Gacha Dolphin

Conclusion: Cute game that's moderately enjoyable and educational abt Chinese cuisine, w/ good art & just enough engagement w/o feeling taxing. Progression balance leans strongly towards "pay to make progress", but your inn will max out at some point. Needs to fix major progress-losing bugs.

More bugs: Red dot in Map does not show for Garden when garden patches are ready to harvest. Items dropped by exquisite Pets if placed in Kitchen can land behind and be hidden by furniture in Main Room & missed by player. Unclear if these are automatically picked up on app close, but unlikely.

Bugs: Tea Master staff unlocked when you reach day 7 login bonus does not show up until you restart the game. Unclear what the benefit of Tea Master is, aside from increased bronze coins/min for Tea Room.

Update notice descriptions (shown at 1st app launch of day) entirely missing in EN.

Could be better: Showroom/exhibit hall cleaning staff has a lot of space they have to travel through to clean a "dirty" item, so you get notified a LOT to go help clean the hall. Half the time, she's reached the goal before you can reach the space. Increase time before notification shows in-game.

Could be better: Escort missions + minigame fun, but limited to 1/day. US$0.99 to play 1x. Suggest allowing premium currency (gold ingot) or ad-watch to buy play attempts instead, and increase frequency to 12-hour cooldown.

Cons (cont.): Very slow progress if you don't spend money/watch ads, especially for staff upgrades (requires roses) and cuisine upgrades (requires clovers). If you're patient, might not be a con. I'm not patient. 🥲

Cons: Semi-frequent game freezing bug, forcing an app restart that can cause progress loss. Semi-frequent "save failed. Check your network connection" error, but no way to force a save. Slow progress at start of every app session as guests trickle into your inn. Missing/poor EN translations.

Pros: Cute art. Repetitive "guest" character designs, but some "special guests" add a touch of spice. Just enough to do if you move around your inn constantly & play the mini-games, but you can also just watch idly if you have enough staff hired & upgraded. Fun to learn more about Chinese cuisine.

I'm fairly far along. I've spent more money than makes sense for a cozy game with an "end", but my ADHD impulses and impatience are my downfall. 😅 You don't *need* to spend money, but progress is very slow otherwise.

Worthwhile investment: VIP pass to skip ads+ get daily bonuses.

Hello! My Cozy Inn - Apps on Google Play Healing Business, Easy to Start!

Hello, My Cozy Inn (Shimmer Studio) (Google Play) (3⭐️/5)

I've played this mobile cozy game for approximately 1 week at this point. Per the reviews, this game seems to have an "end point", wherein you maximize your inn and have no more upgrades or chances to expand.

Creating this account to plop reviews/thoughts on games, webtoons/manga/manhwa, TV shows/movies, and books. Separate from my main account just...because?