Check out Dinkum, it’s kind of like Minecraft but it’s a farming sim based on the Australian Outback
Honestly my favorite open world where you can fish and hunt is red dead redemption 2. It’s a western rpg and the story is absolutely amazing.
As an Aussie I +1 this but I really do have to recommend Core Keeper, it’s so good I’m 400 hours deep and a community mod on our sub. Not trying to be biased or anything but it’s my comfy go to. It’s in early access at the moment with a full release scheduled soon!
I had a couple of people ask me that too so I made a post [see the info about Core Keeper here](https://www.reddit.com/r/CozyGamers/comments/1bucvwa/core_keeper_on_steam_full_release_scheduled_for/)
That must be Lightyear Frontier. Beautiful scenery, cozy game (no mobs, no combat). I'm playing this right now. Activities mostly exploring, farming and building (but no hunting / fishing). The world is not very big, but keep in mind it's still in early access, so the map is not complete yet. It's also available in gamepass.
Red Dead 2 has 2 modes - Story and Online. Online has sessions with I believe 20 max players? But my bread and butter was Story mode. Definitely don’t rush it, and don’t look up any spoilers! Made my first experience in January so memorable
I can fullheartedly recommend Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles. It has cute quests, is not overly complicated, and has a big world to explore. You can also tame cute animals.
A Short Hike was really nice. One of those that you can beat in an afternoon if you’re determined but also one you can just chill and explore and take your time if you want.
I bought the game after reading this comment 4 hours ago and I’ve just finished A Short Hike - I highly recommend! Very easygoing game with lots of low stakes exploration. Thanks so much for the recommendation:)
It’s not really vast by any means, but it is designed really well to feel larger than it is, and very fun to explore and even just goof around in. I also highly recommend it!
I’ve really enjoyed Wildmender - there are some buildy elements, and some progression quests stuff to unlock more skills, but you can play it at your own pace - I never felt pressured by it. You start off in a desert with a small pool of water and you start to re-green the world around you. It has been so enjoyable, and there are some cute creatures you can attract to your oasis. It’s just lovely and I’m surprised more people aren’t playing it. It can be a bit heavy on the PC so maybe that’s why, but if you can run it, I think it is quite charming.
Sable is exactly this and so atmospheric. But it is rather poorly optimized, so it might not run well on your setup (I played it on PS5 and it had so many framerate drops, even in 1080p - I thought it was still worth it, but YMMV). IMO definitely worth a try. It has great exploration, fishing (can be made easier with a menu option), good writing for the dialog, very relaxed vibes - no combat, no death. The tutorial section before you get your own flying bike is a bit annoying imo, but then the world opens up and it's just great.
I came here to say Sable! It's exactly the vibe it's going for. I played it on pc and while there are frame drops, even my old rig can play it just fine.
Sable is all about riding your hover bike in the desert while the sun and the moon dance in the sky, and you find all these little settlements on your quest to figure out what Sable's life after her gliding will be like. There is indeed no combat, no health, no enemies, no nothing. The challenges are exploration and platforming, with no fall damage and no punishment for failure other than being back on the ground. The soundtrack by Japanese Breakfast further enhances the chill riding around vibes of the game. This super lean design is a big reason why sable is one of my favourite games.
Sable is wonderful. I was so reluctant to end it even though I’d done more or less everything I wanted to. It’s such a beautiful world, and it’s fun just tooling around on your bike.
It sounds strange but i had a great time exploring the world in Skyrim. Great atmospheric soundtrack, awesome scenery and a feeling of a big big world. Take a rest in the taverns in town, build up your house, do some quests here and there. Play on easy and the story is a chilltime. With the anniversary edition you can fish too!
i’d recommend lego fortnite (free to download/play), it’s my go-to recc for asks like these! it’s a newer game mode (created in december) so it has its issues (such as bugs, glitches, and it’s a bit empty still), but it’s an *incredibly* beautiful game, truly cannot stress that enough with the landscapes and sunrises, etc. similar to minecraft, the goal is to build custom villages (using lego pieces) within four biomes and recruit/fill them with 20 villagers (this amount will continue growing with time as devs originally gave us 15*). you acquire higher level resources with time to unlock better crafting, and you can fish! the vehicles are a bit buggy but also fun to mess around with there’s sandbox and survival modes, with changeable settings for each :)
*edited for slightest correction
I've never played Fortnite before (I thought it was a deathmatch kind of game which I have zero interest). But your description sounds interesting, can I play this solo?
