I did not plan to play this for an hour but oh boy did that hour just completely disappear. I always figured I would get sucked into one of these if I ever actually played them and this proved me right. I actually really enjoyed it. Some comments:
- Please fix the default ugly Unity environment map. Mess with the materials and add a couple environment reflection probes to get rid of that really unnatural indoor rim lighting.
- After a messy first day (where I realized how little I know about coffee) I figured everything out pretty quickly as the days went by.
- It happened a few times that the customers asked for things I didn't have the equipment for. Most of the time I was able to franticly buy what I needed on the spot, but the ice machine I had to let a customer go because I wasn't able to get the money for it midday next day. Should customers be allowed to make orders for things you don't have?
- Love the moe moe kyun blessing, and the little heart popping abstracted minigame is good for the purposes of the game.
- That said, the maid theming is pretty thin. I don't know how seriously to take this, as in if this is a shitposty friendslop asset flip whatever game, or something with more meat to it, but there's so much more that could be done here. Decorations, more themed snacks and foods, omurice with messages, more types of minigames to service the customers, returning customers, customers having their own oshi, shows if you really want to go that far, etc. There's so many places this could be expanded on.
- I only played SP, so I can't say anything about the MP aspect, but it's pretty obvious how the game would be easier with even just one other person splitting the workload.
- Interaction with most things was simple, satisfying, and self-explanatory.
- Only thing I tripped up a lot on, was not knowing what state the coffee grinder was in. I.e. if it was ground up or not, and if I was allowed to put more stuff in it or not.
- Conceptually I like the auto-grid sorting in the fridge, but the way things were placed would often obscure things since the how they were placed felt somewhat random. I think at the very least letting you pick which shelf the things go on would help.
- For moving things around, the trays were nice and convenient to use, but if you bless a customer's food while holding a tray it blocks the QTE directions.
- I never had multiple customers at a single table, so I can't comment on how that works.
- Simple soundtrack tied the whole thing together. The game wouldn't be half as good without that song.
- The way the day ending is handled feels a bit weird how people just get up and leave immediately. It creates a situation where it's better to ignore a customer if they come in too late and just let them leave when the cafe closes so you don't waste resources on them. Feels bad.