Gentle life sim Calico from Peachy Keen Games allows players to build the magical girl cat café of their dreams. The premise is that the player's late grandmother has left her café to them, and the locals are all wildly excited for it to open once more. Apparently, it's been some time since they've had their favorite café treats or spent time in the shop, so they're all eager to help the player get the place into shape.
However, building up the café isn't really the focus of Calico. Time spent outside the café, helping locals and making friends, yields rewards, cash, recipes, new animal friends and more. Here are some tips and tricks for not only building a cute café and customizing the perfect character, but succeeding at the game's various objectives.
Talk to As Many Calico NPCs As Possible
Calico takes place in a colorful town filled with colorful characters, all of whom knew the player's late grandmother and are very excited to meet her. Talking to NPCs will reveal quests that can be completed for rewards, including café furniture, money, recipes, clothing, potions and more.
Each NPC reward will allow the player to further customize some aspect of the game, whether it's their avatar's style or the café itself. There are also unique stories to unveil; the locals all have relationships with each other, as well as with NPCs in nearby locations. The player character may need to help repair friendships, check in with people about their mental health, set up the café for photoshoots and date nights, or make specific recipes by request.
The more NPCs the player talks to, the more they can accomplish. Most will have a new quest to fulfill each day, as long as the previous one is complete. Likewise, NPCs with shops will change their inventory daily -- so checking in to see what's for sale is important, especially if players are trying to achieve a specific aesthetic.
To track quests, players can select them on their toolkit, and choose which quests are displayed on the screen. Some of them intersect, though it may not be obvious at first. As each step is completed, players will learn more about the NPCs and their world, which is even more rewarding than getting new items.
Don't Be Afraid to Mix & Match
Calico has tons of unique areas and tons of unique aesthetics. Players can fill their café with spooky, rad, floral, or simple furniture, for example, and wear clothes ranging from crop top hoodies to long skirts. The player character's avatar is more customizable than most, with sliders for body shape, size and proportion, as well as several color wheels for skin, hair, eyes, makeup and more.
At first, it may seem important to collect full sets of specific furniture or to create the perfect outfit -- but as the game progresses, players will unlock more items that can create an especially unique look. Mixing and matching is important here, especially when NPCs ask for specific items to be placed in the café in order to complete quests.
Be Careful With Potions
At several points in Calico, players will be asked to test potions or help brew them. Potions can be used to increase the size of an animal (both to ride them like horse and to bust through rock formations blocking mountain paths), make an animal float through the air, change the player character's hair to a sparkling galaxy, or a number of other fun effects.
Potions in Calico are harmless. Most will wear off eventually, but players should still consider carefully before using potions -- especially on animals. The effects will always be listed in the player's inventory, but it's generally advised not to use more than one potion on a single animal. Having a big cat is one thing, but having a big cat floating around town like a balloon is something else entirely.
Pet All the Animals
Since Calico is partially about running a cat café, players will frequently encounter cats, birds, raccoons, rabbits, birds, dogs, polar bears, arctic foxes, deer and more as they go about their tasks and quests. As the mayor of the town informs players in the beginning of the game, any animal without a home can be adopted -- but unfortunately, spaces at the café and in the player's adventure party are limited.
When the player interacts with an animal, they will then appear in the player's toolkit under "animals." The player can choose up to five animals to bring with them on their travels and up to 10 animals to live at the café. Despite its identity as a cat café, players can have any type of animal live there. In fact, some NPCs will ask for specific creatures to be given homes at the café, in the hopes that locals will appreciate them more after interacting with them in such an environment.
It's possible to pet or pick up any animal in Calico. Players can hold two at a time by "storing" an animal -- i.e. putting it on their head -- and then picking up another. Opening the animal catalog will allow players to rename animals and move them between the café, the player's party, or roaming free. There are dozens of animals to meet, in locations including the town, the city, the mountain, the beach and the woods.
Calico isn't a particularly complicated game, but these tips will help players immerse themselves in the world more fully and enjoy each moment of gameplay -- even when the game glitches, which it tends to do. On that note, save frequently. Peachy Keen Games has patched the title many times since release, but saving is quick, easy and will provide peace of mind.