When Eric Cartman asked Butters in South Park why he wasn't playing World of Warcraft even though he was at his PC all the time and Butters replied, "I'm playing Hello Kitty Island Adventure," I laughed. I sat there and laughed at him, because how can a game about Hello Kitty possibly stop you from playing such an epic MMO with your friends? But now I completely get it. After spending an almost unreasonable amount of time living my best island life alongside Hello Kitty and her best friends, I wouldn't want to put any time into creating beer-basted boar ribs either.
I've been waiting for Hello Kitty Island Adventure to release on PC after its debut on Apple Arcade in 2023. I tried to avoid people talking about it as much as I could since I wanted to go into it completely unassuming of the adventure ahead when the PC launch eventually rolled around, and I can happily confirm it was well worth the wait. As far as life simulators go, it's exactly what you'd expect. It's got a reasonably sized map to wander around freely, plenty of opportunities to collect items and craft or cook, and a very cute cast of characters to develop relationships with and complete quests for each day. Plus, it's Hello Kitty and her friends so it's very hard to not immediately praise, as someone who's a fanatic for all things cute.
Considering how many life sims I've played, I fully expected to be bored of the routine of fetch quests and very simple crafting. But there's something about the island's inhabitants that compelled me to keep playing to see what ridiculous adventure I'd go on next. From trudging through the labyrinth of Kuromi's haunted mansion to facing the peril of a minecart through an active volcano with Retsuko, you really never know where you're going to end up next, which is what I quickly discovered to be one of the game's main appeals.
But before I could embark on these epic adventures, a lot of my early hours as an island resident were spent running around trying to gather my bearings on what is frankly, a pretty significantly sized map. One of your first tasks is unlocking a gate which leads you to a swamp and spooky area where you'll find Keroppi and Kuromi. After this, and once I'd got the flippers that let you swim around, I started to really appreciate the world at my fingertips and was eager to see what challenge next awaited me depending on who I spoke to.
In each of the world's eight regions, I stumbled across a variety of Sanrio characters, each with a unique personality that shone through their dialogue. I was already pretty confident in my Sanrio knowledge, but I still learned a surprising amount about each character from the way they spoke to me, like PomPomPurin's passion for pudding or the critter-obsessed Keroppi, or even Pochacco's love for a morning jog. This didn't initially seem like an important factor besides being a way to help me remember each character. But, these personalities were the key to learning each character's preferences for gifts, which I soon realised were the gateway to quickly increasing friendship level with literally anyone.
Unlike the vast majority of other games which offer the risk of potentially gifting an item that the receiver won't like, and the potential to damage my relationship with them, Hello Kitty Island Adventure only has the chance to give each character something they like. It sounds easy enough, but to add some challenge, the knowledge of what each character likes isn't dished out immediately. It's something I had to gain as I cooked and crafted different recipes and spent more time with them.
This took the pressure off since I'm incredibly forgetful when it comes to things like this, and I wasn't sure I was ready to face a spreadsheet level of commitment to my island. It also meant I could quickly whip around the whole map each day and increase my friendship levels enough to hopefully unlock the next main quest. But as convenient as this sounds, I quickly found that the pacing of Hello Kitty Island Adventure is the one downside of island life.
Although I appreciate what it's trying to achieve by giving you a reason to check in every day, it does limit your progression a bit. You're restricted to giving each character three things a day, and the vast majority of main story quests are locked behind friendship levels. So, there are bound to be a few days where you're a little bit limited on what you have to do. There are a handful of ways you can fill this time, whether that's by taking photos with hidden Gudetama around the entire map, participating in minigames, or completing daily and weekly quests. But I can imagine these elements lose their charm if you're already a few weeks in and have a decent chunk of the story completed. I'm yet to get to this point, but I'd be lying if I said that I couldn't see it on the distant horizon.
So it would be a wasted opportunity for Hello Kitty Island Adventure to not add more areas, more permanent characters, or more minigames later down the line. Although it's only just launched I know I'll be waiting at the front of the line (right next to Butters) when the first DLC or significant update drops. As much as I wished I could've played Hello Kitty Island Adventure when it initially launched on Apple Arcade, I'm glad my first experience was on PC where a life sim like this really fits in amidst a mass of equally cute cozy games. It's basically the closest we will get to ever having Animal Crossing on the platform, each villager has just been substituted for an equally adorable Sanrio character who I will inevitably spend a lot of money finding merch for.
