If there was one type of game that was not lacking, it was life simulations.
The continued success of series like Animal Crossing and Harvest Moon has always ensured a steady supply of similar games, but it really feels like the 2020s have seen a real boom, often associated with the latest buzzword, “cozy.”
While most of these have come and gone without making a big splash in the industry, some have made a name for themselves by being different (I'll defend Disney Dreamlight Valley to the death). NetEase's Floatopia hopes to fall into the latter category, and the half hour I spent with it at Gamescom suggests it's certainly possible.
If you blink, you'll miss the surprisingly grim premise. While in Animal Crossing you simply move to a new village for a change, in Floatopia your move is a stopgap measure. The world is on the brink of destruction, as seen in the intro, which briefly shows a town ravaged by earthquakes and tornadoes.
Realizing that every cloud has a silver lining—in this case, one that's literally in the clouds themselves—your character uses the planet's impending destruction as an excuse to escape to a floating island in the sky and start a new, much more relaxed life.
One of the tricks that sets Floatopia apart from other life sims is that everyone on the island gets a superpower. The problem is that superpowers are given out on a first-come, first-served basis, and the first villagers on your island complain that they didn't exactly get mind-blowing powers.
One character makes the air turn frosty when she gets emotional, another has the “power” of insomnia and is therefore always there no matter when you wander around the island, while another has the power to pack any item into a perfectly sized shopping bag. Guess where she works.
The game's art style is charming and has a somewhat handmade feel to it. From a distance, the characters look like typical chibi types, but when the camera zooms in on them (usually during dialogue), you can see that they're actually small, fluffy dolls with flocked hair and Sylvanian Families-style skin.
This style continues with the buildings, which look like they are made of cardboard. The store is a fairly nondescript building, but when you go inside, it opens up to reveal a larger interior space where you can see the corrugated cardboard in the walls that holds everything together.
“One character turns the air frosty when she gets emotional, another has the 'power' of insomnia and is therefore always there, no matter when you wander around the island.”
The comparisons to Animal Crossing are inevitable and can't be easily ignored. After all, the game starts with the player getting a home and wandering around the village looking for a place to build it. One of the first tasks is to find recipes that reveal what materials you need to craft certain items and furniture.
However, there are many differences that make Floatopia a game in its own right and give it the potential to surpass Nintendo's title in some respects. First off, one of the most boring aspects of Animal Crossing is the daily gathering of ingredients and items by shaking trees, picking things up, and the like. Here, you'll quickly be loaned a vacuum cleaner that you can use to run around the village and vacuum everything up much faster.
The whole game also has a slightly sillier vibe, which isn't just limited to the characters having stupid abilities (although it should be said that it looks like you could get better ones – in the demo you have the ability to fly around the island at times, which is pretty useful and certainly not as bad as the other islanders' abilities).
The dialogue is enjoyably silly (and the player can choose how to respond, too) and the proceedings have a rather whimsical, fantasy-like feel to them. At one point, you wake up to find the sleepless character sitting on a swing hanging from the clouds, just like that. Another day, it just starts raining coins – when you ask what's going on, you're told not to question it and just accept it.
The island setting – not to mention the underlying “the world is doomed” element, it's important to remember – also suggests more variety. The opening island is a typical idyllic, green paradise that bears more than a strong resemblance to the world of Tom Nook and his pals, but the game's trailer shows the player visiting other islands, such as one made of food, and the developer promises there will be ongoing updates adding new environments to explore.
With this promise of future development and an obviously stronger leaning towards plot than Animal Crossing, Floatopia has the potential to go its own way and build its own unique following. The charm is already perfect, let's see how it fares in the long term.
Floatopia is scheduled to be released in 2025 for PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X|S, PC and mobile devices.