Cat Café Manager | Switch Review

It’s no secret that I’m a major cat lady. They hold a special place in my heart, and any media that involves felines captures my attention. Roost Games’ Cat Café Manager is a sweet, relaxing game that is pretty much heaven in interactive form for yours truly. If you are a fellow fan of kitties and/or love management sims, this is a gem that is begging for you to play it.

A Purrfect Journey

Your character travels to Caterwaul after the passing of your Grandmother. You are immediately greeted by Bonner, a jolly fisherman. He fills you in on the events occurring in Caterwaul and encourages you to keep your Grandmother’s dream alive and start a cat café to protect the strays of the village. After customizing and naming your character, the reins are fully handed over to you, and you must build your café from the ground up. You also have to adopt one of three cats during this time (don’t worry, the other two can be adopted later).

There isn’t a tutorial on how to build the café, but it’s simple enough to figure out with a few button presses. You’ll only be able to construct a small building at first with minimal furniture and equipment, but as the game progresses you’ll earn money and materials to expand and improve. You also need to bequeath a name upon the café (I chose Coffee Meow!) to truly seal the deal.

The Cat’s Meow

After construction is finished, you’re greeted by a mysterious black cat named Grimalkin. This cat can speak, and they inform you that the town’s famous cat shrine will be destroyed by a company called Hawkable soon. To save the shrine you need to hit certain goals, such as hiring new staff members, adding new items to your menu, and unlocking new décor. You’re then let loose to manage your brand spanking new café. 

The establishment will attract five different types of individuals: fishermen, witches, artists, businesspeople, and vagabonds. They all prefer different menu items, décor, and cat breeds, so finding the perfect balance can be tricky. Luckily, you can advertise to whichever of these groups you please to make things more manageable and gain certain unique materials each individual provides. While running your café, you’ll also need to set lures outside to attract stray cats. After gaining the trust of these cats, you’ll be able to bring them into your building and train them. You will need to eventually find some of these kitties a loving home, which always tugged on my heartstrings.

Cat and Mouse

Running the café is simple yet takes a little bit of time to fully grasp all of the mechanics and get the hang of the timing. The controls are fiddly when it comes to trying to take and serve orders, though. I often found myself cursing the game while I was trying to perfectly line myself up so that the game would register that I was trying to interact with the customers and cats. This occurred several times during my entire 8 hour experience.

Another mechanic of Cat Café Manager is training your staff. This just involves allocating points towards cleaning, cooking, and serving, but I honestly didn’t notice any improvement in them even after they were leveled up. They would still stand around and neglect to take and prepare orders sometimes, and it was always during the busiest time of the in-game day. This was a little frustrating and resulted in me receiving lower grades in customer satisfaction.

Pretty Kitty

Despite a few gripes I have with the mechanics, I loved playing Cat Café Manager. It was an addictive game that relieved my anxiety, and I found myself losing track of time while playing. The graphics are charming and the sound effects for the cats were delightful. It was also a joy to see the felines in my café chasing each other, rolling onto their backs for belly rubs, and simply curling up to take a little cat nap. The adorable meter is set extremely high in this game.

Improving and decorating my café was a blast, and I adored the five friends that my character made during the duration of the game. Each of the companions is chasing a dream, and encouraging them during their highs and lows was a pleasure. I also loved how everyone in the town adored the cats of the village and shared the passion of saving the sacred shrine.

The Final Verdict

If you love cats, are a fan of management sims, or need a game to relax with, Cat Café Manager should be on your radar. It’s addicting improving your café, taking care of the kitties, and hitting each of your goals. Even after wrapping up the main storyline, you can continue to serve customers, further build and decorate your establishment, and add new recipes to your menu. I do wish some of the controls had been tightened and the AI was more reactive, but these elements don’t detract too much joy from the experience. It’s evident a lot of love went into the creation of this title, and you can feel the dedication while playing.

 

This review is based on a Nintendo Switch copy of Cat Café Manager provided by Stride PR for coverage purposes. It is also available on PC via Steam and Epic Games Store.