After playing OMUT in a hotel suite off-site from PAX, one could say that I was tense. That game’s oppressive palette, brutal difficulty, and grim, folkloric inspirations all combined to leave me — while excited — also a bit exhausted. And this was at the tail end of the first, and busiest, day of PAX West. Between flying in, waiting in lines, navigating a new place, and trying to make it around the overcrowded Seattle Convention Center, I needed something relaxing.
That “something relaxing” couldn’t have come in a better shape than Megabit’s other game they showed me there: Lou’s Lagoon.
One could say I’m fairly well-acquainted with cozy, exploration-focused games. Last year’s Tchia is one of my highest reviewed games, A Hat in Time is one of my most played games on Steam, and I recently reviewed (though didn’t much like) Creatures of Ava. I grew up playing everything from Animal Crossing to Banjoo-Kazooie (which is cozy; I will die on that hill). That’s just the shortlist, but rest assured, I know “cozy” when I see it. And, as I sat down with Kemal Amet and Robert Koch from Tiny Roar (the developer of the game), I could tell that...
