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What are the most relaxing games for the Nintendo Switch?

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5 Games Considered

5 Options ConsideredPricePlatformsGenre
Stardew Valley
Windows, OS X, Linux, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation VitaFarming Simulation, Role-Playing
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Wii U, Nintendo SwitchAction-Adventure
Night in the Woods
PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Windows, Xbox One, Linux, macOSAdventure, Narrative
Golf Story
––
Atelier Lydie & Suelle: The Alchemists and the Mysterious Paintings
Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Windows, PlayStation VitaRole-Playing
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Stardew Valley

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Yoshiyuki
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Great freedom in designing your farm

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When creating your own farm you aren't just limited to plowing fields for planting crops. You can also dig wells, put down fences, and even build various structures such as barns or stables. This allows you to build a farm that firmly matches your goals and sense of aesthetics.
Yoshiyuki
Top Pro

A great mix of genres

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While Stardew Valley is primarily a farming simulator, it also has social interaction elements and combat elements. The social interaction elements allow you to interact with people around the town. You can befriend them, get quests from them, hang out with them, and even find a significant other...
Yoshiyuki
Top Pro

Great soundtrack

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When you work on your farm, go fishing, explore or just walk around the town you'll be accompanied by a really nice soundtrack. It's sometimes upbeat, sometimes soothing, and sometimes even melancholic, with every track matching each location and season perfectly. There's also a wide v...
Yoshiyuki
Top Pro

Very fulfilling to play

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Stardew Valley is a very simple game where you're free to do anything and everything at your own pace. This includes building your farm, planting and harvesting crops, and exploring the world among many other things. It will feel enjoyable no matter how fast or slow you do it. This coupled with...
Yoshiyuki
Top Con

Can get really repetitive

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Living on a farm is a lot of work, so you'll have to repeat the same tasks quite often. This includes tilling land, planting seeds, chopping trees, and many other farm related activities. While it's normally pretty fun and relaxing, it can get incredibly tedious during long play sessions, e...
Specs
Genre:Farming Simulation, Role-Playing
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The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

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Yoshiyuki
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A variety of fighting methods keep the combat fun

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There are many ways you can fight the monsters in Breath of the Wild. You can go for close combat, using swords, spears, clubs and many other weapons, besting your goblin-like enemies with well-timed parries, dodges, slashes, and strikes. Or you can fight enemies from afar by shooting your bow,...
Yoshiyuki
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Wonderfully crafted puzzles

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There's a vast array of puzzles found in Breath of the Wild where you use your abilities to move, manipulate or destroy the environment. It can be very simple like destroying rocks with a bomb to unblock a cave entrance. Or it can be fairly complex, requiring you to rotate and connect massive p...
Yoshiyuki
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An engaging cooking skill

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Breath of the Wild features a very interesting cooking skill, allowing you to combine up to 5 different ingredients to create useful dishes or elixirs that can aid you on your journey. While the cooking process itself is really simple, only requiring you to light a fire and use a pot, experimenta...
Yoshiyuki
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An open world game where exploration feels exciting

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Most open world games follow the same pattern - they give you a map that's full of blips, forcefully guiding you to marked locations, causing you to ignore everything along the way. Breath of the Wild steps away from this design choice by having a map where only you can mark points of interest....
Yoshiyuki
Top Con

Weapon durability system can feel tedious to some

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When you attack enemies, your equipped weapon quickly loses its durability, breaking when it reaches zero. This can force you to switch to new weapons multiple times during a battle, adding a micromanagement aspect that can disrupt the flow of combat. You're not just fighting enemies, you'...
Yoshiyuki
Top Con

Cooking can feel inconvenient

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There's no in-game log or cookbook to record cooking recipes you discover. The only method of checking a recipe is by examining a cooked item in your inventory, which isn't very reliable since you can only check it as long as you have the item. As a result, you have to memorize and/or write...
Specs
Genre:Action-Adventure
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Night in the Woods

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Yoshiyuki
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The simplistic gameplay is surprisingly fun

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Running around the side-scrolling town as Mae day in and day out is more enjoyable than it sounds at first. It's mundane, but there's a lot of meaning to find around the town if you're willing to look for it. You go wherever you want, finding out stories about the townspeople and the t...
Yoshiyuki
Top Pro

