I don’t dream of labour. My thoughts aren’t filled with get-richquick schemes, I have never developed a ‘grindset’ and my browser history is free from searches on “how to start an LLC”. I may have to work for the things in this world I love most, but I will never pray to my job as though it were a god. In Mineko’s Night Market, there’s an actual god of commerce, and it’s a giant cat who lives in your shed.
As Meowza Games’ first outing, Mineko’s Night Market is a very cute and soft business management sim that kind of just papers over the fact that we’re making a young girl economically revitalise a whole town by selling crafts to neighbours. The writing is quirky, the setting is appropriately rural while still vaguely gesturing at modern trends, the art is this kind of pop-up picture book-ish style that feels just a little derivative while still managing to do the job it was meant to do.
Unfortunately, there’s a serious tension between the game’s various systems – namely its wildly inflated economy, tedious central loop and the mechanics of fulfilling quests – and its story, and it’s a tension that is never fully resolved.