Closer to what I wish Animal Crossing was - actual freedom to explore and goof around in a cozy world.

It mixes cutesy with completely insane - lifting a polar bear over your head, shrinking a horse and making it float like a balloon, changing your hair into a starfield. It's basically a big toy with tasks that only seem to exist to give the player an excuse to do stuff. It's less of a game with a goal or any kind of challenge (other than the cooking minigame rankings as of the Jan 2023 update), than just a cozy world to "live" in, explore, and play around in.

Overall, this was a cute and cozy little game to relax with when I was in the mood to turn my brain off for a while. It has a diverse cast of characters, a pleasantly chill soundtrack, a very pretty art style, and some really fun design elements.

The entire gameplay loop is based around quests. This didn't bother me much, but if you're the type of person where games with a lot of "fetch quests" bother you, this definitely isn't the game for you. Most of the quests involve either finding a specific item for your cafe or traveling across the map to go find people or animals. This is a good way to get the player to explore around the map, but it is also very repetitive. It felt quite short compared to similar games I have played but I played the whole game in just a few long play sessions, which may have influenced my experience a bit. The game seems more intended to be played in many shorter sessions, rather than all at once.

The characters are very cute, with delightful designs, but they are also quite flat in terms of personality and story. Your only real interaction with any of the characters is through their questlines. Once you finish a character's questline, they may show up in the questline of another character, but besides that they're stuck repeating the same lines over and over for all eternity. The game wasn't really designed with longevity or replay value in mind, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but definitely something to keep in mind. The rigid focus on quests as a means of interacting with characters with a lack of additional dialogue to flesh them out leaves them feeling quite flat, though this is worse in some cases than others. This is a shame, because I met some characters I was really fascinated by and wanted to get to know better, but once I finished their questlines there was no more substance to them.

I had the most fun in the game hunting around to collect all of the cats (and other animals!) scattered around the map. Some of them were quite difficult to find and it felt rewarding when I did find them. I liked carrying them around, giving them names, petting them, playing with them, and just generally goofing around with them. The game has a lot of different ways of interacting with the animals, and even if they didn't necessarily serve a "purpose" in gameplay or story progression I spent a lot of time just messing around with those mechanics. As you get further into the game you also unlock other mechanics and new ways of interacting with your animals. No spoilers, but these were very fun too.

The game also has some design elements. I was surprised how in-depth the system for decorating the cafe was. You can get furniture for your cafe and change its colors, patterns, etc. You unlock new patterns to use as the game progresses and often get furniture as rewards for quests, or you can buy it at a shop. You can move and rotate things exactly as you like, without any snap-to-grid interface getting in your way. The game also lets you design your outfit in a similarly in-depth fashion. You can edit the colors and patterns of your clothes, unlocking and purchasing new clothes throughout the game. If you're really into that sort of design-focused gameplay, I actually think Calico does it quite well.

Also, HUGE bonus points for the character creator. An actual diverse range of skin tones (completely select your own from a color-picker) plus actual diverse body types/shapes. Any game where fat people exist gets a gold star in my book.

The actual core gameplay is the series of cooking minigames you play to make foods and drinks for your cafe. These were pretty fun at times, but also pretty frustrating. Some aspects of these minigames were very repetitive and became a bit of a slog after a while. Despite the minigame for each menu item being unique, many of them were quite similar or had elements which were identical. I encountered a few bugs which forced me to restart a minigame completely over multiple times, which became very frustrating. Despite this, I generally enjoyed the minigames, especially the more unique ones.

I initially got this game on Nintendo Switch. Like others have mentioned, it was very buggy. I later realized that I just so happened to have already gotten the game on PC in an itch bundle, so I switched to playing it on PC, and that was much better. If you have the choice, I definitely recommend getting the game on PC instead of Switch.

- L

Calico is a lovely, relaxing game about taking over your grandmother's cafe in a magical neighborhood. You can pet every critter you come across and invite them to stay at your cafe. You can decorate the inside of the cafe, your room, and your yard. There isn't a wide array of decorations but it is fun to see the different styles. You can make food and decide what to sell.

