This year, Easter falls on April 4th. Games with annual events, like mobile games and MMOs, are gearing up to release their springtime events. As Easter is symbolic of the revival of life springtime brings, many games incorporate it in some way for the season. While Easter may not be as big a holiday as Halloween or Christmas, it’s still a fun time of year with many opportunities for gaming events.
Due to Easter’s religious roots, most video games choose to refer to their Easter-inspired events with more general names invoking the icons of the holiday. Eggs, rabbits, and the colors of springtime are on full display. Naturally, an egg hunt is always the main event. Annual festivals also bring exclusive prizes for players.
Stardew Valley — Egg Festival
The Egg Festival in Stardew Valley always takes place on the 13th day of Spring, and takes up the whole in-game day. However, the player can only start the event from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.. The Egg Festival also has a special stall in town that sells the Lawn Flamingo, Plush Bunny, other decorations, and strawberry seeds. Since the end of the egg hunt ends the day, players should do everything they need to before talking to Mayor Lewis.
All of the villagers will be socializing in the town square and the player can hear everyone’s thoughts on the day before starting the egg hunt. The player and some other villagers have 50 seconds to find as many eggs around town as they can before time is up. Abigail seems to have a natural talent for egg hunting, so players need to find 9 eggs in order to win. Many fans have developed their own specific routes for navigating the town and efficiently grabbing as many eggs as possible. Winning the egg hunt will award the player with a Straw Hat, or 1000 G if this isn’t the first time the player has won.
The Egg Festival may be a more low-key day, but the egg hunt minigame is fun, and it’s always enjoyable to see the villagers get excited for a festival day. The young kids Jas and Vincent get especially enthusiastic about the egg hunt, which is cute, but they’re sadly always cheated out of victory by the adults.
Pokemon GO — Eggstravaganza
The Pokemon GO Eggstravaganza event had different features and releases depending on the year, but the mainstay features were an increased chance of Baby Pokemon from 2km eggs, an increased amount of 2km eggs, and increased spawn rates of Easter-themed Pokemon, like Buneary and Exeggcute. Since Easter is a celebration of new life, Baby Pokemon are a perfectly adorable fit for the holiday. Naturally, the big star is Togepi, a baby Pokemon known for wearing its egg shell.
The event was renamed to simply Spring Event in 2020, but the major theme and features of the event remain the same. Players can look forward to finding more baby Pokemon, getting more use out of Lucky Eggs, and potentially the release of new shiny Pokemon in this year’s event. There’s even the possibility of Pokemon with special accessories, like last year’s Eevee wearing a flower crown.
The gameplay of Pokemon GO lends very well to an Easter event, considering the whole game revolves around hunting for Pokemon in all corners of the real world.
Final Fantasy 14 — Hatching-tide
The annual Hatching-tide event is held in Eorzea, and was started by Jihli Aliapoh, a Miqo’te who claims to have had a vision of the Twelve Archons sitting upon decorated eggs. In hopes of bringing the Archons back, Jihli holds the egg-themed festival every year. While most of the decorated eggs are decorations, Jihli and a few chosen others use special eggs in an attempt to summon the Archons.
Hatching-tide is a fun community event in which FF14 players track down eggs to trade them in for rewards. While Jihli may be a bit eccentric, she is an interesting character who carries her own implications about the game’s lore. The event’s prizes change out every year, so players should make sure to log in and participate to collect them while they still can. Last year’s prizes included a bunny mascot suit, and a cute stuffed rabbit.
Hatching-tide typically begins in late March or the start of April, and lasts for about two weeks. As of now, this year’s Hatching-tide has not been announced yet.
Animal Crossing: City Folk — Bunny Day
Just the name “Bunny Day” tends to invoke strong reactions from Animal Crossing fans. The event has become rather infamous after New Horizons’ version of the holiday; eggs were inescapable and made it harder to collect regular items, the event overstayed its welcome, and Zipper rubbed some players the wrong way. While New Leaf’s version of the event wasn’t as drawn out, it did also completely overtake the island with eggs.
The original version of Bunny Day, introduced in City Folk, was a much simpler event. It took place on a single day, Easter Sunday, and the egg hunt was limited to 30 eggs the player could find. Eggs would contain candy or Bunny Foil. Players would then go find Zipper and exchange the Bunny Foil for furniture from the Egg Series. No crafting necessary, and it was very easy to collect everything from the holiday-exclusive set. Later games expanded the event, but perhaps overdid it.
However, Animal Crossing: New Horizons fans don’t need to dread this year’s version of Bunny Day. Nintendo announced an update to the event, and all egg-finding activities will only last for one day. The event will go beyond that, though: players can buy themed items from Nook’s Cranny and decorate their island with Bunny Day items. Nintendo has been open to criticism about the event, and even last year’s Bunny Day got an egg spawn rate update while it was still ongoing.
Now that March is coming to a close and the weather is warming up, springtime festivals are beginning their setup. Gamers can look forward to annual events beginning, or just open up season-based games like Stardew Valley to enjoy the holiday. Right now, it’s difficult to have typical in-person egg hunts and festivities, which makes the virtual festivals in games all the more valuable.
