I don’t have any such games, but I know that Stardew Valley is a game that’s pretty divisive with regards to how cozy it is. The vibes the graphics and music give off are cozy, but I know that for some the gameplay can be stressful even if they consciously try not to minmax.
I struggle to see how any game with combat can be cozy either. I prefer cozy games to be ones you can stop at any second (without even pausing) and come back to them later. Unfortunately many games that otherwise count as cozy to me fail the “fell asleep playing” test so I have to accept pausing at least to have enough games to play.
In Stardew Valley and Littlewood at least you have to go looking for combat but there is content unavailable unless you participate.
I will say that for Stardew, I did a “no mines, no combat” run and the only thing needed for the Community Center that I missed out on was quartz. (I got the monster parts for the Adventurer’s Bundle via purchasing them from the Traveling Cart.) Even so, there’s a chance to get that from peoples’ trash cans, the RNG just never worked out for me. There were some items I missed out on but I still managed to get pretty far.
Also, I found mods: Harmless Monsters, Remove All Monsters, Optional Combat, and Pacifist Valley although some are more up-to-date and likely to work with the current version of Stardew than others. I hope they help!
But of course, no pressure. Just posted these if you want to try it. If you’ve decided Stardew is not for you because of combat it’s fine to just not play it, no need to try the mods before your opinion is valid. (Saying this because I want to make sure I don’t come off as pushy or “you have to try it with the no combat mods before it’s valid to avoid the game because of its combat”)
Curious what you think about turn-based RPGs. With those you can walk away without pausing and come back 6 hours later.
I’m fine with combat in cozy games but I feel it would be pretty hard to make a game that focuses on combat that I would consider cozy.
Thank you for the advice! Sadly I’m playing on Switch so probably can’t use the mods - however I appreciate your insights into the value in playing without the mines, that reassures me it’s a valid strategy/play style.
The biggest factor that causes me stress in Stardew is actually the time restrictions - trying to maximise the days for example. This is a me problem obviously but it seems to be somewhat common.
I’m tempted to play again on iOS since I own it there as well and try to be extremely casual and not really care about my progress.