itch.io

A short game with simple, cute graphics but full of thought provoking points for those who have never been behind the closed doors of the mortuary. As someone who has read Carla Valentine's book, Jen immediately made me think of her (she went from working in mortuaries to the London Pathology Museum) so seeing her name in the special thanks in the credits made me smile.

My uncle worked as a repairman for retorts (the 'oven' used in cremations) so I felt like understanding it helped me understand the people he helped during this stage of his working years (he's retirement age now).

The game looks at the problems faced by funeral homes in the west, and gives this area a ray of hope at the end. It calls out the lack of knowledge in the options we have for seeing off our loved ones, from our initial cadaver not needing to be embalmed to the very inclusive funeral newsletter that Jen subscribes Charlie's email to. The game is very on rails and does not allow you to make mistakes and is a gentle pace, which allows room to think about the themes.

Having read Caleb Wilde's blog, I feel like this is the tip of the iceberg, and I think we do need more games like this and ones that perhaps show the stresses that affect the morticians directly.

I recommend this game.

If you're not sure what platform to get this game on, I want to share that this game works on the Steam Deck. My husband fired up this game on his account to let me get a feel of both the game and the Deck, which he received in Spring this year.

This game is saccharine and definitely one that has its audience that I can see being very happy with the game, but I'm afraid I'm just not one of them (I'm more a salty-sweet over syrupy). I found myself lost and confused before long, and that I felt the magic only really existed to explain away why there was a distinct lack of conflict. Again, this might be fine for some people, but to me, it felt like a missed opportunity. Why not incorporate magic into the wares of the cafe or make it something that you have to overcome to make the cafe better?

I didn't enjoy the way that recipes are made (shrinking your character and running across the worktop throwing entire bags of ingredients into the mixing bowl, which prompts the food to appear and you place it in the display case) and this was not helped by the fact that if you accidentally throw the ingredients over the counter, they do not respawn, and there was no instruction as to how to leave part way, so I felt stuck for a while. I overall preferred the cooking processes of Little Dragons Cafe, where you have to find ingredients (with the quality improving as the game progressed), at least one group (fruit, vegetables, meat, etc.) have flavour profiles that affect the final product, and a mini game affects the final quality. All of these affecting the reviews from the customers.

I also admit that I was not a big fan of the character art style. This is just a minor nitpick and a matter of personal taste, but it didn't help my diminished enjoyment.

None of this is to say that the game is terrible, I could see the heart in it, it just lacked the kind of hooks that get me invested in sim type games. My husband was genuinely surprised when I said I wasn't a fan since I adore cats and baking IRL, until I compared the cooking mechanics between this game and Little Dragons Cafe.