Inflation isn’t just rampant on the UK high street – it’s rife on the otherwise calm Minami Lane too. The docile citizens are eager to spend cash in the noodle bars and convenience stores peppering the street, but the prices must be set perfectly. This means not just making goods cheap enough for the cash-strapped youth to purchase, but also more expensive to entice the older generation – who are allegedly wary of anything too cheap. Good old boomer logic in play, there. It’s no wonder the price of fur-lined slippers has shot through the roof.
Viewed from an isometric perspective, Minami Lane involves micro-managing a busy Japanese-style street in order to complete mission objectives. Five missions feature, lasting 30-40 minutes depending on your management skills, and each is more involving than the last due to new building types unlocking, going from noodle stands to karaoke bars.
Things start off simple, as you’d expect, with the first mission essentially being a glorified tutorial. The final mission meanwhile is intended to put everything you’ve learned so far to the test, with a street that’ll eventually spread across several screens. There’s a sandbox mode too, and every mission has an optional objective, helping to extend the playtime to 4-5 hours if you want to see everything and unlock every achievement.
Minami Lane is populated by youngsters and oldies, both of which enjoy shopping at the same places yet purchase different things. It’s your job to create a balance to keep both generations happy by stocking the right items, altering ingredients in places such as the noodle bar and boba tea shop, and setting the right prices. Alternatively, creating a dedicated store for each generation will put an end to their bickering.
Accommodation needs to be placed too, bringing more of one generation type to the area, and every building can be upgraded and customised to increase its beauty – with beautiful streets drawing in more cats and generally making citizens happier.
A day-to-day structure is in place. Only one new building can be placed per day, forcing you to think carefully, and all prices/stock/ingredients must be altered before “opening” for business. Once a day has started, your interactions are limited to picking up rubbish, petting cats, greeting cyclists, and finding a hidden tanuki – with each of these menial tasks granting a minor beauty or cash bonus. Then at the end of the day a breakdown of expenses and citizen satisfaction is shown, giving insight into ideal changes to make. This can be as minor as adding an extra slice of pork to a bowl of ramen, to entirely changing the items being sold at the convenience store. Receiving a 10/10 satisfaction rating after several days of careful tweaking and listening to feedback is quite satisfying.
Help is at hand, in the form of a service centre. After paying a small outlay, the centre will make suggestions on how to obtain maximum satisfaction, putting you on the path for completing a mission and moving onto the next. While this may sound like cheating, it comes across as more of an integral feature, removing a lot of guesswork. There’s no resting on laurels either, as later random events start to occur, which include citizens changing their mind on how they like their ramen or boba tea. The flippant so-and-sos.
It’s hard to deny that the developers of Minami Lane haven’t achieved their goal here, creating an inviting small scale management sim with a sense of personality. The five missions have significantly different objectives, and everything can be wrapped up in an evening before tedium starts to settle. Had it lasted longer, there’s a good chance it may have started to feel drawn out as it’s pretty low stakes, and largely up to yourself to workout what’s needed to progress, which will never be anything more than building an extra house or listening to feedback. It’s definitely more involving and better looking than the vast majority of games in the £4-£5 price range, making it a pleasant budget buy for anyone with business acumen and a few hours to spare.
Seaven Studio’s Minami Lane is out now on PS4, Xbox Series, and Xbox One. It’s first launched on PC and Switch earlier this year.