Oh, to be a cat out in the world! In A Day with Mochi, you get to do exactly that — play as a young cat who is currently living on a tropical island. There are tons of local cats here that just wander around doing whatever they want to do. You can join them in this sandbox game, finding random items to interact with, breaking into people’s homes, and getting held and pet by people!
Meowing, walking around, and causing mischief is really all that you need to do in your day as Mochi. It’s not a challenging game at all as there isn’t really any goals. Poking other cats can give you blurry, black and white Polaroids that you can then use to find a place that you are looking for, bringing forth a cutscene of mischief before bringing color to the picture. These act, to me, like little goals to keep an eye out for.
The rest of my time in A Day with Mochi was primarily me just messing around with whatever I could get my hands on. I found a cat that taught me that I could use a magnet to get tuna and bring it to them. I also spent a lot of time giving gifts in the form of red crab toys to humans so that they’d love me. Humans also can move you to new areas, so that you can jump from their arms to get up further.
Your jump ability and movement is a major part of the game, as sometimes I found myself jumping into places I could not quite get out of in the same way. You need to think about where you want to go and not get too attached to the route you have just came from.
A Day with Mochi is a really fun, silly, beautiful game that feels great to explore. Spill paint and walk in it, carry around a massive bit of salmon, find your friends — there is just so much to do. It’s quite impressive, especially for a student game!
You can play A Day With Mochi on itch.io, for free.
