Creatures Caves

I'd like to introduce you guys to this bizarre little mobile game I stumbled across recently. It exists for both Android and iPhone systems and is completely free to play.

This is Oyajirium, or "a vivarium in which you raise old men/fathers." Of course, it's Japanese.

But like many quirky Japanese games, there's a surprising amount of depth and complexity to what sounds on the surface like a silly idea. Oyaji remind me of Pikmin.

To get the game, you have two methods. You'll either need to download from the Japanese play store, or download the APK from a third party site such as here.

You can find "Oyajirium" on the English/US Play Store, but I would only recommend installing it to get a feel for the interface/controls, then uninstall it and get the proper version. The US version for some reason is a basic, laggy, bare-bones version that barely even works. But that's okay! Even though the game is in Japanese, it is very easy to play.

In this game, you watch little Oyaji live their tiny, peaceful lives. Eating. Playing. Breeding. You start off with a basic type, and basic facilities, and then keep them well-fed and happy in order to produce weirder and weirder types of Oyaji. There are over 60 types to discover!

After feeding them, watch closely and they may decide to drop a 'gift' for you. Usually these are flowers, but you may see mushrooms, giftboxes, and other bizarre items with greater point value. Tap to collect these.

The points you collect are used to buy new facilities, toys, and upgrade the vivarium to keep your Oyaji healthy. You can decorate the vivarium by placing objects wherever you like, although certain features have a fixed position- such as the rocks in the background, and the stream in the middle.

Adult Oyaji naturally fall in love, and will usually find someone to be their 'boyfriend' shortly. They will sit with this person for most of their lives, playing and talking together. Eventually, they produce an egg, which may be a brand new variety of Oyaji.

Some types have unique behaviours, such as certain 'wildlife' types migrating together as a group. Nocturnal Oyaji are only active at night, while other special types hang out around specific decorations.

You will want to add training objects to the vivarium so that Oyaji can build their strength...

...So that they can participate in the races. Races earn you extra points!

Even though there is a 'Normal' currency and a 'Ruby' currency, there are no in-app purchases. Rubies are just a harder type to find, and it buys some special decorations. There are ads in the game, but I was able to disable these entirely with LuckyPatcher. It was required for me because running this on Bluestacks, the game flips out if you minimise the app for any reason (including to display an ad), so YMMV.

Well then, I hope that got some of you hooked! And if you need any help with translating specific menus or bits of text, just send me a screenshot or tell me where to find it. Here's one of the screenshots above with translated annotations.

Have fun!