While there’s certainly no rule that says a high-octane, action-packed production can’t also have a good story, dialing the action back a bit does tend to allow stories to branch off in interesting directions.
This is whycozy, lower-energy games can have some truly fascinating stories to tell, having gained the extra breathing room necessary to focus on weaving a narrative instead of sharing billing with elaborate gameplay and setpieces.
10 Games with Layered Storytelling
Linear storytelling is overrated.
Cozy games house some more diverse forms of storytelling, such as character vignettes, social commentary, or even just the daily struggles of a single family. Maybe they have something poignant to say, or maybe they just offer you a chance to see the day-to-day of a world or people unlike yourself.
However they go about it, it’s the stories of these games that will typically stick with you more than the gameplay. Here are the cozy games with the most memorable stories and characters.
10Unpacking
Every Room Tells A Story
Out of the many elaborate productions life foists upon us, moving house is one of the most laborious. In a vacuum, expecting someone to pack up their entire presence in the world into a few boxes is ridiculous, as is expecting them to find a place for all that same stuff somewhere else.
Unpacking is a masterclass in environmental storytelling, showcasing a young woman’s progression through adolescence, college, and adulthood via the rooms and apartments she moves into. There’s no dialogue, and very little framing beyond the items that are (or aren’t) present every time our unseen protagonist moves house.
Even in this minimalistic setup, you get a very good idea of what’s going on in her life based on where she ends up, whether it’s cramming her precious possessions into a tiny dorm room or moving back home with her parents after a sudden breakup.
9Coffee Talk
Enjoy A Hot Cup Of Talk
Coffee Talk
A coffee shop isn’t just a place to get a quick caffeine fix, it’s also a place to meet people and exchange ideas. It’s the perfect cozy environment to hear the stories of the world, and that’s exactly what you get inCoffee Talk.
From your position behind the barista’s counter, you’ll serve coffees and teas to weary patrons in the dark of night, each going through their own trials and tribulations.
Despite the fact that most of the people of this game’s world are some manner of demi-human like orcs, elves, or imps, their concerns are all very down-to-earth. They have jobs to go to, families to take care of, concerns about the state of society, and all that.
Coffee Talk puts overarching narratives mostly on the backburner in favor of individual character vignettes, with each patron’s worries and personality becoming clearer with every drink you serve them, especially if you give them exactly what they ask for.
8Lil Gator Game
Use Your Imagination
Lil Gator Game
An innocent childhood is a wonderful thing, a time when you don’t have to worry about the stresses of life and can just lose yourself in a nonsensical game on the playground. Even in a nonsensical game, though, kids have their own ups and downs to surmount.
The premise of Lil Gator Game is that our reptilian protagonist and their friends have made an elaborate fantasy RPG adventure ontheir island playground, all with the intent of getting their college-aged sibling to drop their coursework and play with them.
While it’s a very lighthearted premise with a lot of silly moments, it’s also a very relatable one. It’s normal to be disappointed that you can’t share the things you loved with family members as you and they grow up.
In addition to that, the many kid characters of the game are consistently delightful. No one is particularly mean or antagonistic, so you can freely meet and befriend just about everyone, learning more about how different people have fun in the process.
7Spiritfarer
Celebrate Life, Even In Death
Spiritfarer
A cynical person might say that life is just a slow journey to the grave. While death is an inextricable part of life, though, that doesn’t mean life shouldn’t be lived to the fullest. Even when your time is almost up, there’s still plenty of joy to be found. That’s whatSpiritfarerteaches us.
Your goal in Spiritfarer is to accommodate the many wants and needs ofthe wayward spirits of the afterlife living on your boat. They’ll often make silly demands like highly specific foods or decorations for their rooms, but each one you manage to fulfill will tell you a little bit more about who they were in life.
All of your passengers are fascinating people, which is what makes the purpose of their journey so bittersweet.
Once they’ve reached a point of contentment,you have to escort them to the final departure of the afterlife and send them off to whatever comes next. It’s sad and somber, but even so, you bid them farewell with a smile and a hug. As the old saying goes, don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.
6Wanderstop
Healing Is A Journey
Wanderstop
Burnout is a very real problem that many people deal with at some point in their lives. Something they’ve worked so long and hard for suddenly becomes poisonous to their very being, leaving them seemingly bereft of purpose. If you’ve never felt this yourself, firstly, you’re quite lucky, but secondly, you can get an idea of it from playing Wanderstop.
Wanderstop is, largely, a metaphor for the process of healing from burnout.Our protagonist, Alta, isn’t working in a tea shop because she cares about tea, but simply because she can’t engage in her beloved pastime of combat without feeling physically ill.
