High Times

We found this game very repetitive and not very interesting. Negatives: [list] [*] The romanceables are almost entirely the protagonist's terrible exes. Some were abusive, some are just completely crazy, and almost all of them are very annoying to be around. [*] The protagonist themselves is a pretty terrible person, who ghosted pretty much everyone in their life at one point or another [*] There are multiple characters who are much more interesting and drawn very cute, but they're not romanceable. Like the Avril Lavigne clone who talks entirely in Avril lyrics, or the cheerleader who's less insane and more relatable than the love interest one. For some reason these characters come in constantly but aren't romanceable. [*] We kept getting generic interactions with the same NPCs over and over, none of which advanced the story at all [*] The static background of an empty shop kind of detracts from what's meant to be going on during scenes where there's live music on the (empty) stage or other, invisible customers gossiping about your conversation [*] There isn't really any gameplay, you just draw some icing on doughnuts. [/list] Positives: [list] [*] The art style is good [/list]

Completely recommend this game! It's a gem! As someone who really loves a good dating sim, I've found some of the more gimmicky titles to be a bit [i]too[/i] gimmicky at times. Sometimes they can feel like they're only making fun of the genre rather than both poking fun and actually celebrating it. This is one of the first more playful titles that I personally feel strikes a really good balance between both. I feel like it was made by people who genuinely enjoy the genre, and it shows. There's a lot of love and sincerity in it, and that makes the funnier moments, the banter and the fourth wall breaks feel more justified. I can already tell I am going to sink a lot of playtime into this absolute gem! I've been pretty wary about going into these sorts of dating sim games for a while for the above reasons, but I have no regrets about this one. I'm having a great time. It feels like a fun, sweet, restful game. Thank you, devs! <3

[h1]🏆 A Masterclass in Donut Therapy & Romance 🏆[/h1] [b]Playtime:[/b] [i]Hundreds of hours during the beta, and already hooked on the official release![/i] 📌 [b]TL;DR:[/b] An incredibly cozy, emotionally complex masterclass in visual novels. For $19.99 (plus a 10% launch week discount!), you get a spectacular voice cast, top-tier cooking mechanics, 51 endings, and a magnificent overload of gorgeous, open-romance characters! [b]Go buy it![/b] [hr][/hr] 📊 [b]QUICK SCORECARD:[/b] • [b]🎭 Voice Cast:[/b] Elite / Tier-1 • [b]🍩 Gameplay:[/b] Addictive & Deep • [b]💖 Romance Cast:[/b] Massive Overload • [b]🎨 Visual Style:[/b] Vibrant & Stunning • [b]🎵 Soundtrack:[/b] Perfecto! • [b]✍️ Replayability:[/b] 51 Endings / 50+ Hrs [hr][/hr] As someone who was lucky enough to be a beta tester for [b]High Times[/b], I am absolutely thrilled to see Yangyang Mobile finally drop this absolute gem! I loved it so much that I backed the [i]Collector's Edition[/i] with all the physical merch way back in October 2024, and seeing the final product makes every penny worth it. Launching with a massive [b]50,000+ wishlists[/b], the community hype for this is incredibly real—and completely deserved. If you loved [i]VA-11 Hall-A[/i] and/or your childhood cooking gams like [i]Papa's Donuteria[/i], but wished you could serve mood-altering pastries while drowning in a sea of breathtakingly gorgeous people, welcome to The Hotbox! [h2]✨ An Unforgettable Intro ✨[/h2] Right from the jump, the game hooks you. Before you even hit the main UI title screen to click "New Game," it pulls you into a beautiful, mysterious introductory scene. You meet a strange tourist and share a poignant conversation, thinking back on one of the main love interests. Just as you're completely intrigued and heading onto the bus to make some donuts, the game transitions into a stunningly animated opening sequence, set to a phenomenal theme song sung by the [b]actual voice actors[/b] of the characters! It sets the perfect tone before you even start your first shift. [h2]🍩 Gameplay & "Donut Therapy" 🍩[/h2] > You play as a Mood Confectioner in San Mazo, customizing donut shapes, glazes, and toppings to literally perform "donut therapy" on your customers. I could use some donuts right now... Visuals are so stunning and vibrant! Neon colors, comic-book art, everything! The tones... aesthetics...! Mechanics are surprisingly deep, but the real star here is the storytelling. The writing is incredibly bold, refreshingly mature, and completely unhinged in the best way possible, perfectly balancing hilarious, adult Discord-chat style banter with deeply real character arcs handling grief and trauma. [h2]💖 The Cast & Massive Replayability 💖[/h2] Not to mention... the cast! The characters are stunningly designed and fully voiced by an incredibly talented, premium English voice cast who bring every ounce of witty banter and chaotic energy to life. [i](Voice actors that I favorite and listen to!)[/i] You are guaranteed to experience a total overload of hot romanceable options. There are six main dateable characters (MJ, Harry, Stacy, Connor, Emmette & Lucy) with 3 unique endings each (bad, friendship, and romance), alongside over 30 unique NPCs walking through your door. A group of not-so-evil exes with bright hair of every color inspired by Scott Pilgrim. With a mind-blowing [b]51 total endings[/b] across the game, a completionist run easily nets you 30 to 50 hours of content. To answer the burning question: yes, it absolutely embraces that beautifully open, [i]"everyone is hot and romanceable"[/i] energy, letting you pursue who you want regardless of gender. Your choices carry actual weight, remembered by the game long after you make them. [h2]⚙️ 6 Years in the Baking: Incredible Dev Dedication ⚙️[/h2] Made with 6-year labor of love, and the day-one support shows it. Build 1.0.0 is officially LIVE on Steam Windows and Linux (with Steam Deck verification already in progress!). Early review builds had a few minor technical quirks, like raw text strings in character profiles and occasional silent voice lines, but the launch day patch has completely squashed them, alongside fixing controller navigation, menu popups, and character sprites like Elisa's. Since the start of Beta Access, the developers have shown incredible dedication to ensuring that all bugs, issues, and glitches were fixed before launch day. A massive shout-out to the rest of the High Times backers who supported the team and poured their time into helping fish out these bugs, polishing this project into the absolute perfection it is today! [hr][/hr] [h2]🍩 The Final Verdict 🍩[/h2] [i]High Times[/i] completely shatters the boundaries of standard barista visual novels by taking massive, unapologetic risks with its writing and giving players unmatched depth in their choices. It is addictive, drop-dead gorgeous, and an absolute triumph for Yangyang Mobile. Whether you are here for the intense route juggling, the phenomenal voice acting, or just to bake away your feelings, this pastry shop is absolutely worth opening. An easy, resounding recommendation! Cheers to future updates and features!

