Midori no Kaori

This game is all nostalgia for me.

One of my favourite pastimes is cozying up at an izakaya with a book in hand over a steaming bowl of noodles. Throw in some lightly salted edamame and I am there for hours just relaxing.

But now you are telling me I get to completely customize my OWN izakaya?! No way!!

You get to control it all in this game. You can control the music (which is so zen like and sets the tone perfectly), what hue you want your backdrop to be and everything in your shop...from how it looks to the menu.

You can choose if you want to play normal mode, where you have to make money to expand your shop or you can play an unlimited mode, where you have infinite resources.

There is a level up system for you to unlock more items as you improve your star rating.

All whilst serving up delicious bowls to cute little froggies ^_^

I think it is worth noting that this is a slower paced game. There is an option in the tool setting to speed things up if it is too slow for you. It is a repetitive loophole style of gameplay which doesn't bother me. I would recommend trying out the demo first to see if it is your vibe.

I would like to see the addition of a pause button to stop incoming orders and an option to rotate your screen, so I can admire my izakaya from different angles. I am enjoying normal mode for the challenge and the grind, but I find the items very expensive and the money making to be slow. I think the addition of tasks or other forms of income would add some variety. Even a passive income option would be helpful.

It is still in EA, but I am so excited to load this up whenever I crave the warmth of an izakaya.

It is indeed that little oasis of peace that we all need sometimes <3

Love this game for the relaxing music, aesthetics and overall ambiance. I definitely recommend this.
Though I can't help but feel that there are UI things that can be improved.

1. Having to keep shop window open is a must to move around items. Why not holding items for a second will allow you to drag them instead?
2. When I was new in the game, maroon overlay doesn't really prompt clearly that you're putting an item when there's not enough space. So it's easy to think that it's glitched instead of user error. Sometimes it also gets trickier if there are items that doesn't make it obvious on the spacing like smaller items or just the fact that the view is always in isometric. It might be better to add a tooltip on top of that there's not enough space.
3. Please add a feature to hold and drag while selling items. It saves a lot of time having to sell items one by one.
4. The 2x speed should only speed up the kitchen and services on customers, doing so on the screen scrolling and hover behavior kind of feels disorienting.
5. Good to have features: Having a wallpaper mode for this game would be great! Same goes with adding some widgets like clock, temperature, to do list and a timer. Why? I can actually see this game good to have while tabbing through work. It's not too distracting yet provides something to take a short break on.

🔄 Replayability:
Even after a few months in Early Access, the game feels like I can keep coming back. It's relaxing and interesting enough.

🎮 Difficulty Curve:
Starts off easy with a quick step by step tutorial.

👀 Graphics:
Made in Unity so the game looks fantastic.

🕹️ Controls & UX:
Controls are a bit clunky but nothing game-breaking, specially if Dev fixes the snaping/colliding bugs.

✨ What Makes It Unique?
The ambience and well executed Japanese cozy style. Kawai froggies. No winners or losers as the game description says.

💰 Worth the money?
Seems to be an OK price at around $10 USD

👮 PRIVACY & AI: Fortunately no DRM, weird EULAS or other intrusions. The only thing is Unity trying to collect data. You can play the game offline :D

🌱 NICE TO HAVE FOR FUTURE UPDATES:
-STORY TELLING: Game needs a story. Why the shop owner opened a restaurant in the middle of the forest? who are the customers? what is the goal? Maybe create a development roadmap.

-VOICE ACTING: Would be nice to have pleasant, atypical and interesting calming dialogs, even if they are in Japanese (this would be better, as japanese voice actors tend to be better than english speaker ones)

-HARA HACHI BY & SLOW EATING. (Part of the Slow movement) right now the game feels grindy. It does not feel like the customers enjoy their food or their time ar the restaurant. It can feel rushed. Implement concepts like "slow living" or "slow eating" can improve the game

-YUTORI: Slowing down. The game feels like you are in a rush to seat customers. This needs to be improved with story telling and other mechanisms instead of endless customers waiting. Maybe a day and night cycle like My Time at Portia or Retreat to Enen when you go to sleep.

