Littlewood Impressions: World Saved! Now What?
When writing this piece, I often wondered how to express how much Littlewood brings out the best in town building styled games. To me, rushing through the game would completely take away from what Littlewood is all about. It is a relaxed world that you can escape into and enjoy a progression system that is either fast paced or slowed down completely dependent on the player’s choice. With that being said, here is my first impression of Littlewood on the Nintendo Switch.
Littlewood was initially created for the PC, Mac, and Linux by Sean Young. Funded through Kickstarter within two hours, the game then went on to surpass every stretch goal that was set by the developer. His influences for Littlewood were Animal Crossing, Dark Cloud, and Runescape. Since then, the game has launched on Steam and had overwhelmingly positive responses. Littlewood then launched on the Switch on February 25, 2021 and in my personal opinion, Littlewood is the perfect game for the Switch.
Littlewood could be described as wholesome, relaxed, and downright adorable. From the characters themselves, to the pixelated world that you slowly bring to life, Littlewood really focused on building a world you would be truly excited to come back to every day. To give a spoiler free idea of the premise, your character is known as the hero who saved the world, however, you have no memory of that. The battle has already been fought. Your goal is to just rebuild the town and watch it grow. That’s about it. It’s a very different story style than I am originally used to, however, the stark contrast, story wise, to other games makes Littlewood unique in its experience.
Gameplay wise, Littlewood has made some changes that I wish were implemented in other games such as Stardew Valley and Animal Crossing. The lack of having to go into my menu and pick out my tool to use is something that I didn’t even realize I found annoying UNTIL playing Littlewood. I can just go near a tree or near a pond, press A, and the tool will automatically do its job. Another interesting aspect to this game is there really isn’t much of a tutorial. The characters do give you some advice on how to do things and at the beginning of the game (Days 1 and 2), you find scrolls that will give you some pointers. This lack of tutorial did frustrate me specifically when trying to figure out how to create stairs on the hills. I don’t consider this a fault on the game itself however because I might have pressed A to completely miss the message.
Another difference that Littlewood has from many games is how much choice you are given as a player. In Stardew Valley, the village and its world are already set and in Animal Crossing, the villagers that come to your island already have their own furniture and unique style. In Littlewood, not only do you rebuild the entire village, including where your villagers live, but you also get to pick where the buildings are. Another interesting aspect that I have come to realize, once, is that how I spend my day is really important especially if there is an important task to do.
For example, I had a character named Lilith (love the name!) come into town asking me to build her a house. Obviously, I agree but I didn’t even check what materials were needed for the house. I spent half of my energy and day doing other tasks before I realized I needed to find the right materials. I was able to gather the right wood but I didn’t have enough energy to turn it into planks for the house. The next day, I had a quick chat with her and I came to find out that, without a house that night, she had to sleep outside. I FELT AWFUL! This poor NPC just wanted a home and I completely botched it by not planning correctly.
Clearly, this is an example of what will happen in the future. The more villagers that arrive, the more each character will need. You will have to plan your day around tasks you will need to do whether it be going off and gathering supplies, leveling up a specific skill (such as fishing, crafting, mining, etc), or running the town (such as creating food for your villagers to eat or building furniture).
Something that is executed well is the characters are unique, wholesome, and kind. Each character you meet has their own personal struggles and agendas that you nurture. Stylistically, each character has their own personal flair as well so no character looks the same or acts the same giving you a breath of fresh air when you talk to them. Currently, Bubsy and Lilith are tied as “Lily’s Personal Faves”. Bubsy is a sassy chef who thinks highly of himself and Lilith is a witch who might be too powerful for her own good.
Finally, I wanted to mention the day and night system in Littlewood. There is no linear time in this game. Day can last however long you want it to last. Time really depends on your own stamina bar. The more you use your stamina, the faster the day will go. However, you are free to rest whenever you feel like it (Day or Night). Mechanically, it is a nice adjustment from both Animal Crossing and Stardew where I felt rushed to finish up my day or do something urgent before the hour passed. But, as I stated before, Littlewood might be the most relaxing town building game I’ve ever played and having no clock does add some relaxing points.
Overall, I’m so happy to have been given the chance to play Littlewood. I’ve only made it past three weeks in my game because this is a game you won’t want to rush. The music is soothing, the atmosphere screams “Hey, let’s take it easy.”, and every moment in the game feels special and unique to you, however you create your town and play the game. If you aren’t a fan of nonlinear gameplay or a lack of story, this game might not be the one for you. Obviously, over time, you do get glimpses into what happened before you lost your memory but how you get them, I have no idea. When it happened to me, I had built the town square. But how to get other moments, I think it will be based on luck. I can’t wait to go back into Littlewood tonight and spend my evening enjoying the characters, the town I’ve built, and my own virtual mental getaway that I’m creating.
As of writing this, Littlewood is only available on the Nintendo US Eshop. To find out when other countries will be able to pick up this game, please check out Sean Young’s Twitter (@seanyoungSG) as he continues to write updates.
Written by Lily Zaldivar