6 hourse for mostly same dialogs and gameplay. You cant choose your preference. Dont prefer girls? Suffer all this story with your girls ex (4 of 6 love interest are girls and 1 of 2 male interest have gf). nevertheless good music and art , cute dounats design and colors but gameplay kill it. And eat too many time for nothing - a bit of story you cant connect

I dunno, the game is more dissapointing than anything else. So that's partially on me for setting expections based on what i had read and the tags it had. Imo , outside of the esthetics there's nothing "cozy" about this game. [h1]Regarding pure gameplay [/h1] [b]- The gameplay loop is more a grind fest than anything else.[/b] [b]- The donut making gameplay loop is akwardly tedious and gets annoying very quickly[/b] because of the sheer lack of "quality of life" elements this part of the game needs, constantly have to go back to your ipad, not being able to filter based on what 90% of the customers actually request(can't even look up based off their name like wth), sometimes even contradicting requests, how little profit you make (which can lock you outof progress for a long time for no reason) and how badly coded the drizzle mechanic is, etc... [b]- It feels like the further you go (in regards to days in game), the less creative you're allowed to be.[/b] Later in the game ,on avarage 2 outof the 3 dailly characters will either say "i want a donut recipe that..." or "Give me a *insert name of donut in app*". From trying out different things i've noticed that customer saying "I want a donut recipe that..." means you HAVE to use a recipe from the ipad. you're not allowed to make your own (atleast not if you want a good result or any decent amount of money). I'm open to think some of it is buggs (because very often the drizzle mechnic would also bug out in genral). But regardless this ruins the experience. Initially it's not that common but by the time your over day 90 ish atleast 2 out of the 3 dailly orders are like that, sometimes just straight up all of them. This only adds to the donutmaking gameloop to feel boring, tedious and annoying. [h1]Story and dialogue[/h1] [b]The story telling and dialogue... imo it's "meh" at best[/b]: apart of a very few specific moments/scenes; there's nothing , cute , wholesome or cozy to be found in the game. [b] - The main character is[/b] weirdly combative , unsympathetic and straight up mean in moments that clearly don't call for it but then also weirdly spineless, cowardly and a pushover whenever there are actually grounds to stand up and say something. it feels very "lol, i'm so random, rng, teehee" and it is [b]weirdly inconsistent.[/b] [b] - the F/M ratio from romancible characters is extremely off and you can't pick preferences (personally I'm demi so i don't care but i do feel like it should always be an option for other in the community). - Overall the female romances are better written than the male ones. (aka the romances are inconsistent) - The guys romance stories are weirdly toxic and manipulative at best intrepretation and with hints of gaslighting and coersion at worst intrepetration.[/b] -- SPOILERS ahead for both Connor and Harry-- [spoiler] SPOILERS (last warning)[/spoiler] [spoiler] - CONNOR: The idea that, whilst Connor is being super vulnerble and under the influence of a donut, you ONLY have the options of : A. fundamentally dismiss what he's saying and almost guilttrip/coerse him into staying in a relationship that he's feeling extremely conflicted about... or B. straight up CONFESS to him when he's in THAT state... Is disgusting. There is no option to just be a good friend. I also don't like how it low key implies men and women can't be good friends. both options are ICKY AF options imo (so much for cozy btw...) but the latter(option B) feels extremely disgusting and manipulative. It's also giving "guy friend, who was actually never your friend but was just biding their time to get with you and pounces the moment you're at your most emotionally vulnarable to make you cave/their move" like almost every girl i've ever met has had this happen and it's always just... ew. I'm not even getting into the whole "you're just a rebound / cheating bs" vibe of it all in option B.[/spoiler] [spoiler] - Harry. TLDR: They (naration, Cody and Harry) repeatedly minimise , dismiss and justify toxic (to honeslty boderline) abusive behaviours done to MC whilest constantly hammering on the ghosting that MC did. [/spoiler] [spoiler] Let me start by saying, MC should've not ghosted. like even a text would've done it. The end. Everything else in Harry's arc/romance feels weirdly manipulative, toxic, gaslighty and sometimes even vitcm blamey from both Harry and Cody aswell as just narritively. (Also , imo there are allot of elements of Harry responses/reactions that make me highkey think he's on the spectrum, ngl but that's neither here nor there). - Harry constantly EXCUSES the fact that his bother would constantly be bashing MC everytime they met during the entirety of their relationship with MC. Harry also has never defened her in her pressence against his brother doing that. Instead his stance is essentially: "Yea he made you feel like worse then a piece of ♥♥♥♥ everytime you were anywere near my presence, but youdontunderstand it's because your FATHER's a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ and so he assumed you were aswell. I know you're not, but I never bothered explaining that to my brother nor did I ever bother defending you from that harasment everytime he did it. Instead of my brother talking to you and actually getting to know you for who you are, he just bashed you everychance he got ^-^ (teehee type ♥♥♥♥). Why couldn't YOU just be more PATIENT with HIM and his behaviour instead of talking back to him and defending youself :(. you know whenever you would defend yourself, you guys would fight and that really troubled ME *humpff* " I'm paraphrasing here but fundamentally that's the message it's giving... Yikes.[/spoiler] [spoiler] Meanwhile his BROTHER(Cody) is for (the most part) a baseline textbook mean-girl-but-make-it-a-dude-gaslighting-mf. Some of the Peak (/s) excuses for Cody's behaviour include: * "How could i let my brother love you when you didn't seem to love yourself " Obviously bashing someone with selflove issues everytime you meet them is the right course of action... really makes people feel good about themselves y'know. (oowh also, he said this ♥♥♥♥ but then within the same convo dares to claim he never wanted MC and his brother to break up.... like what, what did you expect the end result of this was going to be?!) Cody truly be like: "But officer, i didn't intend to kill the man when i pressed the gunbarel of the knowlingly locked and loaded gun to his head and fired it. " * "You didn't seem serious about your studies" Me thinks that you constantly bashing her capability in the subject did might've had a part to play in that. y'know asanempath and all that. [/spoiler]

