Would I have less stress playing on cozy?

[PandaBot2001]

I fairly easily got past Roxanne and Corsac, I upgraded my cauldrons and cauldron space a bit late but got there eventually.

I just don't understand ingredients. I've invested in multiple expeditions with Baptiste, and I struggle to send Xid and Mint out because of managing making them their potions and balancing it with making the competition potions and potions to sell.
Its annoyed me because I absolutely loved it, spending time with characters, the card game with haggling, the brewing and just all the different elements. I feel like the strictness of setting yourself up early game has sort of ruined what was becoming a favourite game just because it feels like you can't control what you get, and if you don't, you fail later on?
Does the cozy mode fix this?

[MerlinCross]

Cozy won't fix the Ingredients.

It lets you have more time slots, as going into town and ranking up no longer takes time and makes the competitions easier though not sure HOW off the top of my head(lower requirements, weaker potions from the bosses...., weaker affects during the card/barter part of the contest? unsure).

But it won't increase the chances of finding new ones or rare ones if that's your problem which was a bit of a problem for me. I suggest making a few enhances and tolerance potions to go with them.

If you're just past Corsac I suggest trying to continue if you're on the default mode as Corsac offers up a LOT of utility once you've unlocked him, and personally I don't think I needed more than 3-4 cualdrons though I'm unsure the max count(what like 6 maybe?).

[Quizer]

It should. You'll have loads more time, since neither traveling nor ranking up people's friendship takes any time, which takes off a great deal of pressure and also allows you to head home after you do stuff with other characters to save, then go back. In regular mode, you have to get all of your interactions done in one batch, and there are a lot of finicky details where you can't make mistakes if you want to progress optimally.

Honestly, I kind of want a mode that is like hard difficulty in other respects, but with the convenience of cozy mode. Managing your time and being efficient with all the different aspects of the game is pretty difficult even on regular mode, to the point of making the game a little less fun than it otherwise could be, but I feel cozy would take all the challenge out of it. I do / did enjoy slowly clawing my way up the economy curve, and I feel now at day ~16 I've broken through most of the difficulty and actually have enough to spend money on luxuries like upgrades I don't strictly need and a healthy supply of most ingredients so I can tinker with potion recipes as much as I like.

If you are struggling with supplying the adventurers and unlocking the potions ingredients you need, you can consider relying more on multiple saves and backtracking and redoing things when needed. It's not always fun to go back 2-4 hours or even a day+ when you found you made a mistake, but I enjoy going back and doing things right more than I do living with my mistakes.

If you don't have moral objections to the practice, certain things are savescummable - things like the loot brought back by adventurers and outcome of brewing (number of bonus stars) are determined when starting the job. Likewise, if you haven't checked Baptiste's expedition sheet yet on that day, you can reroll that until you see ingredients you like. In short, there are ways to shift random chance in your favor if you can shape your sequencing such that reloading a few times doesn't become too onerous. Unfortunately, like I said, you can only save at home and most of the time it's most efficient to do all of your interactions with NPCs in one batch, which makes it difficult.

Anyway, if you more interested in progressing through the character story arcs than the challenge of working yourself out of poverty, cozy mode should certainly solve your issues. If you do want to preserve as much challenge as the game offers especially in the early parts, you will have to cope with the time cost of leaving your shop and interacting with the characters.

[Losk Osmanthus 路渐秋凉]

I only played once on capitalism, but I often look back at the cozy...please let me know if it feels much better. Missing a timeslot in capitalism is just so punishing that I often have to reload to the prior save five days later after realizing not meeting some deadlines.

[Risovator]

Originally posted by MerlinCross:

makes the competitions easier though not sure HOW off the top of my head(lower requirements, weaker potions from the bosses...., weaker affects during the card/barter part of the contest? unsure)

In cozy, you need cheaper potions to beat the bosses. I played on Capitalism and it raised the required costs, so I assume the opposite works for cozy.

[Risovator]

Originally posted by Losk Osmanthus 路渐秋凉:

I only played once on capitalism, but I often look back at the cozy...please let me know if it feels much better. Missing a timeslot in capitalism is just so punishing that I often have to reload to the prior save five days later after realizing not meeting some deadlines.

If capitalism is stressful for you (and especially if it's your first time playing), I genuinely suggest switching to cozy or original. Capitalism is only enjoyable if you think that the game is too easy and you want to micromanage your every move on first 2-3 weeks.

Original is great experience if you want to have that time management element in your game, if you want to just enjoy improving your craft - cozy is your option. Less wasted time slots and more potions per brew totally makes the difference.