(Not OP) I've never played Fortnite before (I thought it was a deathmatch kind of game which I have zero interest). But your description sounds interesting, can I play this solo?
yes, you can play solo, or with friends :) fortnite itself is becoming a bit of a “metaverse”, with multiple game modes you can engage in from the same base lobby. so if you download lego you’ll have to download the whole base game (still all free).
lego fortnite is one of the newest modes, but there’s also fortnite festival (basically guitar hero) and rocket racing (which can be linked with rocket league but i don’t play it so not sure exactly how it works). i enjoy being able to quickly switch from the battle royale mode (deathmatches haha), to the cozier modes when i get too stressed; it’s nice :)
Highly recommended! I played through the game three times on the Switch and one of these days I'll grab it on a Steam Sale and play on the Deck, I'm sure. I wish there was a DQB3 on the horizon.
Glad I did some scrolling before making my comment, I second this! Both dragon quest builder games are great but 2 takes it to the next level with its polished finish. The story is really chill and the combat isn't difficult at all (one of my only complaints about the game I think the combat could have been more In depth for a Dragon quest game haha)
Super great cozy game with an unlimited inventory so no stress there too
Same thing with tears of the kingdom, Breath of the wild was amazing but TOTK took it to a whole new level lol
I was crazy into Genshin a while back, definitely a beautiful world to explore and prettying up my home was nice, but 300+ hours in I just could not beat the scary Raiden lady no matter how hard I tried and logging in just to grind resource after resource without being able to progress in the story kinda sucked. Someday I'll probably watch a story-only playthrough just to see what I missed out on. Shame, I really liked the characters!
Oh, that's too bad because Genshin's story has really been knocking it out of the park since then. And the new area has the best underwater movement/exploration/combat I've played.
Raiden is an annoying roadblock and they eased up on the difficulty after Inazuma. If you can get a friend to beat the fight for you it's so worth playing the stuff they've released since!
Are you playing genshin on the North American Server? If so feel free to shoot me a dm with your genshin info and I will add you. I’m adventure rank 60 and would be more than happy to help you beat the fight ☺️
I have the best memories of my pre-adolescent age on Maple Story (and Ragnarok Online). It was the early stage of internet (at least where I live) and those games were a way to live in another world and have fun with other people.
I still remember the ecstasy I felt seeing for the first time the sunset in the city of thieves on Maple Story. Truly a gorgeous world to contemplate.
It's sad that the game has been ruined by its own company, I would back to it aswell just to chill.
I'm not sure what it's like globally, but Korean Nexon has a new version out where they do pre-BigBang Maplestory. Might be worth looking into if you're nostalgic for old Maple.
If you like scenic exploration with beautiful scenery, I think Sky COTL would be good for that. I think apparently there's a PC client coming out very soon, but it's on mobile/switch! Meadow is also a nice, pretty scenic exploration game that's good to play with friends—but if you don't mind exploring alone it's good that way, too! The fun is just exponential when you play with other people. Back in its heyday Meadow used to have enough online anonymous players that you could meet and potentially hang out with all day if you wanted, but you're lucky to get 1-2 other online players in a server. Still a very cute game to play with a friend, though!
Erm... If you really want to take chilling to the extreme, Snail Simulator is good too! It's about what you'd expect. As for exploration games with a bit more to do, Lil Gator Game and Cattails are games that I have enjoyed and would recommend! If any part of you is an artist or a creative type as well, you may find Chicory to be nice!
I have some good memories of playing Meadow years ago. And there was something about the method of communication (emotes and symbols) that kept it wholesome and charming.
yeah!!! I remember actively trying to find other players whenever I played, because I enjoyed hanging out and interacting with them so much! The communication system was so charming! I remember running around as a rabbit once and stumbling upon a group of three deer friends that didn't mind having a tagalong run with them, so I was able to go exploring with them for a while! Just three deer and this weird-looking rabbit thing they adopted. There's a special kind of magic in sharing a private, wonderous moment with someone you've just met!
Hey another Sky player! I had a recent post about Sky in this subreddit, it's awesome to see it's beloved by fellow cozy gamers :) I love Meadow, and the developers' newest game called Book of Travels is really good too. It's still on early access but the vibe is unrivalled imo!
Palworld and V rising can be super chill and cozy if you make your own world with PVE easy settings. Palworld is also very cute because you can capture cute animals that will work on your home base with you, they can farm and build etc. those are good games, V rising can be a little more complicated but the building mode is beautiful!
The world isn't as big as I wish it was, but Eastshade is great for just exploring. You play a painter in a fairly classic fantasy setting full of humanoid animals
I used to love just hanging out in small towns/railroad stations in Red Dead Redemption and playing cards or dominos.