So far this is living up to every dream I had and MORE !!! If you love romance, fun, and point and clicks like classic Papa's Pizzzeria,,, this one is for you!!

As I wrote in my review on Raider KIng, High Times is a game written by freaks, for freaks. High Times is a game that will shock the player at every turn. Whether that be from making them double take at how many hours they've sunk into a single playthrough or by making them spit-take when a character says something unexpected, there is no way to safely predict what the game will do next. The actual cooking mechanics of the game are simple to the point of being repetitive, but the visual novel and dating simulator side of the game is well written and engaging enough to make up for that repetition. Fans of this style of game who want a bit more edge in the writing than what most cozy games provide should definitely check out this title

tldr: i don't recommend unless you jive with the writing style/humor and don't mind the grind of the donut shop (sometimes it takes ages to see the person you want to see, even with the additional character-specific encounter rate increase decoration buffs). i thought this would be right up my alley bc i love these sort of food management/restaurant type games AND i love sim dates. i think the art is really cute and i love the concept, but ultimately i felt like i was trudging through the game after the initial novelty of the donut shop wore off. granted, i only romanced one character (harry) and i did enjoy that romance storyline, so maybe the other romances make it more fulfilling, but i was only really interested in that particular character, so i only played for him. the other characters are okay as friends, but it was really hard to get to know them with how padded out the game was with the donut-making. ironically, the initially attractive concept of being a donut shop worker, ended up being the reason that i don't like playing the game. as for the writing-i think the writing is really up to one's taste. i didn't really enjoy the humor in this game, which there is a TON of, but i DID enjoy the emotional beats. every character had an arc, regardless of friendship or romance (i completed i think around 10 of the friendship routes??), and the ones i did get to see were good. but it felt like the donut shop mechanic really padded the hell out of any meaningful interactions. i did find there was actual depth to the characters after the initial caricaturized facades and stereotypes faded away. but the tedious repetitive grind of donut-making made me unwilling to complete all the other relationships after i finished the route that i wanted. it took like 100+ in-game days for me to fully romance harry to the end, and while my other relationships are pretty high up and almost done, i just do not feel like dedicating probably even MORE in-game days to seeing those through to the end.