The game deliberately refrains from giving you specific objectives, and will sometimes even stop you before characters’ story arcs can resolve.The point of this journey is not to “accomplish” anything, it’s just to find peace in existing for its own sake. It’s about realizing that life isn’t about accomplishing things, it’s about just living.
Fill That Hole With Snax
Sometimes, the silliest-looking games have some of the deepest emotional and narrative centers. For instance,Bugsnaxlooks like a game about discount Muppets catching little food critters, and it certainly is that, but it’s also a lot more than that.
As the game makes clear through both the main story and your interactions with the residents of Snaktooth Island,this is not a fantastical world of color and joy. Prior to their life on the island, every one of these characters had their own lives and problems, taking the voyage with Lizbert largelyto escape from all of them.
It makes sense if you think about it; a normal, well-adjusted person probably wouldn’t abandon polite society in favor of following an eccentric explorer to an abandoned island covered in living food.
While Bugsnax has maybe a couple more big setpieces compared to some other cozy games, there’s also a lot of downtime and quiet moments for you to just explore and interact with your fellow island-dwellers.
Food Bridges Countries And Generations
Food is one of the oldest means of both cultural transmission and preservation. It’s not just about how the food tastes, it’s about the effort and ingredients that go into it all, those extra little touches our ancestors dreamed up out of love for their families.
Venba is a brief tale of love and food, and how a home-cooked meal can remind you of better times left behind.The titular protagonist is a mother who, along with her husband and young son, emigrated from India to Canada, feeling distinctly out of place as a result.
Tell Me Your Story Devs Took Inspiration From Unpacking, Venba And Studio Ghibli
RedDeer Games, the developer of Tell Me Your Story, shines a light on what games inspired them to make the cozy title.
By carefully restoring recipes from her mother’s old cookbook, Venba finds a small way to preserve her culture in a community that may not be as interested in it.
The central message of Venba isn’t that one culture is objectively better than another, but rather,it’s great to be proud of your heritageand keep its traditions alive, even if it’s just in the kitchen.
3Wandersong
Music Is A Universal Language
Wandersong
In the immortal words of Stevie Wonder, “music is a world within itself with a language we all understand.” No matter who you are or where you’re from, a good tune can bring us all together in mutual appreciation. Sometimes, a song can even save the world from certain doom, at least ifWandersongis any indication.
Wandersong starts with a very traditional fantasy setup: world’s about to end, chosen hero, so on and so forth. However, our protagonist, Kiwi the Bard, is told explicitly that they arenotthe chosen hero, and don’t really have any business attempting to save the world.
Even so, they have a song in their head and joy in their heart, andif they can do just a little good for the world, they’re down to try.
Wandersong paints an interesting dichotomy between Kiwi and the actual chosen hero.With just their singing, Kiwi meets and befriends people all over the world, while the actual hero just runs around swinging a magic sword and acting like she’s better than everyone else. You can probably guess who’s going to end up really making a difference in the end.
2Later Alligator
One Gator And His Weird Family
Later Alligator
A “good” story doesn’t necessarily need to be a poignant one. Sometimes just getting to live in a silly little world with lovable characters for a little while can be just as nice as something that beats you upside the head with feels. It’s kind of funny that Later Alligator has that vibe, considering the central mystery is that its main character might get assassinated.
Later Alligator has you traveling the streets of a reptilian New York City, meeting the many extended family members of Pat the alligator and determining who, if any of them, wants him dead.
As you tool around with them or help them out with their chores,you learn a little more about their family dynamics and how they each view Pat.
Ironically, this actually deepens the central mystery of Pat’s supposed assassination, because it looks for all the world like his family loves the heck out of him. Who would want to kill such a nice guy? The answer will surprise you and make you giggle.
1Night In The Woods
The Vibe Of A Small Factory Town
Night In The Woods
Anyone who’s ever grown up in a town in the middle of nowhere is familiar with the distinct flavor of jack-nothing that it hits you with 24/7. However, that’s exactly why small towns make great settings for mysteries and character studies: because there’s nothing else going on to distract from them.
Night in the Woodshas that classic indie movie vibe of a bunch of 20-somethings desperately trying to find themselves in a dead-end town. Our protagonist in particular, Mae, has just unceremoniously dropped out of college, and nobody’s really sure how to react to her return.
At first, everyone’s happy to see her, but as the story goes on, you can kind of see howher supposed indifference to a major life decision wears on her family and friends, culminating in some major shouting matches.
There’s also a possibly-supernatural mystery lurking beneath everything, making you wonder even more whether Mae’s having a nervous breakdown or the town’s hiding something genuinely sinister.
10 Best Cozy Games With Rewarding Exploration
Cozy games have evolved over time, with some of the best cozy games offering rewarding exploration among other new features, but not all succeed.