The art style of the game is very whimsical. The watercolor makes a peaceful atmosphere; everything feels bright and inviting. You don't take damage and there's no fights. The movement of your character and animals did catch me off guard at first. It's hard to describe. Not "janky" like it's bad, maybe more like everything "flutters." But animals can get stuck in walls/banisters, flip over themselves, float, etc. It would surprise me then it was funny to see.

My negative is the world feels a bit shallow. Once you get an understanding of the game, it's really fun to explore and meet new people. However, they're shallow. Everyone has three requests; some of the quests are just: speak with person "A", speak to person "B", then go back to person "A". Quest over. That's not fun. You don't get much out of that. The characters will sometimes talk about the world and others, but you don't get much information. I wish it was more fleshed out but it's still enjoyable.

Calico... is it good? I have no idea. A wonkily strung together island of twee interactions and cute quests where everything feels barely functional, but in a charmingly naff way. Like walking up a hill might make you flail every direction, but in exchange you can rotate any animal you hold and wiggle them about. The bakinng might seem like pure chaos, but when you're shrunk down tiny and forced to play pool to make a tart maybe that's okay?
And it just ends. It just ends. There's still quests to do, people to meet and animals to rotate, but the credit roll just pops up when I least expected it.

I dunno. Not a clue. I think I like Calico. But it's not a good game. Just a cute one.

