By: Krow Smith | @coffeewithkrow

Last year, I reviewed the demo for Spirit City: Lofi Sessions and have been a huge fan of the game ever since. Once released, I purchased the game and now I use it all of the time while writing, crocheting, or even cooking. Needless to say, I was especially hyped for the release of their new DLC, the Cozy Kitchen Expansion! For the sake of transparency, I was given early access for the purposes of reviewing the DLC, but I wasn’t paid nor am I being sponsored for this post.

My time with the early access was fun—trying to obtain the whimsical Spirits, being productive when doing real life activities alongside my in-game avatar, and relaxing when I had the game playing in the background as I chilled.

When you enter the game, it opens looking at the main loft area. To view or enter the kitchen has to be done through one of the menus, either the decor or the activity menu.

The first thing I did was go into the decor menu to buy the new decorations with in-game money earned from tasks. Not only did I notice the new decorations but the fact that you can customize the colors of most furniture and items (cabinets, most countertop objects, clothing, etc). This resolves any issues with finding the right wood color or the perfect shade for the walls. I love the inclusion of being able to type in the Pantone code to get the exact color you’re looking for, too. On their Bluesky, they even said that they are planning on making this kind of color customization available for the avatar and bedroom area for free in the future as well!

There are three new soundscapes: “Tasty Bubbling,” adding the sound of a boiling soup, “Kitchen Ambience,” creating an atmosphere of chopping veggies and the clank of plates, and “Dishwasher,” which adds the sound of a dishwasher running. All of these soundscapes are wonderful additions and pair well with the kitchen activities (like stirring a pot and cutting vegetables). Also, there is a sound in the base game called “Tasty Sizzling” that now has the perfect use with the new “Cooking” activity!

Speaking of activities, there are a total of eight activities with six of them being completely new to the expansion, such as “Eating,” “Dishwashing,” and “Whisking,” in addition to the ones mentioned above. The other two are “Reading” and “Typing,” which are activities that we’ve seen in the base game and they are exclusively done at the new breakfast nook area in the kitchen expansion. I wasn’t expecting the breakfast nook and was pleasantly surprised by it. I also loved the variety of coffee makers as an aspiring coffee snob! So much is customizable and there are plenty of items to decorate with.

As for the Spirits, there are three new ones and nine new variations of the base game’s Spirits. The variations are essentially unlockable skins for some base game Spirits. Except they have their own names and entries in the Spiritdex (the codex but for Spirits). All of the Spirits and the variations are adorable. Unlocking them is the same as before, using soundscapes, activities, and time of day to attract a certain Spirit. For variations, you must have the original Spirit with you (for example, you must have the Dust Bunny present in addition to the other conditions in order to attract a Bento Bunny).

Now, typically you can click on the Spirits and they react with little hearts and movements. This is something I do every now and again to “pet” the Spirits. However, for some reason when I click on the Squire Sprouts, nothing happens. It’s a little detail, but I do hope they fix this in future updates or make a note of it in the Spiritdex if this was intentional. This was a small disappointment in the grand scheme of things (and fixable), but something I wanted to make note of here.

The only other disappointment I have, slight as it may be, is that I wish the kitchen was more like the main loft area; clickable in certain spots with each of those individual spots opening a menu for an activity to choose from.

In the main loft area, for example, clicking on the bed opens up a menu for different activities. The same thing will occur when clicking on the Baywindow [sic] or Fireplace to pick one of those activities. I thought the Kitchen would function like this, a hub area, instead of being a subsection. It feels slightly limiting, but it didn’t hinder my experience nor did it make me feel like this isn’t worth being paid content.

I just feel with a game like this, where those little things add up to a full experience, the details really matter. Overall, I give the Cozy Kitchen Expansion a 9 out of 10! If you have Spirit City: Lofi Sessions and you love it as much as I do, I highly recommend getting the Cozy Kitchen Expansion! If you don’t have the base game and might be interested, check out my review of the demo (linked at the top), especially since they have updated and fixed any issues I had with it at the time, making it a 10 out of 10 experience on its own!

Thank you to Mooncube Games for giving me a review code for the Cozy Kitchen Expansion! If you enjoyed this review, consider giving it a like~

Developmental edits by: Peggy Sue Wood | @pswediting