Quick Links
Calico is a magical island exploration game and animal café sim published by Whitethorn Games in 2020. The game rolls several types of play into one, with you creating a cozy island life for yourself as you take over your aunt's business. With the help of the islanders - both people and animals - you can revive the café, dress up in cute outfits, and in return, do your part for the community.
Getting started in Calico means following the Mayor's instructions until you are allowed to roam beyond the café. The game is a fun blend of exploration, quests, interior design, animal handling, and magic which results in overlapping actions and controls that you might need an exterior eye to help with.
Running the Café
Your main base, business, and home, the café is the most important spot on the island. You will earn an income just by living there and having items on the menu.
To put items on the menu, select recipes from the book in the kitchen. You will be miniaturized and start Calico's unique cooking process. Running around on the kitchen counter, you have to collect the ingredients for the recipe and throw them into the bowl. The sweet spot is a few steps back from the bowl, aiming right for its middle.
Once you've talked to a fellow islander person, they will know the café is reopened and will visit in their free time. To get higher tips, you can put your patrons' favorite foods on display via the recipe book, as well as placing animals and furniture sets that they identify with in the c𓆉afé.
Following A Quest
If you want to progress a quest, make sure you select the quest from your journal so tha🌠t you can access things like dialogue options associated with it.
To find more quest𒈔s, talk to every islander and ask if there isꦿ anything you can help with. Each one has at least one thing you will be able to do for them and will gift you associated items.
Another way to find quests is by traveling to the question mark spots on the map, each one indicating an undisc⛦overed location 🍸or islander.
Getting Around
An aspect of the game that can slow down your enjoyment is the long travel distances between objectives, so use the potion, which takes you back to the café as much as you like, as it never runs out.
Once you find a larger animal, you are able to mount it and ride on its back, and some, like horses, are faster than others. You can bring an animal straight to you by assigning it to your party via the journal.
The most intriguing but frustrating spots on the star-shaped island are the blockages that lead to different regions, characters, and quests. These won't necessarily activate via quests you pick up from islanders, and you will have to find some blocked off spots and investigate them yourself to start the quests that open up the island.
Animal Handling
The game involves a lot of transporting the island's animals to and fro. Thankfully they're all very friendly and ready to be handled.
There are several ways to transport them. You can pick up an animal at arm's length, store it on your shoulder or head, or mount and ride. You can also do all of these at once, meaning you can transport three animals at a time.
You can also instantly send any animal you've picked up to your café via animal commands or the journal.
To use a potion on an animal, first, pick the creature up and then select the potion from your inventory. For instance, you can use a potion obtained 💧early on from Autumn, which grows and shrinks animals, to enlarge a speedy critterꦰ like a cat.
Character Designing
You can easily access the character designer at any point as you explore, and are able to instantly change outfits, recolor, or add patternܫs and gradients🍨 to every item in your broad selection of clothing and accessories.
While your wardrobe is bare at first, picking up new clothes is easy to do. Get them from the boutique in town, which has new sto⭕ck every day, and you will also obtain some itemsཧ through quests.
You will unlock patterns from almost every new discovery you make in the game. You are also able to accessorize animals by assigning them cꦯertain items in the jouཧrnal menu.
Secret Waterfall Store
There's a store behind the waterfall at the bottom of the mountain, found by walking beside the river that runs under the café bridge.
The store contains items you may have missed when they were on sale at stores in the village, as well as special curiosity items.