Calico is a colorful community sim that hands players ownership of a cat cafe built on an island full of magical girls. It’s a very charming premise - and I love cats! So I was excited to explore Calico’s take on the classic genre mechanics; decorating, building relationships, completing tasks, that kind of stuff. Calico was honestly in the perfect position to draw players like me in with its adorable aesthetic, then surprise us with a layered experience.
Unfortunately… that wasn’t what happened. Calico is undoubtedly cute, but there’s almost nothing going on beneath the surface aesthetic. The gameplay is shallow and repetitive. There are tons of bugs and oversights. It honestly feels like a half-baked prototype, rather than a fully finished and released game. I wasn’t surprised to learn that this was a product of Kickstarter. It ticks the boxes; great idea, underwhelming execution.
The graphics posed a particular early red flag. Don’t get me wrong, Calico’s visual design is full of good ideas; the character customization is fun, the NPCs are appealing, and the houses are custom-built to reflect the personality of their owner. Yet the environments themselves are rudimentary-looking, and even worse is the rendering.
The next thing I noticed was how empty the map felt. Everything is unnecessarily spread out, with nothing but trees and a few cute animals filling the space in-between. There are no collectables or easter eggs. There’s not even anything interactable.
A prime example of the map’s unfinished-feeling state is Cutie City’s arcade. It’s mentioned by a few NPCs, and it’s also one of the only buildings open to the player. There are special arcade cabinets (even a claw machine!) inside, all unique to this location. These clues seem to point to the intentions of including minigames here… but in the final product, there’s nothing. Disappointing.
A side note, but the devs could even make extra use of the arcade furniture by making it purchasable for the cafe. It would be a smart way to expand the decorating a bit, especially since an arcade cabinet is more visually interesting than most of what’s actually available. There’s also beach items and a playground set that could be similarly used. I mean, why not, since all of the models are already finished?
To get back on track… somewhat detrimentally, Calico’s main goals are directly tied into those lackluster environments. There are a total of six - a starting area (containing your cafe and all of the shops), then another five unlocked sequentially. You gain access to each new map portion by completing tasks for NPCs.
In most games, finishing those tasks and unveiling a new section of the world would feel like a huge milestone… but since there’s not much to do in Calico’s world (aside from interacting with animals and NPCs), I only ever felt disappointed.
I even felt let down by the NPCs, eventually. As much as I like their designs, there’s a huge imbalance when it comes to the in-game spread of NPCs; out of twenty-two, eleven are located in the very first area. That means, aside from Cutie City - which houses five - every other area is left with only one or two residents. Most places legitimately feel more like a ghost town than a community.
In fact, the Calico Wiki lists eight additional NPCs that were cut from the game entirely. Again… not surprised. Just those eight extra characters could’ve helped the world feel a lot more populated. It’s a shame they weren’t included.
I think that the most disappointing thing about Calico’s design, though, has got to be the cat cafe itself. The building has two floors, with the first being cut in half to accommodate the service area and kitchen; the second serves as the player’s bedroom. There’s also a disproportionately large yard. It’s a very unbalanced layout, which becomes especially apparent as you progress further and discover that…
… A, the decorating in this game is VERY subpar. There are different ‘styles’ that provide unique variations on basic furniture you’d expect (such as tables, chairs, and cat towers.) More interesting objects, such as bookshelves and wall decorations, are few and far between. Surprisingly, the most extensive amount of decorating you can do is in the yard; there’s a decent amount of cute garden options for you to buy.
… B, there are NO cafe upgrades. Calico’s Kickstarter page includes footage of a cafe with at least one additional room downstairs, yet you’re never given the option to expand in the final product. Maybe the layout was simply changed to include the second floor instead… either way, I think it’s a huge flaw that there’s no option to make your cafe bigger.
All of these oversights quickly make for a messy and lopsided home base. The first floor becomes cramped with tables, chairs, and animal companions; their built-in shelves remain empty, since you don’t have anything to put on them. You may add a few things to the second floor, but there’s not much to do for a bedroom with the limited options. The yard is pretty fun to turn into a garden, but that shouldn’t be the ONLY fun part.
Which leads me into Calico’s most glaring issue… it’s just not fun. Decorating is uninspired. Exploring is pointless. Interactions are limited. Tasks are unmemorable. Every single one of those classic community sim mechanics I was looking forward to ended up being a total letdown.
In my eyes, there was only one thing that could’ve made up for all of Calico’s flaws… animal interaction. The Kickstarter page even claimed that each animal in the game would have a unique AI; this meant that they’d have their own personality, preferences, needs, happiness/trust/energy levels, and - occasionally - even special commands.
Even if only SOME of these ideas were included in the final product, I’d probably be pretty happy. Again, that unfortunately wasn’t the case.
It’s obvious from all of those promises that the animals were originally supposed to be one of the main focuses of Calico. They were all going to be unique. You’d even have to befriend and care for each one.
Yet, in the actual game, none of those elements are present. The animals are basically cute objects that (kind of) walk around. Only the very fundamental interactions are included; holding, petting, using toys to “play”, and necessary gameplay commands.
Despite being such a letdown mechanically, finding all of the creature companions is still one of the best parts of Calico. Not only are the standard cats and dogs included, but all kinds of wild animals and farm animals, too! … and it’s definitely cute to put hats on them and wiggle them around.
Even though there’s so many gaping flaws in Calico’s gameplay, it’s not completely devoid of good moments like that. Another aspect that obviously had a lot of effort put into it is the cooking. You can find a total of 21 recipes by way of shops or NPCs rewards. Each of these has its own series of timed/graded minigames - and despite the minigames often being reused, there are tiny differences in detail to make each recipe feel unique. (Some even do have their own special minigame!) There’s just enough variety to keep this part from feeling like a bore, while still allowing you to genuinely improve.
Aside from that, the only mechanic I enjoyed were the potions. These are also bought or earned from NPCs, and can slightly modify your game either visually or mechanically. Examples of their powers include: turning the animals purple, changing their sizes (and making the smaller animals rideable), or fast forwarding time. It’s a simple feature, but I think these little changes can make the overall game feel slightly more customizable and expansive.
As a whole, I would have to say that Calico’s best feature is its soundtrack. The music is so cute and relaxing; it provides a great atmosphere throughout your journey. I particularly want to highlight the main theme, which is sung by Emi Evans. Emi has a very impressive resume in the industry (including Dark Souls and NieR!), and she does a wonderful job here. The tune still gets stuck in my head sometimes.
Lastly, I need to mention the game’s glaring number of bugs - as well as the Goat Simulator-adjacent physics. I experienced a frustrating number of issues during my playthrough, including: collision problems, a notification getting stuck on my screen, the ‘run’ completely breaking, and potions refusing to activate or deactivate.
I wanted to love Calico so badly. I don’t think the developers were purposefully being misleading in their promises; this was their first project, and I think they overestimated what they could handle. I hope that they continue to improve the game in the future, because it seems like they’re committed to doing what they can for it. Hopefully, one day, I can come back and fully recommend an improved Calico.