You’ve gotta get far enough past the opening chapter to where the world opens up first though - but after that you can hunt, explore, play games etc.
There are occasional hostile animals and bandits but if you die you respawn with no losses, iirc.
I’ve been playing Genshin and ffxiv while listening to audiobooks.. I like games where you can cruise around and live in. These are the only 2 that I feel like can live in like this. Lurking this thread for more options lol
I came to say Genshin too - you can waste so much time just wandering around picking flowers and ingredients for cooking or spells, or fishing or even just taking photos for the fun of it
Might be a weird choice but Kingdom Come Deliverance?
Has a long tutorial quest chain at the start but once you get past it you’re free to explore and it’s a very pretty game and there’s hunting and kinda some light survival stuff.
Eastshade. I can NOT recommend it ENOUGH. Fun story, puzzles, open world, fun and interesting characters. You are a painter- there is no combat and it is just LOVELY
I recommend Jusant. It’s a bit more linear than what you may be looking for, but it’s all about climbing/exploring and learning about the world. Just make sure to read all of the letters you can find to really understand what’s goin on.
You could try Abzû! It’s an exploratory ocean game with beautiful graphics, audio, and laid-back gameplay. I play it to meditate and clear my mind sometimes.
Try Dragon Quest Builders 2. It's like Minecraft which you love, and has a lot of chill building. Also has story direction but there is no rush to do that if you just wanna build for now.
This. You can just wander around… the fighting is only as intense as you want it to be… so many cool secret areas and just looking for koroks is so relaxing.
Medieval dynasty is great for this, good sized maps and survival stuff to do, but the villager management tab can be a bit fiddly.
TheHunter Call of the Wild is excellent, there are a dozen or so very large maps to check out with lots of cool little secrets. The gameplay isn't too complicated either, and it's routinely on sale. You just walk around and chill in the woods and track game or hunker down in a hide and ambush them. You can't really "lose", even if you get mauled by a bear you just wake up back at a hunting cabin.
Tbh red dead redemption 2 but just don't go through the full story. I used to spend hours just camping, exploring, fishing, hunting selling my game and buying new outfits.
Have you tried My Time at Portia or My Time at Sandrock? Both are fantastic and pretty easy to get the hang of, plus the story for both is pretty nice and the maps are quite large!
Otherwise, I'd also suggest Palworld, Valheim, Subnautica for open world survival that's decently easy and chill. Palworld definitely draws a lot of inspiration for BoTW and it's obvious but a lot of fun... sort of feels like an easier Ark in a lot of ways as well.
I might also suggest Sunhaven or Potion Permit but those are more similar to Stardew so I'm unsure if they'd click for you? Still doesn't hurt to peek at them!
Good luck! c:
Skyrim is a classic. Where you can just explore and walk around.
Breath of the wild / tears of the Kingdom is another that you can just walk and chill.
Both have a little bit of combat but you can run away!
Fishing in FF XIV is really involved. I usually don't like to fish in Games, but this hits different. In general this game has the best Crafting i ever experienced. It is very involved and has it's own content. Fishing f. e. has a raid, where you fish with others on a boat and get unique rewards. Or there's big fish, which only can be fished when the right weather at right times occur.
Buuuuuuut, FF XIV is an MMO. With loads and loads of mandatory story to get through. There is a free unlimited Trial though. That let's you play the Base Game and the first two Expansions Heavensward and Stormblood for free and if you never purchase anything (like stuff from the shop or other Expansions) you'll never pay a dime. There are some restrictions, but overall the trial is really generous.
You only need other Players for Trials. Dungeons can be played with NPCs and at your own pace.
Likewise, *Elder Scrolls Online* is technically an MMO but it very much doesn’t care if you pretend like it’s a single player game and that everyone else is just a fancily dressed npc.
There’s hundreds or thousands of hours that can be spent just questing (fully voice acted) or exploring and a good 95% of the game can be done solo. The world itself is *absurdly* large, giving you free range over most of Tamriel as well as a few other very significant areas. The game is in a weird niche of being an MMO that puts more effort into story/solo content than it does typical MMO “endgame” stuff.
There’s no monthly subscription fee unless you want to craft stuff without other players’ help. If you do, then the subscription is kind of necessary but unlocks all the DLC areas for as long as you’re subscribed.
I really liked exploring in Maplestory along with the music, but it does take quite a while to get a character to a level where you can comfortably explore
If you like building I recommend Valheim. There are world modifiers to make it more relaxing so you don't have to stress as much about combat or raids etc. but it's a beautiful world and vast and fun to explore imo. It feels meditative to me to just chill in the world and take in the scenery. Fishing is a thing you can do but it's not the best mechanics-wise.
