There’s something about Floatopia that feels like a warm hug. A comforting embrace that offers familiarity, and a sense of escapism from the pratfalls of everyday life. NetEase’s brand-new cozy life-sim is abundantly full of joy and laughter among the skies, giving Animal Crossing-style gameplay a dash of superpowers. However, despite the game’s lovely world and premise that I experienced at Gamescom, I’m still unsure whether it will find a rightful place alongside Nintendo’s genre definer.
Plenty of the best Switch games out there have tried to emulate one or multiple facets of Animal Crossing: New Horizons‘ success and that notion extends back to the franchise’s heritage on Nintendo 64. Nintendo has crafted a distinct minutia within the series that’s hard to escape, but Floatopia is trying to carve out its own space in the cozy games genre with a superpowered perspective. Whereas Tom Nook had the power of pushing me into a life debt of bells, Floatopia gives you the opportunity to join an esteemed league of metahumans who wield all manner of fantastical abilities.
Yet, in Floatopia’s world, superpowers are seemingly overlooked by society. According to NetEase in a recent statement, the game’s narrative is all about how “the most sought-after superpowers are quickly reserved, leaving only the seemingly ‘useless’ powers behind. You play a character who, by a twist of fate, joins forces with others possessing these overlooked superpowers.” But, yes, you guessed it, these powers aren’t so useless after all. My demo throws me into Floatopia’s character creator, and while the options presented to me are fairly limited, NetEase makes up for the lack of variety with slickness.
Floatopia’s outfits, hairstyles, and accessories are spectacularly dripped up. There’s a clean sheen to every piece of fabric or colorway that is available at my fingertips. As I’m melting away in the halls of Gamescom, it is only natural that I gravitate toward an outfit channeling the gravitas of GTA: Vice City’s Tommy Vercetti. Hey, I just can’t resist a nice floral shirt. From there it is straight into island life, and within mere seconds, the muscle memory of Animal Crossing kicks in. Life on my floating island begins by gathering resources with a handy Hoover tool to break ground with my own home.
Whereas Animal Crossing’s perspective is largely fixed, Floatopia’s third-person camera lets me in on the life-sim action with a closely trained eye. It all looks gorgeous, with clusters of clouds passing our humble island, and sun-kissed ponds glistening around me. Floatopia’s music is a real highlight, serenading the whole demo with a medley of easy-listening jazz arrangements that wouldn’t be out of place in a Persona game.
When it comes to those aforementioned superpowers, I’m able to fly around the island by holding the jump button, soaring from one patch of resources to the other. It’s all easy work to acquire enough resources to learn and forge blueprints for useful items like an axe, hammer, or fishing rod.
Fishing isn’t as straightforward as Animal Crossing, requiring me to cast my fishing rod at specific angles around the unsuspecting fish swimming around. Although I didn’t get to see it in my time with Floatopia, NetEase appears to have confirmed that Floatopia will contain gacha game elements too, as the game’s website expresses that players can earn “Lucky Tickets”, and ten of them will be granted to you once it hits 20 million pre-registrations.
The format of Floatopia’s launch as a paid or free-to-play game is yet to be confirmed, but your mileage may vary when it comes to using pulls for desired items. Those items are unconfirmed too, but speculatively it is likely that pieces of clothing are going to be the first port of call. I’m having plenty of fun with Floatopia across my preview, but other than its glossy visuals and superpowers, I’m struggling to how it will confidently assert its staying power. At least from an identity perspective.
My time with Floatopia ends on a poignant note, though. As I gaze out into the vastness of the sky, my character shares a moment with a fellow villager, setting aside a moment to reflect on the simple resonance of human connection. It took me aback to see such a lovely, understated interaction unfold. With optional multiplayer features available in the game, there’s a chance for Floatopia to craft a deeply welcoming social hub, and it could be a perfect time for it.
With no more updates coming to New Horizons and the closure of Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp set for November, there’s a gap ready for Floatopia to fill when the Floatopia release date eventually arrives. When that moment does happen, I’m curious to see how well-optimized the game is for Nintendo Switch. My demo is a PC build of the game, played with mouse and keyboard as opposed to any of the best Switch controllers you may have in your own setup.
It definitely feels, looks, and sounds like a game poised for a current-gen console, but with the Nintendo Switch 2 in the works, maybe the clouds with part for Floatopia’s handheld future.