Touhou Mystia’s Izakaya Review – Restaurant Simulator Cuteness

I have been a low-key fan of the passion projects in the Touhou space, and seeing that one of the more popular ones, Touhou Mystia’s Izakaya, was getting a port on Nintendo Switch, I was on board.

Game Name: Touhou Mystia’s Izakaya
Platform(s): PC, Nintendo Switch (Reviewed)
Developer(s): Dichroic Purpilion
Publisher(s):  Phoenixx
Release Date: May 2, 2024
Price: $26.99

Touhou Mystia’s Izakaya has a basic premise of Mystia opening up an Izakaya in Gensokyo and trying to make money so she can make a living. An Izakaya is basically like a bar with an emphasis on food. With some shenanigans, she gets herself into debt for 3000 Yen. Now she is forced to learn the most she can to create a space where she can make food and drinks and earn a profit. You have two main sections in the game, the gathering section and the Izakaya section.

The Good

Having these two sections in Touhou Mystia’s Izakaya separated helps with the pace. You start in a clearing near Mystic’s house, and then you go to collect ingredients. Every ingredient spot you find takes some time to gather. This makes it important to acknowledge your current inventory and not over-gather something. Make sure you have a balanced amount of ingredients so you can create a variety of dishes during the Izakaya section.

The specific requests from special customers are fun to figure out. They give you a single hint of what they like and you have to find out what dish they want. These special customers can sometimes come back and give you a different request, but since they have a similar palette, you can customize it based on what you know of their taste preferences you learned prior, and it makes them like the Izakaya more and come back more frequently. I love it when I get the freedom to add things to a recipe or create something new entirely!

Having a partner who helps with bringing out and creating drinks is very helpful so I can focus on the dish itself. However, I would forget what the drink was when I had to go find a drink myself for someone. It’s not a bad thing, just letting people know not to be too reliant on their partner. You have to always carry out the drinks.

On PC, Touhou Mystia’s Izakaya has a lot of DLC that you will need to get to have the best experience with this game. Luckily on Nintendo Switch, it is included all just for the price of the game. You don’t need to focus on what DLC to buy or not with the various lists of added content, it is all there. There is a lot of content in this game. Lots of dishes and special customers and there is even a story among all of the chaos that you have when the Izakaya gets bigger and bigger.

The Bad

Special customers in Touhou Mystia’s Izakaya can be frustrating. They will give you one quality they like even though underneath they have a ton of different things they like or dislike as well. The first encounter can be great, and then you learn something else they like, so you give them a different dish, and then they get upset because of something that you didn’t know about their preference. For example, creating a dish that hits all the right places but because it is a vegetarian dish or a meat dish, the customer now hates your guts since they didn’t let you know. You almost need to write each thing out for these special customers or you might grab something you forgot they liked or disliked with how many other customers you have to deal with at times.

Touhou Mystia’s Izakaya is a vibe, but one that can be a bit too repetitive. Other than the special customers the normal customer base all want the same three things that you can create in a few seconds and then repeat. If you get bored easily from playing games that are simple and too easy, then you will probably not find a lot of enjoyment from the actual cooking and helping customers aspect of the game until a special customer shows up. You don’t get a lot of special customers so most of your time will be repetitive dishes and going back to wait at the bar.

I have a nitpick with the design choice of the menu, and that’s mainly that the active ingredient, your cursor is over is super light. I selected the wrong ingredient a few times by accident thinking I was on something else. That carries over to a lot of the other menus making the cursor too light to see.

The Verdict

Overall, Touhou Mystia’s Izakaya is a game with a serious vibe of cozy, casual relaxation while also seeing some good pixel artwork with characters and food. It is not a game for everyone but if you are looking for a cozy game in the Touhou universe, you have found it.

Touhou Mystia’s Izakaya is Available on Nintendo Switch and PC.

Review Disclosure Statement: Phoenixx provided Touhou Mystia’s Izakaya to us for review purposes. For more information on how we review video games and other media/technology, please review our Review Guidelines/Scoring Policy.

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