At a Glance: An idyllic game where you can live out your vacation fantasies as a cute little animal, enjoy the relaxed pace of island life, and maybe solve a mystery or two.
Story: Hello Kitty Island Adventure does feature a overall storyline, but story takes a backseat to exploration, and casual side quests. Because certain quests are gated behind friendship level requirements with specific characters, the pacing is a bit slower than one might expect, but I didn't find that it negatively impacted the experience. There's little mysteries to solve, although they don't feel high stakes.
This may be a good or bad thing depending on personal preference, but I found the chance of pace enjoyable, especially as a way to relax. The twists and turns are perhaps a bit expected, but you probably aren't playing Hello Kitty Island Adventure for shocking revelations, and life or death scenarios. While not heavy on intense story, it's heavy on charm.
Style: Hello Kitty Island Adventure features a 3D over-the-shoulder point perspective, and also includes a first person photomode. Although there are options to adjust angle and zoom of the player view, it can sometimes lead to awkward camera angles when pieces of the landscape obscure your view. I encountered this occasionally while trying to fish or catch insects.
Despite the challenge with certain angles, the style works very well for the game, and the cheerful colors, and vibrant environments invite exploration. The houses, characters, and items are also well-designed, with a dedication to aesthetic, and polish that I wasn't expecting. You'll also be able to find hidden gudetama's (a sleepy, anthropomrphic egg), all over the island, and it's a highlight discovering where the little guy is hiding next.
Characters: I can't review this game and not mention how CUTE the characters are. I loved Hello Kitty as a kid, and this game was the perfect fuel for that nostalgia. The characters are kind, quirky, and sometimes irreverent, but it fits well into the universe that's been established. If you want morally gray characters, and gripping drama, this won't be the game for you, but sometimes a little optimism is refreshing. You can also customize your player character, and unlock different clothing and color palattes for them. Ever wanted to be the animals instead of a human in Animal Crossing? That is exactly what Hello Kitty Island Adventure lets you do!
There's several different animal species to pick from, and several body shapes for each, as well as eye shapes and patterns. Although the characters are almost unfailingly helpful, and friendly, there are a couple of surprising jokes that might go over the heads of younger audiences, including one referring to cakes snakes on a plane. You're rewarded for befriending characters, not just with new quests, but different perks as well, and the ability to give multiple gifts a day makes befriending characters feel more like a gentle progression and less of a tedious slog.
Music: While never annyoing, the music in HKIA often fades into the background for me. It could simply be nostalgia talking, but for me, I could use a more varied soundtrack. It makes me miss the Animal Crossing music, and is hard not to compare the two games, especially when AC has created so many ear-worms. There's nothing wrong with the soundtrack and a couple songs were quite enjoyable, but I wouldn't necessarily remember the names of them.
The Good:
-Amazing aesthetic, the cute, exaggerated proportions of Sanrio characters make a perfect match for a game like this. While not photorealistic by any stretch of the word, it's polished and looks like care was put into designing it
-The house customization is easy to navigate, and there's a decent range of styles too
-Collecting items is easy, and the item caps per day don't feel like they hold gameplay back. There's also ways to send helpers to forage for you, or get perks to make getting items easier
-Refreshingly kind characters and lack of drama might detract for some, but I found it to be incredibly relaxing, and a bit of wish fufillment, where the biggest worry is trying to decide where you want to explore for the day
-Pacing is relaxed, and there isn't a huge time commitment necessary
The Bad: Controls feel a little laggy on occasion and slightly unresponsive. This could just be me playing a lot of House Flipper 2, and being accustomed to my objects flinging themselves into other dimensions, but it was definitely noticeable
-The lack of map pins makes trying to return to treasure chests very hard, especially for how often you run into chests without having the special keys they need
-Because the game does have some real time components, there's a limit to how much you can do everyday, at least in terms of gifting and quests. If you want to binge a game for hours, a day, this probably won't be the game for you--I didn't mind it but your milage may vary
-Occasionally wonky camera angles, especially when fishing or creature catching
-Prompts to give gifts, craft and talk with characters is mapped to different buttons so it's easy to accidentally start a conversation when you meant to build something or give a gift--which can get tedious if you're used to "just hit 'A' to interact"
Final Consensus and Rating: A laid-back life-sim that lets you explore your surroundings at your own pace, and customize your experience. Cute characters, and open ended enough to keep you coming back for more, 8 out of 10.
