, I loved cooking doing the little side quest and just exploring the map when Tears of the Kingdom first came out I was like I already know what I'm gonna do for 100s of hours purely just exploring the map getting the full map unlocked and then just like exploring little side quest elements the main story for me takes

like a backseat and I know the Zelda people are gonna be like oh my...gosh! scandalous! how dare you say that! but I was never a Zelda girly I was purely a breath of the wild girly that's the only Zelda game I've ever played is breath of the wild and tears of the Kingdom and so my attachment to the franchise is solely in the fact that I love the open world exploration and freedom in those games and so the story element definitely takes the backseat for me and I know I know blasphemous I know! s

o that's why this is on honorable mentions because just like breath of the wild I love the open world exploration it hit just the same as it did in breath of the wild with fun little new elements and new things to explore new things to puzzle through I absolutely love it have I actually like gone through the main storyline? no but I love this game to the moon and back! okay besties now for my least favorite or the worst cozy games of 2023 because there are elements to these games that I did like

ultimately they either completely lost my interest or the pricing was so egregious that I just simply can't recommend it as a game as a whole as package.....*screams* No. 1 is Fashion Dreamer I literally on my notes I have Fashion Dreamer in parentheses (SORRY!!) I'm so sorry I was so excited about this! sign in my hand I am spearheading the girly pop game renaissance bring it back we love the girly pop games from the Nintendo DS games bring them back please that's why I was so excited for Fash

ion Dreamer I was so excited like finally the girly pop games are back it fell flat for me it fell flat for me and especially at the price point of $50 US Dollars! it fell flat for me I felt like it was lacking in content were the outfits really cute? yes! did I think the styling was done well? yes I think the styling was done well did I feel like the outfits and clothes were mostly pretty modernized? mostly yes! I felt like it just fell flat in content and I don't think that it was worth $50 ul

timately I just wish there was a story element and I understand that that was not the aim or the goal of the game but I think that would have helped with the feeling of nothingness that this game offered to me personally it's not style savvy I get that I think it would have added what I feel like this game is missing and what I feel like a lot of people feel like this game is missing it's a digital closet that's what it feels like it feels like a digital closet I don't think charging $50 for a d

igital closet is worth it! now the rebuttals I've heard to that..."developers are planning DLC" the developers are planning more content it's gonna feel fully fleshed out and it's going to be worth $50 that's great that is great I'm happy to hear it because I did pay $50 for it happy to hear if there's gonna be something that's gonna draw me back in...however I don't think it's right to release a game that is not worth the price you release it at and later add on stuff that you go okay well now

it's worth the price now you can't say anything how about we release it at $30 and then add on paid DLC I'd be I'd be ecstatic I'd be happy to give you more money for more content that's how it works... I think? I gave you more money you give me more content I'd be ecstatic about that I don't understand why we were given a digital closet for $50 and then like told to sit there and wait while more content is coming that's gonna make it worth $50 and I know some people were able to get it on sale

so it's a little bit more worth it for them that's fine also I I know for some people the $50 is worth it that's going back to my Fae Farm conversation like I think for some people they were like I don't care I've wanted a digital closet for so long on switch I'm happy to pay $50 for it and I'm like bestie great I'm happy for you fantastic but I think for the masses for the regular degular gamer it's not worth $50 nothing brought me back to it after playing around with it for two weeks that's Fa

shion dreamer I really hope for more fun girly pop games I even hope for Fashion Dream when I come out with DLC that makes me backtrack and makes me go okay okay no no no it is worth it I love it I love it now it's perfect I hope--I wish that I do! but for now it was my flop for 2023 I'm sorry. next is Barbie Dream House which this game technically didn't come out in 2023 it did on switch but it's been a mobile game for a long time because I played it when I was studying for the bar back in 2021

cause I was like I need a fun little girly pop game where I can turn my brain off and just play in a little Barbie dollhouse you know what at the time it did what it need to do but even then I was like this is...this is a mobile game for sure this is a mobile game for sure you know what I mean? and I mean that as in pay to play mobile game for sure that's that was my impression and so it only went so far so color me surprised when I saw the same game was coming out on switch? I said a mobile ga

me is coming out on switch for $40? what is going on here? and when I first heard about Barbie Dream House I was ecstatic! once again I'm so here for the girly pop games I was ecstatic I was imagining like a very simple kind of like fetch tasky cutesy game where you can customize the house and then you're like doing tasks for people or like even just like a narrative storyline I would have been fine-- like I would have been excited about anything as long as there was like some gameplay like I ju

st don't know how to describe the fact that there's like no real game play this very much like you have a Barbie dream house and you are playing in that Barbie dream house virtually so like in the same way you would have a dream house in real life and you move the barbies around and you play pretend with the barbies and then you just like plop barbies in a pool that's what the game is which you know it's named Barbie Dream House so that makes sense it really just feels like it should have stayed

