If there’s one kind of recreation we actually haven’t been wanting lately, it’s the life sim.
The continued success of such collection as Animal Crossing and Harvest Moon has all the time ensured a gradual provide of comparable video games, but it surely actually does really feel just like the 2020s have seen a surge of them, typically with the newest buzzword ‘cosy’ hooked up.
Whereas most of those have come and gone with out inflicting tremors within the business, just a few have made their mark by providing one thing completely different (I’ll defend Disney Dreamlight Valley to the demise). NetEase‘s Floatopia will hope it lands within the latter class, and the half hour I spent with it at Gamescom suggests it simply may.
Blink and also you’ll miss the surprisingly darkish premise. Whereas Animal Crossing has you merely transferring to a brand new village for a change of tempo, your relocation in Floatopia is one made out of necessity. The world is about to be destroyed, as per the intro, which briefly exhibits a metropolis being ravaged by earthquakes and tornadoes.
Realising that each cloud has a silver lining – on this case, one which’s actually within the clouds themselves – your character makes use of the planet’s imminent destruction as an excuse to flee to a floating island within the sky and begin a brand new, considerably extra chilled life there.
One of many twists that units Floatopia other than different life sims is that everybody on the island will get a superpower. The issue is, superpowers are given out on a first-come, first-served foundation and so the preliminary villagers in your island moan that they got underwhelming ones.
One character makes the air chilly once they get emotional, one other has the ‘energy’ of insomnia and is subsequently all the time round regardless of whenever you’re wandering the island, whereas one other has the ability to suit any merchandise right into a perfectly-sized procuring bag. Guess the place she works.
The sport’s artwork type is charming, making use of a form of handcrafted look. The characters seem like your typical ‘chibi’ varieties from a distance however when the digital camera zooms in on them (often throughout dialogue) you’ll be able to see they’re all truly little fuzzy dolls with Sylvanian Households-style flocked hair and pores and skin.
This type extends to the buildings, which seem like they’re manufactured from cardboard. The store is a reasonably innocuous-looking constructing, however whenever you step inside it folds out to disclose a bigger inside, the place you’ll be able to see the corrugated card within the partitions protecting every part collectively.
“One character makes the air chilly once they get emotional, one other has the ‘energy’ of insomnia and is subsequently all the time round regardless of whenever you’re wandering the island”
The comparisons to Animal Crossing are inevitable, and might’t initially be ignored. In spite of everything, the sport opens with the participant being given a house and wandering across the village wanting the place to position it, and early duties contain discovering recipes which inform you which supplies you have to craft particular objects and furnishings.
There are many variations, nonetheless, that make Floatopia its personal recreation and provides it the potential to – whisper it – maybe surpass Nintendo’s title in sure methods. For starters, one of the crucial tedious points of Animal Crossing is the every day assortment of elements and objects by shaking bushes, selecting issues up and the like. Right here you’re rapidly given a mortgage of a vacuum cleaner which you should use to wander across the village, hoovering all of it up quite a bit faster.
There’s a barely sillier really feel by means of the sport too, one which’s not completely restricted to the characters having garbage powers (although it needs to be identified that it seems like you will get higher ones – the demo offers you the power to fly across the island at one level, which is moderately helpful and positively not as unhealthy as these of your fellow islanders).
The dialogue is pleasantly daft (and the participant also can select what to say again), and there’s a extra whimsical, fantasy-like vibe to proceedings. At one level you get up and discover that the insomniac character is sitting on a swing that’s hanging from the clouds, simply because. One other day it simply begins raining cash – whenever you ask what’s taking place you’re informed to not query it and simply embrace it.
The island setting – to not point out the underlying ‘the world is doomed’ factor, can’t neglect that – additionally suggests extra selection to come back. The opening island is your typical idyllic, inexperienced paradise that bears greater than a robust resemblance to the world of Tom Nook and pals, however the recreation’s trailer exhibits the participant visiting different islands, similar to one made out of meals, and the developer guarantees there’ll be continuous updates including new environments to discover.
With this promise of future evolution, and an obvious heavier leaning in the direction of plot than you see in Animal Crossing, it seems like Floatopia has the potential to go in its personal course and construct its personal distinctive following. It’s already obtained the allure nailed, let’s see the way it fares long-term.
Floatopia is ready for launch in 2025 for PlayStation 5, Nintendo Change, Xbox Collection X|S, PC and cellular.
