Morels: The Hunt

Cozy, low stress game where your entire goal is to gather as many morel mushrooms as possible. They have several different maps you can do. You earn points to buy supplies and upgrades. You also get to photograph animals in each map, gaining you more points. Overall, I love this game for chilling and zoning out! I set the music to "fantasy" and just collect all the mushrooms I can! If you think this sounds fun, I highly recommend!

Cozy collecting and photo taking game, Nearly 100% achievements (Using a guide here on steam) at around almost 20 hours. This game could easily take longer to fully 100% when playing blind and that's a good thing. Theres a lot to do and the game really helps me unwind before bed. I have had a few moments where I've gotten stuck somewhere on the map (between rocks) I wish there was a reset button that replaces your character if you were to get stuck, after unlocking the fast travel map (which allows you to respawn back at the start) that became my way of getting unstuck in certain locations. I love the mystery animals too (not going to lie the first mystery animal I ran into scared me because I wasnt expecting it!) I can't wait to try the second game once I finish this one.

Highly recommended if you love mushrooms and meditative games.

As someone who recently moved to a big city and doesn't get to spend nearly as much time in nature as I'd like to, this game truly feels like a breath of fresh air. I spent a big portion of my childhood adventuring in the woods, and this game brings me back to that. It's clear that a lot of love and care went into the game by nature enthusiasts. I love that the bird calls aren't random; they're specific to the species flying around you. Also, if one of your favorite parts of Skyrim was foraging in the woods, you'll love this game. It has a similar art style, and it has the same buggy charm. It's slow paced and overall just very beautiful and relaxing. I really appreciate when technology is used to bring us closer to nature, not further from it. 𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊

I saw this recommended on reddit as a chill game to play after work and as it was on sale I picked it up, I have definitely gotten my money's worth and I've only been to two regions so far and haven't found any of the golden morels! I like that the starter location helps you attune to spotting the Morels and the progressive locations challenge you in different ways. The animals are really fun to spot and sometimes I like to focus on that instead of mushroom hunting, I am shocked how satisfying it is to find a new species. At first I didn't like the lighting at midday but I got used to it and after unlocking the headlamp it is no issue at all so I recommend aiming for that first! Hunting at night is a different experience too which I really enjoy doing. I started on normal mode but the ticks and poison ivy etc took the fun out of it for me so I exclusively play on easy/chill mode. I really like the included music, there is a good selection and it isn't too repetitive. I recommend with playing sound on as it makes finding animals much easier, though the music part is toggle-able which is good. I have had two crashes in my 5 hours of playing, though I lost no progress at all - the first was during loading screens (so the auto save function works well!) and the other was when I walked off from my computer for maybe 10 minutes leaving my character between days in the shop - again, no progress was lost but just mentioning it as I want this review to be an honest recollection of my time playing.

I honestly love everything about this. The entire game is pretty much a relaxing hike through woods and fields from a variety of biomes and terrains, with the added bonuses of mushroom hunting and animal photography. The soundscapes are really nice, and I like the fact that the bird calls actually coincide with the birds you can see (a tiny detail, but one that makes all the difference. Hearing a bird and then being able to locate it actually in the game instead of just being background noise made me so happy). While the game doesn't pretend to be a full and accurate field guide (no differentiation is made for, say, tree frogs in different areas), it is still very enjoyable to spot different creatures and take in the scenery, especially since I currently an unable to go hiking in the real world. I only wish there was more to spot! More species, more biomes, more mushrooms, more of everything! (I suppose that's why they made a second game?). I think my biggest gripe is the fact that being outside in the rain after dark is almost impossible, as the rain is thick and blindingly white, especially in the camera lens, making adventures effectively pointless. But it can't dampen my enjoyment of the rest of the game though - I'm happy to say I'm not even close to being finished, and once I do complete this game I fully intend on buying the sequel as well.