Finished playing Winter Burrow and, to no one's surprise, I absolutely love it. There are various other animals about to interact with and you help them, learn a little about their lives, bond with them etc and they've all got good storylines - also they tend to call the mouse you play "mouseling" which is cute. Rambling spoilers ahead.
My favourite of the characters is definitely Gnawtusk because of their design and the fact that they're just a very sweet squirrel with some memory issues who's good at making healing tea and stuff. They were rejected/exiled/left behind by the squirrels that they were with before but end up becoming very good friends with mouseling's aunt once she's been rescued. It's all very sweet :]] Interacting with the others pretty much always has a warm vibe to it, even when the characters themselves are going through various struggles, and having the area around their homes be shelters from the cold really helps reinforce that vibe. When you're exploring the wilderness, there's always a sanctuary somewhere at least relatively nearby. I've definitely made use of their homes/fires to extend the time the mouse can spend in the wilderness or make sure they're warm enough for the journey home.
The game mechanics of gathering materials, crafting, cooking, and exploring the wilderness for specific things that the other animals ask of the mouseling and/or various crafting recipes was all very enjoyable. It didn't really get old for me - there were enough things to do at any one point that I never got stuck just doing one thing and the progression of unlocking furniture (either through exploration or character quest reward), unlocking improved clothing (allowing you to stay out for longer) and tools (which in turn unlock new areas of the map to explore), and progress of the character stories was all quite frequent.
Decorating my mouse's burrow was also so much fun. I love decorating :D Here's what I ended up with close to the end of the story:
The main room. Decorated with plants that their aunt planted, with one sofa/bench seating area for social gatherings (technically that 'bench' on the right is actually a bed but its appearance fit the vibe for being a seat) and one seating area with a table, a stool, a storage chest and an old, cozy armchair where my mouse would sit and knit and create their various outfits.
It's very cool that you can actually pick any chair to sit in for the knitting crafting menu but the blue chair is what you start with and habit kept me returning to that chair pretty much every time after that. Besides, it's right by the fire - it's got to be cozy.
Then, behind that, there's the workbench that the mouse would craft all their furniture at, with the stove nearby. Between the stairs to the second floor and the basement is their book nook, where their aunt rested while she recovered from her ordeal with the owl and its nest.
Upstairs is the mouseling's room. By the circular window, their bed sits; at the end, a chest of drawers with some small paintings of flowers on them. Nearby, there's their desk and a stool to sit on while they write and in another part of the room, there's a couple of chairs at a table. Perhaps it will be used for craft projects, perhaps it will be used for tea with someone if the mouseling didn't want to use the living room downstairs. Like downstairs, the room has several plants placed around the edges of the room. Something about having so much life in the place puts the mouseling at ease. Aunty had the right idea, they think - having plants to care for was good.
In the basement, what was once purely a place for growing mushrooms became a secondary bedroom, ready for if anyone wished to visit them or needed to live with them for a bit - no longer would they be relegated to sleeping on the various sofas; they'd actually have a bed to sleep in.
Down the stairs was where they actually grew mushrooms from time to time. It was decorated a little bit by some rock sculptures but of all the rooms, this was one that was the least visually appealing. It didn't need to be though - it had given them plenty of mushrooms in the past, and they would grow even more as winter goes on. With this and all they'd foraged, their pantry was stocked with food. Cooking was also something that they enjoyed, especially when they were trying out recipes from their friends, or cooking something for them to eat.
There is also some solstice celebration things that you can do post-game but the house decorated for solstice is for another post I think. I really want to write more about this little mouse living in their burrow and bits of their life as it goes on from this point, maybe getting into spring, summer, and autumn, or just being the winter solstice celebration itself because I've gotten through the solstice quests and alas, no celebration </3 Still, the furniture and food things you can get from it is very cool.
I love how cute the little cookie is for one of the solstice recipes ;-; The other food bits look delicious but this one is my favourite
