Some of the basic blueprints for these items are unlocked by completing requests from the NPCs, while others are bought with coins. There are limitless combinations of what you can create in-game.
Each of their components can be readjusted, moved, resized, replaced or deleted, you can add new shelves to a bookcase in any position you desire and so on. While in similar games the crafting chain consists of 2-3 steps (you create some intermediate products like planks from harvested wood, then a piece of furniture using these planks), in Hokko Life you will be able to unleash your full creativity by customizing the crafted products (including full buildings) as you see fit. Hokko Life takes crafting to a whole new level. Coins can be obtained by completing requests from the villagers, catching insects / fish and selling them in the town’s shop, or even selling the items you produced. The stone and minerals respawn daily, while the flowers or trees you harvest take a few days to regrow but you will also be able to plant new ones in order to maximize your throughput. As such, most of the time is spent gathering the materials needed for your next objective, which requires various amounts of grinding for resources, depending on what you are trying to build.
In order to craft furniture or clothing items you’ll need raw resources, while building a house also costs coins. This is done by building houses, decorating and furnishing them, and then inviting potential characters to move in. The game’s main focus is expanding a small town into a thriving community. It’s certainly a fun and very chill game to play for fans of the genre, but it does have its own shortcomings. Hokko Life is more of a crafting / building sim than anything else, and because it doesn’t have a story, nor a system of building up relationships with the other characters (nor romance for that matter), the end game goals turn into unlocking as many of the crafting designs possible, amassing as many resources as needed to support the crafting process, and ultimately shaping / decorating the game’s world with the crafted items, according to your desires. However, even if it fits into the genre through its game design, mechanics and adorable graphics, I dare say that the gameplay is slightly different than what you’d expect from a farming / life sim. Hokko Life is a cozy game that is often compared to Animal Crossing / Harvest Moon / Stardew Valley.