Visuals: 2.5/5
Audio: 3.5/5
Story: 1/5
Gameplay: 2/5
Worldbuilding: 2.5/5
Overall game score: 2.5/5 [2.3/5]

Tudo em Calico evoca sentimentos mágicos e reconfortantes: os animais de estimação, os gráficos e até o nome da equipa responsável, Peachy Keen Games. Feito por apenas duas pessoas, a paixão para tornar Calico uma realidade é perfeitamente visível. Ainda assim e no meio da fofura toda, existem algumas questões a ser limadas que o impedem (por agora) de ser uma experiência memorável.

A premissa é simples: o presidente da câmara da localidade onde o jogo se desenrola aborda a nossa personagem e dá-nos um curto tutorial sobre como adotar os animais que se encontram ao longo do mapa, abrir o nosso próprio Pet Café e, quando possível, ajudar os habitantes da cidade. Esse mesmo café também serve como residência no andar de cima, e é possível decorar ambas as partes com mobiliário de várias temáticas, sempre com um tema fofinho e bonito. No entanto, a interface gráfica acaba por ser o primeiro obstáculo a criar um jogo divertido. É difícil navegar por muito dos elementos e a simples ação de colocar uma mesa no chão pode vir a ser uma tarefa herculeana. O mesmo sucede na interação com os animais, por muito divertidos que sejam. Tudo isto acaba por levar a uma jogabilidade frustrante, quando assim não deveria ser.

O mapa é vasto e colorido, apesar de não conter muitos pontos de interação. Ao caminhar pela cidade e conhecendo outras personagens percebe-se o potencial de Calico e o que mais o jogo pode ser com umas quantas atualizações. Ao contrário de Animal Crossing, por exemplo, o mapa aberto serve só para ir de A a B, descartando funcionalidades como apanhar e colecionar objetos. Mais tarde, é possível tornar os animais que adotamos suficientemente grandes para os utilizar como meio de transporte ao longo do mapa.

Fora a exploração e a gerência do café, existe um minijogo que tinha tudo para ser divertido e uma excelente adição à experiência, mas infelizmente não é. Para cozinhar seja o que for no café é preciso seguir um guia que pede um determinado número de ingredientes. Os ingredientes têm de ser atirados para uma tigela mas muitas das vezes caem do lado de fora, o que significa que se perde o ingrediente e o minijogo tem de recomeçar.

Por outro lado, um dos pontos positivos de Calico é a criação e personalização da personagem principal. Para além de se poder selecionar vários parâmetros do avatar escolhido como peso, altura ou comprimento das pernas, é dada uma liberdade que só é ampliada pela omissão de seleção de género, permitindo um sentido de criatividade raro entre jogos semelhantes, e que inclui escolher o tom de pele no caso de decidirmos viver a vida de uma personagem do Cartoon Network.

CONCLUSÃO

Os responsáveis por Calico têm muita paixão pelo seu projeto. Mesmo com todos os erros e problemas encontrados, nota-se que há qualquer coisa especial aqui. Infelizmente os problemas do jogo não permitem que Calico seja uma experiência divertida e envolvente. Ainda assim, consegue ser um jogo divertido em alguns momentos, como a adoção de animais ou cuidar do café. Resta esperar por atualizações futuras.

