For as long as I can remember, the gaming industry has often tried to emulate the big hits by tweaking 2-3 elements to a proven recipe to carve out a small piece of the pie. The most recent (and most egregious) example is Battle Royale. It is not limited to this style of play, however, MMORPGs have had, in their time, a plethora of clones, not to mention all the other genres copied, equaled and more rarely surpassed. However, on the side ofAnimal Crossing, the inspirations were more discreet. Apart from mysims which had managed to make a small place for itself, I don't remember any other similar titles... Until last year, with several titles which were announced a few months apart. Hokko life is one of them, and even if it does not equal the "master", it is worth looking into.
After a very quick passage through the character editor, a little too summary for my taste, we are thrown into a train where our avatar falls asleep... and wakes up later - after having missed his stop - at the terminus. The day being already well advanced, and the rain in full swing, we went to take refuge in the inn on the corner, run by a certain Oma. The latter offers our protagonist to occupy the attic one night, while the storm passes, and to see what we will do next. The owner of the corner shop, Moss, leaning on the bar, approves, and indicates that if you need help or advice, you can go see him. All tired, so we go to bed, and we see "Day 2" appear on our screen.
Rather than going back on the train the next day - which ANY rational person would do - our character thinks that it might be a good time to start a new life, and the stooges met the day before are not against a little blood nine in the village. So we are going to accomplish his first tasks: talk to the few locals, cut wood, clean the weeds, and others... Very happy to have found a minion, Oma and Moss offer us to renovate a small house and help me. install there. Even if I smelled the confusion directly, after a hundred hours spent on Animal Crossing, I had no choice but to accept.
Unlike the Nintendo game, Hokko life takes a liberty on time management, and that's frankly not a bad thing. The tasks assigned will be numerous, and even if you act immediately, each time you have to ask something from another speaker, they will always tell you that they can tackle it in a few days. We can therefore return to our house and make the time pass more quickly: 2h/6h/until the next day. The goal of the game itself is relatively simple: make the village come alive, and expand it as you progress. This involves several things: fulfilling the (numerous) villager requests, which are relatively simple: planting flowers, making benches, putting up barriers, etc... and those of the "important" characters, present in the central part of the village, Oma, Moss and Rosa (the real estate agent). If the first ones will propose to us to make the village grow by building bridges and other stairs, Rosa will propose a panel of houses to be built, with finance and resources... which we will of course have to recover, because yes, in the wonderful world ofHokko life, we have to pay for others, absolutely all the time. In return, however, we can choose who will live or not in his village, with the possibility of expelling the residents that we do not like. Difficult choice, each citizen being of a remarkable kindness.
In addition to these actions, we will have an encyclopedia allowing us to collect fish and other insects, thanks to the appropriate tools. An exploit book, allowing you to unlock features (like sprint) or money, is also available. Enough to exponentially extend the lifespan and guarantee several dozen hours of play. access to a mine, which can be explored, armed with the appropriate pickaxe. As you will have understood, the game wants to be extremely generous with its players, which is clearly a good point for this particular style of "casual" life simulation. Unfortunately, the studio at work has neither Nintendo's budget nor its know-how, the Switch version pays the price. Despite a relatively colorful artistic direction, the game fails to pull out of the game and offers a rather generic rendering. It is not helped by the capabilities of the console, and even if we can emphasize its fluidity, we will have to deal with very slow loading times. In terms of ergonomics, the game is quite messy, placing objects will require a little skill, and you will never know how to position yourself easily to plant or cut a tree, your character sometimes aiming without you understanding a box attached to that desired.
Hokko life is a suitable alternative for those who lack a game to chill for long hours and are tired of roaming their island on Animal Crossing. Offered at a reasonable price, the game innovates on small points but would have benefited from exploiting them more to truly stand out. As it stands, despite its availability in 1.0, we still have the feeling of a somewhat messy game, which gropes around without really knowing how to match its elders.
