17 relaxing video games to help you destress
17 relaxing video games to help you destress
From puzzlers and driving sims to power washing and Tetris.
Recent years have brought an influx of self-proclaimed “cozy games,” video games explicitly designed to invoke good vibes. That said, being cozy isn’t the same as being good.
To aid those who’d like some help winding down after a long day, we’ve rounded up a few chill games that strike the right balance: ones that purposefully deemphasize fail states, violence, overwhelming grinds, intense competition and other aggressive urges, but aren’t overly cute for the sake of it or so stripped-down that they’re boring. Here are some of the best relaxing games you can play on your Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, Xbox, PC or smartphone.
Apart from being one of the best couch co-op games, the farming life sim Stardew Valley is famous for its relaxing qualities. It’s a calming game that’s willing to meet you at your pace: If you want to putter around your farm, chat up townsfolk, brew beer or fish for a few hours, you can.
(On the flip side, you could also try to turn your land into a model of ruthless efficiency as soon as possible, though the experience will feel more overwhelming as a result.) The game takes a little bit to get going, but there’s no external force rushing you, and its trajectory of progress always points upward. It’s an alternate little life, one that gives you the choice to take it easy.
Nintendo
Animal Crossing: New Horizons
Available for: Switch
Length: 61-396 hours
Animal Crossing: New Horizons might be the most obvious selection on this list, but it’s no accident that this was the game that blew up when the pandemic hijacked modern life in 2020. It’s just about the platonic ideal of the capital-R Relaxing Video Game, a nonviolent escapist fantasy with no fail state, no overwrought narrative and constant progression.
It broadly tasks you with developing a deserted island as you see fit. You plant flowers, catch bugs, pave pathways, talk with your animal buddy neighbors, collect a million things and generally hang out.
Everything passes in real time, so sometimes you have to wait to complete whatever little task you had in mind. On the surface, much of what you do is comically unremarkable. (You don’t save kingdoms, but you can buy furniture.) But, like Stardew Valley, the slowness and mundanity is what sells the whole thing.
It points toward some of life’s little pleasures — watching things grow, getting to know others, seeing what a new day brings — and gives you a space to enjoy them, at least in some fashion.
Jusant
Available for: Xbox, PS5, PC
Length: 5 hours
$25 at Xbox
Jusantis a quiet, soulful game about rock climbing. The setup is simple: There’s a rocky monolith that stretches up to the clouds; you’re a young person who sets out to climb it. Along the way, you see artifacts of civilizations that once inhabited the tower.
There is a story, a somber yet ultimately hopeful tale of environmental ruin, but it’s told through leftover notes and considered set design instead of hacky dialogue. The game’s spirit is reminiscent of Journey, another calming yet contemplative title that takes big thematic swings, though it plays very differently.
Jusant works because of its control scheme. Each hand is mapped to a trigger button, so you clasp and release along with your character to move. A generous rope and a set of pitons help you navigate between handholds before your stamina meter runs out.
The game is more of a vertical platformer than a sim — there’s only ever one correct path to take — but playing Jusant is strikingly physical.
This encourages you to consider each move before you make it, to recognize that you must work with the world to progress, not idly breeze through it. None of it is particularly difficult, as there’s no combat and no way to actually die if you screw up. The latter may be Jusant’s biggest flaw, but it frees you to focus on the climb, bit by bit.
Dorfromantik
Available for: PC, Switch
$14 at GOG
$14 at Steam
Dorfromantikis a puzzle game in which you lay down tiles to create an idyllic countryside. Those tiles come in distinct types: forests, fields, rivers, railroads, little houses and so on. The idea is to chain similar pieces together and complete little “quests” to grow your overall stack. Since you can only see a few tiles at once, exactly what your landscape looks like will differ from game to game.
The need to keep gaining tiles creates a contingent sort of pressure, but even still, Dorfromantik is a game that encourages slowness and going at your own pace.
There’s no time limit and no way to really “win.” You’re led to consider each piece, look at the land and see how it all fits. When the tiles run out, you’ve usually created a beautiful little scene. If you just want to build a landscape without any restrictions, there’s a separate mode for that as well.
A Short Hike
Available for: PC, Switch, PS4, Xbox
Length: 2 hours
$8 at GOG
$8 at Steam
A Short Hike is a lovely little adventure game that’s completely in tune with itself. You play as Claire, a young bird in a world of anthropomorphic animals, who is staying in a small yet bustling provincial park.
Something is weighing on her, and she needs to make a phone call, but the only place with cellular reception is the top of the mountain at the park’s center. Your only required objective across the two-hour runtime is to get her there.
There is a conventional core to A Short Hike that involves doing light fetch quests for other park-goers and collecting golden feathers to climb higher and double-jump more. But most of these tasks are straightforward, and it quickly becomes apparent that you can (literally) soar around most of the park as you please, taking in the sights and interacting with the other park visitors as they go about their lives.
Apart from simply feeling nice, this freedom ties beautifully into the game’s themes: That mountain is calling, but you don’t have to climb it right away. When you do, the world will still be there for you to explore.
Like most games in our guide, Zen Bound 2 has a simple premise: You must wrap a rope around a series of 3D structures until they’re covered completely, coating each with paint in the process. The sculptures themselves can be more difficult than they first seem, however, with many hidden gaps and sharp angles.
Playing demands slow contemplation, as if you’re meditating on the object you’re binding. It’s enough to make you reflect on the physical nuances of the things you tie yourself to in real life. But even if that sounds pompous, just know that Zen Bound 2 offers a thoughtful way to zone out.
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