This is one of those games that if I could give a neutral, 50/50 rating, I would.
I think MOST people will NOT like this game. There are so many things about it that could annoy you. It's very janky.
My best advice is to just play the demo or the prologue (why they have both? who knows...) and you'll get a good feel for the game.
The dev seems VERY slow at updating the game. I don't think they've abandoned it entirely but they don't seem to have much ambition in its future. This isn't one of those games where you're like "oh this QoL feature would be nice; let me ask the dev" because no, it isn't happening. The dev does what they want and nothing more, and ignores everybody else.
I've pretty much only said negatives so let's get to a few positives before I get to the jankiness of this game.
I like the chaotic struggle to try and get everyone's order straight and get it to them as fast as possible. It's fun and engaging for me. I like organizing, I like preparing in advance for things, I like ordering what I need for the day ahead. It reminds me of another simulator game I played, Street Food Simulator, except this one seems to have more content -- so that's good!
The game is very janky but what I have NOT seen is many bugs. There's only two bugs I've found, or maybe they are more of exploits. For one, you can easily clean a dirty plate by stacking it with a clean plate. No need for a kitchen sink. Another one is there appears to be no need for the cutting board. When you buy the cutting board, it comes with a knife. You can then take the knife away and sell the cutting board to get most of your money back. This essentially lets you get a very cheap knife. You can also BUY a knife separately from a cutting board so why is it there in the first place who knows. This is maybe more jank than bug; basically just an exploiit (most of the jankiness are not exploits, I just usually consider an exploit a bug). ANYWAYs....
Oh wait one more bug lol. If you save and quit at any time during the day, you come back at the beginning of the day (6 AM) but with all the money you made for that day. I don't really think it matters TOO much because I don't think the day matters but, in theory, you could do everything in the game and have a million dollars and still be on day 1. lol
Ok, so now to the jankiness:
-I was excited when I saw that there were difficulty modifiers, but only two of them make the game harder, and you can't reduce either one below half, which is unfortunate. You can't set your own prices and the prices are RIDICULOUSLY high letting you scale super fast by default and you can crank this up even higher if you want! But you can make things sell for half price and you still make decent money. lol
But the other thing is EXP. Getting EXP at half the rate is STILL way too fast. You unlock stuff SUPER fast from like levels 5-10. There's a TON OF THINGS every level and some of them are expensive. If you have EXP and selling price at the same modifier (both at default 1, both at lowest point 0.5, etc.) then you won't be able to buy everything when you level up to like 7, 8, 10, etc. It's a little crazy. And I haven't even got any decorations at all! Not a single one! And there's still loads of things I need or want but don't have.
-The English translation is pretty bad in this game. Most of the stuff I know what they mean but it's just laughable. I offered on forums to help the dev if they want it, but of course, no reply. It's fine if English isn't you first language, but honestly, how much time out of your day would it take you to find an English speaker that can rewrite some of this stuff for you? It's one of many examples of what I mean when I say don't expect much to change in the future for this game.
-Cookies. Cookies are RIDICULOUSLY complicated to make. You unlock them at level FIVE. one of the earliest things you unlock. But most things require just buying 1 or 2 things to be able to sell it, and it's pretty cheap. Not cookies. Cookies require over a DOZEN things and HUNDREDS and HUNDREDS of dollars, well over a couple days' worth of profit for just that alone (while you're also needing to restock on other stuff too or, heaven forbid, buy other stuff you unlocked, and not JUST buy cookie stuff).
Just so you know I'm not exaggerating, in order to start making cookies you need to buy: A "pastry robot" (mixing machine), a knife, an oven, a kitchen desk (or something else to put this stuff on), flour, butter, sugar, eggs, a mixing bowl, plates, an "oven plate" (baking pan), and ideally a plate stacker (to put the plates) and a kitchen sink (to wash them if, you know, there wasn't an exploit/bug for it). This all comes out to roughly $800 which is a LOT of money in this game (by comparison, other things you unlock cost about $10-$30 to start using right away).
You would think the game could start you off with an oven, kitchen desk, "pastry robot", "oven plate", knife, sink, and mixing bowl AT LEAST. Why do you have to BUY all these things in a baking game? But whatever. This is the one thing that I think is too expensive in this game and too much and actually needs to calm down. Cookies are actually quite a bottleneck that is perhaps slowing down all other unlocks in the future since you have to save up at least a few days just to start selling them.
Also I forgot to mention you ALSO need a dirty plate stacker if you want your employees to remove plates from trays when they clear a table, yet another expense that cookies bring upon your cafe.
-Back to cookies, but -- I don't actually LIKE the baking. lol. The coffee is fun. I like making coffees and delivering orders and even giving them cookies, and I like preparing to make sure I have enough but I do NOT like baking cookies or cakes and it seems like croissants are about the same (just unlocked them). Rest assured, I knew this already from the demo, I just chose to buy the game anyway with hopes I'll like running JUST a coffee shop if I get too annoyed by the baking. But you know what? You unlock like 5 new items each level like 10 through 12 or so, so looking at the future unlocks I have, it's not looking so bright :-\ and I get about a level a day, even with half EXP. There's still lots of things I want that I don't have like a coffee maker, a second coffee machine, maybe a sink lol, clean plate stacker, more trays, more plates, etc. So much I don't have lol. Oh, and display cabinets to show off my pastries and maybe other decoration type things. And outdoor seating! But I never have the money for any of that. And that's fine, it's just the leveling I think is too fast. It should be half the speed at all levels of it. Anyway...
Now let's talk temperature lol. Milk and butter in boxes will stay cold no matter where they are, it seems, and I think juice is the same. Making it useless to even have a refrigerator. I actually DO use a refrigerator as I don't want to try and exploit this but I forgot to mention it earlier in the "exploit" section above. But it's not as cold as the refrigerator. Things that have been in the fridge long enough to cool down are at 0.5 C, whereas stuff left in boxes are like around 3.0 to 3.5 c. Plenty cold, but still slightly warmer. So stranger. But also, this is the same even if the box is in the fridge. It doesn't get colder lol. I think the dev intended the delivery truck to be "a little cold" so that's how they arrive but they probably expected you to empty the box and put it all in the fridge right away but I just stuck the whole box in there and yeah. Also the temperature usually doesn't seem to change if you leave the door open, but, like, sometimes it does? idk maybe that IS a bug.
I've apparently reached the limits to how long a Steam review can be lol. First time I've done this. I'm passionate about this game apparently. So I'll just stop it at that. This game has a lot of quirks and issues but if you are willing to work through them, try it!=D
