Taste japanese rural life in this cozy Apple Arcade game

Japanese Rural Life Adventure is a new Apple Arcade release that takes you to a small rural town in Japan, with a long list of tasks to do. All that while enjoying beautiful Mount Fuji view in the back.

The Japanese Rural Life Adventure game launched recently on Apple Arcade as a quiet little title offering a peaceful trip into Japan’s countryside. It’s a pixelated tribute to rural Japan, complete with a blocky but charming view of Mount Fuji in the background.

The game, designed by Game Start, borrows elements from predecessors like Harvest Moon and Stardew Valley, blending them into a story about reviving a small rural town.

Set in a retro mountainside town, you play as a young person settling into a run-down cabin. The journey begins with fixing up the place and working the surrounding land. Gameplay is rooted in self-sufficiency: cultivating crops, fishing, and refurbishing the cabin. The whole thing moves at whatever pace you choose, letting you take your time.

As the story unfolds, you get more involved with the town and its mostly elderly residents. Your efforts bring the place back to life, restoring shrines, businesses, and even a school. This gradual revival attracts more residents, and the town slowly fills back up. The game grows from simple fishing and farming into more involved activities like processing wheat and rice, and wildlife photography.

Rural Life Adventure works well as a mobile game. Designed for one-handed play in portrait mode, it has an intuitive interface where tasks like fishing and cooking are simplified but satisfying. The trade-off is that certain aspects, like character development and customization, are stripped back. Players looking for deeper simulation mechanics may find it a bit thin.

The game joins a lineup of cozy titles on Apple Arcade, sitting alongside Stardew Valley and Hello Kitty Island Adventure. It offers a welcome break from faster-paced games, focusing on the small pleasures of rural living. The pixelated Mount Fuji stays in the distance the whole time, and the journey there is filled with modest, satisfying tasks that make Japanese Rural Life Adventure a pleasant way to spend an afternoon.

The game is available on Mac, iPhone and Apple TV via Apple Arcade.