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Cozy gaming has blossomed into its own full-featured genre over the last couple of decades, going from niche-targeted farming sims to farming sims played by millions. It’s a category known for its warm vibes, cute characters, and aesthetic charm, but it’s also not the only part of video gaming that can make you stop and say “awww.”
We live in a time where there are multiple popular social media accounts centered entirely around telling players whether or not they can pet the animals in new game releases. Charmingly adorable companions can show up in any sort of title now as featured characters, from the hardest core RPGs to accolade-lavished game of the year contenders.
Here are my five (technically six) favorite cute little guy video game characters from titles released this year. As you’ll see, these are ranked in order from “good” to “best” below, but please know that they are all within a few percentage points of each other quality wise as I’d never want to make any of them feel too bad.
I wasn’t paid or asked to feature any of these games on this list, nor was I gifted any free copies.
I might have missed a Cute Little Guy that you loved this year. If so, please feel free to tell me by…