Developer: Yangyang Mobile
Publisher: Yangyang Mobile
Platform: PC, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch. Nintendo Switch 2, Xbox Series S
Tested on:
High Times – Review
They say that love goes through the stomach, and Yangyang Mobile’s newest game, High Times, takes that to the next level! By becoming a baker in a doughnut shop where your toppings decide how the customer will feel, you reconnect with six different people you’ve shared a history with. It is up to you whether you wish to open that door again or move on, all the while trying to keep your shop afloat. Let’s have a look if we are ‘nuts’ for these doughnuts.
Story
The story begins with the player being left alone in a small doughnut shop named “Hotbox”. However, you don’t sell regular doughnuts. Based on the toppings used, these can affect and change the mood of the consumer, getting them ‘drunk’ on emotions. Ironically enough, whilst all the customers you face are almost caricatures of known stereotypes, you yourself are perhaps the most stoic person to ever exist. This is often joked about, but as the story progresses, it becomes clear why this is the case.
Despite the ‘extravagant’ characters and their antics, the story and history you have with them all make sense, and not once is there a moment or reaction that seems out of place or extreme for the sake of being just that. Take your best friend Connor, for example. After his first doughnut, there is the option to make flirty jokes with him or not. In our playthrough, we went the flirty route, and though the reply was very ‘out there’, it made complete sense within the conversation.
As told earlier, your character already has some history with six of these customers. These people are your best friend, previous housemate, ex-partner, and so on. You slowly begin to reconnect with all of them, pondering if that door you closed has truly shut or is still slightly ajar. This is completely optional to the player’s choice, as you can romance them, be friendly, or as deflective as you wish to be, making every playthrough different.
Graphics
Designed in a 2D animesque style, High Times is a beautiful game with vibrant colors and beautiful character designs. You’ll mostly see the inside of your doughnut shop, Hotbox, which features a palette of purples, blues and pinks, mixed in with various neon lights to liven up the place. Outside the window are silhouettes of people passing by, making the world feel ever so much more alive. The UI itself is shown in a pop-art comic book style with black or white borders and the matching font to go along with it. All of this blends well together into one cohesive imagery that’s never too much on the eye.
Where the game takes a twist in design is when we are introduced to one of the six romanceable characters. The first time we come face to face with them, they’ll have an artwork shown on the screen where their names and our inner thoughts on them are shown with their portrait. Every character’s name and additional info are written in a font matching their personalities, giving the player already an idea who they are before we are properly introduced. This was a really fun addition, as the contrast between some was so immense that the art design complemented and blended everyone properly together again.
Something that bothered us initially, however, was the size of certain texts. After you’re done working, you get to check your phone and order flavors or go on social media. The latter will pull the player into ‘Facenook’ where more lore and interaction with the dateable characters is possible. However, whilst we were playing High Times on a Nintendo Switch Lite, it was almost impossible to read any of the characters’ posts or get a proper indication of which post we had selected to ‘like’. We assume this issue is more than likely exclusive to the handheld version, but it left a sour aftertaste, given an entire aspect of the game isn’t readable.
Sound
There’s a total of 35 different songs implemented in the game, with the majority being full of proper tunes, rather than short intermissions. The songs are upbeat and lively, matching the eccentric humor High Times aims for. Aside from the soundtrack, we were so happy to notice that every character is completely voiced. Every interaction has been spoken by a voice actor, making their respective character feel so much more than a 2D avatar. We were impressed by the high-quality voice acting as a whole. Some notable names were Johnny Yong Bosch, known for his work in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and Devil May Cry, as well as Lilypichu, a well-known online content creator and voice actor in Shadowverse and Cardfight!! Vanguard will+Dress.
Gameplay
High Times is essentially a dialogue-heavy visual novel with a slight tint of cooking involved. The main aspect of the game is serving customers by preparing the right doughnuts for them. In doing so, you’ll earn cash, rake up relationship points, and unlock more upgrades for your shop. The game is very generous in holding your hand when it comes to making the right doughnut, as you’ll always be given the choice to ask customers what their ‘regular’ was again. This does come at the cost of earning fewer relationship points, but the difference is easily dismissible.
So then, after scoring enough points, you progress through dialogue with the customer, learning more about who they are now, who they were to you before, and where you want to take it from there. The game also shows you when you unlock the next dialogue option through an app on your phone called “Tender”. This showcases the conditions needed for making progress. Sometimes this is as simple as their next visit; at other times, the player will need to unlock certain upgrades in their shop first. By repeating the process of serving, upgrading, and talking, the player discovers more about themselves and the person they wish to pursue. All the while, you continue to serve the whackiest customers and get them drunk on emotions, causing comical but sometimes serious moments.
As mentioned earlier in our graphics section, after work you get to use your phone and interact on social media. This allows you to have a look at the customers you get to meet and see what keeps them busy. You can opt to ‘like’ their posts as well, though the relevance of this was a bit unclear in our initial playthrough. At the risk of sounding repetitive, we did find this part of the game to be so difficult to read. The font used is already small as is, but given the size of a Nintendo Switch Lite, it was nearly impossible to properly read this section of the game. On occasion, we also encountered some performance issues in terms of frame drops. This was never during the actual gameplay and more whilst transitioning rooms or progressing, but it was noticeable enough to mention.
Conclusion
All in all, High Times is a fantastic dating sim with vibrant and extravagant characters. Though there are a lot of smiles and giggles, the game does handle emotional baggage well. Whether they want you to laugh or feel deeply, the story succeeds in eliciting these emotions effectively, which is of utmost importance given the game’s central theme. Though there are certain performance or graphical issues, they never hinder you from properly enjoying the storyline.
No Comments