Restory: Chill Electronics Repairs | PC Review

When PowerWash Simulator was announced, I couldn’t believe it would be so successful. “Who wants to play a video game where you just power wash?” Well, last year I found out why it was a hit: I absolutely adored my time, despite my wife’s laughter. The chime and visual cue when an object is 100% clean is so satisfying and addictive. So when I saw the trailer for Restory: Chill Electronics Repairs from developer Mandragora, a video game repair simulator set in mid-2000s Japan, I jumped at the opportunity to review it. Blending the charm of cleaning and repairing, video game nostalgia, and a narrative that has some interesting surprises, I absolutely enjoyed my time.

A Master in Akiba

In Restory: Chill Electronics Repairs, you are a new shop owner in mid 2000s Tokyo, specifically Akiba, taking over as master for a video game repair shop. Unlike games such as PowerWash Simulator, which have no face-to-face customer interaction, you will interact with customers and other characters throughout. You will first meet your landlord, Hashimoto, who hates living in the city but loves the rent money in this bustling area. Hashimoto is also the organizer of a competition for repair masters, the grand prize being a license to fix the robot dog, Robby, which your upstairs neighbor, Baketsu (who only appears as a bucket with a sticky note), brings to you early in the game. You will meet more characters along the way, with plenty of twists and turns in the story.

Would I say that the story was the driving force for my enjoyment of Restory: Chill Electronics Repairs? No, but mostly because I just enjoyed the gameplay that much more. The story has some surprising events happen throughout. There might be a kidnapping where you have to give out information to Sakamoto, the police officer in Akiba. One of your competitors, Takumi, is trying to take over your store so he can be the only master in the area. The story felt convoluted and wasn’t compelling to me, but it was nice to see an effort to create a story in a genre that often lacks one.

Managing Your Shop

Being the game master, you will fix video game consoles and controllers, phones, and other electronic devices. Story characters will bring in items for you to fix that help move along the narrative. However, to keep fixing new items, you need the proper license to repair them. So, in order to continue to generate enough money to purchase them, you also have to take online orders for cleaning and repairs. The money generated depends on the item, the cleanliness, and whether you have to make repairs, which really means throwing out broken items and replacing them with new ones, which you often have to buy on the online market.

I had to be careful with what orders I could take, as well as how many I could pick up, because they are on a three-day timer. Cleaning jobs typically take the least time and don’t require extra money, so they can help you earn money to get parts for a repair, which is a higher-paying job. You also have to balance paying rent, internet, electricity, and security (yes, you have to pay for protection). This is advertised as a cozy sim management game, so it might not be very complex or in-depth, but I did like having to think through which orders I could take on and which items/parts I could buy.

Video Game Nostalgia

The electronics that are possible to fix in Restory: Chill Electronics Repairs might look familiar to most people over the age of thirty, but with a twist. Mandragora secured an official license for Atari systems, so that you will see the Atari 2600 and the CX40 joystick. However, they did not have a license for any other system, so they created familiar-looking electronics, such as the “Nony PMP” handheld system, “Pokia” cell phones, and the “Guitar Legend” controller. Growing up in the 2000s, this brought out a lot of nostalgia, and it’s a big reason I got excited to play a game about electronics repair.

At the workbench, you will have one electronic device to clean or repair. You will have to disassemble each part, and it will tell you whether it needs to be cleaned, tossed because it is broken and needs to be replaced, or set aside because it is normal. As you go, it may be worth buying tools that make repairs faster, such as a larger cleaning brush, an electric screwdriver, or an automatic cleaner that cleans multiple items.

Restory: Chill Electronics Repairs scratches that itch with the satisfaction of cleaning and repairing something. It captures the different sounds of taking electronics apart and cleaning them, such as a handheld screwdriver turning or a brush scraping as it cleans. It also has that gratifying ring and visual flash when an item is clean. Better equipment makes repairs quicker and easier, but it doesn’t dampen the experience of these cleans/repairs, which have their own fulfilling charm. This game just nails the rewarding feeling of having a clean video game console. 

Also, don’t forget to turn on the radio music! The sounds of cleaning the electronics were great, but the music just put me in a zen state that made the time pass so quickly!

Final Verdict

Restory: Chill Electronics Repairs is a charming, cozy sim about electronics repairs in the mid-2000s. Not often talked about in the sim genre, it has about a ten- to fifteen-hour narrative that is fun with real character interactions and plenty of surprises. It might not have been compelling to me, but the game loop of cleaning and repairing familiar electronics was more than satisfying. Playing on the Steam Deck was enjoyable, with my only gripe being how slow the joystick felt, and I couldn’t find an option to increase movement speed. Even if sim management is not your typical cup of tea, you should really give this game a shot, especially if you have nostalgia for 90s to mid-2000s video games and electronics. The $19.99 USD price tag is well worth the experience!

To hear me talk more about Restory, be sure to listen to the August 16th, 2026 episode of The Gaming Outsider Podcast around the 59:34 time stamp.

This review is based on a PC copy of Restory provided by Sandbox Strategies for review purposes. As of this review, it is exclusive to that platform.