Welcome to the tropical getaway known as Petit Island. Relive your Grandpaw’s youthful adventures, meet all kinds of unique islanders, and help preserve his memories before they fade away in this heartwarming open-world narrative exploration game.
Developed by: Xelo Games
Played on: Steam
Length: 5 hours
A review key was provided by SOEDESCO.
Over the years, the term “cozy” has evolved from a niche genre into one of the main pillars of modern gaming. From plant decorating simulators, to idle productivity games, and so many games about cleaning I can barely keep track, the cozy genre presents low stakes and a relaxing time for casual gamers looking to take a break from the stresses of life.
Indonesian-based Xelo Games is one of the latest studios to jump on the cozy bandwagon with their open-world narrative exploration game, Petit Island. In this heartwarming narrative, you play as a young cat named Lily who decides to retrace the steps of her Grandpaw’s youth as his memory begins to fade. Her quest to preserve his stories brings her to Petit Island, where she reconnects with her Grandpaw’s old friends, rediscovers long lost memories, and makes some new memories of her own.
The game feels a lot like Animal Crossing but with a larger map, from its adorable cast of anthropomorphic animals to its minimalistic, cartoonish art style. Heavily inspired by Indonesian culture, its environment design is a beautiful interpretation of local architecture and nature, brought to life with excellent sound design and an original soundtrack composed by Samantha Van Der Sluis.
True to its open world genre, there’s plenty of island to explore from sandy beaches to serene paddy fields. Once you unlock the basic abilities like photography, fishing, and bug catching, there’s even more to do with the environment. Those who enjoyed the collectibles aspect of Animal Crossing will enjoy leisurely collecting all the critters and items scattered across this island. Eventually, you’ll even unlock a tiny space of your own to decorate with the items you’ve collected.
That being said, the game is minimalistic in its execution. Despite the size of its map, there are fewer quests and interactions than expected; especially with regards to the camera, which seemed essential to the main plot at first, but ended up becoming a fairly minor gameplay mechanic. Without anything else keeping me at Petit Island, I found myself completing the main quest and most of the side quests in under 4-5 hours.
Although we played it on Steam, the game feels perfect to bring around on a handheld device like the Switch or Steam Deck. It’s easy to pick up and put down, and not designed to be played in long stretches, although you should keep in mind to manually save your progress each time before quitting.
Where the game stumbled the hardest for me was its quality-of-life features. The game doesn’t have a quick equip option for commonly used items, and the lack of navigation UI becomes a little tiresome at times. While it’s an understandable trade-off for player immersion, having to open your menu to access the map every five minutes does grind my gears. Traversal becomes much quicker once you unlock mounts in the game, although it’s worth noting that the game doesn’t introduce them through any of the quests; a fact that I learned painfully late into the game.
That being said, Petit Island makes up for its rough edges with a lot of charm and a strong art direction. One specific thing that I loved was the quest log, which doubled as Lily’s journal. As you complete each quest, it gradually fills up with drawings and notes about her adventures. It shows a lot of promise and attention to detail, which I hope to see more of in their upcoming sequel Lily and Violet.
Verdict: Animal Crossing Lite
Indonesian-based Xelo Games has released a game that feels like Animal Crossing, but with a bigger map and its own cultural twist. Petit Island features a heartwarming narrative and simple gameplay that’s easy to pick up and put down. Although it does run on the short side at 4-5 hours, it contains a lot of charm and adorable critters that we can’t wait to see again in their upcoming sequel, Lily and Violet.
Wishlist Petit Island on Steam, and top up your Steam Wallet on Codashop to earn bonus rewards.
