For many of us, cozy games are a lovely little respite from the stresses of our lives outside video games. Unfortunately, many of them take forever to play and are just not reasonable for most people.
If your only time to play games is the few hours between work and sleep, or on the weekends,it can be pretty jarring to play a comfy little title for a few hours, then return to it, forgetting everything.
10 Best Cozy Games With Extensive End-Game Content
While many cozy games have an endless loop for certain game features, these are the best cozy games with actual, extensive, endgame content.
That’s why I’ve compiled this list of10 excellent, relaxing, and cozy titles that only take around eight hours to finish, easily doable with a weekend or a few nights of free time at your disposal.
Even better, most of these games have far more content outside the baseline story, making for experiences that will feel pretty satisfying to return to even if you’ve cleared the entire thing in a matter of a couple of days.
10Unpacking
In And Out
While in the real world, moving out of one place and into another is a surefire way to have a terrible day and make your friends a bit upset, Unpacking turns it into a far more meditative experience.
The game consists entirely oftaking stuff out of boxes, putting it wherever you believe it should belong, rinse and repeatas you get shown someone’s entire life through their stuff alone.
Aside from the factthat it gets rather repetitive, if you find yourself enjoying the process of organizing things and moving items between shelves to find them better, this is a great time.
There are a few side objectives to hit, namely in the achievements, but even if you’re fully completing all of those, the game is bound to last you a few hours and end right when the formula wears on you.
9Melatonin
Hit a Vibe
If rhythm games are your speed, and you’d like one that gets you into the dreamy, cozy mood, then Melatonin might be the perfect game for you.Behold, the coziest rhythm game known to man.
Every stage in this game is based on some kind of enjoyable, relaxing activity, like shopping for random expensive items, eating junk food, or shooting knockoff Galaxian aliens in VR.
10 Best Cozy Games With Amazing Stories
Games with cozier vibes can have more room to flex their narrative and character chops.
You can blow through the main stages while not giving a damn about score in a few hours, but if you want to perfect every level and go for every bit of bonus content, this game may run you a few dozen hours.
Either way, it’s one of the most enjoyable rhythm games out there, all the songs are an absolute vibe, and it makes me both exhilarated and slightly stressed while being one of the prettiest, comfiest-looking games ever.
8Lil Gator Game
Slide Whimsy
Lil Gator Game
If you’ve ever wondered whatBreath of the Wildwould be like if you were playing as a little gator child with a big imagination, then Lil Gator Game fills that incredibly specific niche.
It all takes place on a couple of open-ended, but rather condensed islands, having you wander around and find fun things to do, and get your friends in on your plan to get your older sister to have fun with you.
As a fellow youngest sibling,this plot is rather simple and not super full of substance, but it resonated hard with meand filled me with a ton of nostalgic whimsy, and I loved it for that.
It never overstays its welcome, it’s beatable within a couple of hours, and despite a lack of extra collectibles or much else to do, I thoroughly enjoyed my time with it.
7Button City
Button City
As a little brightly colored, adorable game taking place in an arcade with aload of minigames at your disposal, Button City is a great way to blow through the weekend both for its story and its side content.
The characters are all silly and lovely, andthe story remains compelling while also giving you plenty of levity and goofy-as-hell momentsthat make the game feel lighthearted despite a rather grim situation.
you may breeze through the main story in about five hours, but if you want to get high scores in the various arcade games, it’s going to take quite a bit longer, making it a great one for replayability.
It makes me feel like a kid at Dave and Buster’s again, except that Dave and Buster’s has colors brighter than the sun and is at risk of being leveled by the government, but y’know, same thing.
6Coffee Talk
Spill The Tea
Coffee Talk
As a whole,Coffee Talkwill only take you around three hours for the full experience, butthose three hours contain the most engaging conversations you’d hear in your day-to-day life, all compiled together.
With quite relaxing music, lovely pixel art, and some of the most well-developed and interesting worldbuilding at its disposal, I think this game crafts characters in such a realistic way that it gets you really attached.
Personally, Hyde and Lua’s conversation on choosing love over a family that doesn’t want you to be with someone over rather awful reasons resonated hard with me, and I couldn’t get enough of it.
