Littlewood Review

A brave hero awakens after an epic fight to save the world in a small town that was destroyed in a tussle. They don’t remember anything about the fight or about the life they used to lead, but they do immediately encounter a couple of friends who give them a very big task - help rebuild the world. Welcome to Littlewood - a very chill town-builder that makes it clear right from the start that you’re not here to fight enemies or avenge the town. That time has passed. Now, you must mine, fish, farm, and cook your way to a thriving village.

Littlewood immediately gives you a lot of creative freedom over your town - you can move anything and change the environment (build hills or rivers) to your heart’s content without many restrictions. You get to name yourself, your town, and even your Role. Don’t like being a Mayor? Be a Lod like me, Lod Brodie! I obviously misspelled “lord” and thought it was too funny to correct. You’ll start easy enough - mining some ore, chopping some wood, building some houses and other buildings. Even this early in the game you’ll notice some of the quality of life features of the game - not needing to equip certain tools from a hotbar, no real sense of “time” - just how much energy you have, etc. As you build and live you’ll discover a bunch of new folks who want to live in your village and a lot of new ways to experience some of the basic mechanics. You’ll be able to “hang out” with the villagers to increase your relationship and gain extra little trinkets while you do things. This is the core gameplay loop - harvest, gather, or create and make some friends along the way.

About the time I started wondering “wait, this game only takes place in your village then?” it opens up. This is actually one thing I think Littlewood does extremely well - whenever a concept seems like it’s starting to get stale, you’ll discover either something new about it or a totally fresh thing the game does. A few of these legitimately made me say “whoa, the game has THIS too?” Of course every new mechanic they add to the game comes with the opportunity to fill up more bars and complete more tasks. The tasks never feel very urgent though. Eventually you unlock a quest board where a villager wants a specific thing. These don’t fall off, but just hang around until you complete them. Don’t like a quest? Get rid of it, you’ll get a new one tomorrow. Do enough of them and you’ll start earning bonus chests full of dewdrops (the game’s currency) or rare-ish materials.

The Lord hard at work in his mayoral office.

This is the core gameplay loop - harvest, gather, or create and make some friends along the way.

Littlewood accomplishes all this by either borrowing from other games in the genre or learning from player gripes in other games. The aesthetic definitely drips a hybrid of Stardew Valley and Forager. The relationship system reminds me of a cross between Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley. The “event” system seems very similar to, weirdly enough, Xenoblade Chronicles - you need to have certain relationship levels for characters to witness little cutscenes/interactions between townsfolk. The calendar system reminds me most recently of My Time at Portia. Picking weeds is straight Animal Crossing territory. While none of these ideas feel extremely unique, they do feel at home together in this package.

It’s worth noting that Littlewood seems to always err on the side of “fun first.” Are you away from your village and out of stamina? Well, just open your menu and warp right to your house - no two-stage fast travel needed where you risk picking one more weed and knocking yourself out. In trying to be authentic to the theme many farming or town simulators often feel like they’re getting in the players’ way and forcing them to make a decision between two things that might not be around forever. This is where Littlewood shines, it very rarely feels like it’s getting in the players’ way. In fact the only other way Littlewood could conceivably make it more friendly would be removing the stamina system altogether, but the stamina system is also integral for traveling merchants, different seasons, etc. This was the factor that kept me from getting into Stardew Valley or My Time at Portia - I have a hard time enjoying games that give me anxiety over my decisions.

So many bars to fill! 26 pages of small goals in just one of the game’s journals.

It’s worth noting that Littlewood seems to always err on the side of “fun first.”

I will say that my only major gripe is that the game frequently wants to remind me there’s a main story quest. Having sunk over 20 hours into the game, I still haven’t found a point where I’ve found myself caring about what happened to the world before the game started or any of the lore. Maybe that will change? Some minor gripes include a lack of variety in Soundtrack (there’s only one song per season,) the inability to rotate furniture, and sometimes the game doesn’t tell you things (build a desk in everyone’s house, trust me.)

All in all, Littlewood will appeal to fans of town builder games that just want to have the most chill experience possible, and those who like ticking boxes/filling bars/completing lists. The only thing holding it back is that it’s a rather niche experience that might not appeal to a ton of people.

Review based on: 20 plus hours of play on Nintendo Switch - unlocked all but one area.