I covered Hokko Life back in June of 2021 when it launched in Early Access. Upon its announcement, and since that preview, I’ve been curious to see how the game would shape up as it neared a 1.0 release. Now that Hokko Life is out and on Nintendo Switch, I can honestly say that I’m both surprised and a little curious by the state of the game.

It is rare to see Indie developers try to take on franchises like Animal Crossing. Those games take a lot of resources and polish, plus they are a unique idea that is a little difficult to replicate. Hokko Life doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel here. Instead, it sets itself apart as more of a casual sandbox hybrid of Harvest Moon and Animal Crossing.

In Hokko Life, you play as a young person (androgynous but customizable) who falls asleep on a train and winds up in the cozy hamlet of Hokko. Hokko has seen better days, but with your help you can bring new villagers and new life to the town. Unlike Animal Crossing, it doesn’t seem like there is a limit to the number of animals you can have in town, other than the limit of animals in the game.

So far, there are 7 NPCs and 24 villagers you can recruit. There are also a variety of locations in the Hokko area that can house villagers, so you won’t have to clutter one area with all of them. There is a beach, a pond area, a redwood forest, a mine, and more. The NPCs range from Dennis the Fisherman to Rosa the Real Estate Agent.

Progression in Hokko Life is tied to two aspects of the game. The first is Mayor Merits, which are achievements you collect as you do various things in the game. These unlock upgrades such as a bigger backpack, crafting recipes, and new capabilities for growing/tweaking your village. You also gain progression by moving more villagers into Hokko.

The biggest part of Hokko Life at this stage is undoubtedly the customization and decoration. You can craft custom furniture or build things from pre-set recipes. You can also paint things or embellish pre-made things with your own add-ons. Crafting is tied to a lot of different parts of Hokko Life, some of which incentivize you to put your own spin on furniture, and even things like stairs and bridges.

This customization allows you to make Hokko Life your own, but it also takes priority over any sort of story or progression. Unlike Harvest Moon or even Animal Crossing, shortly after the tutorial things open up to the point where the game is almost aimless. Granted, this is probably by design, giving Hokko Life more of a focus on casual play, creation, and sharing things with others via Creator shops in the City.

Sharing your furniture creations and utilizing other people’s creations is easy thanks to Hokko Life having a cross-platform sharing feature. This means that you can access creations and shops from people on PC if you are playing on Nintendo Switch and vice versa. You can craft everything from decorative furniture, to lights, beds, and even storage containers.

Controls for crafting and customizing are easy to understand. However, the inability to look at things from underneath or from a directly top-down view can make customizing tricky. I would also say that Hokko Life could use a little work in the Accessibility department, as the font for certain things is difficult to read due to the color (white on gray for example) or the small font size.

There’s also the fact that certain requests require you to make things from scratch. Not everyone is a creative type, so forcing people to use the custom features is a little bit frustrating. It would be great if the developer would implement an option for people to be able to get some of the benefits without having to make custom items. However, certain merits require you to make a certain amount of objects, so currently people are stuck messing with something they might not like.

It can also be difficult to figure out how close you are to bugs when you are trying to catch them. The depth perception is a little odd sometimes. However, bug-catching and fishing are both well executed and viable ways of making money. Currently the game only has butterflies and moths in regard to bug catching, but that is slated to change in a future update.

There are also things like fishing challenges, which are by no means easy. Since Hokko Life runs on an internal time rather than real-time (similar to Harvest Moon) you can undergo a new fishing challenge each week. There are also holidays like the Fishing Tournament as well. Farming also makes use of this internal time, as each crop has a specified season (or multiple season) it can grow effectively.

Farming is similar to Stardew Valley and Harvest Moon. You till the soil, water your crops, and eventually harvest your crops. Along with the mining, fishing, and bug catching, the farming adds a nice familiarity in the vein of Stardew Valley or Animal Crossing. However, there’s one major issue that I have with Hokko Life beyond the reliance on the custom design feature.

Most of the villagers (outside of the store NPCs) feel like carbon copies of each other. There’s not much in the way of personality or variation with them. On top of that, there’s a point where you start to run out of reasons to do things. Money has little value when you don’t have upgrades to buy outside of buying more houses for more villagers.

You can buy clothes and furniture of course, but even things like bug catching and fishing start to feel aimless once you realize that there’s no museum to donate them to, or dishes to cook (in regards to fishing.) I’m sure some of this might be addressed in future updates, but as a 1.0 release this feels like something that you’ll play for a few days and then set aside until something new comes in an update.

That isn’t to say that Hokko Life isn’t a good game. In fact, I think as a casual intro to games like Animal Crossing or Harvest Moon it might be a solid contender. It also works well as an avenue for creativity through making furniture and sharing it with other players.

Hokko Life has improved in leaps and bounds since I played it in the earliest build of Early Access. However, I think it still has a lot of untapped potential that could come out in future updates. Considering the game is done by a solo Swedish developer, I think picking up the game and supporting it is a great idea, even if you spend a bit of time waiting for new content between updates.

If you’ve been eyeing Hokko Life on Steam and want a casual game to take with you on a commute or long trip, the Nintendo Switch version is a great idea. It is also a great option for kids that are new to gaming, that may not be ready for more demanding and intense gaming challenges just yet. Who knows, building up a village as a family project might be something you’re looking for. Hokko Life has plenty of tools to foster creativity and community as well.

A Nintendo Switch Review Copy of Hokko Life was provided by Team17 for this review.

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Hokko Life

$15.99

9

Score

9.0/10

Pros

• Relaxing Gameplay
• Simple Controls
• Nice Progression
• Accessible to New Players
• Variety of Things to Do

Cons

• Too Much Emphasis on Custom Designer
• Feel Aimless at Time
• Text Colors Are Sometimes Too Difficult to Read