Hokko Life

Developed By: Wonderscope

Published By: Team17

Price: £15.99 / $19.99

Casual, Simulation

Last year, many were enchanted and comforted by the release of Animal Crossing: New Horizons. They found solitude in its tranquil settings and carefree gameplay, allowing you to play at your own pace while even pushing you to be patient while there’s construction. However, things for that game died out pretty soon as the amount of content coming in began to slow down. So, in turn, people turned to other games like it. Hokko Life is one of those games. 

Took A Train Going…

Hokko Life starts off with your character boarding a train heading somewhere. During the trip, however, they fall asleep and miss their stop, instead being dropped off in the random village of Hokko, where only animal villagers live. They provide you with a place to stay, and in turn, you help them rebuild their little town. 

I’m just going to say here that these villagers aren’t like the ones from the original Animal Crossing. They are also similar to the ones in New Horizons where they are just their personality and will chat with you from time to time. I hope they eventually have more personality so that the village can feel much more alive. 

Anyway, it was here that the issues of releasing in early access began to rear its ugly head. Talking to the dude sitting at the counter actually pushed him off his seat. So, I decided it was best if he sat where I was supposed to sit and then sit inside of him. A very sensual experience. 

This is the most common type of glitch you will experience during this game. There’s more, of course, but this will be the most prevalent. Thankfully, none of these are game-breaking, but it does take me out of the experience or just make me laugh when that was never the intention. 

Help The Town

After you sleep through your first night there, you are then told to go out into the town and help around the place. The village of Hokko is a nice-looking place, with plenty of color to go around, but I wish there weren’t so many loading gates, and that moving from place to place was more seamless. 

Also, a small thing about moving. In Hokko Life, for some damn reason, there is a stamina meter specifically for sprinting. I’m unsure if this will cross over into using other things later, but for a game such as this, I really see no point in having one. This is meant to be a relaxing game where you hang around a village in an attempt to better it, and I am being limited in how much I can run? I just felt that wasn’t befitting. 

Anyway, once you’re out in the town, you get to do what you want. Of course, there will be a mainline of objectives to follow, and some temporary side jobs from villagers, but otherwise you’re free to do what you want. Things will happen by the day, but luckily you can sleep for 2 hours, 6 hours, or until tomorrow, which helps speed things along.

What To Do

As you go on, you’ll be able to do more things, like mine, fish, plant flowers and trees, and catch bugs. There’s a shop that gets new stuff every few days. While also selling common objects you might need for later, or even upgrades and tools that will allow you to do other activities.

As for those activities, they are fine. Most of what they do is provide more to sell or use in crafting, a mechanic I’ll get into later. Fishing itself is okay; it’s a minigame, unlike New Horizons, where you actually have to pay attention to what’s happening. Also, with the fish detection range being wider in this, I had to readjust less, which made this a better experience than in New Horizons. 

What To Build

Once you get far enough into the game, you’ll meet a dog named Sally who’s the town smithy. In her place, you can build whatever you can grab a recipe of. Then, she will introduce you to Hokko Life’s main mechanic: building. At the designer’s table, you will be able to repair items or create specific items out of blueprints you buy or receive, like a small object or bridge. In this mode, you are brought to a separate screen where you use a multitude of other items like wood or metal to build this object. 

Now, I actually like this as a feature, especially for the more architecturally creative of us, but I can’t say it served me all that well. I work better with words than architecture, after all. It got to the point where all my bridges are just made out of a single wooden, lengthened and widened plank. That’s it. I’m a stupid boy keeping things stupid simple. I wish you could just build a simple bridge without needing to do it all yourself. 

Where To Put It

Putting these objects in the world space, however, is much better than in something like New Horizons, where you just stand in a spot and hope the object is placed there. In Hokko Life, you’re given a grid and can rotate the object right in front of you so you can see where it will be placed. 

This also goes for in-home decorations, everything is easy to pick up and plop down. I just found it to be a nice change from the strange way Animal Crossing does it. I haven’t done much decorating, though. Focusing too much on the fishing. 

Of course, a game like this isn’t complete without an accompanying soundtrack. I will say, this soundtrack is one of the things I don’t find fault with. It does its job perfectly and does well in relaxing you, easing you into the gameplay loop with its variety of strings.

Crossing Into Problems

Alright, now that we got all that done, we should get into the problems. The things I want the developer to focus on to improve their game. The multitude of bugs and glitches notwithstanding. 

One of my problems with Hokko Life is that things happen a bit too slowly, or you can just easily miss some of them. It took a week in the game to have someone who actually would move in and provide something of value. This was due to the fact that you can only allow new villagers in seemingly at night, when they come into the café you live in. I found this to be strange, so I hope there are more opportunities than just the night time. 

Next, if you’re going to have a line about an object or mechanic, please make sure that is in the game. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have needed to check the forums for a way to put bait on my fishing pole to see if that’s how I could get a fish I was asked to catch seven of. Turns out, the recipe for bait didn’t even exist yet. 

Familiar Feelings

Now, it’s plain to see how obviously Animal Crossing this is trying to be. Of course, there’s the camera angle, the talking animal people, the wholesome and relaxing tone. Then, there’s the shop layout, which looks very similar to the shop in New Horizons. The sprint animation is almost dead-on the one from Animal Crossing, and the fish silhouettes in the water are practically the same.

What I’m trying to say with this is my main problem: there isn’t much new. This feels like it’s trying to be Animal Crossing while changing little with the formula. I hope they do something to really change it up and make this feel like its own game rather than just making Animal Crossing on PC.

Funny enough, I have these problems, but performance was never one of them. This game ran rather well on maximum graphics, which isn’t much to say (the artstyle is fun, but not graphic intensive), but I was still impressed since this was early access. 

A New Life

Of course, as I’ve said, this is in early access, so there is still much to be done, including the farming update coming in July. I hope they do make this into something separate from Animal Crossing so it can stand up as more than just a clone of it on PC. I would love to have this be a game I just play to relax. 

Otherwise, I would still say this is a fantastic outlet for creative types. Its building mechanics could really lead the way to see a lot of unique villages. All they need is to allow things for those who aren’t as architecturally creative, while also providing more for those who are. More, more, more. This game needs more. The price it’s asking, however, might be more than worth it for those who are interested. 

 

Verdict

Recommended

 

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Reviewed by Freelance7. Game provided by Team17.