If you’ve ever wondered whether you might find life more enjoyable as a giant rodent sitting quietly in an onsen with a tangerine on your head, then rejoice: it’s time to find out.
Yes, the upcoming indie game Capybara Simulator gives you a chance to experience life as the internet’s second-favorite animal. On reflection, it’s kind of amazing that no one thought of this before now, given the degree to which certain segments of society (leftists; memelords; the entire country of Japan) are obsessed with these inscrutable giant South American rodents. (As an aside: we recently drove out to Long Island to actually meet some capybaras the other day, and are happy to report that their inexplicable aura of calm is just as powerful IRL as it is online. Also, the babies are absurdly cute.)
It’s a strange time in gaming. With the release of Grand Theft Auto 6 hanging over the entire gaming industry like the Glock of Damocles, it feels like big studios are being particularly cagey with their release schedules: no one wants to go up against Rockstar’s long-delayed behemoth on release weekend. This fact, along with the fact that we don’t know when GTA6’s actual release will be—it’s been pushed back several times already—has left the list of notable big-name game releases looking pretty forlorn.
The flipside of this situation is that it gives less-heralded titles a chance to shine—and in any case, it may well also be that the time is ripe for a game that sounds like the literal opposite of a Grand Theft Auto title. After all, a big part of those games’ appeal is the chance to inhabit an anarchic, crumbling version of America. As far as escapism goes, that feels a bit less appealing if you’re already spending the rest of your waking hours inhabiting … an anarchic, crumbling version of America. In that case, maybe being a capybara is all you want.
So what can you actually do as a capybara? Well, the whole point is to do as little as possible. As Japanese game site Automaton put it—and we’re relying on Google Translate here, because our barely-remembered four years of high school Japanese are absolutely not cutting it—”[As a] capybara, [you] can do what you usually do. That is, it will be a work that can be done without doing anything while chilling.” I think you get the point.
Think of this as a walking simulator without the walking: settle back in your virtual pond, nibble on a virtual piece of lettuce, and enjoy the relative calm while it lasts. God knows that we could all do with some respite from the slow disintegration of everything.
English (US) ·