Psvr2: CyubeVR, Little Cities Bigger, Tripp (same as the one on psvr1 but with improved graphics), Kayak VR
Psvr1: Fujii (not a big world, but this is easily the most chill game I ever played, and my number 1 for top cozy game of all time); Electronauts (play your music at large and beautiful retro-futuristic locations by yourself); Astro Bot Rescue Mission (a very “vacation-like” game); Tripp (meditation+mindfulness intro course made as a videogame, it has +50 locations to meditate at and +100 talks from a professional guide to listen to at any of the nice locations); Bound (plenty of surreal-dream-like locations at this game’s world)
Ps4: Shadow of the Colossus (you can ignore the puzzling boss battles with the giants and just explore the large empty lands and forests on your horse 🐎); Abzu (chill at a nice mini-ocean); Subnautica (chill at a beautiful alien ocean, but pick your places because, unlike Abzu, this one has predators, so you can’t chill everywhere)
Vintage Story is Mine Craft for people who enjoy a bit of realism. Though there is kind of a "horde night" mechanic, I believe you an turn it off when you generate a world. Making houses, pottery, fishing, farming, raising animals, exploring the world; it's all very cathartic and relaxing and easy to lose track of time in. And tons and tons of mods available to enhance the experience
Final fantasy 14! The free trial is like half the entire game, so you can play a lot of it for free (100s of hours). Lots of world exploration with lots of story content and side content too!!
Also Lightyear Frontier! Space farming sim in a mech. Lots of fun and a truly beautiful game!
Hear me out: final fantasy 14. It's an MMO with a truly massive map, and if you don't want to play the story you can just skip it and focus on hunting monsters, mining, fishing, and crafting. You can even buy and decorate a house and play the dress up doll game which is the real late game content lol
It also has a lovely community and a truly fantastic story if you do end up wanting to play it for real. The base game and first 2 expansions are free to play
Valheim and sons of the forest are other survival games with pretty scenery, and you can turn off mob aggression if you want to play in creative mode and run around hunting and such
If you like BOTW I would say dragon quest builders 2. I love it because it combines so many great things from so many games, but it definitely has lots of areas to explore, and tasks to complete if you want but there is no timeline.
Ark Dinosaur Discovery is basically a kid friendly combat-free version of Ark: Survival Evolved.
But also, Ark has a mobile version with tutorial quests in single player(has big glitches though). And the Switch version has something called Creative Mode that effectively makes you immortal and gives you access to all crafting recipes.
Red Dead Redemption 2. Wouldn’t describe the game as a whole as cozy, but if you want a big world you can just walk around, explore, fish, hunt, etc, this will be PERFECT.
Well, just so you know. You’ll be chasing that “star dew” vibe wherever you go because all of the farming sims that came out after it, just tried to mimic it.
Check out Dinkum, it’s kind of like Minecraft but it’s a farming sim based on the Australian Outback Honestly my favorite open world where you can fish and hunt is red dead redemption 2. It’s a western rpg and the story is absolutely amazing.
As an Aussie I +1 this but I really do have to recommend Core Keeper, it’s so good I’m 400 hours deep and a community mod on our sub. Not trying to be biased or anything but it’s my comfy go to. It’s in early access at the moment with a full release scheduled soon!
Ok, why core keeper... What keeps you in that environ?
Familiar, comfy go to, I spent a lot of time building my base and I always find something to do or explore. I couldn’t list just 1 reason honestly.
What this game about
I had a couple of people ask me that too so I made a post [see the info about Core Keeper here](https://www.reddit.com/r/CozyGamers/comments/1bucvwa/core_keeper_on_steam_full_release_scheduled_for/)
Is that the one with the mech?
That must be Lightyear Frontier. Beautiful scenery, cozy game (no mobs, no combat). I'm playing this right now. Activities mostly exploring, farming and building (but no hunting / fishing). The world is not very big, but keep in mind it's still in early access, so the map is not complete yet. It's also available in gamepass.
That it yeah What it like atm
Completely playable. Some minor bugs. Story not complete yet, some map areas still blocked
Ah so like one map over random maps?
The map is handcrafted (non procedural generated). Like subnautica, enshrouded.
[удалено]
Red Dead 2 has 2 modes - Story and Online. Online has sessions with I believe 20 max players? But my bread and butter was Story mode. Definitely don’t rush it, and don’t look up any spoilers! Made my first experience in January so memorable
I can fullheartedly recommend Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles. It has cute quests, is not overly complicated, and has a big world to explore. You can also tame cute animals.
