Reviews

• gamedeal user

  Oct 19, 2021

  I want to love this game, but I can't. I know this is in early access, so I will come back in a few more months to see if the issues have been fixed, but I have my doubts. I just spent 2 hours crafting a large storage chest fashioned to look like a hope chest. This was a great way to store items and it would look good with the shape and style of my character's home...then I tried to save. It said I met the outer size limits, but I did not meet the minimum size requirements. Sound confusing? it was. Nothing I could do, including changing the item type I was crafting would allow me to save my work, because apparently, my hope chest did not meet some arbitrary size requirement of being at least 1x1x1 square in dimensions while also being able to be much larger. I met the larger size requirements, but was somehow not large enough to meet the minimum size requirements... This is not the first game breaking "extra go to 10 line" bug I have encountered and as they piled up and up, I just couldn't handle it anymore. This game has potential, it's very cute and neutral, family friendly and creative...but the ENTIRE crafting system, arguably 80% of the game is fundamentally flawed from the ground up. It uses a fixed grid system that forces items to snap to it without showing you where the snap points are, resizing items does not match the snap grid (that you can't see) and to color your items, you need to craft so much paint you should be able to recreate the Last Supper across an overpass! Let you know if things have improved, or if they've just become more cluttered, but remain flawed and glitched out in the new year.
• gamedeal user

  Oct 19, 2021

  Super cute game. As many others have said, I am also a long-time player of animal crossing. It is a little clunky in areas, but nothing as unforgivable and dramatic as other reviews have made it out to be. I think there is only one dude working on this game, and it is going to take a little more time than a huge dev. SDV was also clunky in places when it first released, and look where it is now. It is important not to review bomb early access games just because they did not meet your extremely high expectations of the genre.. this is how you stop sales, stop the dev's income and then subsequent good updates and content do not get done. You can tell that the dev of this title put a lot of love into it, with the many systems that are in place and the pretty cute story. The only thing I would change, is the art style of the animals, and that probably would not even be possible at this point in time. I'd like them to look a little less Fisher Price and more chibi cute.. but that is just my personal preference. Everything else looks great. The furniture is also extremely adorable. 7/10 at this point in time!
• gamedeal user

  Feb 26, 2022

  Okay i see this game have a lot of potential, but i hope the developer improve it on next update and please don't abandon this potential games... I play animal crossing and i have it on my switch, i really love playing some farming games like story of seasons, stardew valley, and other farming simulation.. I request for other update to make this game awesome: -Please improve the character modelling, for villager and main character, maybe we can choose eyes, some face, mouth, just see refrence to make it better... - Is this game have museum? i just play only 3 hour right now, hope we can donate bugs, fish, other collectible on museum -Improve your UI, i just see some bugs, furniture image really not good (Not highrest, the edges of the image are not smooth in bugs image) -Hope we can cooking -Terraforming and we can apply / making road -Multiplayer, we can visit and invite friend to our village/city -Please some object have some function, why i can't turn on the TV XD and sit down on picnic table XD -Please look animal crossing, story of seasons, stardew valley, you can have inspiration for that amazing games - I hope we can swimming I hope this game is going to be big :) i will always support this game, we need some Animal Crossing genre and big community for this game
• gamedeal user

  Apr 20, 2022

  I really enjoy this game having dabbled a bit in Animal Crossing. What I like about this game versus AC is that if you don't want to play for a while, you won't come back to angry villagers and time stands still while you're gone. I can play at my own pace and get a lot done each day. I can water my crops, clear out the mines, and do an errand or two for the critters I've invited before it gets too late in the day. Someone else was complaining about the fishing, the only issue I have had with it is that it actually seems harder to catch fish with bait than it is without it and if you pull your reel in early to reposition you lose the bait. I've found that catching butterflies is a far quicker method of making extra coins if you need it, especially considering they repopulate rather quickly. I've paid for a few houses now with just money off of butterflies honestly. I would love to see other bugs added, more character customization, and I like the idea of a museum too as someone else suggested. On days when I don't want to run around hacking and slashing things in an RPG, Hokko Life is the perfect game to just relax and enjoy because it's simple and fun.
• gamedeal user

