Sugardew Island Review – Too Cozy for Comfort

Sugardew Island on PC

Farming sims have become the quintessential cozy game pastime, and with so many on the market it can be hard to find a new gameplay angle to attract players and encourage them to pick up a hoe. Similar to games like the Harvest Moon franchise, they aim to provide a stress-free environment where you can unwind and become immersed in the simple joys of rural life.

From developer, rokaplay, Sugardew Island tasks you with harvesting crops and tending to livestock, but the new twist is you’ll also need to open your Farm Shop each day to receive Sugardew (the in-game currency) and Harmony – which is needed to repair the mystical Harmony Tree.

Central to the game’s main objective and narrative, the Harmony Tree was threatened by humans and protected by a magical Hare. Through the Hare, tasks are given to heal the tree and bring nature back to the island. While the story is sweet and the human vs. nature message is clear, it isn’t particularly new. It feels very reminiscent of Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility with its dying tree and elementally themed Harvest Sprites. While nostalgia can be comforting (especially in a game where relaxation is key), the repetition of story elements from past cozy games could fail to capture and hold the interest of some players.

Mirroring the aforementioned Harvest Moon, there are four Nature Spirits in Sugaredew Island who you must befriend by fulfilling their requests. The introduction of these spirits felt like a moment where the game would branch out into an engaging side story, but if anything it only adds to the daily grind for very little payout, which ends in a possible romance with your chosen spirit should your friendship be high enough.

While the spirits themselves have distinctive personalities, they don’t add much to the world and it’s a shame that they only stand around, waiting for you to fulfill a few requests so that minimal new dialog is unlocked. It would have been nice to have had more from them.

The visual element of Sugardew Island is vibrant and colorful, with animals and characters that complement the art style and a soundtrack that enhances the relaxing, quiet atmosphere. While the graphics may be cartoonish for some, it’s reminiscent of older farming sims that have drawn players of all ages for many years.

As for the world around you, the island is laid out nicely and each little area is easily accessible. The section with the Harmony Tree is very pretty but, again, lacking in substance or any hidden items to interact with. The Farm Shop is where the island’s inhabitants gather to buy your produce, however, other than seeing them pottering around the shop, the Forest Folk are elusive. There is nowhere to talk with them or learn any more about the area around the farm. It’s a shame, as this absence makes the world feel overly empty. 

A nice, welcomed mechanic is the ability to upgrade your tools yourself and build items to help you tend to your livestock. There’s no need to wait on other townsfolk and their schedules – you make these improvements when you want to. If this were Stardew Valley, Clint and Robin would be out of a job.

As you heal the Harmony Tree and unlock the different animal-oriented sections of the island, you also unlock different crops, tool upgrades, and eventually livestock such as cows, goats, and chickens. Tending to your animals is much the same as other farming sims – you visit and care for them every day to collect produce to sell. Cows need milking and chicken eggs need collecting, but there are buildable gadgets to help with these tasks.

The Farm Shop makes for a more engaging way to earn money from your agricultural efforts, but it’s also very tedious. You can’t move from the checkout once the shop is open, and when all the products are sold, the shop automatically closes, changing the time of day to night. Haggling and negotiating with customers has the potential to be a refreshing gameplay mechanic, but despite high hopes, it’s a little bland. The negotiating is random and the dialogue is repetitive, but it still has promise. It would be nice, for example, to have more in-depth response options to customer queries or ways of sussing out the best argument for convincing them to buy three carrots instead of two. Instead, you’re just given the options to recommend, advise, or discount.

The developers have put effort into ensuring a day on Sugardew Island feels relaxing and stress-free. There’s no in-game clock or calendar, which means that other than your energy, you can perform as many or as few tasks as you like without running out of time. While not having to worry about pausing the game takes a lot of the stress away, and being able to go at your own pace is truly the epitome of cozy, it did feel as though the days dragged on without any objective other than the main one of healing the tree.

This lack of variety in tasks doesn’t change as the game progresses, and although Sugardew Island has some potential in its more unique mechanics, the execution and gameplay are too basic to be engaging for long. However, the visuals are pretty and the game’s core concept provides a promising canvas if updates come in the future.

Sugardew Island

Sugardew Island is a cozy game with a twist, but unfortunately its unique selling point doesn't quite deliver. All the elements are there for an engaging addition to the farming simulation family, but until the gameplay becomes more varied it won’t live up to its predecessors.

Pros

• The Farm Shop is a more engaging way to sell produce
• Ability to upgrade farm items yourself
• Attractive graphics

Cons

• Repetitive gameplay
• Lack of originality
• Underutilized game mechanics

A copy of this game was provided by the publisher for review. Reviewed on PC.