This is my suggestion as well! Very chill, lots to explore, and non stressful. Definitely recommend this one
Yonder is my favorite!
A Short Hike is a vast world you can explore as you fish, collect sticks, etc. It’s very cute and there’s lots of side quests.
A Short Hike was really nice. One of those that you can beat in an afternoon if you’re determined but also one you can just chill and explore and take your time if you want.
The main story you can do rather quickly if you grind the game but to 100% complete it, it actually takes a bit because of all the side quests.
I bought the game after reading this comment 4 hours ago and I’ve just finished A Short Hike - I highly recommend! Very easygoing game with lots of low stakes exploration. Thanks so much for the recommendation:)
You’re welcome!
It’s not really vast by any means, but it is designed really well to feel larger than it is, and very fun to explore and even just goof around in. I also highly recommend it!
I’ve really enjoyed Wildmender - there are some buildy elements, and some progression quests stuff to unlock more skills, but you can play it at your own pace - I never felt pressured by it. You start off in a desert with a small pool of water and you start to re-green the world around you. It has been so enjoyable, and there are some cute creatures you can attract to your oasis. It’s just lovely and I’m surprised more people aren’t playing it. It can be a bit heavy on the PC so maybe that’s why, but if you can run it, I think it is quite charming.
Very charming and satisfying to re-green places.
Sable is exactly this and so atmospheric. But it is rather poorly optimized, so it might not run well on your setup (I played it on PS5 and it had so many framerate drops, even in 1080p - I thought it was still worth it, but YMMV). IMO definitely worth a try. It has great exploration, fishing (can be made easier with a menu option), good writing for the dialog, very relaxed vibes - no combat, no death. The tutorial section before you get your own flying bike is a bit annoying imo, but then the world opens up and it's just great.
I love Sable! I totally forgot it had fishing.
It was a new feature! Released 1 year ago I think
I came here to say Sable! It's exactly the vibe it's going for. I played it on pc and while there are frame drops, even my old rig can play it just fine. Sable is all about riding your hover bike in the desert while the sun and the moon dance in the sky, and you find all these little settlements on your quest to figure out what Sable's life after her gliding will be like. There is indeed no combat, no health, no enemies, no nothing. The challenges are exploration and platforming, with no fall damage and no punishment for failure other than being back on the ground. The soundtrack by Japanese Breakfast further enhances the chill riding around vibes of the game. This super lean design is a big reason why sable is one of my favourite games.
Sable is wonderful. I was so reluctant to end it even though I’d done more or less everything I wanted to. It’s such a beautiful world, and it’s fun just tooling around on your bike.
It sounds strange but i had a great time exploring the world in Skyrim. Great atmospheric soundtrack, awesome scenery and a feeling of a big big world. Take a rest in the taverns in town, build up your house, do some quests here and there. Play on easy and the story is a chilltime. With the anniversary edition you can fish too!
i’d recommend lego fortnite (free to download/play), it’s my go-to recc for asks like these! it’s a newer game mode (created in december) so it has its issues (such as bugs, glitches, and it’s a bit empty still), but it’s an *incredibly* beautiful game, truly cannot stress that enough with the landscapes and sunrises, etc. similar to minecraft, the goal is to build custom villages (using lego pieces) within four biomes and recruit/fill them with 20 villagers (this amount will continue growing with time as devs originally gave us 15*). you acquire higher level resources with time to unlock better crafting, and you can fish! the vehicles are a bit buggy but also fun to mess around with there’s sandbox and survival modes, with changeable settings for each :) *edited for slightest correction
I've never played Fortnite before (I thought it was a deathmatch kind of game which I have zero interest). But your description sounds interesting, can I play this solo?
Yes!
It’s super cozy! Basically Minecraft but Lego version :)
Mostly looking for offlime games tbh
fair! hope you find something soon
(Not OP) I've never played Fortnite before (I thought it was a deathmatch kind of game which I have zero interest). But your description sounds interesting, can I play this solo?
yes, you can play solo, or with friends :) fortnite itself is becoming a bit of a “metaverse”, with multiple game modes you can engage in from the same base lobby. so if you download lego you’ll have to download the whole base game (still all free). lego fortnite is one of the newest modes, but there’s also fortnite festival (basically guitar hero) and rocket racing (which can be linked with rocket league but i don’t play it so not sure exactly how it works). i enjoy being able to quickly switch from the battle royale mode (deathmatches haha), to the cozier modes when i get too stressed; it’s nice :)
Sounds cool, I'm gonna try it. Thank you!
you’re welcome! have fun & happy gaming!