  Jun 12, 2022

  Imagine a child running around with their arms outstretched like an airplane, possibly making "vroom-vroom" noises, and then running up to you with a "really cool" bug that they think you'd like to have. Now imagine your town elders getting inebriated one evening and saying, "We're tired of running this dump. Let's let the kid do it!" That's the basic premise of this game (minus the inebriation part - I'm not really sure what their motivation is). If it doesn't make you run away screaming, you'll probably love it! I confess, I wasn't impressed with it when it was first released. I found the muted colors depressing, and there really didn't seem like there was much to do. After a short time, I got bored and uninstalled. But I went back recently and found it much improved. The beginning is still kind of slow. You arrive on the train, having no idea where you came from or why you're there, and you're given free room and board at the hotel in town. Then you're asked to do some simple tasks, but you run out of them quickly. NOW, however, there are a couple of broken down houses in town, and you're asked to fix them up. Then you're allowed to take one for yourself, and the game takes off. It's similar to many of the Harvest Moon-style games, though farming doesn't come into the picture for a long time. Instead, you do chores for people and learn how to build things and collect butterflies and fish, in exchange for cash. The creator wanted it to be similar to Animal Crossing, and it definitely evokes that game. When you catch a butterfly or fish, the camera zooms in and you display your catch. If you've played Animal Crossing, that will be very familiar. So will many other elements, including the animals moving into town. (Fortunately, I don't have to endure them asking for wardrobe changes and strutting around on the runway. Ugh.) It isn't Animal Crossing. It's a similar, but unique game, and after several hours of gameplay, I haven't even come close to running out of things to do. On the contrary, there seems to be more to do, as the game move along. I haven't even opened up some of the areas yet! So it's definitely fun and engrossing. The muted colors are a stylistic choice I don't really agree with, but at least there is a lot of variation in weather and the time of day. I recommend it!
• gamedeal user

  Sep 13, 2022

  I should have listened to the reviews about bugs, I was hoping for a cool PC Animal Crossing style game but in the short time I played I had the following: getting stuck on invisible walls in a field I just walked through, displaced text in conversation so it was difficult to read, tutorial overlays not going away, and there are parts where you get automatically sent to bed however no sound indicator states you even went to sleep so I had missed a few days due to the sequence. Really cool concept I hope the devs can figure out the bugs though, as for now I'll stick with Dinkum for my PC Animal Crossing fix. some QoL would be appreciated too, inventory in most other games is the Tab key, but on this game it's B? You cant activate things with a left mouse click which feels awkward using E while trying to move as well.
• gamedeal user

