Cozy Grove is Back! Kiss Goodbye to Your Mornings
There are games that evoke a very particular time and place to me. For the first Cozy Grove, the time was 2021 – when the COVID restrictions were yo-yoing in and out – and the place was my front room, every morning. I didn’t feel like my day could start without checking on my collection of spirit bears, seeing what arbitrary task they had for me today, and sweeping the floating islands for beetles, fish and clams. Other people were locked into Animal Crossing; I was at one with my Cozy Grove.
Playing Cozy Grove: Camp Spirit, the first game’s sequel (effectively a port of a Netflix version of the game), outside of lockdown restrictions feels slightly odd. I have to check the time and remind myself that I need to get changed out of my pyjamas. I have other responsibilities, and I can’t amble around looking for collectibles all day. I almost have to be disciplined.
A Reunion With Old Friends
Cozy Grove: Camp Spirit evokes these past feelings because it is, for better and some worse, a continuation more than a sequel. If you’re a Cozy Grove fan, you should know that this doesn’t represent a revolution, and barely an evolution. It’s more stories, different bears, a smattering of additional things to make and decorate with, and – on the very rare occasion – a new category of thing to chase. But otherwise, this is like returning to old friends.
For the uninitiated, this is very much your cozy slice-of-life sim. Anyone who has played Animal Crossing will immediately understand the stakes, although there’s no Tom Nook hovering over you, eyeballing you for cash. You are a Spirit Scout, castaway on a ghostly island with a crashed bus and no sign of your Spirit Scout friends. Initially, the island is small, and all you can do is approach some nascent bear spirits, tapping them to wake them up. They’re long-dead but with unfinished business, and it’s up to you to complete their quests and send them on to the other side.
There’s a dark, macabre side to Cozy Grove that makes it more appealing to me than Animal Crossing. The bears are very much flawed, and it’s fun to watch those flaws grow and unravel as you help them. The lingering themes of death and regret are a contrast to the happy-go-lucky Nintendo game. Cozy Grove: Camp Spirit introduces bears who are overly attached to the number of followers they have, or overly covet material belongings.
More Tools Than you can Shake a Dowsing Stick at
The quests hand you tools and then let you loose on an island to use them. You can’t walk five metres without stumbling on a beetle to catch in a net, an ingredient to forage for a meal, a hole to dig, a fish to catch, a shell to grab, a leaf-pile to rummage in, a beast to feed, an imp to chase – and so on. Cozy Grove: Camp Spirit introduces a power-washer, in the form of a handheld pufferfish, to offer something new. Each of the activities is almost bottomless, as a Blathers-like fire accepts one of each item as a collection log; recipes require ingredients to make furniture and food; and everything can be sold to fund further ventures. I’m not kidding when I say that you can live in Cozy Grove for months and years.
There are diminishing returns, though. Only a set number of quests – culminating in Spirit Logs, which expand the island if you get enough of them – appear each day. Resources deplete and go on cooldown. Stuff constantly appears, but the rarity of them seems to decrease. And specific things happen on specific days (definitely boot up Cozy Grove: Camp Spirit on seasonal holidays), which encourages you to check in but not necessarily stay. Cozy Grove: Camp Spirit gives you permission to leave, but doesn’t punish you if you stay.
A word on the presentation, too. Cozy Grove: Camp Spirit is gorgeous, in a detailed picture book style. It’s comforting to spend time in a world that has been so painstakingly illustrated, when other media feels like it’s going in the opposite direction.
Dare we say, Better than Animal Crossing?
If you’ve never played a Cozy Grove game before, this is the place to start. Cozy Grove: Camp Spirit, as you would expect, imports all of the wonderful quality-of-life improvements that have been made to the series over the years (it’s so satisfying to cook things without having to bring the ingredients, and to have more inventory and storage spaces available). And the game itself latches onto you like a limpet. I find it almost impossible to play anything else when I first boot the Xbox. I’ve got to – at the very least – make sure I’ve ticked off the quests for the day. And maybe fed my birds. Oh, and collected food from the kitchen…
For those who have played Cozy Grove before – you’re going to pick this up regardless of what I say. I know because I’m the same. I had exhausted Cozy Grove, and this represented a new neighbourhood, new stories and a completely new reason to drop in and enjoy the game loops. It was a fresh start for me: I could properly organise my flowers and animals this time, rather than owning a ragtag hub. I could do it properly this time.
But I would be remiss if I didn’t complain about the lack of real changes to the formula. Sure, I think it would have been a mistake for Spry Fox to have shaken the etch-a-sketch and started again, but there was certainly room for more changes than are currently present. I’m not convinced that I needed to be a Spirit Scout again, with the same objective – and largely the same problem – as I had before. I am on the fence about whether all of the ingredients, foodstuffs, beetles and shells had to be exactly the same models as in Cozy Grove (sure, there are additions and renames, but they are very much in the minority). And the ratio of old to new, in terms of what you find and do, is probably 95:5. If you had told me what proportion I expected before starting Cozy Grove: Camp Spirit, I would have said 80:20. This is way off that pace.
More Cosy Grove: Remastered Than a New Game?
As a result, Cozy Grove: Camp Spirit feels more like a refinement of the original formula, or the opportunity to re-release the game with all of the quality-of-life stuff packed in. I understand the thinking: there’s a chunk of COVID players who didn’t return to the Grove, and – for that group – this will seem like a vast improvement. Spry Fox did an enviable amount of work to make it a more user-friendly experience over the years.
New cozy-game, life-sim players who haven’t touched Cozy Grove before? Oh, they are in for a delightful surprise. Cozy Grove: Camp Spirit doesn’t have the marketing of Animal Crossing, but I think it’s very much a companion to it. If you’ve ever found Animal Crossing to be a bit needy, a bit family-friendly, then – ho boy – have we got the game for you.
Habitual Cozy Grove players might feel the softest tinge of disappointment, though. Cozy Grove: Camp Spirit represents a new reason to hop back in – and that was enough for me – but, what it does not represent is an entirely new experience. There are new bears, new stories, but you might be hunting the islands for a little more than that.
Important Links
Cozy Grove: Camp Spirit Brings Us More Ghostly Charm – https://www.thexboxhub.com/cozy-grove-camp-spirit-brings-us-more-ghostly-charm/
Buy from the Xbox Store – https://www.xbox.com/en-gb/games/store/cozy-grove-camp-spirit/9pfc35hjkn69
