Lighthearted RPG with cute characters + funny stories, played in short rounds. Promotes kindness and silliness. Co-op for up to 4 technically optional, but helps a lot. Maybe wait for patches. ~löyly

Beautiful and wholesome adventure that lets you explore and restore a barren world for and with your community. Lacking in some aspects, but overall warmly recommended and a new personal fave. ~löyly

[pre-release] Impressively hand-drawn interactive story with kind and positive text bits, pleasant music and confusing puzzles. Mostly a nice experience until I got stuck and gave up. ~löyly

A badly managed mess of broken promises. You CAN'T "live off the land any way you like". Hardly an MMO. Has uncozy activities + NPCs. Lacks accessibility. Free except cosmetics + pets though. ~löyly

Restore, explore and catalogue an old mansion full of occult knowledge. Enigmatic and beautiful. Grindy for completionists. Lots of weird lore related to cosmic horrors, but chill gameplay. ~löyly

"Adventure" or "story" would be a stretch for this one, but it's peaceful and cute. Find lots of cats in a large wintery picture, unlock bonus winter scenes with more cats.

Epic adventure with stunning views, Scottish mythology, history and music. Some grim stories. Options to set platforming, survival and rhythm parts to near trivial. My exploration fave of 2023. ~löyly

Free snack-sized opposum shenanigans! A tiny VN, but so much fun, cuteness, wholesomeness and a bit of replay value. ~löyly

Make a kid joyfully run, jump and glide through the snow with nice views and fantastic music. Platforming can be surprisingly unkind, though. If you're any good at it then this game is a treat. ~löyly

Hidden Object game with remarkable storytelling. Amazing visuals, atmospheric music, relatable conflicts for many, interesting stories based in German history. Still in EA, already very good. ~löyly