I don’t necessarily mind playing games that require you to manually save. Many of my favorite releases of the last few years, like Undertale, Nier: Automata, and Yakuza 0, use a save point system. However, now that autosave is the standard, it can be tricky to remember that you have to save to log your progress. I’ve made the mistake of shutting down games without saving a few times, and it’s always frustrating.
Thankfully, that’s never going to happen to me in Ikenfell. The game helpfully prompts me to save every time I do something I was going to do anyways: pet cats.
You’ll find cats everywhere you look in Ikenfell, whether you’re exploring a forest, visiting a pub, or exploring a spooky basement. Petting a cat refills the HP of all of your party members and gives you the chance to save your game. Best of all, if you do choose to save, you’ll hear an adorable “meow” noise, which was supplied by a real-live cat:
There are a lot of things to love about Ikenfell, from the amazing soundtrack to the addictive Super Mario RPG-esque battle system to the incredible cast of characters. Still, being rewarded for petting cats might my favorite detail in the game so far. It’s hard not to get excited when I see a new cat on my screen, even though I know I’m not petting it for real. Based on what I’ve seen on Twitter, I am definitely not alone in my cat-petting addiction.
I’ve always loved petting animals in video games, regardless of whether there’s any sort of incentive or reward for it. I don’t think I’ve completed a single Hades run without petting Cerberus, and I even got excited about feeding and petting the rats in Night in the Woods. If you also love petting digital creatures, I really can’t recommend Ikenfell enough. It’s an incredibly charming game with all the cat pets you could ask for.
