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Many of us fall prey to the charms of a cozy game that offers a getaway to a peaceful island or a farm with plenty of new friends to meet. Such is the case of Hello Kitty Island Adventure, but it trades the young adult NPCs for colorful Sanrio characters. The life simulators are great for encouraging peace and calm, although this game has a more adventurous side for those who crave more meaningful challenges. After a great day of fun cooking with Hello Kitty or shopping at My Melody’s store, you can brave a dungeon or compete in a race. Indeed, it’s a breath of fresh air for the cozy genre we’re used to.
Hello Kitty Island Adventure combines the gameplay of Animal Crossing: New Horizons, like upgrading your island, improving your friendship with your neighbors, and discovering new activities. Yet, the exploration reminded me of a simplified version of Breath of the Wild or Genshin Impact, allowing players to climb, solve puzzles, and open treasures in the different biomes. What surprised me the most was how Hello Kitty Island Adventure is much more complex than it seems for a casual cozy game.
An Unexpected Landing
Initially, I thought the story would be the same as Animal Crossing: New Horizons: traveling to a deserted island with cute and colorful companions, but with Sanrio characters as Villagers. Yet, the story prologue had a fun and unexpected twist. Because of Hello Kitty, we had a forced landing. The malfunction of her oven had us all jump out of the plane with balloons as parachutes, during which most characters got lost across the island.
You’d think the main quest would be to escape the island, but the real goal is way more carefree. Instead, your primary goal is to explore the depths of the sea or the top of an active volcano, all to give gifts to your new friends. Fortunately, everyone is safe and sound after getting stranded, so the focus isn’t on rescuing but on building friendships with everyone by giving them gifts. As you advance on your adventure, you will discover strange creatures and characters who mysteriously appear. You will also realize that the island was waiting for you. So, we must also unravel the mystery of the invitations and get past the strange mechanics that divide different biomes of the map.
However, the fact that there is a hologram-robot character on the mysterious island who happens to have amnesia is not so logical, but at least there is somewhat of a main story. We get to the island, make friends, and that’s it. That said, the plot could have used more fleshing out, but at least you have something a central plot to follow among other activities.
Close-Knit Friendships
You will start your adventure with My Melody, Hello Kitty, Badtz-maru, Pochacco, Chococat, and Tuxedosam. They are in charge of the central hub’s buildings, such as the cafe, gift store, and clothing store, to name a few. Each character has a unique quirk and a specific activity they’re good for. For instance, if you need to investigate an area or build something, Chococat will be your best ally. If you want to learn new recipes, you better go with Hello Kitty. Pochacco is in charge of Gudetama’s quests or sports-related missions like Ziplines. My Melody is like the friendship ambassador, and she will make sure you don’t forget to give gifts to everyone, although this seems more like a sales strategy for her gift store.
Each character and their tastes are unique. Since the main goal in the game is to improve your friendships with everyone, you can do this with gifts. This reminded me of Animal Crossing, with the exception of characters lacking a personality category like Peppy or Jock. Here, they are all different. You will have to find out what every one of your friends likes. For example, Hello Kitty prefers desserts and sweet things, while Pompompurin prefers dairy products or things related to ice cream. Knowing your neighbors’ tastes is vital to improve your friendship with them. Many quests and rewards are blocked according to the level of friendship you have with each character, a bit like Disney Dreamlight Valley.
While I immediately fell in love with the game at the start of my adventure, I felt that the pace was slow or that I got bogged down easily with the quests. For example, after finally accessing the swamp and finding Keroppi, I could only continue his quests by upgrading his friendship to level 3. This Keroppi quest was about restoring the Nature Preserve, but I needed to catch critters for it. I needed the net’s blueprint to get bugs, so I had to upgrade Badtz-maru’s friendship to level 3 first and then craft the net. It was just busywork after busywork. As a result, progression can feel quite slow, but most cozy games can be rather slow-paced, and Hello Kitty Island Adventure is no different.
Besides spending time improving your friendships with others, you can upgrade the cabins to receive visitors. That’s right; it is not only airplane passengers who will be your island inhabitants. If you make the cabins suitable for living conditions, characters like Daniel, Hello Kitty’s boyfriend, and Ana, Hello Kitty’s little sister, can come to visit you. They can eventually become permanent residents. It’s similar to how you invite new villagers in Animal Crossing. At one point, I could meet more Sanrio characters in other quests, like Lala and Kiki.
Reaching New Heights
I started this game thinking I would do simple errands and hang out with my favorite characters doing cute things like making strawberry cakes or decorating houses. However, I was pleasantly surprised when I realized the exploration of Hello Kitty Island Adventure is quite fleshed out. My avatar could climb, and nothing could stop me from scaling the volcano to find Retsuko. At first, it was a little frustrating when I couldn’t explore the deeper depths of the sea, but underwater exploration became a blast once I got the swimming kit. I went full speed to rescue Hangyodon until I realized I also needed the snorkel.
During the questline with Chococat, I felt like Indiana Jones, using my special compass to search for relics and enter dangerous dungeons with puzzles to recover the treasure. I also enjoyed completing the time challenges scattered around the island, as they have bronze, silver, and gold medals you can put on display in your house. I’ve been exploring the island for some time now but haven’t found all of its secrets. You need to keep your eyes open because it is very easy to miss crucial clues.
Another mechanic that makes it much easier to explore and complete quests is the Cinnamoroll mailbox, which works as a teleporter. It would drive me crazy to walk from side to side of the island all the time. However, keep in mind that traveling on foot can be handy for finding all kinds of materials for crafting or cooking and, mainly, for getting more gifts for the residents.
From Arcade to PC
Hello Kitty Island Adventure was initially available only for Apple Arcade users, but fortunately, the developers decided to port it to new platforms. This is a great advantage for new players since they can enjoy all the improvements and changes that OG players had to wait for so long. We will have all the new mechanics and missions they added. However, the new gamers will find it very difficult to catch up with the veterans, more so because of the rewards of this last year that we won’t get.
Another negative aspect is that, for the moment, there is no new content for the launch of PC or Nintendo Switch. Also, as fun as it is to play co-op, there is no crossplay, which would have been amazing if you wanted to play with friends on other platforms. Overall, Hello Kitty Island Adventure is a solid release, but the re-release lacks content on the same level to celebrate this significant milestone.
A Somewhat Stranded Re-release
Hello Kitty Island Adventure is an excellent experience for those who enjoy cozy and simulation games. It mixes several systems from other great games but lacks its own uniqueness. It’s fun, and many people will enjoy it for hours, but it’s much more worthwhile if you’re a true Sanrio fan. This game works like Disney Dreamlight Valley, giving fans the chance to interact with their favorite cuddly characters.
Even though Hello Kitty Island Adventure offers several activities and minigames, it falls a little short for a game that has been in the market for a year. Especially considering that your friends must be on the same platform to play together and that there is no new content for the re-release. The silver lining is that you have the solid experience of its original release in 2023. Hello Kitty Island Adventure still has room for improvement, and I hope the features it’s lacking will come with time.
Review copy provided by Publisher.
Hello Kitty Island Adventure (PC Reviewed)
Hello Kitty Island Adventure is an incredible, cozy game with great exploration that lets you live with Sanrio's unique characters. I enjoyed the experience of reaching each biome, fishing and catching insects. However, everything was fun and games until I remembered this was a re-release for more platforms. So, the lack of new content was underwhelming.
Pros
- Great puzzles and exploration challenges
- A fantastic opportunity to meet Sanrio's characters.
Cons
- Lack of new content for the re-release
- Despite promoting co-op there is no crossplataform
