Hokko Life Reviews
A bland alternative to a genre-defining game millions of people are very familiar with.
Despite deriving a lot of its influences from games like Animal Crossing, especially with its island life and anthropomorphic animal inhabitants, Hokko Life severely lacks in personality and unique identity. For a game that promises a relaxing experience, you spend more time walking around trying to find something to do rather than sitting back and enjoying the game's gentle progression. There are a few redeemable factors through customisation and its sound design, but outside of that, Hokko Life doesn't offer anything we haven't seen before.
It may take time getting to show it, but Hokko Life is a delightfully deep and engaging community sim that lets you move at your own pace. Patience is very much required to see the best of it.
If players are looking for a sandbox game where they plan to solely focus on building, Hokko Life may be the answer. The customizable crafting elements of the game are strong, and players can even share their designs with other players online in the game's city center. However, if players are looking for a new life simulation experience, Hokko Life will likely not provide the depth or addicting fun they're looking for.
Hokko Life arrives on Nintendo Switch in an unacceptable technical state, so much so that any possibility of feeling sympathy for the dishes inhabitants of Hokko and for their events fades regardless.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Hokko Life is a well-developed cozy life sim that feels familiar enough to settle right into but has plenty of unique mechanics and creative freedom to keep even seasoned life sim players entertained for many hours of gameplay.
Overall, Hokko Life is a bland shell that wants to ride the coattails of Animal Crossing without doing anything to stand out or be unique. The game could be more polished, with lag and weird choices in camera zooms, though not outright terrible enough to get mad at. While the visuals don't look bad, the music is forgettable. An average game at best, its $19.99 launch price means I can't really recommend it.
Hokko Life is a cosy, creativity filled community sim game.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Hokko Life is a farming/life sim that tries to make a name for itself but fails to stand out in a genre of more compelling titles.
Hokko Life is another good entry in the farming/life sim genre but one that needs a bit more care put into it to be great. It borrows a lot from Animal Crossing but doesn’t do most of it near as well whether that be the drive to want to keep playing it or the personalities of the villagers. Customization is this game’s strong suit so if that’s what you really enjoy about these types of games you’ll likely really enjoy this.
Although it takes advantage of common mechanics and an almost protocol progression system, which can displease those looking for something different from what we've seen before, Hokko Life, without any shame in its references and inspirations, really stands out for its creation system and customization of items and mainly for the enchantment of its light and childish proposal.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
While playing, I realised that Hokko Life is trying too hard to be other games that it never really has the opportunity to grow into its own thing. It doesn’t shine on its own. The devs tried. They really did. Hokko Life is an obvious labour of love. But there is a certain je ne sais quoi lacking… charm, maybe? I’ve played a lot of life sims that made me excited to return, but this one didn’t. I know that a game’s not really hooking me when I’ve got to talk myself into playing it for hours just so I can get my review done in time.
Hokko Life is a fun slice of life game that is worth a look for anyone wanting something more relaxed. The seemingly endless amount of things to see and do coupled with a charming aesthetic creates a stress-free and rewarding time, but does little to make itself stand out from similar titles.
Hokko Life takes the Animal Crossing formula and builds on it with additional gameplay elements and an innovative in-game clock. Its gameplay is addictive and there's a lot of fun to be had, especially if you enjoy crafting. So, if you're looking for a rewarding alternative to the Nintendo classic albeit with more to do on any given day then you should definitely pick it up.
Hokko Life is usually a game that I would dismiss immediately, as when I look at titles like this normally, they don’t really cater to my gaming preferences. But I really enjoyed it much more than I thought I would. I was slightly concerned at the beginning about whether there would be enough content to remain interested, as the first few hours doesn’t really have a lot of discovering or exploration involved.
Hokko Life is a worthwhile experience for fans of Animal Crossing or Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons, just do not expect any online connectivity in the near future.
So, where to begin with Hokko Life? Let’s start with the similarities to a well known game from Nintendo: Animal Crossing. Both games have resource management, building a community from scratch and crafting various tools to assist in your endeavours. See, everything about Hokko Life screams Animal Crossing, right down to the beginning of the game, where we see our young villager taking a short train ride to a quiet run-down village in the middle of nowhere.
Hokko Life fits the bill for a simple, yet charming experience. For seasoned players, be mindful there is a slow burn to start and may be more suited to those who are newer to the genre. Whilst some mechanics are not intuitive for console play, Hokko Life on console still captures the creativity and calmness of the farming sim genre.
Hokko Life doesn’t deny where it found its origins, mainly in being inspired by Animal Crossing. Being a small development studio Wonderscope clearly shows this for the passion project it is, and one that the fans of the genre will love. As I couldn’t help but compare, some niggles do pop up and I found that the game is awfully slow in really getting interesting. Once Hokko Life gets underway it gets interesting, and there are some things in Hokko Life that go quite a bit deeper than you would expect. Custom designing is really hands-on. I found it a bit fiddly on the Switch, but I saw projects up on Steam that really inspired me. It’s fun to see how they re-invented bits of the well-known gameplay, and I think this could be a real-time sink!