This game was advertised to me as something to scratch my Stardew itch, and because of that, I grew disappointed and bored. This game is not like SDV. It’s not even a farm sim. If you want a Stardew clone, look elsewhere. But once I realized what Littlewood actually is, I enjoyed it enough to put in 70 hours and get all 60 achievements. This game is a cozy, repetitive, low-stakes grindfest, with cute pixel art and enough lore (if you talk to the characters and read the item descriptions and other flavor text) to make up for the minimal story. This game is great to play in short bursts while also listening to a YouTube video or podcast, and it can get addictive, doing the same thing again and again to work your way up to the “chop 6000 trees” achievement.
The length of the day is tied to your energy, so you can make it as long or short as you want — you can spend a long time going through the caves and forests looking for chests and not using any of your tools, or you can use up the day in a couple of minutes crafting dozens of logs. This helps break the monotony a bit; I liked to spend each day focusing on a different skill (catch as many bugs/fish as possible, mine as many ores as possible, you get the idea). The card mini game was also surprisingly fun. I’m not really a decorator in most games, but in this one I actually decorated my town (the birds' eye build menu is nice), and of course one of the achievements requires you to decorate the villagers’ homes according to their preferences. I did romance/max friendship every single eligible character, and they do all have distinct personalities, but don’t expect to actually get attached to them as much as they’re attached to you.
This game was obviously made with love and there is humor if you pay attention to the flavor text; this is not a soulless 1-dimensional cash grab under the “cozy” label like many games nowadays are. But neither is it going to be your next favorite game — and it isn’t trying to be. Overall, I recommend Littlewood for people who like grinding for achievements/game completionists, and/or like to spend half their brain playing the game and the other half watching/listening to something else. I enjoyed my 70 hours with it, and I don’t ask for any more.