Steam] For those of you who got hooked on the charm of islands with "Atsumori", here are 3 island games on Steam!

How are you doing, Akiba Research Institute readers? This is Nero Hyakkabe, a writer who buys too many games. Have you been playing "Atsumare: Animal Crossing" (Atsumori)? I have been playing the game for over 260 hours in less than three weeks since its release, which means that I have been living on the island for an average of more than 12 hours a day. What is it?　Is the world where Tanukichi and his friends are in reality ......?　Does that mean that I, the writer of this article, am a character in the game ......?


Atsumori" is a very popular game, and one of the most unique features of this game is that it takes place on a deserted island. The game's "island game" style, in which you live a carefree, relaxed life on a deserted island surrounded by nature and surrounded by the sea, is a major attraction.



Don't Starve Together "


  • Maker name: Klei Entertainment
  • Release date: April 22, 2016
  • Price: 1,480 yen (as of April 8, 2020)

(C) All Rights Reserved Klei Entertainment 2016


Survival. That's one of the top three words (at our own discretion) in the ranking of words associated with a deserted island. In "Atsumori," although you are living on a desert island, you don't go hungry or take damage, so it doesn't feel like survival, but in this title, "Don't Starve Together," it is a gory survival game where hunger and death are both present.


The setting of this title is a strange, uninhabited island with a hand-drawn, picture-book touch. The player chooses one of the many unique characters to live on the deserted island. The only objective of the game is to stay alive as long as possible. The stoicism of the game is reminiscent of games from the early days of the Famicom (NES), where the only objective was to beat the high score.


The title of this title, "Don't Starve," translates to "Don't Starve" in Japanese. As the name implies, players are forced to run east and west across the island in order to stave off hunger, but in this work, there are not only "satiety" levels, which indicate hunger, but also "stamina" and "sanity" levels.



Aside from hunger and physical strength, sanity is a parameter with a rather disturbing aroma. In games based on the Cthulhu Mythos, sanity is often referred to as "SAN value," but in this game, sanity decreases as you stay in the dark or get close to giant monsters, and as a result, hallucinations and auditory hallucinations begin to occur, and eventually the hallucinations become shadow monsters that attack your character. The penalty of fear is that the hallucination becomes a shadow monster that attacks your character. I have written about this briefly, but yes, this is a world in which monsters appear in this work.



While running away from monsters, sometimes you have to fight, sometimes you have to make lights to illuminate the darkness, sometimes you have to secure food to prevent starvation... And anyway, there is a lot to do in the survival life of "Don't Starve Together". For survival, you need to gather materials and craft tools. This feeling of making an axe out of stones and twigs or a campfire out of grass and logs is similar to the "DIY" aspect of "Atsumare: Animal Crossing," but in this game, if you don't make tools, you will die directly. Inevitably, the collection of materials becomes quite frantic.


In particular, whether or not you can survive the night is a major life-or-death issue. In this game, there is a clock in the upper right corner of the screen that shows the in-game time, and once you start the game, the clock ticks nonstop. The blue part of the clock indicates the time of night, during which time the area is covered in darkness, and if there is no light nearby, your sanity level will decrease dramatically, and if you are not careful, you can easily die on the first night because a monster of the dark night named Charlie will attack you. If you are really bad at it, you can easily die on the first night. Incidentally, sanity slowly decreases in the dark, even if there are lights. In short, you will lose your sanity at night no matter how hard you try. What an island!



To be honest, this game is quite challenging and you will not be able to survive for a week or even three days before you get used to it. However, each time you repeatedly make mistakes, your knowledge and tricks will slowly but surely build up inside you, and the number of days you can stay alive will gradually increase. Each time I play, I feel my technique improving, and the next time I play more! You will find yourself playing again and again. This addictive game is one of the best of the so-called "death games," which are difficult games where the player learns by dying.


Now, the main feature of this title is actually the implementation of a multiplayer mode that allows you to survive together with your friends, as the name "Don't Starve Together" suggests.


The game is actually a "Together" version of the "Don't Starve" game, and if you purchase the game on Steam, you will receive another copy of "Don't Starve Together" to give as a gift to a friend! This is a nice trick. I gave my friend the other bottle as a gift, and he became much more addicted to the game than I was, and his knowledge and technique were far superior to my own. My friend, you must be a dreadful ・・・・・・!　And I'm sorry ・・・・・・ for pulling you into the yucky swamp!


Nowadays, going out is not an easy thing to do, so you might want to invite your good friends to play "Don't Starve Together" and enjoy survival life together at home.



Visit the Steam website

ISLANDERS "


  • Manufacturer: GrizzlyGames
  • Release date: April 4, 2019
  • Price: 620 yen (as of April 8, 2020)

One of the charms of "Atsumori" is that as you progress through the game, you'll find yourself building museums, stores, and homes for the inhabitants. The feeling of creating your own box garden is undeniably exciting, and "Islanders" is also a type of game in which you build one building after another on an island.

(C) 2019 GrizzlyGames


When you think of a game where you build buildings on an island, you tend to imagine a "SimCity"-like simulation game, but this title falls into the "strategy" category in terms of genre. However, the game is similar in feel to a puzzle game, and it would be faster to introduce it to you than to say it is a "・・・・・・" game!　Let's get started.


The action cycle in "Islanders" is quite simple: choose one of two "packs" to receive a building, then place the building you receive on the island to earn a score. Then, if your score exceeds your quota, you get a new "pack" ・・・・・・ and the action repeats. The game is over if the score quota is not achieved before you run out of buildings on hand.


