People in general enjoy cute things, but there's a difference between something, say a cat, being cute, and a game trying to evoke cuteness. "Wholesome" games tend to have what could be considered "cute" aesthetics, and some of them extend that to their narrative as well. Ooblets toes the line between being just cute enough without being overly annoying by using cute aesthetics and cutesy names, but putting that alongside sort of mundane and relatable characters. While every item in the game has a cute name like "Nurnies" or "Sweetiebeeties," the NPCs have a variety of personalities aside from "cute" that balance some of the sickly sweetness. We discuss Ooblets, Patrick's newfound Paper Mario: The Origami King skills, and more on this episode of Waypoint Radio. You can listen to the full episode and read an excerpt below.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/g5pww9/ooblets-rides-a-fine-line-between-too-cute-and-totally-adorable