Hokko Life is a new indie adventure that launched on Steam in early access this month. The game is developed by Wonderscope and published by Team17, publishers of King of Seas and My Time at Portia. Centered around a secluded village and involving features such as crafting and resource gathering, Hokko Life could be Steam's answer to the Nintendo Switch-exclusive Animal Crossing.
The game begins with the player character taking a trip on a train but falling asleep during the journey. When they wake up, they are in Hokko, where the residents are excited to meet them and hope they can breathe life back into the town. Taking on a mayor-type role means the player will meet loads of interesting characters while also doing the activities one expects from these types of games like fishing, bug catching and decorating the town.
Like Animal Crossing, Hokko Life's gameplay revolves around its villagers. Characters will stop for a drink at the local inn and can be recruited to come live in Hokko. Most new residents will just take up houses, but as the game progresses, new characters will open up stores in the town. For example, there's a real estate agent who lets the player buy new houses and an artist who unlocks the ability to paint and design clothing.
Residents offer small quests similar to those in Animal Crossing, such as asking for resources. Gathering has simple mechanics similar to Minecraft where using a pickaxe on a rock will destroy it, allowing the player to collect the resource. Outside of mining, players can chop wood using an axe and move flowers with a shovel, which is similar to Animal Crossing. Right now, there's nothing to limit resource gathering (like Minecraft's monsters or Stardew Valley's stamina meter), but since the game in new to early access, such mechanics could be added in the future.
One of Hokko Life's best elements is its flexibility. The game allows players to design their own furniture using the crafting table in Sally's Workshop and resources gathered on the map. Using basic blueprints, players can design anything they want from bridges to outdoor decorations to household furniture in any style they want. Then, they can paint individual parts of the items. Players can also create their own paintings, wallpapers and shirt designs.
In contrast to Animal Crossing, where each character comes with a set of furniture related to their interests and may place items gifted by the player in their homes, players can actually help their villagers decorate their rooms. In fact, Hokko Life makes changing villagers' houses as easily as changing your own. And while there are no multiplayer functions at the moment, but players can still interact using the Creator Catalog. The Catalog allows players to upload and download players creations, as well as share weekly challenges.
While the game has just launched in early access and clearly has a long way to go, there is huge potential for Hokko Life to become a PC substitute from Animal Crossing with some additional features. It has all the key requirements of a life simulation game like a day/night cycle, seasons, quest progression and creative freedom, and with more content already in the works, this game has the makings of an indie hit.