Cozy Grove

First of all, I do like and enjoy the game well enough to have played 90+ hours and continue playing. The visuals are beautiful, the writing is funny and touching and the general gameplay loop, including only being able to fully play for a couple hours a day is great imo! <3 That being said, I do not think the actual developers play this game, otherwise I can't believe they would leave some of the mechanics the way they are. There's a lot fighting against those Cozy and Relaxing tags, Frustrating would be amongst the first tags I'd personally use for the game. Every action you do just requires lots of completely unnecessary waiting. Of the 90+ hours I played, it feels 50 are just me waiting for some damn animation I've seen a thousand times before to finish. Harvesting a flower? Prepare to see a very slow Shaking animation, Falling down animation and Picking the blossoms up animation. Also prepare to not be able to move or do anything between them and to do it for Every. Flower. You. Harvest. Same for any Tree, Berry bush, or other harvestable. The Animals are the worst of all, the animations to feed them take ages and sometimes I am considering letting them starve. But it's my Cozy Cute game, so of course I won't do that. I'll just get frustrated and angry at this supposedly Relaxing game instead (((: Fishing is usually my favourite aspect of any game, tho I avoid it like the plague in Cozy Grove. Having to aim at different parts of the fish depending on their shape is fine and requires some skill/knowledge of the game, I can get behind it even if finally landing the bobber in front of a scared fish only for it to suddenly turn around and swim the other way is frustrating. But the unpredictability with the number of bites it takes to land a fish raises your heartbeat unnecessarily with each one. There is nothing you can do on your part to deal with that, nothing that would hint at how many bites it's gonna take this time, and only leads to micro-stress imo. I am a collection completionist, so finding out the drop rate for the Mythical Fish is basically non-existent and learning I'd have to play the whole calendar year to hit all of the season certain collectibles spawn in ruined this fun aspect of the game for me completely. Also, why repeat the already fetch-me-a-thing quests? How many times will I have to collect leaves or pearls without learning anything new about the bear I'm working for? With the amount of hours you need to put in already, I don't see why that's necessary. I do still recommend the game, because it's well-made, rich in visuals and generally a specific brain-off fun, but if that doesn't overweight the negatives for you, spend your money and time elsewhere :)