So, I’ve been playing Empyrion, which I enjoyed very much, but I am kind of getting fed up with it. I really want a feel good game, something pretty, possibly even cute. Something like Stardew Valley or Recettear. Failing that, I’d love something absorbing.
Middle Earth: Shadow of War is coming out, and I’m excited for it, but at the same time it is grim as hell, and I’m at the stage where I would dig planting flowers or something. I bought Divinity the Original Sin 2, and it is a great game but I have trouble getting into it. Battle Chaser: Nightwar is out, but I am not sure if it’s good. Desperate for a distraction here.
Suggestions? PC games preferred.
Divinity Original Sin 2 (currently playing, it´s fun) and Elex (black horse, I am waiting for review keys from czech EuroGamer) are hot RPGs of this autum.
From older titles I would recommend Shadowrun trilogy (Returns, Dragonfall and Hong Kong and SR books are great too, beginning with “Never deal with Dragon”).
If you’ve got a PS4 Horizon Zero Dawn is kinda awesome. Get to run around fiighting giant robot dinosaurs with a bow and arrow. Also involes lots of hiding and sneaking around instead of brute force attacks. The visuals on it are also stunning. Worth a look, convinced me to upgrade my XBOX 360 to a PS4
My husband played this game. It was amazing to watch and I know he loved playing it. Beautiful visual effects and compelling story.
The kid plays. Stunning and a good story! I knit and the kid plays
Fabulous storyline. I can’t wait for the DLC.
The best pretty game I like is Ori and the Blind Forest.
Ori and the Blind Forest is a great game … it’s pretty like watching a Miyazaki movie, it has great story line, and a perfect soundtrack tying it all together…
I would absolutely recommend Horizon Zero Dawn, it is visually stunning (and also gave me some Mass Effect feels). I am currently playing Destiny 2 (I think it is coming out on PC a bit later this month?) and I really enjoy it – it has some hearbreak but quite a few uplifting moments. Do NOT play FFXV unless you want to have your heart broken into a thousand pieces. And my guilty pleasure are romance sim games from Voltage (Metro PD is totally my fave) available on iTunes/Google Play.
I would also recommend Horrizon Zero Dawn for PS4! Beautiful!
I am currently playing Destiny 2 as well. The main story line is short but it Is overall uplifting at is the kind of game you can go destract yourself with for few hours.
Undertale, perhaps? It’s a bit short, but it’s pretty cute/feel good if you are not a heartless person.
I’ve heard good things about Owlboy, but I can’t say anything about it personally since it’s been untouched in my neverending backlog.
Personally, I love Crypt of the Necrodancer, though it may not be quite what you’re looking for.
I’ve mostly been playing Divinity: Original Sin 2 lately. I’m on my third restart of the game b/c I keep messing up the quest sequences and haven’t saved frequently enough. I did start Mages of Mystralia yesterday when I was frustrated with the other, and it’s cartoony and cheerful; I’m not that far in but it was relaxing to play. It’s also only about 15 dollars on steam. It asks you to use a controller though.
Both my husband and son said Minecraft. You can put it on creative, get a skin to match your mood and build to your hearts desire. No monsters will attack you either.
I hope you find something, we all need a place to escape to sometimes.
Katamari Damacy.
Concept, you’re father is King of the Cosmos, he got drunk and ate some stars.
You have to gather up mass to replace the stars.
You start tiny (like insect size) with a gravity ball, and start rolling up items (paperclips, erasers, coins, thumb tacks, etc.). As you gather more mass you roll up larger items: telephones, then cows, then buildings.
It’s manic and fun. 🙂
And addictive……
Stellaris and Zero Escape: The Nonary Games both fun games.
Thomas was alone. A simple logic game with a sweet little story (and hea). Totally sucked me in and I loved it!
I completely understand, I can’t recommend any games for PC though. When I get in that mood I plug in my old Wii, the one that plays GameCube games, and play Mario Sunshine. Cutesy music, setting tropical island, beat the bad guys and flowers grow and the sun comes out. Great nastalgic fun, and cuteness, I also taught both my niece and nephew to game with that one.
So my advice, maybe pull out an old favorite that you loved and play it again.
AS silly as this sounds I play my grandkids Shopkins game! It on my phone, tablet and computer!
It has several different games in one , its complex yet simple and they are harder then you think. It’s cute, fun and a great distraction, as well as relaxing. Usually I read to relax but sometimes you need the total focus of something else to do it!
Slime Rancher is pretty, bright and fun. It’s on Steam. My 7 year old and I play it. Also the Lego games can be fun with funny cut scenes.
Yes! All of the Lego games are an utter blast.
