I’m not the world’s biggest Sanrio fan, but I do have fond memories of growing up watching Hello Kitty and Keroppi & Friends. As an adult, I’ve grown pretty fond of Kuromi and Cinnamoroll, plus I have a soft spot for Hello Mimmy, since I had a beloved cat named Mim. Hello Kitty Island Adventure looked like an excellent and nostalgic way to have a chill time with beloved characters on an island of my very own.
That’s almost what I got. The island isn’t mine, so much as it’s a run-down adventure theme park in need of repair and rejuvenation. And after parachuting from a plane onto the island and its surrounding territories, that was exactly what I began to do.
Hello Kitty Island Adventure
Genre(s) – casual, simulation
Original release date – July 28, 2023
Available on – PC, PS5, Switch
Played on – PS5
Hello Kitty Island Adventure is indeed a very relaxing game. In many ways it’s like Animal Crossing, with its emphasis on small quests, helping NPCs, and being the sort of game that is meant for regular play but isn’t going to punish you if you don’t feel up to it that day. You come and go as you please, doing as much or as little as you want as you work toward becoming better friends with the variety of popular Sanrio characters and improving the island resort.
To start with, there’s character creation. Unlike Animal Crossing, where you play as a human in a land of anthropomorphic animals, you create your own animal-like character so you can properly fit in. You’re just like them, no outsider vibes present. The options for customization are pretty limited, but there’s enough there so that players can make an adorable avatar for themselves. When you throw in the ability to press up in different outfits, the customization options expand a whole lot, and it’s really fun to play dress-up!
That’s where a significant chunk of the game’s appeal lives, in my opinion. Aside from being very chill, very relaxed, Hello Kitty Island Adventure can take you back to a simpler time when what mattered most was play. Play dress-up, go swimming, explore, find seashells, catch bugs, enjoy! The whole game feels like a tribute to summer vacation, in ways that most adults have forgotten how to appreciate. Or simply don’t have space in their life to try for anymore. This game gives them a refreshing taste of simple childhood joys, bright and colourful. Not quite the same, but the vibe is definitely there.
PLENTY TO EXPERIENCE AND EXPLORE
There’s a surprising amount to do across the game’s multiple islands and biomes. There’s the primary area where you start, and then there’s the spooky swamp, the volcano, the abandoned mine shafts, and entire underwater area that’s almost as vast as what’s above the ocean’s surface… Not all of it is accessible right from the get-go, though. Some places require particular abilities, which are gained by increasing your friendship with the island’s other stranded inhabitants. Getting a high enough friendship level with my dear Kuromi, for instance, will inlock a quest that gives you a snorkle, so you can dive underwater, which is essential for becoming friends with Hangyodon. Badtz-Maru’s friendship is needed to get both the fishing rod and a bug-catching net, both of which are essential for other quests that open up as you continue to explore. It’s a cycle that feeds back into itself quite nicely.
While Hello Kitty Island Adventure definitely lets you progress at your own pace, it does place a limit on what you’re able to do in a day, mostly when it comes to gifts. You can spend your whole day exploring, but there’s a limit to the amount of items you can pick up before they stop respawning for the day, and a limit to how many gifts you can give to characters to raise their friendship levels. But there can still be an awful lot to keep a person happily amused in this cute little world. Nothing complex or dark, but the opposite. Again, that feeling of simple childhood joy. It was lovely!
Really, I found myself happily running all over the place to pick up daily item spawns, most of which I could then use as ingredients to cook tasty food for my anthropomorphic animal friends. Hello Kitty, for instance, likes apple pie, so with an apple, a bag of flour, and 10 seconds at the oven (that’s how I’ve always baked pies), I can make her a tasty treat. Cinnamoroll’s favourite drink is chocolate chai, so diving for the required chocolate coins to complete the recipe becomes a must. Keroppi is a fan of pretty much all bugs, so whatever I catch and don’t put in the nature preserve gets given to him. Becoming closer friends and exploring the world is what drives gameplay forward, incrementally, and in a way that never feels like there’s too much or too little on your plate.
GUESTS AND QUESTS!
But there’s more to the game that just that. The island has its regulars, sure, but sometimes their friends and family can come for a visit, if you set up suitable housing for them. They don’t stick around for long, but you can gift them items and gain their friendship in the same way as all the others. There’s a rotating schedule of potential visitors, so if you miss someone this week, there’ll always be other chances to talk to them later. Plus if you grow your friendship enough, there’s a chance they’ll ask to stay around permanently! Collect and befriend all your favourite Sanrio characters!
There are also limited-time events pretty regularly, themed events like lunar new year or the arrival of seasons, that can unlock extra quests and additional items to collect, like new clothes or house decor. In addition to the long list of regular quests in the game, like unravelling the mystery of the island itself or all of the friendship quests from characters, this sort of content cycle can keep players coming back for at least a full year, to see something new every time. I wouldn’t say this makes Hello Kitty Island Adventure a live-service game, but it definitely gets seasonal updates to keep things fresh.
And DLC, which I admittedly haven’t played yet.
YOUR MILEAGE MAY VARY
But all of the exploration options and new discoveries made Hello Kitty Island Adventure feel like, well, an adventure. A laid-back brightly-coloured cute adventure, but an adventure all the same. Who wouldn’t feel a little thrill at discovering a secret passage under a waterfall that leads to lush meadows, or set up zip-lines to shoot through the air from the mountains to a volcano? You want to go to the moon? Because you can go to the moon!
The game isn’t remotely challenging. It’s not exactly designed solely for younger audiences (there’s too much in there that feels like it’s appealing to adult Sanrio fans for me to say that this is purely a kids’ game), but it is designed for younger children to be able to play. The mini-games are pretty easy, the exploration isn’t intense, and the lack of hard time limits make Hello Kitty Island Adventure an all-ages sort of game. I respect that the developers took the time and care to ensure that there’s something in here for just about everyone.
Provided those people like relaxing Animal Crossing-likes with cute Sanrio characters, anyway.
But there’s the rub. If you don’t like games such as Animal Crossing, then even a love of the Sanrio expanded universe isn’t going to make Hello Kitty Island Adventure into something you’ll enjoy. It’s a game with plenty of style, but style alone doesn’t carry it. You’ve got to appreciate the genre it’s in, or you likely won’t appreciate the game as a whole. If you want something that provides dozens of hours of gameplay, then this is absolutely such a game, but if you want the sort of game you can unlock all of in a weekend, then no, there’s not much for you here. This is about slow progress, enjoying the moment-to-moment gameplay, living in the now rather than constantly keeping your sights on the future.
Whether you’re parkouring up the side of cliffs to reach the top of Mount Hothead, holding your breath to dive to a sunken shipwreck at the bottom of an underwater ravine, going on a minecart rollercoaster ride through caves, tracking down Gudetama for candid photographs, or whipping up a dozen strawberry shortcakes in the bakery, Hello Kitty Island Adventure gives players plenty with which to entertain themselves in a creative world. It might not hold your attention for multiple hours at a time, but it will keep you coming back day after day to see new unlocked friendship quests, to cook tasty food and pass gifts around, and to just see what the cartoony world holds in store for you next. The low-stakes repetitive task-based gameplay is perfect for winding down after a hard day, and I rather love it for that.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I think Kuromi might need another jack-o-lantern.
Quadnines 
Leave a comment