I had inKONBINI sitting on my wishlist since trying the demo during Next Fest earlier this year, and recently got around to completing it.

While much of the gameplay revolves around store organisation and inventory management, which are my favourite parts of the game, the heart of the experience lies in its narrative and themes of change. This comes through in conversations with your night shift regulars, your aunt, and even the little notes shared between you and the day shift staff. The conversations are interspersed with both small, everyday moments and larger events of ordinary life: talks about which premium treat to buy for Chief's cat, the downturn in business, the best ingredients for a countryside dish, or shifts in career paths.

The characters feel fleshed out, friendly, and hard to dislike. But Naomi is by far my favourite character to talk with, whose dialogues feel bright, fun, and interesting. The protagonist, Makoto, is friendly, optimistic, and inquisitive, though some of her lines come across as a little naive to me, which seems reasonable for someone her age.

The visual design and music contribute greatly to the game's warm, cosy atmosphere, while the sound design strongly complements the tactile experience of stocking and organising shelves, resulting in some genuinely satisfying gamefeel. It's kind of a shame there isn't a gamemode dedicated solely for the sim.

That said, I think the devs accomplished what they set out to do: a feel-good slice-of-life about the impact of small, ordinary conversations with people, no matter how briefly your lives intersect.

Genuinely had a lot of fun with this. It's got a strong retro aesthetic and a few elements that feel reminiscent of Contra (though I never beat that one). Highly replayable and feels great to play with precise and responsive controls. You're scored at the end of the game based on the items you collected, your death count, and completion time (the best I could do was a B, which I'm perfectly fine with).

Give this one a go if you're in the mood for something a bit challenging that you can beat in under half an hour.

Cute, cosy, action RPG that lets you play at your own pace. Easy to unwind with, though not very deep.

Although the story didn't strongly appeal to me at the beginning, I was a little moved toward the end, especially as the characters tried sharing the burden of their Guardians, reinforcing one of the game's central themes on the strength of community effort in the face of great hardship.

The game performs about as well as you'd expect for a cosy, action rpg: enough action to spice things up, but not too much to stress you out. You can even opt into a mode that makes you invincible.

Combat is fine but a little awkward. If I had to nitpick, I wish changing weapons or equipment didn't change the direction you were facing, which can feel disruptive and mildly annoying during combat.

I mostly ignored the decorative and cosmetic aspects of the gameplay, which have little effect on game progression. It just didn't click for me, and mostly felt invisible and trivial.

There's also some gardening to help with materials and currency, but it didn't feel especially useful since currency was easy enough to earn through other activities, and there weren't many things to spend on.

Definitely a game to unwind with, it's low stakes, cute, and not too demanding. Works well for short daily sessions during a relaxing evening or work breaks. It satisfied the part of my brain that likes checking things off a list. It's decent overall, but a bit middling.

Decent short horror game that knows how to escalate tension, and the gunplay is surprisingly crisp for what it is.