From DU&I, purrveyor of cozy games, I expected an easy romp, but there were a few head-scratchers. While playing, I thought a lot about the speed of modern life and the convenience of the internet, and how they tempt us to consider the simple act of thinking about things for more than a minute or two to be an unnecessary frustration or waste of time, when we could just look up the solution instantly or get innumerable expert opinions instead of coming to our own conclusions. So, at some point, I decided to complete 100% of this game without looking at a single guide, gameplay video, or community post.

Learning to organize cats neatly is a questionable use of time. Sometimes, I solved puzzles by pure luck and learned nothing, and I had to accept that. Sometimes, I struggled a lot, but I was able to go back and solve puzzles I'd skipped earlier, despite having no actual grasp of just how, precisely, I'd improved, and I had to accept that too. Contrary to the internet opinions I've subjected myself to, it wasn't some profound, higher experience that took me back to the "good old days," or made me feel more accomplished than if I'd just played the game normally. Moments of struggle were still unsatisfying at times. Refusing to accept help from others isn't a guarantee that the struggle will be satisfying. Comparing this experience to playing a game normally, while occasionally using a guide when feeling totally stuck, there wasn't much difference. On the other hand, if I were to compare it to the experience of playing an entire game while following an achievement/trophy guide, it'd be like comparing life and death. If you don't allow yourself to struggle, out of some sense that you are 'wasting time,' you rob yourself of the moments of struggle that are satisfying, because those always take time. In a way, if you never take the time to struggle, you aren't really living.

So yeah, I spent the equivalent of a work shift playing a cozy puzzle game about organizing cats neatly. It was aight.