High Times
Developer: Yangyang Mobile
Publisher: Yangyang Mobile
Platforms: PlayStation 5, PC, Xbox Series X (Reviewed), Switch
Release Date: Available Now
Price: $19.99 USD – Available Here
Overview
There has been quite a trend in creating sim games where players take on the role of a simple barista, bartender, or in this case a baker, and listening to the woes of the various customers that come in and frequent the shop. Many of these sims have grown to be quite successful, receiving sequels and spin-offs over the years while others have stagnated a bit. The latest game to delve into the genre of food management sims is Yangyang Mobile with High Times, a game that places players in the shoes of a baker at a donut shop all about affecting the feelings of those who walk through their doors. Sporting colorful designs all around and a high quality voice cast, is this visual novel/dating game wrapped up in a sugary treat worth your time or was it left in the deep fryer too long?
Story
Players take on the role of their own custom created character as they head to work one day at the Hotbox in the town of San Mazo. The Hotbox serves mood enhancer-laced donuts that are all the rage lately and completely legal, capable of altering the emotions of those who eat them in various ways, such as making them happy, concentrated, relaxed, or even passionate. Right before heading to work one day a mysterious woman speaks to the player asking if they have any regrets of their past, pulling up six silhouettes in various shapes that players can select one of, though this doesn’t appear to have any real impact on the story. Then, as soon as this mystery woman appears, she is gone and players are on their bus ride to work at the Hotbox only to find out that their boss and owner of the store has taken and sold nearly every ingredient to help pay for his grand vacation with the help of some unsavory connections.
This leaves the player in charge of running the store and building it back up all while making sure that they can keep the place afloat with only a basic donut mold, vanilla frosting, and a jar of sprinkles gifted to the player by their longtime friend once they see the situation they’ve found themselves in. From then on players will routinely meet with various customers and do their best to meet their requests, some as simple as filling out an exact order or taking and specifically designing a donut to fit their personal request, or even doing the opposite in some cases as players can choose to go rogue sometimes. It is up to the player on how they wish to progress the story as long as they try to stay afloat, as there is a bankruptcy ending should players run out of money, though the threat of that is rather low after a few hours into the game unless the player really goes out of control with their spending.
What makes High Times so interesting is the fact that it dials practically every character up to the max and leaves them there all while leaving practically no subject off-the-table. Players will see various customers come in and while there are six that have romantic storylines tied to them including longer arcs than standard customers, every other customer also has their own unique story arc and seeing them through to the end not only involves taking and making specific donuts sometimes but also purchasing various flavors, toppings, and other tools to continue along their story arc. These characters are also all over the place and that is a good thing because players never really know what is going to come out of their mouth depending on who walks through the door next.
Sure, the stoner and his ex-girlfriend that hang out and order together are a bit predictable but throw an unexpected donut into the mix and players can change up their mood quite a bit. Similarly, a very enthusiastically dressed up chicken-girl can go on and on about her love for the chickens raised in San Mazo until she’s literally jumping on the counter and yelling “Viva la Chicken!” if she gets too excited even though it is clear she is hiding something, especially if players happen to get her feeling a bit too sentimental or nostalgic with a donut. Now not all of these changes can happen at every point, in fact it is entirely possible to give someone a donut only for them to complain that it isn’t what they ordered and simply leave the store, this encourages players to make sure to save at the end of every day as the game does support nearly a hundred save spots so it is possible to make a fresh one almost every day before saving over earlier days.
As for the six romanceable characters, there is quite an eclectic bunch here for players to choose from and while it is a shame that a couple of the female customers that are clearly more interesting aren’t an option, the amount of female customer and male customers players can interact and “flirt” with through odd dialogue choices and donut creation is quite extensive. The key part of High Times’ romance element is though that literally every single romance option is one of the player’s exes in one way or another, be it a childhood friend they dated while young, a high school fling they wish they could forget, someone they ghosted after a relationship, or even someone they kicked out of their apartment for being a disaster and burning the stage of the Hotbox down once.
These romance options are quite interesting and it is enjoyable to see how far they progress, especially since the game offers quite a few endings for each character and, should players want to, it is possible to rewind back into a romance arc once they have reached its conclusion if they want to do something different or pursue another character instead. This is especially helpful since the story arcs for some characters are incredibly long, this is a visual novel after all, and many can last well over ten hours to try and see all of the content they have to offer for a single character, let alone the others and that is only if players manage to get their preferred character to show up as a customer more often, but more on that later.
One thing that is a bit unfortunate is the main character himself. Perhaps it is because they have to play the “straight-man” to all of the insanity that walks in through the door of the Hotbox but they tend to be a real downer most of the time, with many dialogue options being nothing that someone might actually want to select when talking to a character, let alone a romance option. They also have a tendency to randomly drop Italian phrases at the end of their dialogue for the strangest of reasons or even calling other characters Italian names, something that doesn’t really fit the setting nor the character, if anything it makes them feel a bit insufferable amongst such a bright cast of characters.