Great coming-of-age story

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The coming-of-age story in Night in the Woods is unconventional for a video game, making it more unique and intriguing. After dropping out of college, the main character, Mae, struggles with her own disillusionment in life and refusal to grow up, all the while her old friends find success and move...
Yoshiyuki
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Tragic, realistic setting and NPCs

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Night in the Woods is set in Possum Springs, once a booming mine town but now a forgotten speck on the map, rife with poverty and decay. Its history is based on several real Adirondack towns, and its portrayal of rural decline is painfully accurate. The townspeople you talk to lament about having...
Yoshiyuki
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Well-written side characters

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Every character feels like they have a history and realistic personal motivations, even when they're left unexplained. Mae's friends are all different yet interesting in their own ways, like Gregg who's always happy to see her and helps Mae feel like someone truly cares, and Bea with...
Yoshiyuki
Top Con

Some pacing issues with the story

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The story slogs through the premise of Mae's anxieties and disillusionment for a long time until it suddenly switches somewhere in the middle. There are a few hints here and there about how and why the plot becomes a murder mystery, but these things seem inconsequential and not as important as...
Yoshiyuki
Top Con

The main character is insufferable at first

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It's hard to like Mae from the start for a few reasons. She's extremely self-centered, she likes to steal for the thrills, and she has no interest whatsoever in fixing her shortcomings. Her life seems to be one awkward moment after another where you can't help but cringe in embarrassmen...
Specs
Steam Rating:Very Positive
Genre:Adventure, Narrative
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Golf Story

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Yoshiyuki
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Humorous writing

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While the premise of the story is simple - you are a guy trying to achieve your dream of becoming a golf pro - the humor in the actual writing is very apparent and there are more than a few laugh out loud moments. First of all, every NPC has their own creative way to put you down and insult your go...
Yoshiyuki
Top Pro

Animated NPC dialogue boxes are a great touch

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To convey the mood and emotion of each NPC, an animated dialogue box will appear over their head that grows, shrinks, tilts, and moves with their speech. For example, when they're angry the text is big and bold and the box may slightly wobble from side to side. It's executed extremely well,...
Yoshiyuki
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Local multiplayer mode lets you compete against a friend

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The local multiplayer mode allows you to go head-to-head against a friend on 9 hole course. Before the match, you can select the golf clubs you want to use, adjust course settings such as wind speed and slope, and choose to play on any course you have unlocked. It's a great way to continue to f...
Yoshiyuki
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Charming 16 bit style

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The pixel art graphics look like they came straight from the SNES era, which will be a huge plus to gamers who prefer a retro style. The tilesets are colorful and varied. Sprites are detailed, and are a definite nod to the days of old school gaming as they have a slight bounce when they walk. Anima...
Yoshiyuki
Top Pro

The approach to RPG elements is a novel spin never seen before in a golf game

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Instead of shiny gear and weapons like standard RPGs, Golf Story chooses to equip you with a wide variety of different golf clubs that provide stat bonuses or unique effects like hitting a ball further or putting better. Rather than stats such as strength, stamina, and intellect, your character has...
Yoshiyuki
Top Pro

You can golf anywhere you want in the game world and in doing so possibly even unlock secrets

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While you're out and about exploring and doing quests, you are free to drop a ball and take a swing anywhere in the game world for practice or just for fun. Golfing isn't just limited to courses and quests, meaning you can set goals for yourself like trying to hit a specific tree or shooti...
Yoshiyuki
Top Pro

Includes interesting RPG elements that add a nice layer of depth

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Completing quests for NPCs awards you with the staple role-playing currencies of choice - money and experience. Money is used to buy new golf clubs which provide interesting and unique bonuses, such as being able to curve your shots better, hit a ball further, or putt with more accuracy. Experience...
Yoshiyuki
Top Pro

Lots of variety in the side quests will provide hours of fun

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Running around the overworld, you'll run into a lot of NPCs who will ask you to perform sidequests that will put your skills to the test. They might ask you to hit a ball to a certain location, bounce it off something, complete timed events, or ask you to pick up golf balls in a maze. There are...
Yoshiyuki
Top Pro