Sorry if the 78 comments have mentioned it. I find Yonder the Cloud Catcher chronicles very soothing and fun for short periods of time http://store.steampowered.com/app/580200/Yonder_The_Cloud_Catcher_Chronicles/
Hi Ilona,
I play time management games such as Diner Dash. You mentioned planting flowers, try Garden Dash, Ranch Rush or Farm Frenzy. I also enjoy Hidden Object games. My favorites 2 series are Awakening and Dark Parables. I’m a member of the Big Fish Games club.
For epic games, I love the Might & Magic series (specifically 4-8) and Dragon Age. I still play Neverwinter Nights (PC game 1999 or so).
Pit People on the PC. The game has a quirky, funny sense of humor and does not take long to play. Definitely good for a laugh if you need cheering up. Also has a good soundtrack.
Owlboy is a very cute and pretty game. You can get it on steam. It oozes charm http://store.steampowered.com/app/115800/Owlboy/
My partner and I are huge Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2 fans. After you pay for the initial game its free. The artwork, storyline and game mechanics are fantastic! PVE and PVP are kept separate, which is a big demand for myself.
Yes guild wars 1 and 2 are very awesome games. Would recommend them been playing for 13 Years. If you like puzzles try portal 1and 2 on Xbox 360. Or an older but still one of my favorites is the Myst series. Love all your books BTW. Thank you for them.
Actually Guildwars 2 is now free to play the entire core game which includes leveling up all the way to 80, pvp and WvW. I recommend you to give it a try and see if you like it.
I’m still stuck on WOW. I’ve tried other games and keep coming back. Even when the game gets repetitive or bugs the crap out of me, I have some solid friends I’ve met over the years that I like playing with.
We play WOW as well. We left for about 7 years and came back earlier this year. We found a great Horde guild on Hellscream. They are doing a good job this expansion of adding content to keep folks engaged.
I’m in the same boat with you. I’ve been reading and playing games on my phone. Right now it’s Hay Day and Gardenscapes. They can be challenging and yet simple, so it works for me.
Keep us updated on what you find. I’m always looking for new games to play!
There’s a PC version of gardenscapes as well, and I think it has more to it than the android version. I’m addicted to the andriod version, but I like the idea of making it into the mansion to find gardening tools, so I might have to purchase the PC version.
They also just launched the Homescapes game app as well….
Populous: the beginning
It’s an old game but still great
If you like Kafka or if you’re not totally disgusted by cockroaches, you may enjoy “Bad Mojo Redux,” a surreal puzzle adventure game available on Steam.
“Enter a world of perilous puzzles and bizarre perspectives. What you discover may shock you. What you don’t may kill you. Either way, you won’t come out the same person. You may not even come out a person at all…” –from the Steam description
You can complete this game in hours rather than days. Limited replay value, but my brother and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
I enjoy both Midnight Castle and Township. Downloaded as apps on my iPad. They are fun and distracting with all the chaos of everyday life. Enjoy.
Plants Vs Zombies is available as a PC game and it’s a hoot. You can also play it on your phone – it’s a casual game but a good distraction.
I had a lot of fun with that one, too. Then you work on planing your garden….
I get totally absorbed in resource management. I find it very relaxing. My go to is “Banished”. Also, for a one time total absorption game, try “submerged”. Not only is it beautiful, but there is no fighting and plenty of brain stimulation trying to find all the pieces you need.
I have played WOW, Guild Wars 2, all of Mass Effect and Dragon Age – they have been mentioned in comments above. I also find joy in replaying the Tomb Raider latest 2 games – beautiful rendering, good storyline, short and fun game (30 hours or so). If you catch it on sale on Steam, even better! 🙂 Oh, someone mentioned Stellaris – yes! Don’t make fun of me but I have sunk 500+ hours into that game – it is that good.
If you like MMORPGs have you tried FFXIV? You don’t have to be a disciple of war or magic, you can instead be a disciple of the land or hand – meaning you can harvest or craft. You can do all jobs on the same character, but you will have to pass a particular milestone (I think it was level 10 or maybe 15..?) to be able to switch from your starting job, which is by design a disciple of war or magic. The first few levels are uber easy though – it has been designed to be accessible to people who are playing their first MMO so if you’re an experienced MMO’er you might find the early levels misleadingly simple. It also has fishing … but in a non-competitive passtime sort of way. It is a subscription MMO, but it has a free trial version capped at either level 30 or 35 (can’t remember which).
The first Final Fantasy MMORPG, FFXI, is still running it’s servers. It is a subscription MMO (like FFXIV), but you can plant stuff in pots in your moghouse. For cutesy play a Taru-taru. Whatever you do, don’t start in Bastok, it’s a shithole. I like to re-subscribe for a month or two every year just because. Have many fond memories playing that game with friends in the noughties.
