I have been playing a lot of games where I am tasked with organizing and cleaning over the past year, and I love them. There is no shortage of them, and while they all have their own theme, the mechanics are mostly the same. Fofumia, from Actoon Studio, does things a little differently.
The story begins with Amanda, Luna’s owner, and teacher, taking a holiday with their furry companion. While this should have been a simple and relaxing holiday, Luna had other plans, resulting in multiple levels of chaos, humorous situations, and a variety of locations.
Each level begins with Luna, or one of their fellow one-eyed cat-like Fofuno, destroying the level and mixing everything up. Playing out like a hidden object game, you must find all the items that are not in their correct space and move them to their correct placement. Since Fofumia has no time constraints, you can do this one item at a time, or find all the loose items, put them in one location, and then sort through them.
The way you play it is up to you. Depending on how large the level was, I changed my method as I played. Sometimes, if I found an item, I would place it immediately; other times, I would place it somewhere it was easy to find when I finally found where it needed to go. Each item had a shadow outline for its correct placement location. The game has a lovely assortment of small and large items, and I often found myself searching for a small bottle, mug, or paintbrush to complete a scene. This use of smaller items can also cause a little frustration when an item rolls behind something else, making it hard to see. Not only does this happen naturally, but it can be because of Luna being a pure chaos machine; they run around scattering and playing with items. If you have ever had a cat, you know this feeling. Thankfully, the game also includes a hint system radar that you can pulse over an area to see if there is a lost item in need of a home. The radar has no cooldown, and I was happy it existed.
Speaking of cats being cats. A few of the levels will make you repeat them with additional items to find after Luno, and their friends destroy it after your first attempt.
You can also find some puzzle-like mechanics in the game. You may have a statue or piece of pottery that is made up of multiple pieces. They have to be placed in the proper order to count as correct and complete. This also applies to things like stacks of pots and pans in a kitchen, for example.
Some items will also trigger other mini games. There are often jigsaw-puzzle-like or sorting into size or colour gradient mini-games, even some cleaning tasks for example. These were rarely challenging, and you have fairly good clues when you start as to what you need to do. Some of the jigsaw puzzle ones I found frustrating, but that was more of a personal skill issue.
A quick warning to achievement hunters: Fofumia is a fairly simple 100% with most achievements acquired for finishing the levels. Two of the achievements were a little harder. Petting Luno 10 times…seems easy, right? Nope. You have to wait until they stop and look at you with what I can only describe as “Puss n Boots” eyes. Then you have to pet them. It only counts as one each time, so it will take a while. There is also an achievement for taking the toys away from Luno, also meaning you have to wait for them to toss a ball, feather etc., multiple times and that can be slightly time-consuming.
The gameplay is a simple drag-and-drop style; it’s cozy, and the hand-drawn artwork is simple and delightful. The colour scheme reminded me of pastel paintings and Saturday morning cartoons. It’s a little on the shorter side, at about a 3-hour runtime, and might have limited replayability, as the same items are to be found each time you play. While it may be simplistic for some, I found it scratched the tidy-up itch for me.
This is a game that is approachable to a variety of skill levels and would even be good for younger gamers. If you loved games like Unpacking or A Little to the Left as much as I did, you’ll also enjoy Fofumia.
Until next time…be good to yourself and be good to each other.
**Special thanks to Actoon Studio for the review code**
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