Team17 invited us to work with Hokko Life ahead of its June 2 Early Access launch and get a taste of life in a village of incredibly adorable animals. Naturally, comparisons to Animal Crossing are inevitable, and while not without merit, it would be doing Hokko Life a disservice to pass it off as an Animal Crossing clone. That said, you might want to wait a bit before starting your new comfortable life.
Hokko Life begins by putting you to sleep. It's a pretty normal occurrence, except this time it happens on a train, and you wake up to a strange new town full of talking animals. Although that might not be too strange since you seem to take everything with ease.
Anyway, now arrived and needing a place to lay your head, you argue with the local pink elephant innkeeper who lets you stay the night, then indefinitely – on one condition. The town has seen better days, and Moss, the local shopkeeper and giraffe, thinks you might be able to fix that with your fresh, out-of-town ideas.
One of the big draws of Hokko Life is the decoration. You can decorate almost anything, anywhere, by placing it at unique angles, giving it a fresh coat of paint, or whatever else you see fit.
This also applies to neighbors' houses, which you can invade and redecorate at will. It's a welcome feature after seeing the Animal Crossing neighbors crossdressing created with their homes, though the creatures in Hokko Life seem to have a better sense of design overall.
They also have if not more heart, another type of heart. Animal Crossing's writing is superb, but you know what to expect from the broad personality categories the series itself has helped create.
Hokko Life might also fall into these categories later on. For now, however, townspeople are a refreshing mix of larger archetypes and personal characteristics that make them easy to understand. It's as if the Stardew Valley characters were animals.
Mei, the patchwork elephant, isn't shy, for example, but she gets overwhelmed by crowds and sometimes finds the books easier. Moss, thankfully, isn't a conscious Tom Nook impersonation, but a generous pillar of the community who genuinely wants to help everyone. He's also adorable, but Hokko Life won't let me hug him.
Your daily activities vary depending on what you want to do. Once you finally have a home, you can scavenge for cash and materials to buy tons of furniture and customization parts from Moss' store, or you can help the townspeople, go fishing, or explore.
It's here that the similarities to Hokko Life's Animal Crossing are most apparent, although the structure is closer to a farm simulation game. Time flies faster, and you'll see new seasons soon after settling into the village.
If you've spent hundreds of hours in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, this all might feel a little too familiar, especially early on when access to items and blueprints is limited. However, the visual style and core of Hokko Life makes it distinct enough to stand as a separate entity.
That said, it might be worth the wait to upgrade to Early Access. The opening stages are still a bit tricky, especially with how you progress. An early Moss request took several in-game days to complete while I waited for the flowers to grow, days when there was nothing else to do. The villagers are sometimes excessive in their demands too; for example, Mei wanted six monarch butterflies when I couldn't even find one.
Waiting for the real estate agent to build his office so I can get a house, access new plans, earn money – it all takes so much time. I'm not concerned about this for the final product as it's even pre-advance access, but it does mean that I spent more time skipping while sleeping than I would have liked.
Either way, Hokko Life is charming and full of potential, and I can't wait to see how it grows alongside the village itself during Early Access. Hokko Life will be released in Steam Early Access on June 2.
