Mineko’s Night Market Review | Paw-sitively Adorable!

Mineko’s Night Market Review: Reviewed by StormieDae

PC, Switch (XBox and PS later)

Release date: 9/26/2023

Developer: Meowza Games

Publisher: Humble Games

Mineko’s Night Market is a narrative-driven, social simulation adventure game that celebrates Japanese culture and invites players to craft whimsical items, eat delicious snacks and enjoy all the cats. If you are a fan of the cozy genre but you feel like you're drowning in farming sims, this indie might be exactly what you need to cure your farming fatigue.

Developed by Humble Games, Mineko’s night market is much-needed, unique spin on your typical cozy game. If you are into collecting materials, crafting and selling items, then this game is going to be right up your alley. This game will be available initially on PC and Nintendo Switch with a later Xbox and PlayStation release in the works. You will discover the secrets behind the town and restore the struggling village to its former glory.

The story starts with Mineko moving into town with their dad to start a new life. You'll meet several interesting townspeople throughout the game, and these folks are not the type to leave you bored. There are truly some really funny and wholesome moments in these conversations and it's so refreshing to see some characters that you can build friendships with have a little more than just your typical dialogue lines being repeated over and over.

Mineko’s Night Market is a unique spin on your standard cozy fare.

You spend much of your time with the game crafting items to sell during-- you guessed it-- the night market. Crafting the items does involve small mini games and (depending on how you perform) you could have just a normal item or a perfect item that can be sold for more money. You also unlock several different types of crafting stations as you progress forward, allowing you to make a ton of items.

The crafting system feels very intuitive, and I never felt bored doing it as each crafting table has different mini games.

The night market is a town’s tradition that occurs every Saturday night. This means you always have six in-game days between each market, which is the amount of time you have to get everything together that you want to sell. You choose your merchandise and set your own prices.

Be careful though, because if you ask for too much some people will not buy your products and you will miss an opportunity to make some money. You also get the opportunity to shop at the market once your customers are gone where you can find cute plushies, food, and new outfits. Stimulating the economy by selling and purchasing items will also level up your market with new venders and different decorations.

At the end of the night there are also a variety of different minigames that you can take part in. Some of these games include scavenger hunts, cat races and participating in plays or parades. I absolutely loved the Nigh Market portions of the game, so much so that I found myself skipping whole days just to be able to get to the next market. It also felt a little tedious here and there having to spend all day collecting materials for crafting, but if collecting items or fetch quests are your favorite part of this type of game, you're going to really enjoy this.

So. Many. Cats. Can you set them all free?

Another really great aspect of the game is that, with the story progression, you unlock different areas that you can then travel to by bus. These areas have their own purposes. Like, for example: you go to the flower garden to collect flowers or head over to the dark forest for wood. Everything has its own area for materials, which I like because if I need something specific, I am not just wandering around hoping to find it, I know exactly where to go.

But before you can freely explore these areas you must clear them of agents. Oh yes, did I forget to mention that this island is covered in secret agents that are holding cats hostage? Yes, that's a thing. This is another mechanic of the game.

The villagers don't know why the agents are on the island, but there are suspicions that it may have to do with the Sun Cat, Nikka, which previous was always thought to be a myth (until now, that is). You must complete tasks to sneak past agents and liberate your feline friends and, once you’ve done so, you're free to use that part of town for resources. This includes crouching, running, and teaming up with your friend Bobo to create distractions or even bribe the agents with cold hard cash.

I think it would be an understatement to say that this game is such a breath of fresh air when it comes to the cozy genre, I absolutely love that we are seeing something unique. I know there is a huge market of people who want relaxing games but don’t feel like planting seeds and pulling weeds.

Mineko’s Night Market features gorgeous visuals.

The art style is gorgeous, and the sound design feels incredibly relaxing from the Japanese inspired music to the crunching of the leaves under your feet. If you love animals, specifically cats, you will also probably really appreciate the calm atmosphere and always having a cat to pet.

I never felt like I was short of things to do with this game, though I did feel crunched for time here and there. Between the crafting, exploring new areas, unlocking new spaces, and the night markets, there is always going to be something on your to-do list, but it doesn't feel overwhelming as you can definitely move at your own pace. There are hours of exploration and four different seasons in this game.

If you're looking to cure your farming fatigue with a heartwarming story about adventure, friendship, tradition and hundreds of cats, then I would definitely recommend checking this one out.

Pros:

+ Not a farming sim

+ Variety of mini games

+ Cats

Cons:

- Tons of fetch quests

- Can feel very routine