Cozy games have seen a significant explosion of the past few years. While not as demanding as some of the more… standard array of shooters and action RPG’s, they have solidified their place within the gaming sphere. Full transparency – while I do play a wide swath of games, I do enjoy the world of cozy gaming. Some days, it’s just nice to play a low-stakes game where the world is not actively trying to see your demise. Allow me, if I may, to show you a little about an upcoming cozy game titled Nom Nom: Cozy Forest Cafe.
Nom Nom: Cozy Forest Cafe is coming to Steam on January 12th, developed and published by Anaïs Salla. This solo developer from Spain has brought several other titles to the gaming world, including Minabo and Oncity, both of which provide their own unique message in the world of digital gameplay.
Gamer Social Club was able to grab a sneak peek at Nom Nom: Cozy Forest Cafe and explore all the game had to offer. Without further ado, let’s get lost in a world full of cozy animals and the service industry in this forest.
The World & The Story
The World
Well, we know that Nom Nom: Cozy Forest Cafe takes place in a cafe in a forest…and that’s all you’ll ever see of the world. But yes, all gameplay time is spent within the confines of your highly customizable cafe. Throughout your work day, you’ll get familiar with the other denizens of the forest, who frequent your cafe on a daily basis (imagine the income from such loyal customers). All in all, there are ten animal friends who will frequent your cafe:
- Rori, the…Tanuki?
- Mlem, the Frog
- Vori, the Duck
- Baba, the Capybara
- Tori, the Pig
- Mooon, the Cow (get it?)
- Dani, the Beaver (I believe)
- Soni, the Shark
- Bim, the…I honestly cannot recall (maybe a Bear)
- Aki, the Hedgehog
They all have their own unique and cuddly personalities, but don’t expect a massive amount of depth with them. Nom Nom: Cozy Forest Cafe comes to us as a low-stress decoration and rhythm game. Dense backstories are not the jam here.
The Story
There is little story to this game, as our main focus is really around the designing aspects of your cafe. The gameplay, which we’ll get into, is really almost secondary to the design mechanics in the game.
I honestly don’t have much else to add here. Whether a lack of story is a make or break for you, I’ll leave that ball in your court.
The Gameplay
So, Nom Nom: Cozy Forest Cafe can really be broken down into three pieces of gameplay: fulfilling orders via small rhythm games, customizing your culinary treats, and designing your own personal cafe to enjoy.
Cooking with Rhythm
Rather than just…make your food and drink in your cafe, you’ll be playing a small rhythm game to see how “elaborate” your dish/drink is. The better you perform in the rhythm game, the better the Elaboration Score. Put more simply, your Elaboration Score is how many times you hit a “Perfect” in the rhythm game. All Perfects will net you a max of 100 Points per dish.
Will you struggle with the rhythm games? Probably not – they’re pretty basic. That being said though, each “dish” you craft has its own unique song to tap along to, so at least it doesn’t get wildly repetitive in that respect.
You also have the option to prepare orders for a To-Go Machine. Make what you want and collect your cash at the start of each day. However, you’re not getting the normal currency (which we’ll cover later). You’re getting Tokens. These Tokens can only be used in the To-Go Machine and function very much like a gachapon machine. More Tokens equals higher “worth” items.
Customize Your Dish
Here’s where Nom Nom: Cozy Forest Cafe starts to flex what it’s all about: designing. Each of the dishes at your cafe (of which there are many, including boba, sandos, and waffles, to name a few) has several tiers of customization available to you. Let’s take coffee for example. What kind of glass is your drink coming in? Is it a dark roast, or maybe a lighter roast? Are you adding foam on the top? Does your customer want a specific sugar topping added to their drink?
That being said, the customization rabbit hole gets very deep when it comes to the kitchen. Coupled with this will be specific requests from customers when it comes to their food. Maybe Rori only wants bananas in their sando? Or maybe Mlem wants pink frosting on their donut.
Each of your customers has their own Frequent Visitor card that you can punch. Punch a whole card and you get a new piece of furniture/piece of decor to use in your cafe.
Along with all of the options available, you can also create “Custom” designs. For my Animal Crossing New Horizons fans, it’s a lot like the Custom Designs. Use various colors in the grid system presented in the game to create your own design to use in future dishes. It’s very creative and I’m sure the right mind would spend hours making their own designs. I, however, didn’t touch this facet of the game.
Channel Your Inner Interior Decorator
The real heart of Nom Nom: Cozy Forest Cafe – the designing of your cafe. Nearly everything in your cafe can be customized with unique colors, as well as pieces of furniture. Now, you may be asking how you get these pieces of furniture? Well, you run a cafe – those glorious Acorns (?) that are used as currency in your cafe will serve as your money. Each customer will pay you for their dish based on your Elaboration Score, as well as if you include their Choice of the Day (their custom order).
You can design to your heart’s content. While this is not 100% my jam when it comes to gaming, those who have an interest in the concept of interior decorating will adore what this game has to offer. I went with a very simple and clean aesthetic for my cafe.
The Good
Relaxation Vibes
One of the biggest sells that I easily see in Nom Nom: Cozy Forest Cafe is the relaxing style of game play. It’s not stressful, it’s low stakes, and you can truly go at your own pace. Has Mooon been standing at the register for 30 minutes while you design? They’ll wait ‘til the cows come home (see what I did there).
It is also a very cute game – there’s no denying it. Each character has their own cuddly design and have their own mannerisms and dialogue that differentiate each of them.
Did I also manage to make Rori “break” their own neck to speak to me? Yes. Yes I did.
Designs Galore
It’s nothing that I usually gravitate towards. That being said, though, if you’re looking for a game where you can really get into some of the nitty gritty of designing, look no further. I can easily imagine that there will be some corner of the internet where fans of Nom Nom: Cozy Forest Cafe will show off their unique cafe designs.
The Bad
Stagnant Gameplay
I know that Nom Nom: Cozy Forest Cafe is meant to be a very relaxing rhythm and design game. It’s low-stakes and a nice way to turn your brain “off” if you have had a busy/stressful day.
That being said – the gameplay got very grindy and stagnant very fast. Once you have unlocked all customers and dishes to cook, it then turns into grinding out each customer’s card to get more decor items. I think the biggest issue with this is that I sat down and did most of my playing in one to two sittings. Breaking it up might clear the monotony, but even then, by how much?
The Overall
To bring it all to a close, while I did enjoy my time with Nom Nom: Cozy Forest Cafe, I don’t ever see myself returning to it. The design aspects may be something that reels in other cozy gamers, but if you’re looking for more gameplay beyond simple rhythm games, I would look elsewhere. If you’re an interior decorator in another life, though, then this game might be right up your alley.
Gamer Social Club was provided an early-access code for the purposes of this review. This review was played on PC (Steam).
