Reviews and reflections

I tend to liken Cozy Grove to Animal Crossing: you're living in a tent, fishing and catching bugs, buying from a fox, and doing errands for your animal neighbors. But in Cozy Grove, your neighbors are all bears. Also, they're ghosts.

Here, you're a spirit scout, like a girl scout who earns badges by helping ghosts. You're on this island by mistake, but there are ghosts here, so you set to doing what you know. As you retrieve their significant items, you get to know each bear's story, struggles, joys; you accompany them through their arcs of frustration or denial until they're ready to move on.

But what does “moving on” mean?

Bears who move on find their peace, then turn gold in a flash of light, remaining on the island and continuing to give you quests. But the quest dialogue is gone, replaced with descriptions like, "The spirit is filled with the happy memories you shared." There’s no progress left to make.

And you know what? It's not fair. I spent all this time getting to know them, only to now help their echoes? Doing quests for nothing but some resources? Mechanically, nothing has changed, but…it feels hollow. At first, I thought, "What is the point? Why don't they just leave?" I became frustrated. "If they must be here, why are they still asking for my attention? They're wasting my time."

As my collection of golden bears grew, there were some days I considered not playing at all, but I wanted to see the remaining bears through to the end. So I persisted. I ignored the golden bears for a while, but eventually started taking their quests again, finding comfort in the familiarity. I think, slowly, I'm coming to accept them for what they really are.

Memories of friends.