Wytchwood’s Aesthetics Need Their Own Genre

Chicago is an interesting place for a lot of reasons. Since moving back this winter, I’ve been enamored with the city’s full embrace of summer. It’s 100 degrees, but you won’t catch anyone complaining about it. What’s a few months of extreme heat when it snows and freezes over for half the year? That said, I’m usually itching for fall this time of year, and I’ve been thinking about Wytchwood. More specifically, I’ve been thinking about the aesthetic the game portrays and why it works so well.

Wytchwood was a “wholesome game” released last year that really caught my eye from the first trailer. Most notably, the game’s intense embrace of autumn, woodland environments, and witchy vibes felt so palpable. How did someone not make a game this in tune to a gorgeous season before? In Alexx’s Wytchwood review for Nintendo Switch, he praised the game’s “dark-ish fantasy, unique visual styles, witches, and imaginative gameplay.” That’s it right there; that’s the aesthetic. More importantly, that’s the blend of elements that deserves its own genre.

You have people who yearn for pumpkin spice lattes all year, or maybe crave a cozy bonfire or Sunday Night Football. The activities and elements attached to autumn lend themselves to cozy nostalgia for staying home, enjoying simpler pleasures, and being in tune with one’s self. Wytchwood’s gameplay even captures this simplicity efficiently. Simply collect ingredients, get to cooking up poisons and spells, and repeat. It’s the predictability that allows us to really take in the gorgeous things all around us in the game and during the fall season.

It’s not as if other “wholesome games” or cozy titles don’t evoke this same feeling. It’s more the fact that everyone’s desperation for the same parts of fall we partake in each year is so spiritually nourishing. If it’s hot where you live right now, you can’t tell me a cool autumn breeze surrounded by red and brown leaves on trees and covering the ground doesn’t give you a sense of serenity. It’s a particular element that I think really gives way to mental clarity, particularly when we can’t head outside and find these things.

Puzzle games, crafting titles, and cozy experiences are gaining traction in the mainstream thanks to more casual gamers emerging in the world. People don’t always want to experience violence or play sports titles. Sometimes, they just want to feel the comfort of fall and all it has to offer while unwinding at the end of the day. As they say, give the people what they want. Let’s hope more titles like Wytchwood become a sub-genre we can all enjoy.