It’s a charming, cozy, and heartfelt adventure that goes heavy on the Studio Ghibli vibes. In Sunny Lab’s debut game, you play as the heart witch Lunne who moves to Paris and sets up a magical bake shop, along with her pink, cat-like companion Orio. Monday through Saturday, her days are consumed by work.
Prepare dough, infuse it with magic, and have Orio bake it with their elemental magic. Tend to customers and rake in that dough. Er, dough being money, in this case.
Some customers are indecisive, while others are impatient. Anyone who’s worked in food service or retail will, unfortunately, not be surprised by the annoyances of those customers. Where Lune’s magic comes into play is for customers haunted by regrets that manifest as cute creatures floating around them, which only the magically inclined can see.
Serving these customers offers some enjoyable variety to workdays. Instead of handing them a croissant and calling it a day, Lunne will dive into their hearts to heal them, freeing the customer of their past heartache. Lunne navigates a mini-maze to find the regret and remove it while contending with emotion-specific obstacles, like literal waves of sadness pushing her back or fiery plumes of anger barring her way.
Just like in last year’s Tiny Bookshop, it’s very easy to fall into a relaxing rhythm doing basic shopkeeping duties. Outside of Lunne’s bakeshop is where The Witch’s Bakery starts to open up as you explore the beautiful streets and views of Paris via 2D side-scrolling locales. Lunne quickly makes friends throughout town, like her cinema-owning neighbor or a young witch still finding her way.
You can invite them for dinner or to see a play, or just spend an evening with a new book while enjoying dessert (that someone else made) at a cafe. The world is your beignet. Early in The Witch’s Bakery you meet Estelle, who has a ginormous regret hanging over her.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