-CHISOKU: a Japanese concept that emphasizes the wisdom of knowing satisfaction and desiring less. Another good concept to implement in the story telling.

-SHOSHIN: Beginner's mind. Maybe integrate the concept in the tutorial

-IKIGAI. Reason for being. Maybe integrate the concept in the story.

-WABI SABI: Wisdom in natural simplicity. Maybe a collection of simple crafted teas. Instead of cheap coffee...And a collection of sculptures too.

-KOREMOBI: Sunlight filtering through trees. Maybe the exterior of the shop can be used to create a small forest.

-HYGGE & Gemütlichkeit: To increase the coziness factor adding candles, oil lamps and books. Having a bakery would be nice.

-LAGOM & DOWNSHIFTING: 'just the right amount' or 'not too much, not too little'. There are many objects but they seem non intentional and low quality. Maybe reduce the number of objects and create more intentional interesting items? Same with the dishes...

-AMBIENCE & THEMES: Right now the "tools" feel too cumbersome.

⚠️ COULD BE IMPROVED (CONS)
-----PLACING ITEMS:
1. When you click an item (specially tables to place) they sometimes appear in red, away from the floors, and you cant move them unless you drag and drop the icon item or delete the floor and try again several times. This feels very frustrating. Sometimes you cant place tables as they snap to the last location of a placed item. For example I cant place any new tables as they move automatically to the Kushiyak dish on top of the kitchen!

2. Some items like the Kitchen cant be rotated by pressing the middle wheel button as I would expect.

-----UI & NOTIFICATIONS:
1. Notifications of "new item unlocked" below the level bar can be confusing at the beginning of the game. The UI icon design is not self explanatory (it looks like a fridge), and the notifications should pop in progressively instead of all of them at the same time.

2. Notifications should close automatically and player should see a history of them. Including the tutorial messages.

3. Snap "magnet" icon. When is it enabled and when disabled?? Is not clear. Also there does not seem to be much difference between on and off. Maybe explain this in the tutorial. Right now collision of objects and snapping is buggy and frustrating.

-----MENU NAMES:
1. Shop names can be improved. "Base" is better instead of "structure". "Decor" or "Signage" or "Furniture" is way better instead of Decals (Decals sound cheap). "Ambience" instead of "Themes", and it should have a sub menu with different options, maybe cottage core, japandi, wooden, earthy, aqua ambiance etc.

2. The "floor wood" icon is very similar to the "floor cell" icon. Its confusing.

3. The filtering of "Decals" can also feel confusing, as it feels im disabling the options instead of filtering, hidden or showing them. Maybe another UX could be better?

4. It makes more sense for the "Kitchen" item to be on "food" instead of "structure"

5. Instead of calling it "buy a food item" it should be called a "Recipe", otherwise it sounds like im buying a plastic bowl of ramen from a factory or a frozen decoration.

-----DISHES:
1. What is the incentive to offer cheaper dishes in your restaurant versus the more expensive ones? This should be explained in the tutorial. Maybe cheaper items cook faster or attract a different type of customers?

-----CUSTOMERS
1. There should be an option to pause the game. Or at least let the player know they wont be penalised for making customers wait.

2. When customers are done eating and cross arms, maybe display a small icon or indication to show if they enjoyed their eating experience or not.

3. Placing a door and start accepting customers should be celebrated, maybe with a little animation or sound, even if its a soft opening instead of a grand opening.

4. Text dialog from customers cant be read as they collide with other objects instead of floating on top so they can be read.

5. Sound of text dialog from customer sounds like they are typing... another more relaxing sound could be better.

6. Salamander sound when they are done eating sound exactly the same as frogs. Each animal should have their own sound.

7. We need turtles and axolotls. And frogs of different colours and ages.

-----MONEY
Selecting decorations charge you money automatically. There is no "back" or "undo" button and you get broke just by trying different looks. This is also frustrating.