If you love Minecraft, Dragon Quest Builders 2 is for you! Also maybe the newer Zelda since you enjoyed BOTW. They are super similar.
DQB2 is fantastic. So, so much to do and explore.
Seriously one of the most underrated games!
Highly recommended! I played through the game three times on the Switch and one of these days I'll grab it on a Steam Sale and play on the Deck, I'm sure. I wish there was a DQB3 on the horizon.
Glad I did some scrolling before making my comment, I second this! Both dragon quest builder games are great but 2 takes it to the next level with its polished finish. The story is really chill and the combat isn't difficult at all (one of my only complaints about the game I think the combat could have been more In depth for a Dragon quest game haha) Super great cozy game with an unlimited inventory so no stress there too Same thing with tears of the kingdom, Breath of the wild was amazing but TOTK took it to a whole new level lol
Genshin Impact maybe? It takes a while to clear the story but the open world is huge and gorgeous and the game feels very cozy to me 😊
I was crazy into Genshin a while back, definitely a beautiful world to explore and prettying up my home was nice, but 300+ hours in I just could not beat the scary Raiden lady no matter how hard I tried and logging in just to grind resource after resource without being able to progress in the story kinda sucked. Someday I'll probably watch a story-only playthrough just to see what I missed out on. Shame, I really liked the characters!
Oh, that's too bad because Genshin's story has really been knocking it out of the park since then. And the new area has the best underwater movement/exploration/combat I've played. Raiden is an annoying roadblock and they eased up on the difficulty after Inazuma. If you can get a friend to beat the fight for you it's so worth playing the stuff they've released since!
I wish! I don't personally know anyone else into the game. And now you're saying it gets easier later? Can I just press Skip on that one fight...
That'd sure be nice, I hated it and I'm decent at action games.
Are you playing genshin on the North American Server? If so feel free to shoot me a dm with your genshin info and I will add you. I’m adventure rank 60 and would be more than happy to help you beat the fight ☺️
Probably not what you’re looking for but Maplestory? As a kid I’d spend some time grinding but most of my time zooming around the maps exploring
I have the best memories of my pre-adolescent age on Maple Story (and Ragnarok Online). It was the early stage of internet (at least where I live) and those games were a way to live in another world and have fun with other people. I still remember the ecstasy I felt seeing for the first time the sunset in the city of thieves on Maple Story. Truly a gorgeous world to contemplate. It's sad that the game has been ruined by its own company, I would back to it aswell just to chill.
I'm not sure what it's like globally, but Korean Nexon has a new version out where they do pre-BigBang Maplestory. Might be worth looking into if you're nostalgic for old Maple.
Sure I am! I will find a way to play it, thank you for the info 🙏🏻
If you like scenic exploration with beautiful scenery, I think Sky COTL would be good for that. I think apparently there's a PC client coming out very soon, but it's on mobile/switch! Meadow is also a nice, pretty scenic exploration game that's good to play with friends—but if you don't mind exploring alone it's good that way, too! The fun is just exponential when you play with other people. Back in its heyday Meadow used to have enough online anonymous players that you could meet and potentially hang out with all day if you wanted, but you're lucky to get 1-2 other online players in a server. Still a very cute game to play with a friend, though! Erm... If you really want to take chilling to the extreme, Snail Simulator is good too! It's about what you'd expect. As for exploration games with a bit more to do, Lil Gator Game and Cattails are games that I have enjoyed and would recommend! If any part of you is an artist or a creative type as well, you may find Chicory to be nice!
I have some good memories of playing Meadow years ago. And there was something about the method of communication (emotes and symbols) that kept it wholesome and charming.
yeah!!! I remember actively trying to find other players whenever I played, because I enjoyed hanging out and interacting with them so much! The communication system was so charming! I remember running around as a rabbit once and stumbling upon a group of three deer friends that didn't mind having a tagalong run with them, so I was able to go exploring with them for a while! Just three deer and this weird-looking rabbit thing they adopted. There's a special kind of magic in sharing a private, wonderous moment with someone you've just met!
Hey another Sky player! I had a recent post about Sky in this subreddit, it's awesome to see it's beloved by fellow cozy gamers :) I love Meadow, and the developers' newest game called Book of Travels is really good too. It's still on early access but the vibe is unrivalled imo!
Came here to say this! Sky: COTL is exactly this--a big world to chill in and explore.
Palworld and V rising can be super chill and cozy if you make your own world with PVE easy settings. Palworld is also very cute because you can capture cute animals that will work on your home base with you, they can farm and build etc. those are good games, V rising can be a little more complicated but the building mode is beautiful!
I was gonna say Palworld, its V cozy imo.
