Mineko’s Night Market Review (Switch & PC)

I’d honestly love to say that I’ve never played a farming or life simulation game before. If I had said that, then I’d probably have stepped into Mineko’s Night Market with a bit more of an open mind, and not with one that, in all honesty, was still drawn to the roots of a dozen other orchards across an archipelago of islands and what have you. But boy, that fledgling graveyard shift worker grounded deep within my core yearned to experience the world that Meowza Games had conjured. More importantly, I wanted to feel at home with the bustling community of kittens, crafts, and traditional Japanese values as old as time that it so claimed to foster. And so, with a little nudge, I set out to find it—bound for a twilight moon and an idyllic world that, come dawn, would become my home away from home.

Moving forward by a number of days, and to say my outlook on the Night Market has changed would only be an understatement. Safe to say that, having spent a number of hours scraping the bottom of the barrel that Meowza Games’ latest simulation entry left out for me, I can finally put several questions to bed. And the one question that I couldn’t help but highlight the most, really, was this: is it all worth it? Well, to answer that, we’ll have to step back a few nights—back to the beginning, and to a time when the Night Market was merely a footnote on my grand debut as a budding globetrotter. Cue the sunset, I guess?

Live for the Night

To give you an idea of what it’s all about, Mineko’s Night Market follows a young girl—an unlikely hero, of sorts, named Mineko, who’s sent to live on a remote island with her father. This island, much like a lot of cliche locales as depicted in countless life and farming simulation games, has certainly seen better days, and the only thing going for it, really, is its weekly Night Market, which essentially threads together the most popular seasonal goods for other citizens to browse and consume. But as it turns out, even this is struggling to stay afloat, as its stocks are limited and its stalls are teetering on the brink of collapse. Surprise surprise, this is where you, the newcomer, will introduce yourself, and with a sparkle and a smile, return it to its former glory. Because apparently that’s your job.

Outside of the whole Night Market malarkey, there’s also another pressing matter to deal with: the folklore of a giant cat named Nikko, and its ongoing “feud” with some local Agents who just so happen to patrol the island and prevent said feline from ever returning home. Again, this is your problem, apparently — so don’t expect the whole shindig to consist of stocking shelves down at the market, basically.

On paper, it actually sounds like there’s quite a lot to deal with, and I can almost see what sort of thing Meowza Games was trying to formulate. Having said that, once the basic setup has been unraveled and the cards have been dealt, there isn’t actually a great deal more left in the deck to show you. And that just sort of continues until you’ve finally reached the tipping point in the story—a moment that, in all honesty, feels a little lightweight and somewhat anticlimactic.

I Hate Crafting

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy a bit of crafting just as much as the next fledgling builder, but not so much when it’s literally the only thing that’s available to do. And unfortunately, this is where Mineko’s Night Market misses the beat, as the bulk of its gameplay is, more or less, sourcing items to craft, well, more items. With said items, you can either do one of two things: sell them at the Night Market and build on various relationships, or use them to make—drumroll, please—even more items. It’s a constant cycle, really — and it doesn’t really have a conclusion, either, which means your efforts are mostly for nought. Great.

There are quests you can take, too, which make up a little less than the lion’s share of the actual experience. But even these, as it turns out, are mainly fetch quests that rarely go beyond finding or crafting a new item. So again, there isn’t really a whole lot to do, and you’re often left waiting for the next Night Market event, which just so happens to operate every Saturday. And even then, there are only the several seasonal variations of Night Market to experience, after which you’re essentially back at square one and with a whole new rotation to deal with.

So, what’s the actual goal here, and where do you, a self-proclaimed jack-of-all-trades, fit in? Well, one could argue that the objective, really, is to bring foot traffic back to the local Night Market, whereas another could argue that it’s to rid the Agents who roam the borders and unlock new biomes. Either way, it’s what’s between that doesn’t really change — and that’s a whole lot of crafting. So, so much crafting.

It’s Not All Gloomy Skies

Endless crafting recipes and fetch quests aside, Mineko’s Night Market is actually quite a cute and cozy game. Sure it’s a little lifeless and without its own real identity — but it is, for what it’s worth, visually appealing. And honestly, that’s about all it is: cute, cozy, and artistically satisfying. Needless to say that it takes a great deal more to win over a gamer, though, and that’s where Mineko’s Night Market just sort of flatlines. It can be more, but it settles for less and doesn’t make the effort to improve on its downfalls.

There is something that becomes clear right from the get-go, and that is, Meowza Games wants you to stay for the long haul. Truth be told, it doesn’t take long to catch on to this, as I myself discovered before long that your player consumes a set amount of energy each period—a drawback that ultimately decreases the number of activities you can do on a daily basis. Not an issue in most cases, for sure — but at no point did I ever feel the urge to begin a new day and start from scratch, anyway.

From my point of view, it’s the pacing issues that drown the bulk of the charm out; it’s introductory passage leans on a bottle rocket, and the remainder just sort of settles for a skateboard with three missing wheels. It scrapes along, is what I’m saying, and it doesn’t take long for the cuts and bruises to start seeping out. Yes, crafting is great, as is fishing — but only in short bursts, and not, for example, an entire game.

Verdict

Mineko’s Night Market could’ve been a great deal more, but sadly missed the marker when it came to delivering a cast of compelling NPCs and a series of events that were both enjoyable and the slightest bit interactive. As it turns out, pouring heart and soul into that Night Market was never really worth all the effort, to begin with — and it’s thanks to the game’s biggest downfalls that, quite frankly, there isn’t exactly an incentive to keep on playing even after those twilight shifts are over. And that’s a shame, truly, as artistically, it’s actually quite a beautiful game, and not to mention structurally sound. But it’s those bland conversations that dampen the vibe, and it’s the A to B to A to B progression that makes an otherwise enjoyable experience come across as monotonously boring.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed a lot of the opening sections of Mineko’s Night Market—especially those initial crafting and exploration portions. But given the fact that this quickly dwindles into repetition and follows an almost identical course for the remainder of the game — that I just couldn’t wrap my head around. And it’s because of this that, honestly, I just wanted to grab ahold of that next story beat and, you know, progress deeper into the game. Due to the seemingly endless grind and borderline non-existent pulse, however, this just wasn’t always possible.

There’s that old saying: you reap what you sow. In the case of Mineko’s Night Market, though, it’s more the case of sow, sow, and then sow some more — without the reaping. And while the journey of planting said seeds can provide some level of comfort for idled hands in short bursts, its rewards are so minimal that, honestly, it just isn’t worth getting your hands dirty over.