REVIEW: ‘Miracle Snack Shop’ Delivers A Sweet Story With Some Sour Bits (XBX)

Our main character, Seolhwa Cha, has a frustrating life. In his quest to find a way to become exceptional, he has floundered in life, finally finding himself shackled to a small Korean snack shop as his last hope for fiscal stability. But as it turns out, this shop has a special secret in the attic apartment, a mysterious portal that leads to another world. And when the beautiful Queen Salt comes stumbling through it one day, Seolhwa’s life will never be the same in the visual novel Miracle Snack Shop, developed by Talesshop and published by CFK.

This game’s main story is a wonderfully executed love story between an everyday shop owner and a world-hopping fantasy princess. But while Miracle Snack Shop‘s narrative delivers a solid story of romance that travels from an awkward first encounter to lifelong love in a little shop, a couple of elements don’t land either. Chief among these is the secondary heroine in its tale.

While the illustrious Queen Salt is the pretty anime face you see on all the packaging, the game actually features two possible romance options for various endings. Along with the fantasy queen, Seolhwa also encounters a content creator, Mira, that decides to focus on his snack shop for a series of videos on her channel. Where Queen Salt is endearing in her struggle to grasp our world and crafts a sympathetic personality with her backstory of forced leadership, Mira comes across as abrasive and rude. While the story is going for plucky and eccentric, her personality rarely pulls it off, even in a detailed visual novel like this. Luckily the character can largely be ignored should the player choose, which is also true for much of the game.

While the core of Miracle Snack Shop is reading through Seolhwa’s encounters with this pair of potential love interests and making the occasional dialogue choice along the way, the game also introduces some casual snack shop management sim elements for you to get your cooking skills up and manage the needs of the charismatic heroines. While actions like learning new recipes and using money to run promotions to grow your business persist throughout the game, they become mot largely after a short way into the experience moving from a small snack shop maintenance to a sweet love story only.

Once you are making enough cash to take the girls on whichever adventure you wish to, such as trips to the beach, or an amusement park, all the extra cash you make serves no real purpose except to make more cash later. While I appreciate that the shop management isn’t the point, and I’m glad it isn’t tuned so as to hinder the progressing plot, it would’ve been nice if it felt more meaningful to the overall experience. Perhaps you could earn cosmetics for your shop, or little gifts to give the ladies in Seolhwa’s life?

The only major element of the core story between Seolhwa and Queen Salt that never lands for me is some of its attempts at humor. In particular, a running joke that carries through the game concerning the Queen’s sense of justice. Throughout the game, it is implied that Queen Salt may be a bit free with her guillotine where her subjects are concerned. While how short-tempered she is with her people is never actually shown, the existence of this joke leaves this otherwise sweet and charming personality with a bit of a sinister air to her. One that, if true, feels like something a person shouldn’t just be able to shrug off in favor of her more positive traits.

The visual presentation of the game’s potential love interests always stays firmly in the realm of playful and fun while never straying into the realm of creepy voyeurism. While the still shots that present the ladies are fairly limited in number and has a lack of visual flair, they do a good job of delivering the numerous moods they will present over the course of the story. From chilling in your own snack shop, riding in the car, or taking an evening ride on a Ferris wheel, the visual presentation keeps the allure and fun of each moment front and center.

I thoroughly enjoyed my hours going through Seolhwa’s story as I helped him find love from another world. While I enjoyed the bulk of what I played through, the story certainly has its bumps. While many of these can be ignored in favor of the parts I enjoyed, their presence nonetheless diminishes a strong overall experience.

Miracle Snack Shop is available now on Xbox Series S/X, Nintendo Switch, PC, and PlayStation 5.