Our world is a wild and crazy place filled with many people who have different beliefs and mindsets. While this has led to some very bizarre and confusing scenarios it is also what makes humanity incredible. While some people might not agree, the human race has had many accomplishments because of their vastly different ideas and creativity. However, even though bizarre ideas can lead to creativity, people just want to get away from the craziness and relax in their rooms to recharge their energy and minds. That is what the publisher and creative team of the lo-fi chill vibes simulator Simpler Times hopes to achieve with their game that has recently been released on Steam. Join me on this journey to what will hopefully be a relaxing experience.
The story of Simpler Times takes players on an emotional journey as they guide Taina as she packs items of sentimental value before her trip to college. While packing she reflects on pivotal moments she went through in her young life. This is accomplished through George Pandrea’s lo-fi Music which acts as a gateway for those memories, and playing those songs through old records allows both the player and her to go back in time to see how her room and herself have grown and changed over the years. Through going back and interacting with various items and secrets the player learns more about Taina in this very mellow lo-fi journey through time.
The gameplay of Simpler Times centers around the player taking control of Taina as the player interacts with various items and activities around her room and only her room. Each level is separated by the yearly seasons: Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter as Taina goes through a journey of growth from being a child to a young adult. The game advertises itself as a lo-fi meditation for players who have enough patience and focus to be able to complete some of these tasks. However, if you’re the type of player who prefers to get things done quickly then this won’t be very satisfying for those players as this wants the players to take their time and think over what to do which as of me typing is not a whole lot of gamers. Games today now do more hand-holding and less strategy as more players want to think less and act more which may not always be a bad thing as I have played games that didn’t center around violence and did more building and achievement such as Animal Crossing or other gave me a sense of accomplishment the more I built things that helped expand my community. That’s not really what this game is as it centers more around patience building with activities that people could do in real life like painting, model rocket building, birdhouse building, and other hobbies that give a sense of achievement and accomplishment in real life.
The reason I brought up the hand-holding is that this game often relies on visual instruction via searching the room for clues such as a page of instructions and sticky notes that just give the player the general idea of what they’re about to do or need to do rather than audio or visual tutorials that are more prominent in modern games. On one hand, this is great because the developers trust their gamers to be smart enough to figure things out for themselves rewarding them with a feeling of satisfying accomplishment achievement, but at times especially during the birdhouse segment where there aren’t a whole lot of subtle but helpful visual cues to help players it could end up leading to more frustrated emotions rather than blissful serenity depending on the player. I was eventually able to complete it, but as of writing this a lot of the objectives that require putting stuff together have fewer people completing them according to the Steam achievements. For example, the build the birdhouse achievement was only rewarded to 66.3% of players while the achievement for the next level’s activity only 57.7% of players completed it. Not to mention that objectives are also skippable if the player just finds and plays the record that transitions to the next season, however, if they want to go back they can just play the record that transitioned them to the previous level so there isn’t any need to worry about not completing the story.
That being said there are small, but very detailed elements within this game that give it more life than most AAA games such as the ability to do side hobbies that while not important or necessary can carry over to the next level as decorations. As an example in the first level, there was a painting that when finished was carried over into the other levels, as well as a playable handheld game console that challenges the player to beat the high score of whoever played before. There are also many secrets to discover and unlock like badges for Taina’s backpack and other interactable objects that help the player learn more about Taina. The Lo-fi soundtrack for this game is great, but not a genre that I listen to very often.
Overall while I respect the idea of creating a game that is entirely based around meditation this game ended up being more frustrating than calming, and while there are great visuals and music this short experience left me feeling that I wish I played a different game on easy mode instead.
Score: 5 out of 10
Reviewed on PC