If I said I was bad at casual games, would you believe me?

This grumpy-looking capybara believes me.

Capybara Spa is a casual simulation game. In it, you turn a large pile of rocks, mushrooms, and nothing into a thriving spa for capybaras, baby capybaras, and whatever other random critters you can abduct and toss into a tub. The capybaras have various desires, such as carrots or little flower hats, and once fulfilled, leave the spa, carrying their new hats, offspring, or parasitic duck friends.

Each capybara shall be assigned an offspring when they enter the capybara spa, for this is how capybara reproduction works.

There is literally no fail state in this game. There is no way to stall out, no way to run out of cash, no way to fail to summon at least one muddy and bedraggled capybara in need of a thorough pampering. All I as the player have to do is click a capybara, put them in a tub, give them what they want, then remove them from the tub. The game moves as quickly or as slowly as I want it to, with the speed being dependent on the number of tubs and how fast I feel like clicking. The capybaras never get upset and leave. They never bite each other. They bask placidly. politely requesting carrots, blueberries, or a fun little hat.

If the capybara is most blessed by the spa god, it shall receive two offspring.

So why, then, if there is no way to fail and no pace but my own, do I feel like I’m bad at this game? How can I possibly fail at a casual clicking game?

Though Capybara Spa is a game about pampering some capybaras through the liberal application of carrots, it is also ultimately a game about efficiency and automation. I upgraded all my tubs and vegetable gardens quickly, then bought butterflies to feed the capybaras for me (don’t think too hard about it) so I could devote my time to plonking as many capybaras into tubs as I possibly could. In so doing, I reasoned, I could earn as much money as possible to buy more tubs and more automation so I could hunt down more capybaras and grow into a grand capybara spa cum breeding facility empire.

Those who are not blessed shall receive a duck.

I played Bunhouse a while ago, and in that review, I mentioned that my main critique of the game was my inability to be as much of a greenhouse tycoon as my heart desired. If we really dig into my review of Cat Goes Fishing , we see a similar sentiment, that the lack of ability to be truly mercenary made me dislike the game intensely. Capybara Spa is not Cat Goes Fishing by any means, but I found myself growing increasingly frustrated nonetheless. The limiting factor in my growth was me and my ability to ruthlessly pursue escaping capybaras for my spa. Automation could only take me so far; for me to be truly profitable, I needed a way to automatically boot capybaras from tubs when their time was up, to automatically snag grungy animals and throw them in the tub, to automate every possible step so all I would need to do is sit back and count the fruits of the butterflies my labour.

I am bad at casual games because, in the end, I want them to either be as uninvolved as Cookie Clicker, or holding as much potential as Factorio, and there is no in-between.

Capybara Spa is more involved than Cookie Clicker, but less about building something automated than Factorio. It is a game about plopping capybaras in tubs, feeding and treating them, and sending them on their way. It is lovely for what it is, a nice zen-like game to fill an hour or so when you need time to pass, but staring at the ceiling is too much of a reminder of how limited all our time is. I can’t say I enjoyed it, per se, but I recognise that isn’t the capybaras. It’s me and my absolute need for control.

Developer: Cozy Bee Games

Genre: Simulation, Casual

Year: 2022

Country: Canada

Language: English

Play Time: 6 Hours

Youtube: https://youtu.be/xDZPU5OjlDE