{"id":25621,"date":"2026-04-15T12:28:50","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T20:28:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/?p=25621"},"modified":"2026-04-28T12:31:40","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T20:31:40","slug":"my-leisure-time-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/my-leisure-time-review\/","title":{"rendered":"My Leisure Time review"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
A screenshot of the author\u2019s home on My Leisure Time. | Photo by Jaylin Emond-Hardin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

April 15 2026 | Jaylin Emond-Hardin | Entertainment Editor<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve never loved a mobile game as much as I love My Leisure Time. Usually, I\u2019ll download a game after seeing it in an ad, play it for a couple of days, then get bored and it will sit on my phone until it\u2019s automatically offloaded to save storage.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Yet, this one has stuck with me. I don\u2019t know why it has, but every chance I get, I\u2019m not on social media, I\u2019m on the game.<\/span><\/p>\n

The game follows a newcomer to Yo-Yo Town who gradually helps residents grow their businesses, including a diner, a coffee shop and a salon, among other shops. As they do this, they also unlock furniture, housing layouts, clothing and pets. It\u2019s low-key and focused on development as the end goal, rather than puzzles or level-based gameplay.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s slow and cozy, like a lazy Sunday morning with extra-sweet coffee. Even the graphics \u2014 a simplistic chibi, anime style \u2014 aid in this feeling.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s as if Animal Crossing were made two-dimensional and all the villagers were human. That\u2019s the closest comparison I honestly have.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The game also has a variety of themed events where players can design furniture and clothing. Currently, the themes are Cosmo Tales and Starlight Garden \u2014 based on Mongolian traditional culture and Vincent van Gogh\u2019s paintings, respectively. The events take a lot of grinding to earn the materials to craft the furniture, but the pieces are so unique that it\u2019s worth it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Honestly, I never thought I\u2019d say that about a mobile game, but it\u2019s one that needs that description.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

My favorite part of the game is helping out the residents of Yo-Yo Town with their shops. The tasks are the only mini-game-style part of the game. At the coffee shop, players merge coffee beans, sugar and bottles of milk to make craft coffees. In the salon, 20 scissors are gifted every two hours and players must cut through pieces of fabric to collect hair dryers, combs and makeup brushes to unlock hairstyles. And at the diner, vegetables are planted, and other goods are ordered, so players can combine them into dishes to sell and earn trileaf coins, an in-game currency.<\/span><\/p>\n

But the mini-games are low-stakes and slow-paced, keeping that cozy, lazy weekend feeling, and players don\u2019t even have to interact with these parts of the game.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I know sometimes those games that are in ads don\u2019t show accurate gameplay, but this is one game where the ads were accurate and everything that was advertised is in the game. And maybe that\u2019s why it\u2019s stuck with me this time.<\/span><\/p>\n

After all, I keep taking breaks from writing this article to play the game.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

10\/10.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Contact the author at howlentertainment@wou.edu<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

April 15 2026 | Jaylin Emond-Hardin | Entertainment Editor I\u2019ve never loved a mobile game as much as I love My Leisure Time. Usually, I\u2019ll download a game after seeing it in an ad, play it for a couple of days, then get bored and it will sit on my phone until it\u2019s automatically offloaded […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1645,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"My Leisure Time review","_seopress_titles_desc":"Cozy mobile game offers home design and low-stakes gameplay","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[45,1115,10379,5947,3932,10385,417,10378,10383,10382,10381,10380,10384,684,1556,608,39],"class_list":["post-25621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-animal-crossing","tag-app-store","tag-chibi","tag-cozy","tag-game","tag-gamer","tag-gaming","tag-leisure-time","tag-mobile","tag-mobile-game","tag-mongolian","tag-van-gogh","tag-vincent-van-gogh","tag-western","tag-western-oregon","tag-western-oregon-university","tag-wou"],"modified_by":"saragerrick","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1645"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25621"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25621\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25628,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25621\/revisions\/25628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}