High Times

They put me in as a clown in this game and I will never forgive them

Prior to hearing about this on a YouTube video (which I’ll get to in a bit), this was a game that I had initially never heard of. I first heard about this game on a sponsored YouTube video where this one person was playing the demo, and despite the fact that I usually avoid sponsored videos since they’re basically just a glorified commercial, the concept of this game did catch my attention and the fact that this game was apparently inspired by Papa’s Donuteria, this allowed me to get into some familiar territory since I used to play the PC version back in the day. Additionally, I do have some background experience with playing romance games, since I have played a couple of otome mobile games in the past. Starting with the positives, the first praise that I wanna mention is the wide cast of characters that you meet while you're baking and serving some yummy donuts, most of which are dateable and also have one of four different endings (those being Romance, Good, Neutral and Bad from best to worst order). And staying on topic with the characters, this is where I get to the next praise, which is the voice acting, since most of the game is fully voiced and all of the VAs that I’ve heard so far did a really good job. The only character that doesn’t have any voiced lines is the protagonist, but that’s kinda expected and I didn’t really find that an issue. The final praise that I wanna cover is that this game is filled with Steam achievements with a grand total of 232 achievements to complete, which is definitely a good thing for any completionists out there or for anyone who is looking for a game that has a high replay factor. Now for the negatives that I have, and thankfully, these critiques are pretty minor in my opinion. Firstly, unlike other visual novels, this game doesn’t come with a manual save feature that’ll allow you to save the game at any time. Instead, the game will automatically save your progress when you either complete a customer’s order when they leave or when you finish an in-game shift, which can be a bit problematic for players who either want to save their progress at a specific line of dialogue or are pretty tight on time by wanting to play the game for a short duration. The second and final critique that I want to address is that the donut making part of the gameplay can be pretty basic, this is especially coming from someone who has played Donuteria, where the baking in that one was a lot more complex. I understand that they want to simplify it here, but my point is still valid that this part of the game can be too simplistic for some. For my recommendations, if you’re a fan of dating sims or if you like games that has a high replay factor, then this is a game that I would definitely recommend. However, for those that are expecting a more complex cooking gameplay or if you're one of those people who isn't into same-sex romances, then this one isn't gonna be your cup of tea. The game is decently priced at £17.75 (US$19.99), but I would suggest that either you wait until it goes on sale instead or at least try out the free demo beforehand to see if this game’s signature donuts are able to pique your interest.