Pontos Positivos:
✅ Direção artística
✅ Criação de personagens

Pontos Negativos:
❌ Erros que prejudicam a experiência
❌ Dificuldade na utilização dos controlos

____________________________________________

See more @ https://www.starbit.pt/2021/01/20/calico-analise/
Review written in European Portuguese
Published on 20/01/2021]

Absolute fever dream of a game. I created a busty, maroon-skinned abomination of indeterminable gender who Naruto ran everywhere, bounced side to side on the spot whenever left idle as if they had some kind of severe hyperactive disorder, and sported a flattop haircut literally colored with one the wallpaper patterns. Shockingly my custom avatar still wasn’t the strangest thing in this world where nearly every inhabitant is gay and you can hilariously ragdoll animals' limp bodies at any time by spinning them around your head like pizza dough. Everything from the modern era Cartoon Network visual aesthetic to the fact that you shrink down to the size of an insect and launch yourself around the kitchen on wooden spoons (because apparently that's easier than just walking to the fridge at normal height) to cook gives the impression that a bunch of members of the LGBT community got together, dropped acid, and made an itch.io meme parody of Animal Crossing.

Once you get past all the weirdness of the magical mushroom forests and potions that turn you into humanoid cats though, you really are simply doing fairly typical life simulator tasks of performing favors for the locals to improve your relationships while trying to open up new areas of the island and manage a cafe. It's a genuinely charming and fun experience, even if the constant backtracking to and fro between NPCs in different sections of the map can get a bit annoying. There are plenty of optional smaller distractions for you to engage in as well, such as finding every critter or completing all the baking minigames to fully flesh out your menu of delectable goodies for customers to enjoy. The amount of queer representation will also be a delight for many. You interact with at least two openly lesbian couples, a plethora of small details on clothing or in dialogue hint at a wider array of diverse sexual orientations for the cast, and special care is given so that you can know every character's pronouns if you want to (yes, there is a they/them).

Unfortunately, Calico does have one pretty serious shortcoming, and that's how unlike the Stardew Valleys and Sims of the genre there is a clear ending point here. What's worse is that it won't take you long to reach it either. After a handful of hours, you'll have legitimately burned through all there is to do and have no reason to come back, possibly ever. Heck, even your business technically runs itself as once you create a tasty treat for the first time, subsequent batches magically and automatically produced themselves freeing you up to explore other activities. Whether the title's relatively brief lifespan is a dealbreaker or not will come down to individual preference. Personally, I think the uniquely gonzo style and endearingly quirky mechanics make it worth recommending if you're looking for something different in spite of the $12 price tag.

7.8/10

Calico's been in my itch.io library for a while. I generally like to play games like this on my laptop and I was immediately confronted with a truly bonkers control scheme. Saying a game is made for controller doesn't mean you can just screw over people using other control schemes! The most glaring of these issues is the camera. I found myself frequently looking at the walls of a building I wasn't even inside while passing by. Cameras are a deceptively difficult to make, so some jank is expected with an indie game, but I would consider this untenable.

I hesitate to be too harsh as it's clear this was made by a tiny team. The animal animations are very cute, character designs very distinct. But when it's hard to control and navigate, It's difficult to want to dive in. I hope this team gives it another go in the future!

Cute game.

Calico has a variety of adorable animals, allowing players to add them to their party or cafe. You can make them big and mount them. Animals have ragdoll physics which is funny and cute when you wiggle them around.

NPCs are nicely designed and are inclusive.

Graphics of the characters are cel-shaded with an outline. It reminds me a bit of web browser games, and also a bit of roblox but with cute aesthetics. Lots of options for character customization.

Repetitive quests and monotonous story. Additionally, the game suffers from jankiness and bugs. There is a lack of textures and details. For example - Cutie City. The area is basically empty streets with buildings with 1 texture on them with cats that have 2/3 different models. The map is too big, and the mounts are slow. It feels unfinished.

I will never understand why the game decides to give you a fast broom right when the game finishes, and there is nothing to do.

Overall, I would recommend the game only to people who seek cozy games that aren't engaging and can be played whenever.

[I played an older version of the game, without certain features like mini-games or furniture placement outside the cafe.]