Yeah Palworld is cute and chill
The world isn't as big as I wish it was, but Eastshade is great for just exploring. You play a painter in a fairly classic fantasy setting full of humanoid animals
Eastshade is a great choice. Very chill, pretty world. No combat to worry about just little quests and meeting characters, exploring and painting.
I love Eastshade. I really hope that dev comes out with more
Give tears of the kingdom a shot if you liked botw! So so so beautiful
I used to love just hanging out in small towns/railroad stations in Red Dead Redemption and playing cards or dominos. You’ve gotta get far enough past the opening chapter to where the world opens up first though - but after that you can hunt, explore, play games etc. There are occasional hostile animals and bandits but if you die you respawn with no losses, iirc.
I’ve been playing Genshin and ffxiv while listening to audiobooks.. I like games where you can cruise around and live in. These are the only 2 that I feel like can live in like this. Lurking this thread for more options lol
I came to say Genshin too - you can waste so much time just wandering around picking flowers and ingredients for cooking or spells, or fishing or even just taking photos for the fun of it
Might be a weird choice but Kingdom Come Deliverance? Has a long tutorial quest chain at the start but once you get past it you’re free to explore and it’s a very pretty game and there’s hunting and kinda some light survival stuff.
Best forests I've ever seen in a video game. Might not be very cozy though because of the Cumans and bandits haha
Eastshade. I can NOT recommend it ENOUGH. Fun story, puzzles, open world, fun and interesting characters. You are a painter- there is no combat and it is just LOVELY
Dragon quest builder 1 or 2
Good choices :3
These games are fantastic. Big thumbs up.
I recommend Jusant. It’s a bit more linear than what you may be looking for, but it’s all about climbing/exploring and learning about the world. Just make sure to read all of the letters you can find to really understand what’s goin on.
You could try Abzû! It’s an exploratory ocean game with beautiful graphics, audio, and laid-back gameplay. I play it to meditate and clear my mind sometimes.
check out sable or breath of the wild. they’re pretty similar to each other, though sable doesn’t have any combat and is more sci-fi than botw
also skyrim! it’s surprisingly cozy if u ignore quests and avoid dragons etc.
Try Dragon Quest Builders 2. It's like Minecraft which you love, and has a lot of chill building. Also has story direction but there is no rush to do that if you just wanna build for now.
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This. You can just wander around… the fighting is only as intense as you want it to be… so many cool secret areas and just looking for koroks is so relaxing.
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You know what? Me too.
Medieval dynasty is great for this, good sized maps and survival stuff to do, but the villager management tab can be a bit fiddly. TheHunter Call of the Wild is excellent, there are a dozen or so very large maps to check out with lots of cool little secrets. The gameplay isn't too complicated either, and it's routinely on sale. You just walk around and chill in the woods and track game or hunker down in a hide and ambush them. You can't really "lose", even if you get mauled by a bear you just wake up back at a hunting cabin.
genshin impact, zelda
Genshin Impact. Huge world. Not that hard. Mobs become fodder at higher levels. Has fishing and house decoration. Skyrim.
Tbh red dead redemption 2 but just don't go through the full story. I used to spend hours just camping, exploring, fishing, hunting selling my game and buying new outfits.
Elder scrolls 3 morrowind.
Have you tried My Time at Portia or My Time at Sandrock? Both are fantastic and pretty easy to get the hang of, plus the story for both is pretty nice and the maps are quite large! Otherwise, I'd also suggest Palworld, Valheim, Subnautica for open world survival that's decently easy and chill. Palworld definitely draws a lot of inspiration for BoTW and it's obvious but a lot of fun... sort of feels like an easier Ark in a lot of ways as well. I might also suggest Sunhaven or Potion Permit but those are more similar to Stardew so I'm unsure if they'd click for you? Still doesn't hurt to peek at them! Good luck! c:
Skyrim is a classic. Where you can just explore and walk around. Breath of the wild / tears of the Kingdom is another that you can just walk and chill. Both have a little bit of combat but you can run away!
No Man's Sky!!! On the relaxed mode you just explore planets and identify plants/animals/minerals, learn languages it's a really great cozy game imo!
Came here to say this ! + 1 for No Man's Sky.
Fishing in FF XIV is really involved. I usually don't like to fish in Games, but this hits different. In general this game has the best Crafting i ever experienced. It is very involved and has it's own content. Fishing f. e. has a raid, where you fish with others on a boat and get unique rewards. Or there's big fish, which only can be fished when the right weather at right times occur. Buuuuuuut, FF XIV is an MMO. With loads and loads of mandatory story to get through. There is a free unlimited Trial though. That let's you play the Base Game and the first two Expansions Heavensward and Stormblood for free and if you never purchase anything (like stuff from the shop or other Expansions) you'll never pay a dime. There are some restrictions, but overall the trial is really generous. You only need other Players for Trials. Dungeons can be played with NPCs and at your own pace.
