Cat Cafe Manager

Is it cute? Yes. Is it fun? At times. However, there's a lot of frustration in the fact that there's quite a few flaws in this game. The staff AI is pretty bad. Far too often do I find, for example, a staff member with one job - cooking - standing off in the middle of nowhere doing nothing while there's a pile of orders waiting to be cooked. If you save your game at the end of the day and load your save and move onto the next day, it will tell you that you scored a "D" rating for the day overall and doesn't break down the earnings you did, in fact, get. Lastly, the pacing is breakneck until you reach the endgame, and it makes it hard for it to feel cozy or relaxing at all, like you're constantly scrambling and then suddenly it's easy as pie. I never felt accomplished because I was always behind on everything until I finished the main story and, while earning the remaining achievements, felt bored. I would recommend, at this point, waiting for the sequel and see if they manage to fix these problems there.

— Can't rotate furniture/objects (maybe you can later, but I find it the most basic feature that should exist for accessibility and implemented in a gameplay's core) — Can't rotate the map or change the point of view in any way (this isn't even a proper 2D in my opinion) — Can't click/operate with the mouse only to tell the character where to go, which I found a deal breaker with this game. The controls suck, which leads to accessibility sucks. For a game that looks this simple, having to operate it with WSDA only doesn't make sense to me. — I noticed some weird stutters when the game was loading, which is really weird, considering this game is basically a tiny bag of peanuts on an airplane that is my PC. (Also, those loading screens could have some cute artworks, concept art rather than a black screen with a loading bar). Picked it up with like 70% off and still refunded after 45 minutes (usually I'm at least interested to see the first 2 hours, but not with this game). The game's progress is too slow (not enough resources, the shop mechanic isn't exactly explained. For example, I couldn't understand how to buy a table: on some days it's in the furniture's store, on some days it's not). The game is repetitive. I didn't like the characters and their dialogues (often monologues). Trying to introduce the mechanics through them felt forced. The character customization barely exists: not enough hairstyles, you can't change clothes, you can't change facial features, can't change the character's eye color. Overall, for something that is advertised as a cozy relaxing game, I found it way too stressful, tedious, and boring. The cafe management is all the same with every guest: do the small talk, give them the food/drink they want, wait for them to leave. Rinse and repeat. The cat adoption system seems to be just... for the sake of collecting more and more cats? Which I find pointless, honestly. And why allow to rename cats when the achievements still have assigned names to a specific cat? I didn't like the game even one bit, unfortunately. It doesn't really have a soul in my opinion, and feels more like an alpha concept of a bigger game with better graphics and controls, if that makes sense? Or a flash game on your browser, like someone else pointed out in the review. I very much agree with that. Whatever the case is, I wouldn't recommend this game to other people even if the game was free.

I do not recommend, its grindy and too many currencies to manage. The staff you unlock are terrible, most of the time they stand there not doing anything. It is not cosy in anyway, to unlock new food/drinks you need potions from witches but you also need this currency to buy more ingredients. This forces the game to be slow to progress, not mentioning all the other currency you need to upgrade everything else.

