Mineko's Night Market is a cutesy Japanese-inspired crafting sim where you play as a little girl moving to a strange new island full of cats. As a huge fan of this genre, I was looking forward to this game and its super cute visual style. Unfortunately, my time with it wasn't as cozy as I was led to believe. The game is riddled with bugs, often crashing the game and resetting progress for the whole day. I don't mind grinding, but the drop rate on some required items feels like a glitch itself. There isn't a lot to do, so even from very early on I was waking up and going to sleep just to fast forward time. The game has quirky dialogue and adorable visuals, and I really enjoyed it conceptually, but by the end, I was frustrated at the lack of polish and enraged at the total absence of any quality of life features for a 2023 game (I can't press B to exit a menu?). This game would have been an easy recommendation if it had been in development for a little longer, but the developers now don't seem interested in fixing the many issues with it. I had fun playing this game, and the visuals and quirky humor really shine, but unfortunately, it's too much of a technical mess for me to feel good recommending it.

This game is utterly adorable. Beautifully designed, really cosy, relaxing fun! I love that there's so much to do, it's wholesome and genuinely well designed. The only thing I disliked is how expensive the tools are, but it's very easy to make in-game money. Would recommend to anyone needing a soft-girl moment or two to just unwind.