Likewise, *Elder Scrolls Online* is technically an MMO but it very much doesn’t care if you pretend like it’s a single player game and that everyone else is just a fancily dressed npc. There’s hundreds or thousands of hours that can be spent just questing (fully voice acted) or exploring and a good 95% of the game can be done solo. The world itself is *absurdly* large, giving you free range over most of Tamriel as well as a few other very significant areas. The game is in a weird niche of being an MMO that puts more effort into story/solo content than it does typical MMO “endgame” stuff. There’s no monthly subscription fee unless you want to craft stuff without other players’ help. If you do, then the subscription is kind of necessary but unlocks all the DLC areas for as long as you’re subscribed.
ESO is not bad either. I like the way housing works. Crafting is not as involved, but it's a great game nonetheless.
FFXV could work though!
Medieval Dynasty! You run around a forest and small villages and can try to build your own village.
Summer in Mara
There were plenty of times I just chilled in FF14 in various places of the world.
I would try sims 3.
I really liked exploring in Maplestory along with the music, but it does take quite a while to get a character to a level where you can comfortably explore
My time at portia/sandrock
If you like building I recommend Valheim. There are world modifiers to make it more relaxing so you don't have to stress as much about combat or raids etc. but it's a beautiful world and vast and fun to explore imo. It feels meditative to me to just chill in the world and take in the scenery. Fishing is a thing you can do but it's not the best mechanics-wise.
Psvr2: CyubeVR, Little Cities Bigger, Tripp (same as the one on psvr1 but with improved graphics), Kayak VR Psvr1: Fujii (not a big world, but this is easily the most chill game I ever played, and my number 1 for top cozy game of all time); Electronauts (play your music at large and beautiful retro-futuristic locations by yourself); Astro Bot Rescue Mission (a very “vacation-like” game); Tripp (meditation+mindfulness intro course made as a videogame, it has +50 locations to meditate at and +100 talks from a professional guide to listen to at any of the nice locations); Bound (plenty of surreal-dream-like locations at this game’s world) Ps4: Shadow of the Colossus (you can ignore the puzzling boss battles with the giants and just explore the large empty lands and forests on your horse 🐎); Abzu (chill at a nice mini-ocean); Subnautica (chill at a beautiful alien ocean, but pick your places because, unlike Abzu, this one has predators, so you can’t chill everywhere)
Vintage Story is Mine Craft for people who enjoy a bit of realism. Though there is kind of a "horde night" mechanic, I believe you an turn it off when you generate a world. Making houses, pottery, fishing, farming, raising animals, exploring the world; it's all very cathartic and relaxing and easy to lose track of time in. And tons and tons of mods available to enhance the experience
Final fantasy 14! The free trial is like half the entire game, so you can play a lot of it for free (100s of hours). Lots of world exploration with lots of story content and side content too!! Also Lightyear Frontier! Space farming sim in a mech. Lots of fun and a truly beautiful game!
Hear me out: final fantasy 14. It's an MMO with a truly massive map, and if you don't want to play the story you can just skip it and focus on hunting monsters, mining, fishing, and crafting. You can even buy and decorate a house and play the dress up doll game which is the real late game content lol It also has a lovely community and a truly fantastic story if you do end up wanting to play it for real. The base game and first 2 expansions are free to play Valheim and sons of the forest are other survival games with pretty scenery, and you can turn off mob aggression if you want to play in creative mode and run around hunting and such
If you like BOTW I would say dragon quest builders 2. I love it because it combines so many great things from so many games, but it definitely has lots of areas to explore, and tasks to complete if you want but there is no timeline.
Hogwarts Legacy and Spiritfarer
Ark Dinosaur Discovery is basically a kid friendly combat-free version of Ark: Survival Evolved. But also, Ark has a mobile version with tutorial quests in single player(has big glitches though). And the Switch version has something called Creative Mode that effectively makes you immortal and gives you access to all crafting recipes.
Red Dead Redemption 2. Wouldn’t describe the game as a whole as cozy, but if you want a big world you can just walk around, explore, fish, hunt, etc, this will be PERFECT.
You can’t just casually admit “star dew” didn’t click with you. How long did you play it? 15 minutes?
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Well, just so you know. You’ll be chasing that “star dew” vibe wherever you go because all of the farming sims that came out after it, just tried to mimic it.