I've been waiting for about a year for this game to come out after playing the demo with a couple of friends. To be completely transparent, nobody else had an interest in the game after playing the demo except for myself - as time goes on, I'm finding relaxing, cozy, pressureless games are what I am seeking when I choose to spend my spare time gaming, and Vacation Cafe Simulator ticks every box.
But I have thoughts.
Early game progression is too rewarding. It annoys me that I can't *completely* collapse quest lines by hiding them, because they take up so much of the screen I feel this constant pull to complete them. Because of this, I basically finished the game in three sits, not because I was necessarily in it for the game, but because I wanted to play without having quests hanging there on the screen the whole time.
Then, once I got that done, all my desire to continue the game evaporated. I may sit down to run a dinner course or a croissant/cappuccino breakfast from time to time, but as far as sitting down and putting hours into the game again, not so sure.
And I say "a dinner course," or, "croissant/cappucino" breakfast specifically because I feel keeping your kitchen stocked and having more than a few dishes and a couple drinks on the menu is completely unmanageable.
One major sticking point about this game for me was the recipes vs equipment batching. So, in early game, the equipment you have is 1:1 - you can buy the ingredients for the recipe desired, take it to the prep table (or whatever equipment table you need), and you will yield one plate of that recipe. As you progress, you unlock "moderno" and "perfetto" equipment types which allow you to batch multiple units of ingredients so that you can turn out a batch of, for example, 5 pizza doughs, or 2 cappuccinos at once, so that you're not slaving over one portion over and over. However...say you've got a delivery order for a lasagna and a cappucino and you're currently equipped with max equipment - either you: BUY AN EXCESSIVE AMOUNT OF INGREDIENTS AND THROW THE EXCESS AWAY ONCE YOU MAKE YOUR ONE DISH - OR - YOU CONSTANTLY SWITCH OUT YOUR EQUIPMENT TO MAKE SINGLE BATCH VS MULTIPLE. Sure, if you expand your restaurant enough, you can just have every version of equipment out in its own zone in the kitchen, but...I just find that...lame?
My second - and probably biggest - gripe is that you can't "tell" the menu board how many dishes you have on par. So let's say you have one lasagna that you just spent like 5 dang real-world minutes preparing, then two diners come in and they BOTH order lasagna at the same time, you HAVE to serve that guest before you can clear the table. You should be able to reject diners, or refresh them so they can sync up with what the menu offering is once you've taken the "out of" dish from the menu.
Regarding the music - it's probably AI, but honestly it kind of bangs and I've caught myself singing along to it.
Also, I don't know Italian but I feel there's an NPC phrase that sounds exactly like, "what-a-da-♥♥♥♥-a-is-a-dis-uh" and I find that hilarious.
TL;DR:
Music good
Early game progression is too quick
Quests should be hide-able
Why keep playing once quests are done?
Only really built for one play style - a couple recipes at once
Waste
**Recipes vs Equipment batching leaves me yelling at the screen
**Please allow us to indicate par