[table] [tr][td][b]❗Status[/b][/td][td]Main Story Completed; Not 100%[/td][/tr] [tr][td][b]🎮Played On[/b][/td][td]SteamDeck Only[/td][/tr] [tr][td][b]⏱️Game Length[/b][/td][td]Finished the main story in 10.4 hours but did not go for 100%.[/td][/tr] [tr][td][b]🔄Replay Value[/b][/td][td]Low for me right now. The systems feel unbalanced enough that going back doesn't feel appealing, and knowing the sequel apparently addresses most of what bothered me here makes it hard to want to reinvest in this one.[/td][/tr] [tr][td][b]💙Favorites[/b][/td][td]💬 Art Style: The visual design is genuinely charming and I do like it a lot. The cafe and cats look warm and appealing, even when the gameplay doesn't quite match the vibe. 💬 Customer Currency Concept: The idea of different customer types bringing different currencies you use to buy ingredients and upgrades is actually really cool. It is a fun little ecosystem in theory and I wish the balancing had given it more room to shine. 💬 Changeable Cat Names: Small detail but a good one. The default names sound more like people names than pet names, so being able to rename them actually matters if you care about that kind of thing.[/td][/tr] [tr][td][b]🛠️Improvements[/b][/td][td]💭 Resource Loop Balance: The loop ends up stressful in a way that doesn't feel fun. There are no real stakes, but you are simultaneously always running out of food, dependent on witches showing up to get the currency to restock, and trying to serve customers who are asking for things you don't have yet. Adjusting ingredient costs and currency earn rates to actually match each other would go a long way. 💭 Cat Identity: For a game called Cat Cafe Manager, the cats feel surprisingly passive. They don't interact with their toys, don't visibly use the litter box, and you start out with almost nothing for them despite that being the whole premise. Even a cardboard box early on would have been a thoughtful touch. Adding actual cat behaviors, wall steps, and more cat-specific items would make the cafe feel like it actually belongs to them. 💭 Steam Deck Polish: There's a long black screen on boot and no obvious way to quit to menu or exit the game without hitting the "…" button. Small things, but they add friction to what should be a low-pressure experience. 💭 Outfit Customization: Since you can't change your outfit, you end up visually identical to your workers, which creates a small but annoying moment of confusion whenever you're all running around together.[/td][/tr] [tr][td][b]🎯Verdict[/b][/td][td]I cannot recommend Cat Cafe Manager right now. I wanted to like it, the art is genuinely sweet and the customer currency idea has real potential. But the resource loop never found a comfortable rhythm, the cats feel more like decoration than residents, and a lot of the systems feel like they needed more time and polish before launch. It also stings a little knowing the sequel seems to have addressed most of what feels rough here, which makes the original feel like it didn't get the love it deserved. If you're curious, wait for a deep sale or keep an eye on the sequel instead.[/td][/tr] [/table]

I bought this game, thinking I would play once or twice. It was cheap, during the Summer Sale. I am now obsessed. The re is so much to do, and once you get past the first struggles of not having funds, decorating is maybe the best part. For cozy gamers, I highly recommend this. Not the high stress/energy like PlateUp! Right now it is in my top ten of favorite games- including Spiritfarer, Stardew, and Fields of Mistria.

Cat Cafe manager has plenty of heart and soul behind it making it a really cute and fun experience. I had a good time getting all of the games achievements and found myself easily getting lost in the games loop of serving customers and looking after all the cats that you can acquire. Even as you progress through the games story it never becomes overwhelming as you expand the cafe with how many options there are to cater to different ways of playstyles. Very much looking forward to the sequel!

Очень понравилось, хотя, действительно, всю её можно пройти, оставив в ней примерно 14 часов своей жизни, кому-то даже поменьше, так что игра на несколько дней-вечеров. Но это не отменяет её милоты, ламповости и уютности :) Мне очень понравилось разнообразие котиков, прямо были сюрприз на сюрпризе :3 Да, возможно игра немного неуклюжа в плане не очень удобного режима строительства и валюты для покупки нужностей для кафе, но это как-то отходит в процессе медитативной ненапряжной игры для меня на второй план) Игра изредка вылетает, так что я привыкла сохраняться вручную, несмотря на наличие автосейва - чем чаще сохраняешься, тем лучше)) Жаль, что не обставить кафе так, как это показано на скриншотах, поскольку каждой категории посетителей для того, чтобы остаться довольными, нужно включать свои категории мебели в интерьер котокафе - ведьмам подавай одну мебель, бизнесменам другую итд Поначалу не совсем было понятно управление, было довольно путанно, но потом втянулась и разобралась, а то просто много всего и сразу) И хочу ещё отметить довольно высокую цену за такую игру, если её брать без скидки. Любителям ресторанных симуляторов, казуала и котиков рекомендую! Всем доброты и милоты) P.S жду выхода второй части =3

i only recommend it if u dont buy it for full price