[Mini Review] Maid Cafe on Electric Street (Demo)

Maid Cafe on Electric Street is one of the game demos featured on the Summer 2024's Steam Next Fest. It's a narrative adventure game with fun and dramatic moments presented with animative pixel art.

I played this demo during the Next Fest and wanted to write about it for a while. Here's my review!

Maid Cafe on Electric Street follows an unnamed protagonist, who after being treated as a number in the company he worked at. He quits in frustration. Not having enough money for rent he desperately needed another job!

Various things happen and he finds himself at an empty Maid Cafe on the verge of closure. The clumsy maid that working there convinces him to become the new manager of the Cafe, thus their new partnership begins!

Most of the demo is spent reading text and moving from one place to another. The gameplay parts are minimal, and most of the demo's progression is linear. The game lives and dies on the dialogue. While some of it feels slow, it's generally enjoyable!

There are multiple moments I liked in this demo. When the protagonist decides to quit his job at the beginning of the game, all his co-workers celebrate his bold decision. Shows how far everyone is frustrated with their job!

Another moment I love is when the maid tries to make the protagonist become the new manager. Nothing she said convinced him, then she mentioned the manager's room, and how he could use it if he wanted. The protagonist almost begs her to have the job! It's hilarious!!

While the main gameplay loop moves from one location to the next and advances the story, there's also a recipe-making segment and the Maid management part of the game. That seems to be an essential component of the gameplay loop for Maid Cafe on Electric Street but it's only experienced near the end of the demo.

Finally, I should mention that I didn't experience the whole demo. Near the end of the demo, I didn't know where I should go to advance the story, and I did a lot of exploration and backtracking without any progress. By then I was playing for an hour and a half so I decided to stop.

My overall verdict of the game according to my time with it: It's relaxing! The pixel art is beautiful, and I love the lighting effects throughout the game. The sprites are animated so fluidly despite how small they are.

This is definitely a game I'm considering playing the full version of! Please tell me if I should do that and write about it here!

Thanks for Reading!

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<sup>- All images are screenshots/gifs of the game taken by me.
- People who supported me on HIVE, @master-lamps, @eturnerx and @magnacarta share 5% of this post's rewards.</sup>