Gameplay
In many ways High Times is more visual novel than it is an actual donut shop management game. Players will often deal with three or four customers a day that, initially at least, seem to be set in a specific order in how they are introduced and then they will listen to each customer as they either complain about their day, complain about something else or reminisce about some of their history with the player character, or even just go on and on about their plans for the rest of the day, often trying to drop hints as for what donut the player might need to make for them.
That being said, most of the times the orders are laid out plain and simple, with a customer ordering something that will help them focus, which chocolate frosting is a perfect fit for, or a heavy donut that will help them relax, which means laying on some mocha frosting and plenty of different toppings and as mentioned earlier, while some customers can have their orders twisted around to fit the narrative the player is trying to work with, such as maneuvering the mood of a character in an alternate way, others are quite strict and will straight up ignore being served anything they didn’t order. Thankfully, every ingredient players can use are shown what type of effects they might have, such as chocolate being bitter and vanilla being sweet, nuts being crunchy, etc. so players will rarely get confused as to what they are making. In fact a recipe book will automatically update with specific donut design orders customers can order as players purchase more toppings, tools, and frosting.
Shopping in the game can be done everyday past closing and, most likely for simplicity’s sake, everything obtainable costs $20 a piece, whether it is a topping, tool, frosting, or even interior design for the Hotbox. While all the creative tools to help craft different flavors and unique donuts, including those required to continue story arcs for characters are helpful, the actual interior design is a bit simplistic but does work to help swing the game a bit in the player’s favor by having certain items that draw some characters in while driving others out. This means that players trying to get close to their neon-haired ex may want to purchase a bunch of decorations that will increase her appearance rate over other customers, especially once they start to appear in any random order. Similarly if players want to talk more with their cheerleader ex, players can do the same thing, or if they want to avoid their former college fling then putting in decorations that will drive him off can decrease his appearance rate, though as mentioned all of these elements cost $20 a pop and while it is rare to worry about money after the first few weeks, overspending can be dangerous.
As for the actual donut creation process, it may start out fairly simple but can grow a bit more complex as players make their way through the days and unlock additional toppings and tools to work with. Donuts come in a variety of shapes and while players may only have access to a ring cutter at first, they’ll soon obtain a whole cutter, and a long-john style cutter. Then it’s tossed into the deep fryer until ready and then popped out where players can select what type of icing best fits the customer’s order or their own choice if given the option, with each ingredient costing a bit of money including extra smotherings of icing, piping bag icing for decorations, toppings, and more. Some characters will request various donuts that have half and half icing between two different flavors or flavor profiles or ask for a certain recipe but substitute an item for another to keep players on their toes.
One thing that is a bit annoying when it comes to donut making is the fact that it is a bit imprecise on a controller. While slathering on icing is easy and players can zoom in on the tray for better accuracy, piping the icing in a design is incredibly difficult and customers will complain and hold back on giving a tip if the design piping is too off from the proper design. While this isn’t an issue for some more elaborate straight line pieces, those with wavy lines or my dreaded cinnabon style are a pain. There was also the occasional issue where toppings were not being registered correctly despite placing one in every proper location, with a customer occasionally complaining that we went too light on the toppings because one may have been a bit out of alignment. This is a small complaint but worth noting nonetheless, especially since sometimes creating donuts can become rather annoying at times should players sit and play for too long at once.
Outside of talking to and listening to the complaints from the various customers, designing the donuts they request or the player figures that they need is the only major gameplay element outside of selecting who to pursue among the various dating candidates. There are a few other minor elements such as alternative versions of current social media that update at the end of every day that often include text messages from exes or a mysterious number that we won’t spoil the meaning of here and a FaceBook equivalent with various pictures from characters, complaints about their life or talking about other things that the player never sees, or background worldbuilding such as discussing the origins of the mood enhancers in the donuts and various other things.
Audio & Visuals
There is no denying that High Times has style, and plenty of it. Everything from their character designs to the few environments that players see, along with the donuts that players craft are incredibly colorful and full of life. The live2D style character portraits for the customers are gorgeous looking and nicely detailed with plenty of different expressions to fit the moods they might be in and it is nice to note that there are also quite a few colorful looking CGs for every romance route which is a real nice touch.
The voice work for the game is surprisingly exceptional. While some of the customers have a bit more generic voice work when it comes to the regular customers, all of the main romance options and many of the most bombastic regular customers have some top notch voice work and the game sports quite a list of talented voice actors among the roster and some that will instantly be recognizable, especially in a few cases. The background music is fairly simplistic throughout the game but there are a couple of tracks here and there that stand out, though these tend to rotate around the rockstar ex.
Overall
Making a game all about creating donuts that basically contain mind-altering drugs is an incredibly strange concept, especially tying it together with a visual novel design and six romantic options to pursue, but Yangyang Mobile has done an exceptional job here with High Times. Not only is the writing for the customers and their bombastic personalities the best highlight of the game, but it also means players never quite know what type of situation is walking through that door. It is a bit unfortunate that the main character themselves is something of a downer and the donut crafting is a bit repetitive after awhile, but thankfully the game’s strong charm and ever growing amount of tools to make use of helps alleviate some of these issues, making this colorful indie game a successful trip, mood enhancers and all.
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