I was never a fan of Hello Kitty growing up, and even now, something in me has almost prevented me from becoming a fan of the characters over the years. I would blame my time growing up and being determined that the color pink would kill me if I ever wore it. It’s a blind spot that I never had a reason to fill up or confront in all my years of life. However, with the release of Hello Kitty Island Adventure for the third time on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5, my time has come to explore this series for the first time.
Hello Kitty Island Adventure was originally released on iOS in 2023 exclusively through the Apple Arcade service, which limited the game’s reach despite taking inspiration from titles like Animal Crossing: New Horizons and having boundaries their inspiration didn’t have. After all, you need an Apple smart device and a subscription to an exclusive service, which would make any discerning customer wary. However, with those barriers gone, Hello Kitty has a chance to capture the hearts of even those who are reluctant to fall into her cute aesthetics. But is it enough for you to purchase a two-year-old game?
Where We Dropping?
Hello Kitty Island Adventure kicks off as you are en route to an island resort with Hello Kitty and her friends, but something is strange with the invite that My Melody received. Despite this, everyone is excited to head to the island and enjoy the resort for themselves. That anticipation quickly fades, however, as something goes wrong when Hello Kitty attempts to bake you a delicious strawberry cake, and the ensuing chaos forces you and everyone else to skydive onto the island. Upon landing, it becomes clear that the island has long since been abandoned by the previous inhabitants, and the mystery of what happened is calling to you all. Now it’s up to you, Hello Kitty, and all her friends to solve this mystery while having the best vacation possible.
I’m going to say something now that will become a recurring theme as I played Hello Kitty Island Adventure: I was surprised by how much thought had gone into the plot. Yes, it is rather simple, but that doesn’t mean it lacks quality. I would say that this is a story for all ages. The mystery is compelling enough that I found myself wondering what had happened to the previous inhabitants, while remaining simple enough that a child would understand. This thoughtfulness is only helped by the appearance of Tophat, a holographic AI that encourages you to restore the resort to its former glory.
However, there are still some flaws with the way the story is locked behind certain relationship thresholds for certain characters. For instance, a quest will become available, but when you access that screen, you will notice that many of the quests have a lock symbol. If you attempt to examine and track that quest, you will notice that it will give you a list of requirements to fully activate it, which is usually a relationship level or a completed quest. I had spent many hours just collecting enough gifts for characters to continue the story, which was then further limited by the three gifts per real day that Hello Kitty implements.
This limit is clearly in place to ensure you won’t rush through the story, but it can lead to some frustratingly long moments of you running around to fill up time. In fact, at one point, I had forgotten what I was supposed to do for the story, which halted all progress for a few hours as I looked for appropriate gifts. Despite this setback, I was still enjoying my time, and the act of exploring does give its own rewards, making my time spent running around worth it. After all, the main point of Hello Kitty Island Adventure is to explore with your friends and have a good time.
A Mysterious Object
The main gameplay loop revolves around exploring the island and befriending the various characters using gifts you found on the island or crafted. It’s no secret that this is a very basic loop, but it is easy to see that Hello Kitty Island Adventure started as a mobile game. Each character will give you an item for each gift that you give them, and you will have daily and weekly quests to complete that will earn you various rewards. Usually, I find that these systems can be exhausting and turn me off from these titles. However, it feels natural here, and the charm of the characters manages to make the system bearable. Often, I would forget about the quests and just happen to complete each one while I was playing, and I wouldn’t even need to turn them in.
The real draw of the gameplay is the two separate puzzle types that you will frequently find across the island: mini-dungeons and time trials. The mini-dungeons are separate rooms that tend to involve some kind of button-pushing challenge. These puzzles are simple and are limited to a single room, but I have never felt like I needed a solution for a puzzle or that they were too easy. Surprisingly enough, they were engaging, despite in essence being a glorified box-pushing puzzle to open doors. However, the rewards can be very lackluster at times, because outside of the mandatory dungeons that you will do for the story, most dungeons will give you a quest with furniture or clothes.
The time trials are slightly different, but still require you to push a button; once you push the button, objects will fly out from the button, landing in a path on the island, and your job is to collect them again before time runs out. This is very simple and honestly very brain-dead, because once you optimize the path, you will easily beat the challenge. Yes, it will get harder each time you try it again, but the action is very simple. Despite this, I did have fun optimizing the time and collecting the weird trophy pieces that you obtain each time you complete one of these challenges.
I found that it was a welcome surprise to find a button or mini-dungeon door while I was out fishing, swimming, or collecting objects to create presents. I actually found the more Animal Crossing-style gameplay weaker, because it felt like it was meant to just obtain gifts for your new friends. There is a nature preserve, but I quickly noticed that the number of different species was so small per area that it didn’t feel like a goal to achieve. Instead, it was something to do while I was searching for the next storyline or one of the many collectibles you can find around the island. But I wouldn’t say that doing these activities is useless. The fishing mini-game is fun, even though I’ve only felt the need to fish a few times. It’s a nice way to slow down as you explore the island and relax in your own way, which is the main goal of a cozy adventure anyway.
Drifting Off to Sleep
Hello Kitty Island Adventure was a surprise to me, despite having heard about the game for a few years. I was expecting a game made for children that would take only a few hours to complete, and then I would subsequently forget about it as soon as I finished writing about it. Instead, I found a plethora of content and a charming story that didn’t feel bogged down by its intended audience. The upcoming Wheatflour Wonderland DLC seems to be a clear sign that content isn’t slowing down for this one.
There are some minor annoyances around the story presentation, especially the fact that you will frequently be stopped by having to raise friendship levels to activate a quest, but regardless, I fell in love with Hello Kitty Island Adventure. By no means is it the next Animal Crossing, but I found myself captivated in a world that I was sure wasn’t for me. Now, I’m wondering about how much I missed out on by ignoring Hello Kitty for so long, and whether any other titles might be just as good as this one. I wouldn’t say this is a must-purchase game, but if you are bored and looking for something to entertain your kids, this is a good title that the whole family can enjoy.
Disclaimer: Sunblink Entertainment sent a PlayStation 5 copy of Hello Kitty Island Adventure to Final Weapon for review purposes.