  Sep 28, 2022

  This game is not a replacement for any possibly related game you might see a resemblance to (ex. Animal Crossing, Harvest Moon/Rune Factory, Stardew, Ooblets or the like). My current recommendation is to play those games if you haven't already. If you need something new and you’re okay with a different animal crossing-like experience(one focused more on design than connections or story advancement), I think Hokko Life mostly delivers. It takes some of what those games have offered and delivers in a semi-unpolished way with a focus on creation. (The unpolished parts of this game lead to a lifeless or unfinished feeling.) For the price offered, I think that's a deal. Even more so at a discount. (I picked it up for 13$ after its post-EA release.) I recommend it if you're looking for a town design simulator with a few extra moving parts. I haven't seen all Hokko Life has to offer, but I plan to spend more time in it. I was really struggling to find a review post-early access with the information I wanted, so wrote this and I will add-on when I have more to say. I'd like to expand on why I think Hokko Life is a good experience, and also on what I feel is missing from this now complete game. I did not experience any bugs or crashes during my playtime. Why I like Hokko Life: - the biggest asset the game has is the furniture customization process, so if that isn't interesting for you then the game might fall flat; being able to share these is really great - there are settings for audio, display, and controller/keybind remapping; bonus points for separating the music and sound effects (nintendo pls take notes) - inventory stacking is great! I specifically love that bugs stack which brings me to.... - money is easy to get, bugs are quick to catch and easier to sell - the environment looks nice (though I still prefer to use reshade for additional fine-tuning) - the controls are easy to use, tried both, prefer controller for easier bug catching - the loading screens are fast, but there are a few of them between some important tasks (like selling or crafting at first) - the characters have a bit of personality to them, in design and dialogue (though the game maintains a quaint happy-go-lucky village vibe. pro/con) - Mayor Merits are diverse and provide very real buffs (ex. endless watering can, plants growing faster, shopping catalogs, SPRINTING) - the furniture customization is in-depth enough that it feels unique and fun (with multiplayer sharing) - NO TOOL DURABILITY, thank you. - Uses game time instead of real time, so you can progress at your own pace - the ability to freely move and edit housing & furniture (including neighbors) - so far at least one villager wants for something/has a task for me, which i personally enjoy - biased but fishing is a plus, i love a good fish catalog - havn't used yet but multiple save slots is always a plus - ongrid and offgrid furniture placement with full rotation is lovely! What is missing: - 1440p resolution support at least, widescreen support would be a great bonus (playing on a 3440x1440 monitor) - It locks my mouse in the window and the game freezes when not in focus. (playing in windowed mode) - there are no text display/speed options - character models feel weirdly squashed flat on the sides, most notably on the pigs (Rosa & Poa), and are stylized in ways that make them love/hate; plus their outfits not editable (can't wear your designs) - being dropped into the game without direction or controls (took me a second to figure out which building to enter and how to do so, and then how and where to 'sit' for the intro.) was jarring. - Mayor Merits are too obscure. We need to see what is being unlocked, and some of it should not need to be 'unlocked' in the first place like sprinting. (also sprinting does not need stamina, this is not a survival game) - there should be a basic set of things we learn to build immediately from Sally instead of just a planter box; a storage box should be one of them (you acquire the storage box way too late) - the current player dialogue feels... meaningless. There is no personality in the options, and never an option to refuse or postpone things. - there are currently no hairstyles that I personally think look good in game, nor does the character's face look 'right' to me (I'd love the ability to choose another face type or something.) - in standard directionless fashion for these kinds of games, there is no guidance on unlocking specific tools or buildings which is only made worse by the obscure mayor merits (I don’t want a wiki to play the game please) - not having a space or anything to really show off our ‘collections’ in game feels odd. (bugs/fish) - most of the furniture has no interactions, a tv doesn't turn on a picnic table cannot be sat at. this leaves the world feeling a bit lifeless - for the mine area, a wearable lantern should be the first available option to deal with the darkness, crafting a ton of light posts seems excessive and expensive A running list of what is NOT in the game for people coming from similar games: multiplayer of any kind, swimming/diving, cooking(?), any sort of combat or enemies, an in-depth story, friend ‘connections’/heart events or gifting, player owned businesses, a museum In honesty: I think this game is decent. From a one person studio. I'm interested in designing a town stylistically, but returning to or staying with the game long-term is probably off the table.
• gamedeal user

  Sep 28, 2022

  The game is gorgeously cute but the game feels hollow. You move to a town, for unknown reasons, and meet a bunch of very bland characters who suddenly with no real effort make you build a town. None of the characters are particularly unique. And the conversational always feels fakely nice, like a kids show. I feel no purpose in the game. I do not connect with any of it. I am just doing, because I am told to do. There are still plenty of game breaking bugs. Within the first _2_ minutes after the initial conversation I was stuck in a wall. I then had to build something, which I ended up building twice -- because the UI didn't update when I built it the first time. Then later I had to do a quest which required wood -- but there wasn't enough because of that mistake and I was not given the tools to replant. It's a shame. Because there's some great features, like building your own furniture, and the art as said is gorgeous. But I cannot recommend this game when so many good Farming Sim/Life Sim games exist. It's a definite No, not even a Maybe from me.
• mattsgal2018

  Oct 21, 2022

  Building items and resizing items is nearly impossible. Catching bugs is hard because of camera angles. Takes forever to do anything in the game. Quests are very unclear. Game is very early development and there is very little to do in it. Very displeased with the game overall. Not worth the money I spent on the game at all.
• vampirebratz

  Nov 12, 2022

  this game is nice, i got a couple hours of enjoyment out of it but eventually i just felt…bored. it feels like there should be more, the gameplay loop got dull quickly and i don’t feel very motivated to play anymore. it still feels early access. the villagers are…fine, i guess. a couple cute ones. i don’t feel interested in interacting with any of them except when i have to. i don’t feel like this game brings anything interesting to the table that other similar games haven’t already done. the only interesting aspect here is the animal villagers, but they aren’t even particularly good. Animal Crossing and Magician’s Quest/Tongari Boushi did the animal villagers better. i wish there was a neutral pick, because i feel bad saying i don’t recommend but i don’t exactly recommend it, either. it depends on what you’re looking for. you may get some hours of enjoyment out of it, maybe a TON of hours! or maybe you’ll play for 30 minutes and decide you don’t like it. could go either way. at least it isn’t too expensive, i guess.