I've made cozy gaming most of my personality in the past several years, but even I sometimes feel numb to the aesthetically-mandated cotton candy color palette. Sometimes I want to play a cozy game while giving my eyes a little rest from the pastel apocalypse. I also just like trying to slip in some chill games to my friend group's rotation without them noticing that I've put cauliflower into their mashed potatoes—it's good for their blood pressure!
For this list of cozy games without cozy aesthetics I've banned pastel colors, chibi characters, and I've even managed to go completely pixel art free. That last part is maybe a little more hardcore than I needed to go (otherwise something like Graveyard Keeper would have been a nice fit) but I wanted to completely set aside the cozy goggles if at all possible.
