Nintendo Switch: 5 chill games to play for stress relief

If the last 400-ish days have taught me anything it’s that self-care is vitally important. A million things seemed to crawl out of the woodwork that flooded me with stress and anxiety. Between learning to work from home to dealing with two kids that go to two different schools each with their own completely different online learned schedule, everything was an ordeal.

Luckily, I also learned to really get into chill gaming experiences. I cut back on a lot of the high-energy games and started getting into slow, casual games that delivered an almost meditative feeling became my bread and butter.

Here are five of my favorites that I found on the Nintendo Switch. So snag that Switch screen mount you found on Amazon. Lay back. And get ready to just zone out to these five gems.

Coffee Talk

There was a short period of time in my life where I owned my own coffee shop. I was completely in charge of it and it was one of the most peaceful times of my life. People would come in, slowly become regulars, tell me their story, it was remarkable.

Coffee Talk, by Toge Productions, captures a lot of the feelings that came with running your own shop. The freedom of being able to get real with customers instead of worrying about some sort of corporate bylaws. Learning about the people that enter your shop instead of just focusing on their buying habits.

Set in an alternate Earth’s 2020, you run a coffee shop that opens late in a major city not much different from the major cities of our earth, the primary difference is that in addition to humans, there are also werewolves, sea creatures, aliens and the occasional succubus. Luckily, everyone that enters your establishment means no harm. Even the cop that frequents your place is remarkably chill.

The game center’s around your faceless manager and, to a certain extent, your writer friend slashes habitual customer Freya.

As the surprisingly wealthy owner who isn’t worried about profits, you listen to customers, apply the occasional dialogue choices, and keep track of your customers preferred drinks. As you learn to make more drinks you can keep customers and help them let their guard down. The better you do, the more sociable and positive your customers are.

The game plays out almost like a book and, when everything is going well, it’s fascinating watching some of the characters interact together for the first time. Relationships form, friendships blossom and people see long-time acquaintances in a new light all thanks to your caffeine slinging.