Book Bound is a fun and addictive cozy game that sucks you in within the first couple of days in-game. That, paired with the humor that Stefan the book gives the player, is the perfect combo.
Now Book Bound isn’t overly complicated in gameplay, but what it does do is keep the player busy. Once you first get into the world, you see that there are letters around the bookshop you own. Grabbing one fills your inspiration meter up, going all the way to 100. We do not get to know what this meter does yet, but players know it is important.
Once you get inside the bookstore, it is completely empty, but you do have £1,000 to furnish and gain inventory. But wait, there is something flying in. A book! What is a book doing here? And why does it have eyes? That’s just your local sentient book who guides you throughout the game, giving helpful tips and being, well, sassy as any good sidekick should be.
There’s really no story for Book Bound other than the story you slowly learn by playing multiple days and for many hours. Stefan helps guide you through all the different areas of the game while asking how everything is going, giving you two options that break down to “yes” and “no”. Once you get further, you learn that he used to work at the bookstore many years ago and even wrote some books till his tragic death.
The dialogue and ease of playing make Book Bound a lot of fun and cozy in every way. When I sit down, I open the game and start playing it because of how quick the days are in-game. Though there are a few glitches that do happen if you save and quit in the middle of a day. Such as if there is someone walking towards your checkout, you will not be able to. Meaning whatever money you could have made that day is gone. The other glitch I recently found was no one spawned except for the book drop-off man.
Another thing that I find interesting is how I was unable to expand my bookstore once I got further into Book Bound. Which is fine, but I would have liked to be able to add more earlier on. I also wished that I was able to rotate items to allow for more books and more items to be added; I often felt very restricted by what I could not do and got frustrated at the small space. I also wished that I could see the other walls in order to add more decorations to them.
Though I do like the minigame in Book Bound. When you open the store, you are able to go out and press F in order to advertise the store and get more people in. When doing this minigame, you must hit either or all of the keys QWER and keep the conversation going with them. Keeping them in the green allows them to follow you into the store so they can look around.
Being able to order books and put books away was so calming and relaxing. And being able to buy books while also choosing which books you are wanting to put into the store is an exciting, while scary feeling. I don’t know what books I will miss out on at the end of the day but that problem can be fixed if you can afford to buy the second book for £50.
I thought that the days oftentimes went by too fast in many ways, though I don’t see this as a downfall because if I needed to go and do something, I only had to wait for a few more minutes, and the game would be over. I also enjoyed how the timer would pause when putting away, selling, or writing books, or doing the mini game to advertise.
Once I got further along in Book Bound, I slowly was able to gain more profit because I wasn’t needing to buy more furniture or inventory because everything was already bought. Though I got to be able to buy furniture for the five different genres; fantasy, romance, sci-fi, non-fiction, and thriller all have their own type of furniture. This then has the player focus on a specific type of genre they are wanting to sell in the bookstore. Stefan even talks about how one owner loved romance so much that she tried to put a pink dust cover on him, though he is a romantic himself.
I really enjoyed how methodical I had to be in order to carry all the books I wanted to show. But the one thing I wish I could do with my books is return or give them away; there are books that I haven’t been able to sell, which makes it difficult for me to move books around. I also am unable to put books on tables, which is interesting as you are able to put small decorations on them.
At the end of the day, even with Book Bound‘s quirks and glitches, it is addictive and fun to play. With fast days and organization being the center of the game and fun characters, it is easy to see this as a game to keep coming back to for quick or long-term fun.
Sara reviewed Book Bound on PC with a provided review copy.