Reus – kind of a 2D strategic, village growing, god game (visually presented on the outside rim of a circle to represent a planet) released in the last few years. Cartoon graphics, so I think it qualifies as cutesy, but it can be diabolical trying to achieve the latter goals. You kind of ‘plant’ animals, vegetables at minerals in various combinations to try and get the villages to develop as much as possible within a time limit. The combinations used affect the bonuses you get from symbiotic relationships. If you attain certain goals in the time limit you unlock more advanced things to ‘plant’ in future play throughs. However if the villages develop too fast they’ll first start to attack each other, then they’ll get ideas above their station and start attacking the giants who are your representatives in the game.
I also liked Populous as per a previous suggestions but the PC version never seemed to work well for me, my old playstation version was best – yes it’s that old. Another old playstation game was Constructor (as old as populous, or thereabouts) – you are a real estate developer/landlord trying to beat/outlast 3 competing AIs. It has a PC version but I’ve never tried it. Populous, Constructor, Evil Genius and Railroad Tycoon platinum edition all have nothing to do with planting stuff whatsoever, but I’m mentioning all of them because I love them.
…just looked up Constructor and found they’ve updated the game with a 2017 released PC version. I know what I’ll be spending my next pay’s entertainment budget on 😀
Startopia – an oldie but a goodie PC game. You run a space station catering to various alien visitors. You don’t get to plant anything yourself so much, but you do get a 3rd floor biodeck where you can watch a hippy-ish purple dreadlocked alien plant stuff for you (if you hire them), and you can mold the terrain on that deck to your liking so that certain plants will grow because of the various temperature/humidity/water settings. You can harvest the plants to get items to either use to meet your visitors needs, research, or sell to passing trade ships, but try to make sure you have a storage place for them because they do degrade. You compete against up to 3 AI players for supremacy over the station.
Farm for your Live – a cutesy PC game aimed at kids where you grow plants and cook them in recipe combinations to sell to passing zombie apocalypse survivors who will trade you things in return. Good for a bit of mindless fun. You can turn the zombie attacks off, but they’re not that bad. They want to eat your corn, not your brains.
Tropico – you don’t plant stuff, but as ruler of a tropical island you can order your citizenry to build and work in certain industries, including farming and husbandry. I personally prefer the original version with it’s Paradise Island update, or Tropico: Pirate Cove. However in recent years the intellectual property has been upgraded with several new Tropico versions. The graphics are superior, but I guess I’m just spoiled by having played the original.
As per a previous suggestion, Minecraft creative mode is also fairly mindless and you can plant things.
Space Chickens. Space Invaders, but with chickens. No planting whatsoever.
I’m going to assume you’ve played Plants vs Zombies.
PS – If you like high fantasy + board game-ish video games, have a look Fallen Enchantress. No planting whatsoever.
I would suggest either Bastion – it’s a action RPG with a hilarious narrator – or Never Alone a puzzle platformer based on a First Nations story. Both are relatively quick to finish – somewhere in the 5-10 hr mark – and immersive. It feels more like storytelling than gaming, which can be a nice change from monster mashing.
Plants vs. Zombies is an oldie but goodie. You can plant things! And if you make it through the game, there’s an awesome song for the credits about how you don’t want Zombies on your lawn.
Any Civilization game is pretty engrossing for me, as well as games like Pharoah. Nothing grim. Unless the armies of your enemies conquer your town. But still, not dark.
Have you tried Slime Rancher yet? Very relaxing, play at your own pace and an adorable aesthetic.
Hola,
Pillars of Eternity is fun.
Yummy drink factory, Wonderberg and Wondering Willows are all adorable and soothing on Big Fish Games.
Bastion, Fable, King’s Bounty, Fate
Diablo but that’s dark even though I giggle.
I love going to gog.com and playing some oldies and loved games Baldur’s Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Planescape Torment, Icewind Dale, Pools of Radience, etc…
Wow
I also love going back to Banjo and Kazooie but that’s not PC.
i’ve been playing conan exiles for a month. It’s best on a PVE server if you want quiet. You can quest or just chill and role play/build your base. It’s early access so there are some bugs but it’s a quality game. The devs are actively putting a lot of time into it and it’s easily worth the $30
I play Wildstar. I find the game beautiful. The character choices are fun.
Tons of content. It’s an MMORPG
I also recommend Slime Rancher for a feel good, happy cute time. Some other feel good times might be Journey if you haven’t played that before and Abzu as well.
Subnautica is a cool game if you want another survival style game. It is early access but the dev has been responsible and is doing consistent updates.
If you want another huge RPG Original Sin Divinity 2 is out now and its awesome. I’m playing it, already on my 3rd character. Huge time sink though. If you never played it you also might want to try out Terraria. That is a great family game, kinda 2d minecraft but has more combat, loot and boss battles.
I highly recommend Child of Light and I believe there’s a PC port. Beautiful, simple, short game with an amazing old fairy tale like story.
