First Impressions Friday: Cozy Grove

 Welcome to the first First Impressions Friday.  Fridays are going to be when I will doing my reviews, first impressions and first look on games.  Today we’re talking Cozy Grove!

Game: Cozy Grove

System: Nintendo Switch.

Genre: life sim cozy game

Summary

In Cozy Grove, you take on the role of a Spirt Scout, whose main goal is to reach out to spirits and help them come to terms with their past so that they could move on.  You have just arrived to Cozy Grove island, and after setting up your talking fire(don’t ask just go with it).  The residents of Cozy Grove are all spirit bears and your goal is to find out what is tying them to the Grove so you can help them move on.

So the game starts with you docking your little raft on Cozy Grove for your first solo camping expedition. From there you are introduced to Flamey(the taking campfire).  From there you meet the first four bears:  The camp master, the crafter, the post master, and the drunken sea captain.  Campmaster helps tell the main story and let’s you know you are not the first spirit scout to this island, and the last one…didn’t end well.  The crafter is how you create decorations for your tent and the area around your tent.  The Post master will send you mail, and later, after you meet the baker, meals you cook are sent through there.  It is also how you get information from your scoutmaster.  The drunken sea captain controls your collection and also is the one to let you know….that your boat is gone cause you apparently had not earned your knot tying merit badges

Gameplay

The gameplay is doing quests for the various spirit bears you meet in your journey.  As you learn more of the stories they will occasionally give you a spirit log, or you can buy one from Mr Kit on occasion.  These logs you give to Flamey and as he levels, more of the island is revealed, and more spirit bears become available to learn their stories.  The interesting thing about this game, is there is a limit to how many quests you can do a day, and some quests can’t be finished in one day.  For the most part the game play is usually worth an hour or two a day.   You can still play, filling out your collections with fish or seashells as you find them.  But it not only helps keep you focused for a few hours at most thus allowing you to move on to other things rather than mindlessly playing for hours and losing all track of the day, it also keeps you coming back day after day to check on them and hopefully move on to the next bit of the story.

Impressions

I’ve honestly only been playing for about two weeks now, and I’ve unlocked a few spirit bears, and I’m still feeling out the story.  The artwork and music are amazing and I’m invested in finding out the story of each of these bears.  It’s a nice way to start the day, lazing in bed with your Switch as you enjoy your morning coffee, or end the day, relaxing after a long day of work.  Once I’ve talked to all the bears, fed my pets, which yes, you can keep a menagerie of spirit pets, and done the quests, I set the game down and get about my day.  I like to play in the morning as it’s a great way to get going in the morning for me.  It gives me that boost having accomplished something and gives me the confidence that I need to get through my day.

On Mindful Gaming

 I was going to post this on Monday, but since I'm trying to keep to 3 posts a week I decided since I posted on Sunday with the introduction to this blog I would save this post for today.

So what is Mindful gaming?  First I'll start by defining mindfulness.  Mindfulness is the concept of being completely present in the moment.  An example that is often used is mindful eating.   You're eating slowly, paying attention to flavor and sensations, but also being aware of when you are full.  It is both a way of taking time to stop and actually enjoy your meal, but also paying attention so you are not overeating.

So in the context of gaming, when I say mindful gaming, I mean becoming immersed in the game.  Almost turning the act of playing into a routine or ritual to help relax, calm, and unwind.  It is moving away from meta gaming and blasting through games just to get as high of level as possible or just playing for hours and then wondering where the time went and what you were doing. 

For example, one of my current favorite cozy games I'm playing, Cozy Grove, actually has that built in.  You can only do a certain amount of quests a day, and some quests may take two, three or even four days to complete as you wait for resources to become available.  Yes there are things you can continue to do, such as crafting, fishing and even exploring the small island, but I like using the quests as a way of setting the game down once I've completed them.  It allows me to become this little spirit scout for twenty minutes, maybe a couple of hours, a day, and I find it a great way to start or end my day depending on how I feel.

I've been slowly learning to apply this all types of games, from cozy games, to my favorite RPGs, like Dragon Age.

I've recently started a new playthrough of Inquisition, and instead of blasting through the story and the quests and skipping out on things like codex entries, I've been trying to take it slow.  Yes I still tend to move through the quests easily enough, but I'm stopping to read the codex entries, even going so far as to go into the ones I may have skipped or don't pop up on  the screen when you click them, and read them there.  And in doing so I've found some cute little Easter eggs and lore I wasn't expecting, like a nod in the codex entries on bears to Steve Irwin.

With RPGs I take the mindfulness a step further.  I try to become immersed in the character I'm playing story.  Be it a character I created or one that is already named.  I figure out their backstory and then, instead of doing what I would always do which is pick what I think is the best answer for the highest friendship, I do what I think my character would do, regardless of what his companions would think.  I'm finding that I'm enjoying the game more this way and find playing in this manner has actually made it more relaxing.

I believe introductions are in order

I've been meaning to start a blog for a while now, but have never found a topic I felt like I wanted to blog about.  Until now.  Hello, and welcome to my blog about mindful gaming. 

Who am I?

    So who am I?  Well my name is Kellan, and I am a middle age Trans Man who is finally discovering who I am myself.  For most of my life I've had to live in a closet due to my very conservative Catholic family.  I am now free of that pressure and can explore and discover myself, my true self.  I am also a very avid gamer.  I play all kinds of games, from casual farming sims like Stardew Valley to more "traditional" games like Dragon Age, Mass Effect, Final Fantasy, ETC.

Why a blog?

    So why a blog, especially if I plan on talking about gaming?  Shouldn't I be doing a vlog?  Well, to be perfectly frank, I'm not a very good vlogger, streamer, etc.  I ramble too much and I cannot edit to save my life.  Believe me I've tried with my beauty review and vlog.  But writing?  I am very good at writing.  I can more easily put my thoughts onto paper, edit it, and make it a concise reading.  Also as a trans person who has just started his transition, the sound of my voice is dysphoric to me.  I sound too feminine and I don't like the sound of it.  Writing for me, is the choice to go

What is this blog really about?

    This blog will be exploring mindful gaming and also gaming from an LGBTQIA perspective, be it lgbtqia themes in the games, the developers belonging to the LGBTQIA community, or even just headcanons *cough*CJ and Flick*cough*.  As a FtM trans person who is also Chaotic Biromantic and asexual to boot. 

    As for what is mindful gaming, I feel that deserves it's own post.  Which will go out tomorrow.  I plan on blogging three times a week, Preferably Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, but it might be more sporadic than that.  I plan on discussing themes, reviewing games, and ranting about some aspects as well,  Believe me, I have a huge rant already prepared about my issues with Player-sexual and the erasure of Bisexual characters.

    So join me on this journey and I look forward to discussing and chatting with everyone.

Cheers,

Kellan