Calico (Review)

Calico Review

The information in this review is based on a playthrough on an Xbox Series X. This review reflects the version of the game I played near launch, and may not accurately represent the current version of the game.

Not all games are going to blow you away with technical prowess and captivating stories. Often, I find myself yearning for the days of Stardew Valley or Harvest Moon, games I put hundreds of hours into. While variety is wonderful and I look to experience as many games as possible, there is something to be said for the familiarity of a game you know you will spend a lot of time with. Knowing what activities and tasks you have ahead of you the next time you play can be comforting, and the Simulation genre is built on that idea. As someone who started in the 90s with Harvest Moon yet still craves that feeling, I noticed some friends playing Calico last December and wanted to learn more about it. What I found was a Simulation and Management game that sells itself as the journey of rebuilding and running the abandoned family Cat Cafe on the Island. Meet the Villagers, bring some Animals into your Cafe, and help bring the Cafe back to its former glory!

So is Calico purr-fect or does it leave you feeling low after the Catnip wears off?

I like Calico. I want to make that clear because when I start delving into the details of things, there will be quite a few complaints. The charm is there. The Villagers and Animals are unique. The concept is interesting. The game nails the progression system throughout the island, upgrading your transportation to faster means as you unlock more of the Island, from walking to eventually flying around on a Magic Broom. It does a lot of the big things correctly that you need to enjoy a game. The issues pop up in the smaller details.

After an opening pan throughout Heart Village, you are dropped in front of the Mayor, Kiva, who introduces herself and gives you the skinny on why you’re here. Your Aunt retired from running the Cat Cafe, and the Villagers miss it, so they’ve asked you to bring it back to life by decorating it, letting Animals wander inside, and baking the most delicious treats. You can make 21 different Recipes, decorate your Cafe with many different styles of furniture and have multiple Animals running around to entertain your guests. And this is where my major complaint of the game comes in. It is sold as an experience in running a Cat Cafe, but the Cafe essentially runs itself. Once you make recipes once and pick the 6 you want on display, they are eternally available for customers to buy. You don’t make new ones or interact with Customers to sell them. As you wander around the Island, Villagers will buy things on the honor system, but you have no hand in bringing them in or serving them. The decorations don’t seem to matter. The animals you choose don’t matter. The recipes you make only matter as to what Villagers pay, as in my brief experiences, Villagers paid different prices for the same items. The ultimate goal of the story isn’t to run a Cafe, but to open up the paths of the Island like some sort of Island Manager or Clean-Up crew. And that’s disappointing, because I was hoping for more depth to running a Cat Cafe. That was the premise that sold me on the game, and to see it passed over was disheartening.

The music is tranquil, with a beautifully-voiced track that plays when you are near your Cafe. It’s very well done, but it does feel slightly jarring, as there aren’t any other “human” noises throughout the game. The music changes in new areas, and while it mostly blends in, some of the tracks sound more ominous to me than the game should be. Golden Grove, for example, toes the line between music explaining that near the end of the game and music that makes you expect something to go horribly wrong. Animals each have different noises they can make to indicate mood (Cats will purr, growl or meow at you when you pick them up) but it doesn’t seem to be related to any mood as much as it feels like a random “press play” when you grab them. There’s nothing out of the ordinary here, and they do their job. I particularly liked the magical noise the Flying Broom makes as you zoom across the sky.

The controls operate fairly well. Moving and jumping is fluid, and I had few issues with regular gameplay, except for running. Running is not done by the player. To run, you walk in any direction non-stop for a few seconds, and then your character automatically builds to a frenzy, arms waving like a madman as they pick up speed. Its cute the first few times, but its an annoyance to have to wait for it to happen. Luckily, early on you unlock the ability to enlarge small animals, which makes them rideable. This sets the groundwork for later transportation, as you eventually find a Horse that runs very quickly before unlocking a Magic Broom and large Birds to fly around on. The controls for riding and flying things are very simple. RB controls speed and you aim yourself using the analogs, and it really does nail that “Journey” experience as you fly above areas you used to walk through.

As the game explains, as you move throughout the Island, you are to befriend Villagers and help them out, as well as meet all of the animals on the Island. Animals are always found in a certain location in the wild, but Villagers have a few different locations they can be at after you have introduced yourself. Something simple like that gives the world a feeling of life, and I’ve always appreciated that in Simulation games, even if the schedules aren’t detailed or complicated. Every Villager can visit your Cafe but most will also have a “Home” location and a “Second” location they can be found at. This means your Map is very important, as it displays sprites of the Villagers and where they are at the given time. Checking your map for Villager locations is invaluable, especially for speedrunning as we do in the Achievement Walkthrough.

The Villagers are unique and give off their own independence, but the animals are quite basic. I don’t want to be too harsh on design, but it feels like some of the animals were favorites and others were given 10 seconds in the brainstorming sessions. There isn’t a lot of color variety in the animals like there is in the Villagers, and the names given to Animals vary from “Snowy Deer the Deer” to “Electra von Snugglybutts the Cat”. Some of the animal names lack the creativity of the others, and I’m not familiar with the development, though I’m aware it was a Kickstarted project. It may have been up to donors to name things, and while that’s fine, the perspective of the player is also worth mentioning, and Snowy Deer the Deer of Fox the Fox are not good names. The Villagers, however, have colorful personalities and outfits, cute names, and are always needing help with simple tasks, and its up to you to give them a hand!

The tasks usually range from finding an animal to delivering an item, and you are rewarded with money or items as well as the occasional recipe in return. The Quests tend to be unique enough that they don’t feel repetitive, but again, the game feels like it ran out of ideas. The opening Village has a ton of life and interesting things. The Mountains are quaint but unique, and the City feels important. But once you reach Clover Coast, the game feels like it was being rushed to the end. Most of the Villagers from this point on only give you 1 Quest, there are only 1 or 2 new Villagers per area, and the stories attached to them aren’t interesting or memorable. I wish the second half of the game had been given as much attention as the first, because the world is beautiful and it had potential to be excellent. To emphasize that, it takes 2/3 of the time in my Achievement Walkthrough to get through the first 3 areas, and then the last 3 areas only take 30 minutes of playtime.

Calico had the potential to be something extremely special. It has loads of charm and a feeling of camaraderie that makes the Island warm and welcoming. It simply fails to build on an interesting premise and hit the little notes it needed to build a complete game. Everything feels front-loaded, as if they spent all the time on the beginning of the game and forgot they had a release date deadline to meet. There’s fun to be had here, but don’t be surprised if your playtime runs out of steam near the end.

Final Score: 6.5/10

Go to Top