We seem to have some overlap in tastes of games. Recettear + Stardew Valley are both games that I’ve put in 100+ hours.
Path of Exile I see has been mentioned by some previous posters. Of all the ARPG’s out there, it has been the one that keeps attracting me back over and over! If you have previously given the game a try, give it a revisit. GGG keeps on iterating on this game and the amount of changes its undergone over the last 5 years is incredible.
Another game that I think would satisfy your worldbuilding itch is Don’t Starve Together. You mentioned Terraria and Spacebound before. Its a 2D survival building game, which also has undergone many an iteration. The Devs of this company are similar to GGG and they keep on adding content to the game. I’ve put in over 1000 hours in this game, its been one of the better escapes I’ve had from a hospital bed.
I am playing BattleChaser. It is old style FF combat, which isn’t horrible, and it is cutesy, which is ok if your head is ready for it, I don’t hate it yet after an hour. If you have not played it yet “Pillar of Eternity” is head and shoulders above the pack. Very good story in a new setting, Baldur’s Gate style combat.
Joe
I think it helps that I am on Prednisone for a cold, I have emphazema. Playing BattleChaser that is. Because the combat is pretty repetitive. StarCrawlers has the same problem. If it going to be repetitive it should be quick,.
Joe
Well I play on PC rpg games which I love. At the moment Fallout 4 started playing on PS4 but not a hand control person prefer my mouse so bought it for PC. All of Bethesda games and the witcher series which to me has been the best I have ever played. These games last me for months so worth buying them
Abzu is gorgeous! It is a more of a ‘find the X’ game than a fighting game. The majority of it is underwater and ‘you’ are swimming.
And it really is beautiful!
Came across this today on Twitter. Its not coming out until 2018 but I thought it looked fun and pretty cute. Here’s the link: https://twitter.com/house_house_/status/915460576872038405
Here’s to fun escapism!
I enjoyed Hob by Runic Games recently. There are no dialog, you are stranger in a strangely beautiful but broken world. Its full of puzzles and exploration and nice creatures to pet and ugly ones to kill 🙂
FFXIV: Online (MMO) is my favorite. Very nice graphics, if you have a decent pc. A engrossing main story line and excellent music. It feels more like a classic RPG than a lot of the newer standalone RPGs I’ve played. The cut scenes are very well done and the voice acting is really good. (Voice acting isn’t there for the early MSQ though). The Hildebrand side quest series is hilarious.
Not sure if you are still checking for suggestions. I immediately thought of two as soon as I saw the blog but couldn’t remember them so I had to wait to get home to ask hubby. When I said what the blog was about he immediately suggested Minecraft like so many others.
The two I was thinking about were Journey and Flowers. Both are Playstation so I am not sure if available for PC. I enjoy watching hubby play both because they are so lyrical and beautiful to watch. Especially Flowers which is almost Zen gaming. Extra benefit Flowers only takes about 90 minutes for full gameplay. Think of it as daily (or weekly) meditation!
My fav. game is Mound and Blade : Warband for past years but its not cute 🙂
OGRE IS OUT TODAY, OGRE, OGRE!!!!!!!!
I have been wasting a lot time playing Gems of War, a free-to-play match three game.
I don’t know if you’ve heard of this one, but Starbound is my comfort game. It’s a space exploration game with a bit of a story that let’s you design and colonize a variety of planets. The game’s designers allow mods and you can access admin mode easily if you don’t feel like gathering and crafting all your materials. It’s a pretty cute game.
Machinarium is the most beautiful and cutest game ever in my opinion… also everything else by that studio, like Samorost… they are absolutely gorgeous and a little addictive 🙂
And I realised the preference was for PC Games. Still you might like them or someone else may find a new game to love. Thank you for all the books.
3DS/2DS Games
Animal Crossing New Leaf, be the mayor and build up your town. Most enjoyed dressing up and making my town pretty.
Fire Emblem Awakening, tactics game with a marriage system and children plus a good story.
Fire Emblem Fates, got the collectors edition which gives me all three versions of the story. Tactics game with marriage, children and a home base.
PC Games
Atelier series by Gust, these are similiar to reccettear and the latest 3 games have been released for PC but are also available for other platforms like PS3/PS4 and switch. I really think youll like these ones.
Skyrim (all dlc, not the SE because many mods aren’t yet compatible), replaying this currently with a bunch of mods installed to make it super pretty. There are guides by a channel called Gopher that makes it simple to follow. Make sure to back up the original install folder just in case! And save often.
Nintendo Switch
Zelda Breath of the Wild, hours and hours, pretty gMe, good gameplay. Also available on WiiU but the Switch version is said to be better.
Botanicula & Machinarium are great cute, original & gorgeous PC Games.