Bookshop Simulator Review (PC)

It doesn’t get any cozier than books, kittens, and small cubbies of gleeful guests, all of whom share a natural love of wholesome stories and idyllic settings. In an ideal world, Bookshop Simulator wants to capture that glimmering aura. Like Tiny Bookshop, it knows where its audience is, and it knows that the perfect recipe for success is etched into a binder of vibrant colors and feline touches, incremental tasks and sweet but gratifying moments. It doesn’t aim to rewrite the book, but rather, it offers to add its own paragraph to the index of a curated collection of faithful works. It wants to tell you a story, and it wants to give you the freedom to author it.

Unlike Tiny Bookshop—a game that primarily serves as a point-and-click business simulation game with light interactive elements—Bookshop Simulator offers a deeper look into the interior world of shopkeeping. As a first-person game, it invites you to weave the binders of a small business into a fully-fledged cubby that, in time, can attract the weight of the world and bring communities together to bathe in the majestic beauty of a good page turner. It begins with a husk, but it culminates in a paperback haven where folks from all walks of life can share their stories. It simply falls to you to write the glossary and to introduce the first chapter.

In a similar vein as your typical business simulation game, Bookshop Simulator grants you the chance to build your own store, compile your own bookshelves, and develop a following. Books, being the bread and butter of your business, make your world pivot, but rare novels, which sparkle and gleam as golden items on the shelves, bring you ever closer to your dreams. A golden book, at least in this world, can essentially give you access to abilities that can elevate your business model, effectively introducing perks that can increase your productivity and boost your revenue. But, more on that shortly.

At the heart of Bookshop Simulator is a familiarly friendly game that proudly wears its contents on its sleeve. In the beginning, it makes a moral choice to present you with a lot of the same breadcrumbs, all in the hopes that you’ll dally on down the yellow brick road in search of something substantial. You purchase a box of used books, and you flesh out your shelves with stories from all manner of genres. As your cash begins to pile up, you unlock decorations for your store, additional wings for your reading quarters, and, of course, more books. And to be honest, that’s all that Bookshop Simulator is: a cozy rags-to-riches business sim that, while not quite the be all, end all of sims, makes a conscious decision to keep to a traditional format.

As I said, golden books add an extra layer to the whole experience. For example, if you unbox a collection of used books and luckily pull out a rare book, then you can adopt new abilities to propel your business even further. And with more cash in your pocket, you can gradually branch out to open more stores around the world, as well as train staff to handle your operations whilst you tend to general renovation work. To that end, Bookshop Simulator is a lot more than a mere one-stop book nook; it’s a global enterprise that you yourself can build and maintain.

While purchasing and distributing books is the sole purpose of Bookshop Simulator, the game does cater to some additional business aspects. For example, if you’re not selling your books, then you’re unlocking cosmetics, wallpapers, tiles, or other decorations, all of which you can tailor and customize to suit the style and theme of each store. And frankly, there is a lot of bits and pieces for you to experiment with here, with each store having its own distinct style and cultural characteristics. If you’re not in Paris, then you’re in Japan, either fiddling with fantastical book nooks or curating a collection of horror novels, pumpkin decor and all. The point is, there’s no shortage of content in this world, and that alone ought to bode well with those who enjoy longer epics than short novellas.

Of course, the core gameplay loop is as simple as ever, as is it in line with most business simulation games of its kind. That being said, Bookshop Simulator does add a lot of extra features to the existing formula, with several separate locations to explore, themes to fool around with, and customization options to unearth over a surprisingly lengthy campaign. And so, again, while it does keep to a familiar narrative, it does make a notable effort to elevate the foundations of a generic simulation game. It’s cozy, creative, and above all, a game that feels complete.

With a multiplayer function and a treasure trove of updates in the pipeline, Bookshop Simulator clearly has the capacity and the momentum to bring a long-lasting experience to the nook. Honestly, I sincerely hope that it does continue to flaunt its content, too, as I strongly believe that there is a brilliant game here that has the potential to outshine a lot of generic sims. With that in mind, Bookshop Simulator feels like an easy recommendation, especially for those who enjoy weighty campaigns that blend incremental hooks with wholesome storytelling that favor lightweight chores and satisfying progression. Oh, and for those who love cats, too. The cat is merely the cherry on top, really.

Verdict

Bookshop Simulator presents itself as a jam-packed business simulation game that has both the coziness and the incremental loveliness of a long-lasting, oh-so-satisfying experience. With thanks to its treasure trove of dynamic locations, themes, and book nooks, it quite clearly makes for a compelling read—a tale that, while still somewhat familiar and lacking in a proper post-climax twist, just feels good to spool through on a  cold night. That, in my mind, is something that you don’t often find on the bottom of a shelf that is quite literally bloated with generic shopkeeping sims.