a mobile game where it's something that you know like you passed to your iPad kid just tapping around to tap around I think that's fair and there's a space for that but do I think it's $40 worth on switch? no however I will say I made a review video on this on like my TikTok and Instagram and I kind of dragged it but like one person mentioned the comment like I actually pay for this for my child and it's like a 10 dollar monthly payment to like have access to all of the items unlockable items i

n the game so actually this is worth it for me because I only have to pay $40 now and then I have everything unlocked my daughter can play with all of the little customizable you know clothes and thingy things that she had to pay $10 a month for I'm like you know what that makes sense and that made me realize maybe this is not for me maybe this is not for cozy gamers haha not everything is is actually meant for us it's just meant for kids and I think that makes sense and that's fine I'm still pu

tting it on my floppy flop list for 2023 because I just I still think it's kind of the audacity of putting a free mobile game on switch for $40 is just so interesting but yeah this this is not as as an adult as an adult is Barbie Dream House gonna be something you like? like that sounds so silly as an adult this is not like a fun nostalgic game to like dip into like maybe Bratz or something it's just not that you are gonna be disappointed sorry Barbie Dream House! okay my last floppies of the ye

ar is Dreamlight Valley where do I start? ultimately I think the micro transactions they were the downfall of this game I think the pursuit of money above all else is probably gonna be the downfall of any game but I think there's so many games that pull off paid content paid add ons microtransactions and still have an amazing game at its core dreamlight valley fumbled the ball a little bit in that the balance of the game itself was affected by the microtransactions because they pushed too far in

my opinion say the star path for instance the amount of grinding you have to do to unlock the star paths is ungodly the common person who is not playing that game in every waking moment apart from like their job and whatever else they have going on in their life the common person doesn't have time to grind as much as the star path requires and they know that it's balanced that way on purpose so that you are then incentivized or pushed to spend real money to unlock items and get through the star

path I think they did they they listened a little bit and they added a little things just to keep people still engaged in playing the game they added a few things like the the picture thing which to me is just like I want nothing to do with I actually like the photo parts of games the least. they added little things so that you can get moonstones easier because before you would get what like 20 or 50 in a chest per day and that doesn't give you anything that doesn't get you anywhere with any of

the items so they added a few things like the the photo element I don't even know what it's called cause I haven't played in so long but even that the amount of grinding and engagement you have to do with the game to like consistently get enough moonstones to buy any of the items is so much and it's exhausting I feel like they just exhausted people once you got through the main plot points there was nothing left that was really fun to do besides buy new items and when you basically can't get th

e new items without paying real money that's gonna that's gonna make some people drop off and it made me drop off so I think in general I'm disillusioned with the game I think the way that they balanced the game I don't feel like they are balancing gameplay mechanics and the amount you have to grind to receive XYZ thing they're not balancing that with the player in mind they are not balancing that with fun in mind with like optimizing the actual entertainment of the game itself they're balancing

it with money in mind I won't even get into the whole it was gonna be free and now it's not and now there are still gonna have microtransactions I'm not even gonna get into all that cause---just in terms of game play itself this was just just such a drastic drop off for me and it didn't come out this year but because it has content that releases each year and it had new content that release this year I feel like we can talk about it and what I wanna say about it is I don't like it anymore haha

I do still recommend it to people and people are like what's a good game to like get into cozy gaming for the first time? I think it's an excellent game to introduce someone to gaming as a whole the familiar characters the familiar NPCs you don't have to like learn new characters you already recognize like Mickey and Donald and stuff like that and then I think it does a good job at like tutorial level like this is how you play a game haha this is how you farm this is how you talk to people this

is how you move things around I think it does a good job at that so I do recommend this to people when they're a new gamer looking for something but I don't recommend this to like long standing cozy gamers who are like is this a good farming village town building game compared to another one? I'm gonna say it's fun for a little bit it is fun for a little bit but then there's kind of nothing left and you know what? maybe that's fair this was on my favorites last year. maybe the game served its pu

rpose for me already and now it doesn't owe me anything you know and you know maybe that's fine however I just had to add it to this list because of how steep of a drop off it was in interest for me this year those were all of my favorites and least favorites best and worst cozy games of 2023 I hope this was entertaining and I hope it was worth the year gap of no game roundups for me I just feel like the end of the year roundups are like where you really get true impressions like I hear you like

this I hear you like this but what truly is your favorite these were them for me or my least favorite I would love to hear if you agree or disagree I love discourse okay bring it on I love to hear it and I'd love to hear your favorites for the year if it wasn't on this list or least favorites if it wasn't on this list or was on this list but was on my favorite I'm so excited for more cozy games in 2024 definitely follow me on my other socials where I consistently am talking about cozy games on

Instagram and TikTok and playing them on Twitch and on YouTube it's more lifestyle but definitely this year I do wanna sprinkle in a little bit more discussions on cozy games and I always talk about them in my favorites videos as well so that's it for 2023! it was such a good year for cozy games and I cannot wait for 2024 have an amazing New Years! I love you stay cozy! bye! just realizing how crazy this sounds