Without Story of Seasons‘ multitude of small tasks to complete in a day to keep the pace moving, you wind up with a sim game where it feels like there’s not a lot to do-even if that’s not the case. Animal Crossing’s slow pace works because you have a real-time day to get things done, and it builds anticipation for the next day by making you wait. Step off the train into the town of Hokko and get settled into your new home This quiet village needs your help to turn it into the charming rural town everyone loves. It takes the core ideas from Animal Crossing and Story of Seasons, and tries to mash them together in a way that doesn’t really work. Hokko Life definitely wants you to take it slow, and move at your own pace, but it doesn’t really provide new tasks with every new in-game day that makes for a satisfying sense of progression. I find this to be at odds with the game’s core design philosophy, which is so much inspired by Animal Crossing because the game moves at such an incredibly slow pace that I found myself very quickly losing interest. However, unlike Animal Crossing, Hokko Life doesn’t operate on a real-time clock, so players have a bit more freedom to move through the game and advance at the speed they wish. On a platform already filled to bursting with games that offer original takes on wholesome crafting life, it's a particularly shallow imitation. “There’s a distinct lack of personality that just makes the game feel completely lifeless…”

Hokko life review download