as of the time i'd written this review i hadn't befriended all the bunnies yet, but my thoughts are still the same.

for the longest time i've been wanting a mobile collecting game that scratches a similar itch which neko atsume did, and i went through quite a few games hoping to satiate that itch (funghi gardening kit, cats are cute, cat game, etc.). unfortunately i couldn't really find a game that clicked with me, and so i gave up on searching for a long while.

on september 3rd, i caught wind of a bunny collecting game that recently released for mobile and i was really endeared by how charming the bunnies looked and made a note to check it out, but never got to it until a few days later. fast forward to more than a week later and i'm still playing this game!

usagi shima (lit. rabbit island) is a casual bunny collecting game where you collect the bunnies by buying toys and buildings from the shop. like neko atsume, usagi shima has special bunnies that will require you to buy certain items to see them on the island. each bunny has a friendship meter that raises through playing very short minigames and they also have three favorite toys and/or buildings, so you'll have to spend lots of time with your bunnies to complete their profiles! when you reach max friendship with a bunny, you get a special item from them to put on your island as well as the option to invite them to permanently stay on your island. you can only invite three bunnies, but there isn't any drawback if you choose to reverse the invite. you also have the option to decorate your island as well as give your bunnies headwear! not all bunnies will like wearing things on their heads though.

so how do you buy things from the shop? by using two forms of currency: carrots and golden carrots. you’ll mainly receive regular carrots through playing minigames with the bunnies to raise their friendship. carrots will also grow in random places on the island (you can also tap on seashells to get carrots too) and some items from the shop will grow more carrots in the area the items are placed in. you can also receive carrots as tips when bunnies leave the island—a mechanic pulled directly from neko atsume. there's also a list of tasks that resets daily which allows you to get carrots, and once you complete all the tasks you can receive one or two golden carrots as a reward. there are quite a few ways to receive golden carrots: there are daily login stamps that you can get golden carrots from, and golden carrots can also grow on the island or be received as tips, but they are much much harder to come by (the more bunnies you have visiting your island, the more likely it is for one or a few of them to leave golden carrots as tips).

there is so much to like about this game! the overall atmosphere is extremely relaxing, probably even more so than neko atsume. the music actually changes based on four set times of day—sunrise, day, sunset, and night—and there’s even a day/night cycle in the game as well (a feature pulled directly from animal crossing, one of two stated inspirations for the game with the other obviously being neko atsume). some items will light up at night! some items even produce unique sounds if you zoom in on the bunny that’s using them! most importantly, the bunnies and all the other assets used in the game are drawn so charmingly, and the bunnies even have several animations based on the items they interact with!

as usagi shima has still only been released, there’s obviously some features that could be fleshed out further. when you have a lot of bunnies on your island, you will be asked to play minigames with them left and right. this is great for if you want to raise the friendship meter of several bunnies quickly, but when most of your bunnies are already at max friendship, it starts to feel really demanding and you’ll probably feel less inclined to play games with them and only want to play with the ones who aren’t at max friendship yet. and because there are only four minigames so far—petting the bunny, brushing them, feeding them, and playing hide and seek—this can start to get repetitive real quick once you get further into the game.

another aspect of the game that i feel needs to be addressed is the overaccumulation of carrots. after you get a lot of bunnies on the island, the amount of regular carrots you get starts to pile up quick. and because there’s not very many items in the shop that you can buy using regular carrots, those carrots just sit on the lower edge of your screen accumulating without any way to spend them. neko atsume did a great job of alleviating this issue by allowing you to exchange a certain amount of regular currency for golden currency, and i hope to see a similar feature implemented in the future! speaking of small amounts of things, i also hope to see more bunnies come to the game in future updates as well!

i should also mention that there are a lot of ads in the game. there's an option to double the amount of friendship and carrots you receive for a few minutes, and if you don't want to spend real money for it, you'll have to watch an ad. want to double the amount of carrots you get for a daily task? you'll have to watch an ad. want a building to be finished immediately? you'll have to watch an ad. i'm personally not too bugged by the prominence of ads in the game, but i know not all people can tolerate seeing so many ads in a single game. for what it's worth though, you can choose not to see the ads. you'll still be able to enjoy the game even if it means you'll get through it a bit slower.

usagi shima has a wonderful game so far, and i can't wait to see how it evolves in the future! it was created by a single person who has been working extremely hard to develop this game by herself! if you liked the game or are interested in playing it, please consider supporting her by donating to her kofi, as she stated that she got sick shortly after the launch from working on the game for 15 hours every single day. if you'd like to see more of the game, there's also an official subreddit where people post their progress on the game.

just realizing that i actually never thought to write a review of this game. honestly most of my memories of this game come from the fact that i watched my cousin play it for over a year. we live in different places within the same country, so they wouldn't boot it up until i would come to visit.

did we like the game? i'd say for about the first half of it or so. the second half takes a page from atlus and left us thinking, "huh. that was a weird turn of events". but even while frequently getting lost and facing difficult or drawn out boss battles, there were still times where we could appreciate the game. the atmosphere of another world's overworld map theme immediately comes to mind; it's quiet and pensive and does a wonderful job of capturing the feelings that come with living in a world post-tragedy.

is chrono cross worth playing? if you're new to rpgs, i would stay away because this is a BEAST of a game to tackle and can put you off rpgs if you're not familiar with the genre. if you're a diehard fan of chrono trigger or long rpgs that demand to be replayed multiple times for 100% completion, go for it! make sure that you've either played chrono trigger and radical dreamers or have knowledge of what happens within both games. how the second half appeals to you can hinge on how much you enjoyed the story of chrono trigger, and chrono cross as a game was meant to build on radical dreamers, which was originally a side story taking place in the chrono trigger universe. after having played through one of the endings (i believe it was the true ending), my cousin and i agreed that we don't have the time to go through this game 11 more times to see the rest of the endings. hopefully you do, though.