Golfing itself feels satisfying and controls incredibly well

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The golfing itself comes together in a satisfying way that feels intuitive to control, easy to grasp, and just plain great when you see your carefully set up shot hit its target. Hitting the ball uses timed button presses to control things like accuracy and swing strength, making it a minigame in a...
Yoshiyuki
Top Con

Story is not as great in the latter half of the game

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While the story starts out pretty strong, having struggles, hardships, and general drama between characters, most of the problems get solved way too early, shifting focus to winning the golfing championship. As a result, the latter half of the game lacks the driving force of proving someone wrong...
Yoshiyuki
Top Con

Disc golfing minigame can be confusing

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One of the minigames requires you to golf with a disc, and due to the controls, can tend be a bit on the confusing side. The disc can controlled in the air, but it responds to controls based on the way the disc is facing. For example, if the disc is facing south, pressing left will move the disc ri...
Yoshiyuki
Top Con

No online multiplayer

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Unfortunately, the game is limited to local multiplayer mode, and no online mode exists at this time.
Yoshiyuki
Top Con

Slopes and hills are hard to see on the golf course

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The game is 2D, so sometimes things like small hills and slopes on the golf courses are hard to see. This makes it hard to predict how your shot will roll or bounce once it lands on the ground, making for some unpredictable golfing.
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Atelier Lydie & Suelle: The Alchemists and the Mysterious Paintings

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Yoshiyuki
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Creative concept of entering paintings to explore new worlds

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The many fantasy-like worlds you explore through the mysterious paintings are very pretty and whimsical. Going into the paintings themselves is fascinating since it's something you don't get to do in real life, and you get to learn more about Lydie and Suelle as you go along. Gathering reso...
Yoshiyuki
Top Pro

Charming and colorful anime art style

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The art style is has many bright colors and well-drawn characters. Everyone has all sorts of colorful hairstyles, eyes, and outfits like pink, blue, and crimson that aren't too over-the-top. Their eyes have cool swirls for pupils, their skin tones are radiant, and every character has a bright a...
Yoshiyuki
Top Pro

Slice-of-life story and gameplay that's relaxing and laid-back

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There's a sweet simplicity to the story and gameplay that focuses more on everyday life. Playing as the two twins, Lydie and Suelle, you're mainly trying to make ends meet and become the best possible alchemists you can be. You pass the days at your own pace as you take on jobs from the tow...
Yoshiyuki
Top Pro

Engaging gathering and crafting system with alchemy as the game's main focus

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Atelier Lydie & Suelle focuses on gathering materials and synthesizing them into alchemy formulas as the main mechanics. You can lose yourself in the game for hours as you explore the fantasy-like levels, picking up resources from bushes, hacking away at trees, or mining them from rocks. You c...
Yoshiyuki
Top Pro

Solid turn-based combat that's welcoming to beginners

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Atelier Lydie & Suelle's combat is simple enough for beginners who want to try out a turn-based JRPG. The interface is clean with basic commands for attacking and using skills, magic, and items. It's easy to get the hang of when to go on offense while your health is high, and when to s...
Yoshiyuki
Top Con

No English voices even though previous Atelier games included them

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For some reason, Atelier Lydie & Suelle doesn't have an English dub and just has the original Japanese voices with English subtitles. There's nothing wrong with only having the Japanese option, but it's really weird considering the other Atelier games in the West have English voice...
Yoshiyuki
Top Con

You won't find a sprawling narrative here like in most RPGs

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The stories in the Atelier games are more about everyday life mixed in with whimsical fantasy. This isn't the kind of RPG with the type of layered, rich story with dramatic twists and turns that you'd expect from the genre. If you want a heavier narrative with more to say, you won't g...
Yoshiyuki
Top Con

Graphics for environments aren't that great

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The visuals for the environments don't hold up to how pretty the cel-shaded graphics are. The textures are low-quality with jaggies sticking out. It's not so bad on the PC version and the PlayStation 4; things are much more obvious on the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation Vita. There are also...
Yoshiyuki
Top Con

Not for people who hate repetitive busywork

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If you can't stand doing the same things over and over again in games, then Atelier Lydie & Suelle probably isn't for you. The whole game is about exploring maps to gather materials and then crafting those materials into something useful through alchemy. There are some turn-based battl...
Specs
Genre:Role-Playing
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5 Community Recommendations

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