If you happen to take a look at the “About” page, you’ll see in my little description that my preferred genres of video games tend to be RPGs, strategy, and visual novels. All true, of course, but I was amiss to forget about the cozy sim genre.

My first foray into the cozy genre was most likely Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town. One of my good friends had gotten me the game for my birthday on the (correct) chance that I would enjoy it. Granted, his quick description of “you farm and befriend the town and can get married,” didn’t really sell the concept to me (but it was endearing how he spoke of his “wife Popuri”) but when I gave the game a solid chance, I was hooked.

The Harvest Moon and, later, Story of Seasons franchise became one of my favorites and it was not a surprise that I eventually would sink over 500 hours into Stardew Valley on my Switch. Other cozy and sim games — the Sims franchise, Game Dev Tycoon, the Coffee Talk duo — have taken up several years of my life. Despite gaming for probably close to thirty years now, it is within the past five years or so that I’ve really come to appreciate the cozy genre of games. Considering I started playing the genre when I was in middle school, it is a marvel to me that it has taken this long for the genre to cement itself as one of my favorites.

The revelation itself was a little strange to me. Story-driven games, RPGs with strong plots that allowed me to be the hero had always been my top games. To have the cozy genre slip in among my preferences was interesting, and it took me a while to realize the themes that the cozy games have in common that made them crawl up my favorites list.

Escapism is one of the many reasons why I play video games, and cozy games boast about the life we want, the life we could have. Cozy games, especially the ones with the farming angle and tight-knit communities, help fulfill the sense of belonging and being proud of one’s hard work.

If you stop and think about it, my generation has fallen for the “hustle culture” in response to facing a mountain of student debt in the wake of several recessions after being told that good grades and college would help us find our dream jobs. Instead, it’s normal to “job-hop,” moving on from job to job in order to find both fulfillment and paychecks worthy of our work.

Gone are the days where people would work the same job for 40 years. Instead, it’s a competitive market, where people will move on if they feel they are underappreciated or can no longer afford to stay where they are. Retirement packages are no longer incentives, especially considering most benefits do not translate well into today’s economy and inflation.

Cozy games tend to allow players to reap what they sow, if you pardon the farm pun. Reaching your goals that you have created is what these cozy games are all about.

In real life, I work a 9 to 5 office job. I’m one of those millennials that has fallen into the corporate world and has opted to take the safe route and stay as long as I have so I get that retirement package, even though I would have definitely been able to grow my paycheck much larger had I job-hopped throughout my career. I’m lucky to have good coworkers and most of the public that I encounter on a day-to-day basis is friendly, but considering I grew up going on virtual adventures, having an office career had never been on my radar. Being able to fire up a cozy game after a day in the office gives me more of a sense of satisfaction than my office job.

My favorite, new-games-to-me that I’ve tried this past year fall under the cozy genre — Fields of Mistra and Tales of the Shire come to mind, and I’m very much looking forward to Pokopia in March. Letting me build my corner of the world and bolstering my virtual friendships have captured me in a way that other genres do not, and I am thankful that cozy games have become such a big part of my gaming life. 

Do you play any cozy games? What are your favorites?