I found this such a drag a lot of the time; although ultimately found it reasonably enjoyable in enough parts to keep going in order to see the end. The good: the turn based tactical combat is excellent, the 2D/3D art is gorgeous, the branching storyline choices are great and the signature group decision making system was unique and memorable. The drag: most of the major characters are completely forgettable JRPG stereotypes, the voice acting is embarrassingly amateur and incredibly dull, and much of the moment to moment writing and pace of dialogue is SO SLOW. A few other nice things to say about the overall story though; a few side characters are refreshingly quirky and interesting and the overall Game of Thrones esque political storyline is quite enjoyable. I really had to force myself to keep going with this game in order to see the ending, but found it hard to play for more than an hour or two especially during some of the long “cut scene” chapters in which you are exposed to A LOT of bad dialogue.

Maybe i just haven’t played enough JRPGs to be blind to some of these common faults with the genre.

‘Cozy Grove’ makes a great first impression. Similar to ‘Animal Crossing,’ it plays out in real time, making use of the real world clock and calendar. First few days, and you'll be appreciating the cute visuals, the calming music, and the minimal amount of chores that are asked of you each day. But trust me when I say that this is a deception. The first problem with 'Cozy Grove' is that the game expands every day and the chores (all of them fetch quests) require increasingly more materials and therefore more time to collect them. Several weeks in and you'll be taking quests from ten different neighbors and each of them will be giving you quests that may take days or weeks to complete. It would be maddening enough if you were able to pick and choose which quests to prioritize, but you are not.

This brings us to the next big problem with 'Cozy Grove.' Unlike ‘Animal Crossing,’ ‘Cozy Grove’ is beatable. The story actually does resolve itself and completing the fetch quests is required to progress the story. As the story progresses, the asks get more and more outrageous. By game's end, you'll be getting single quests that ask for, no lie, over 300 items to complete. And if you don't do a quest, the story screeches to a halt. That quest will sit there waiting until you do as you're told. To make matters worse, there is no leveling. You are no more capable on day 100 than you were on day 1. So even though the requests are 100 times more difficult on day 100, you are no better equipped to complete them. It is a game recipe potent enough to put you in the madhouse.

Like ‘Animal Crossing,’ ‘Cozy Grove’ calls itself a lifestyle simulation. But because you are constantly being surprised by material and item requests, you can never just settle down and, for example, make furniture to customize your home or decorate your many gardens that unlock around the island. Does this game really think I’m going to spend 50 hardwood to build a table today when tomorrow it may force me to turnover 100 hardwood to complete a required quest? Why would I do that? Every day neighbors were demanding that I turn over my stuff to them, so my house was just a storage space for items I may need to give away to complete a future quest. ‘Animal Crossing,’ this is not.

By the time I finished ‘Cozy Grove,’ I hated it. I dreaded new neighbors being unlocked. My heart sank with each new unreasonable neighbor request. Others must be having a different experience because a DLC expansion(!) just released called ‘New Neighbears.’ More neighbors and more quests? They must be joking. I just narrowly missed the madhouse the first time around.