The actual coffee-brewing gameplay is a rather simplistic addition, but to me, it’s essentially turning what would otherwise be a visual novel into a game with more substance, and I think that’s great.
5Wilmot Works It Out
They Have It, Square
Wilmot Works It Out
I won’t lie to you and sit here and say that Wilmot Works It Out is some professional masterclass with deep mechanics. It’s quite literally just pushing pieces around to solve very simplistic puzzles.
It’s as simplistic a sense of pleasure as solving jigsaw puzzles all day, except four different jigsaw puzzles got dumped onto the table at once and you’re tasked with sorting them out and seeing what fits where.
The visuals are simplistic, the story is incredibly charming, the music is meditative, and you can get through the entire affair in around 6 hours. Yet, despite the simplistic gameplay, I never once felt bored.
I played this game during an incredibly stressful week in the incredibly stressful month of December,and I could not put it downand I could not put it down; it had a pure cozy aura that meant I needed to hang onto it and enjoy it for every single hour.
4Little Kitty, Big City
Climbing Up
Little Kitty, Big City
Playing a game as a cat meant to cause problems on purpose was an incredible idea, and Little Kitty, Big City executes that idea to the finest degree, giving you a short little romp through a city as you inconvenience everyone.
Exhibiting cat behavior feels like you have achieved a type of freedom you could never get from your current mortal form, and you can also find a variety of funny hats, so obviously, this game is incredible.
It has the same energy asUntitled Goose Game’s chaos simulation, but with a cute cat in a fully 3D space, with far more to collect and far more ways to burden people with your presence in their vicinity.
If you want to rush through things and just get back home quickly, it’s only going to take you a couple of hours, but you may easily spend six just messing around and scrounging the world for shinies.
3Outer Wilds
At Your Own Pace
Outer Wilds
Unlike every other game on this list, I can’t give you a proper time estimate onOuter Wilds,as it takes a different amount of time for everyone to complete, but I can say it’s possible to finish it right after picking it up.
While dodging spoilers like my life depends on it, I’ll just sayOuter Wilds has some of the best vibes of any video game ever made, and even if it’s not always cozy, it’s always fascinating.
10 Best Cozy Games With Rewarding Exploration
Cozy games have evolved over time, with some of the best cozy games offering rewarding exploration among other new features, but not all succeed.
It’s best played in long sessions without a significant amount of time in between sessions, because it’s all about learning things and using that knowledge to figure out the mysteries of the solar system.
It can get pretty stressful, and it’s certainly going to be overwhelming at times, but Timber Hearth isone of the coziest video game locationsever designed, and it’s comforted me more times than I can count.
2Here Comes Niko!
If you want the mostrelaxed and cozy 3D platformer evermade, Here Comes Niko is a pretty safe bet. It’s got a lovely hand-drawn 2D in 3D style, and some of the silliest, most charming characters out there.
The whole thing can be finished in a few hours, and can be 100% in around 12 hours, which feels like the perfect amount of time to spend with a game in my eyes, on top of that time feeling well spent.
There’s no way to fail, as you’re simply running around islands, diving towards the quirky residents, and doing whatever they want you to do, all while jumping on top of whatever structure you think looks like wall jump material.
you may also manage a little tamagotchi on the side, which I think is a cute addition, even if it mostly amounted to me sitting on a bench and mashing buttons to feed it, just like in real life.
1A Short Hike
A Brisk Pace
A Short Hike
As is evident by the name, A Short Hike is an astoundingly short experience, only taking a solid 30 minutes to reach the end of the game if you ignore all the little detours dotted around your path up the mountain.
I absolutely adore this game, and it’sthe easiest recommendation to anyone with a limited amount of time to play games, as it’s essentially encouraging you to spend as much time in this world as you want.
You can go boating with some of the weirdest vehicle controls ever,go grab a ton of feathersto absolutely soar through the sky, and fish the day away as you get sucked in by the cozy vibes and adorable visuals.
It’s a beautiful thing, and I could absolutely lean back and take in the music as I sit in this world for hours, but as soon as you want to be done, you can just climb up the mountain and finish the game off.
Top 10 Cozy Games With Satisfying Progression
An in-depth list of The Top 10 Coziest Games With Satisfying Progression.