Scores are earned based on the buildings you place, but that alone is not enough to reach your quota. The key point is, in short, to place the building in a good location. Yes, that's a bit of a zacky way of putting it, so let me explain. A good location means being near compatible elements, for example, a lumberjack hut near trees, a flour mill near a field, and so on. This will give you a bonus score and help you reach your quota.



You may be thinking, "Well, if I just put the trees in the right places one after another, I will be able to score a lot of points! But of course, it is not so easy. Some buildings are incompatible with each other. For example, if you put another lumberjack hut around the lumberjack hut, your score will be minus, which is like "Hey, hey, don't come into my work area! This is probably because the lumberjack is angry at the other lumberjacks. In addition, placement restrictions are also set by terrain for each building, such as "fields cannot be placed on sandy beaches. If you do not clear this point, you will not be able to get a score.



The basic way to play this game is to aim for places where you can get as many bonuses as possible, while avoiding places where your score will be negatively affected. The exhilaration of getting a large score by placing a building in just the right place after careful consideration is similar to the feeling of playing "Tetris" when you are able to insert a stick into the right place, and it is guaranteed to get your brain juices flowing. If you like puzzle games, I think you will be addicted to this game for sure.



Incidentally, in addition to the "High Score Mode" introduced above, there is also a "Sandbox Mode" in which you can simply place buildings on the island as you like, without worrying about scores or placement restrictions. The pop atmosphere of the graphics, combined with the feeling that you are playing with building blocks, will make you feel as if you are a child again.




Visit the Steam website

Return to Sirona Gas Island


  • Maker name: TABINOMICHI
  • Release date: March 3, 2020
  • Price: 500 yen (as of April 8, 2020)

The island in "Atsumori" is a paradise where nature abounds and time passes leisurely, but in the case of mystery stories, the island is a standard spot for so-called closed-circle stories where the island is cut off from the outside world and terrifying incidents occur.
Return to Sirona Gas Island" is a mystery adventure game that takes place on the isolated island of Sirona Gas Island.


(C) 2020 TABINOMICHIM


The main character is Sen Ikeda, a private detective in New York City. He and his assistant, Neneko Izumozaki, head for "Sirona Gas Island," which was left in the will of a wealthy man, in order to discover the identity of "what drove my father to suicide. The story begins with a novel-like introduction. The story then progresses to encounters with various characters on the ship, such as the daughter of a prominent family who advises Ikeda not to touch the mystery of Sirona Gas Island, and a female physician who goes to the island on behalf of her uncle who has received an invitation to visit the island. Before talking about the story, I would like to introduce a point that I particularly like to emphasize in this work. First of all, before talking about the story, I would like to introduce a particular point that I would like to emphasize in this work. That is the existence of Neneko Izumozaki, Ikeda's assistant.



Neneko Izumozaki is a girl with black hair so long that it covers her eyes and a sailor suit, but she has a very strong character, "a girl genius who can speak more than 20 languages at a native level, but she is a super communicator who cannot even converse with people she has never met before. In fact, every time she meets someone other than Ikeda, Neneko rushes behind him and withdraws. Cute. Neneko is always very aggressive and has a poisonous tongue, calling Ikeda "incompetent Ikeda," etc., only to Ikeda, whom she has allowed herself to befriend. Cute.

Neneko is such a cute and strong character, but she has one major characteristic. She is a "perfect memorizer," able to memorize and reproduce a scene she has once seen. This ability will be a great help in his investigations as an assistant to the detective Ikeda.



In my opinion, it is no exaggeration to say that the charm of the characters is the most important element in a text-based adventure game. No matter how interesting the story is, if the characters do not have enough personality, you may get tired of reading the story. The dialogue between the characters is light and witty, sometimes comical and sometimes serious, and well balanced, so even those who do not usually read novels will be able to enjoy the story and move on quickly and easily.

In addition to the standard text adventure game elements of choice, this title is rich in elements that keep the player engaged, such as the ability to investigate by clicking on points of interest on the screen, and scenes with time limits. The game offers a unique and immersive experience that cannot be found in novels or movies.



I will not say much about the storyline here, as it is necessary to avoid spoilers due to the nature of this mystery. The strange structure of the hotel to which Ikeda and his friends are invited, the mysterious identity of Aurora, the girl they meet at the hotel, and the tragedy that ensues, as the story unfolds, new mysteries and incidents occur one after another, which keeps you on your toes and draws you further and further into the world of Sirona Gas Island. This work can be recommended not only to mystery fans, but also to those who have not played many text adventure games before.


Incidentally, the author of this work, Mr. Onimushi Hyogo, is the winner of the "2nd Kodansha BOX Newcomer Award Stones," a novelist award, and is a senior author of the author, Mr. Hyakkabe Nero, who debuted as an author after winning the same Kodansha BOX Newcomer Award (although we are not directly acquainted with him! (Although I have no direct acquaintance with him, he is a senior writer at ・・・・・・!) ). ) He is not only a scenario writer but also a game creator by himself. ・・・・・・

Visit the Steam site

Let's go out to the fascinating "islands" on Steam!


We introduced three recommended island games that can be played on Steam. After introducing these three games, all of which are of different genres and have a wide variety of gameplay, I felt as if I had rediscovered the appeal of the "island" as a game setting. Japan is also an island nation, so perhaps our instinctive attraction to "islands" is deeply rooted within us.
So, I hope you will find an island full of charm on Steam and go out to enjoy it!　Let's enjoy island life!


Author：Nero Hyakkabe
Freelance writer who buys too many games. I currently have more than 300 games in my stack. Also a novelist. Author of "Goaken Unrated Edition" (Kodansha) and "My Mother's Lie" (in "Malicious Kwaidan") (Takeshobo).

Recommended Articles