Hookah Haze puts us in the shoes of a dying protagonist, who with 14 days left to live gets to open a hookah lounge and fulfill his dream. We get to prepare waterpipe for our customers, build relationships with them, and get to know their stories. Does it sound familiar? It sure does, as the game seems heavily inspired by games like Coffee Talk and VA-11 Hall-A. In this review, we’ll check if Hookah Haze lives up to the high bar set by its predecessors.
Premise
Hookah Haze starts out by introducing us to our protagonist who has no friends and led a generally uneventful life. With his severe illness, the doctors tell them that they can make one of their dreams come true and give them meds to enjoy it for the next 14 days. After that time passes, they will have to choose if they’ll undergo an operation that has a low chance of succeeding, or they will pass away. With that in mind, Toru Sumiki, the protagonist of the game gets to open a hookah (shisha) lounge, named Hookah Haze.
Gameplay
Hookah Haze’s gameplay is very simple. You choose which hookah blend will be today’s special. Depending on whether the special is “sweet, “nutty” or “spicy,” you’ll get different customers. Three characters will visit you throughout the game, and everyone has a predetermined number of scripted conversations they can have with you. After your guests visit you, they will ask you to serve them hookah. The mechanics here are very similar to how you serve drinks in Coffee Talk with the difference that you don’t choose ingredients, you choose “tastes,” just like you would choose it in VA-11 Hall-A while making a drink for the customer.
After 2-3 minutes you’ll be asked to change the coals in the hookah, to make sure the smoke is smooth for the customer. Sadly, the only thing that matters is what hookah blend you’ll choose for the day’s specialty, because that determines which customer will visit you. Apart from that, you messing up the blend you give to a customer or the number of coals has no bearing on the game whatsoever.
Customer Interactions
As I’ve said previously, everything is scripted, characters are few, you don’t really get to know them that well, and the friendship between you and them builds up very fast for seemingly no reason at all. VA-11 Hall-A relied on you serving the correct drink and tinkering with different amounts of alcohol inside to make characters open up, and eventually come back. In Hookah Haze, nothing matters at all, you just get the same scripted conversation no matter what you do. There are few endings, but once a character visits you a set amount of times, you get one choice, and you instantly skip to the end of the game. Not to say it’s bad, but with the amount of time I’ve spent playing this game, well, let’s just say that below two hours to achieve an ending is less than desirable for the price that’s being asked. You don’t get attached to characters, because most of the days in a game last like 5-10 minutes, you don’t even get to have a decent conversation with the characters, and the writing itself isn’t something I’d praise.
Artstyle and Setting
The Hookah Haze art is very pretty. Style is something unique and the colors are very well matched. Character design is great and it’s nice to look at overall. Add to that lo-fi music playing in the background (you can tinker with the playlist just like in VA-11 Hall-A and Coffee Talk), and the atmosphere is very cozy and chill. The problem with that is that the game’s topic is rather heavy. You are basically following the main protagonist as they fulfill their last wish and go through their final days so I’d say sometimes it can throw you out of the experience.
Should You Buy Hookah Haze
As much as I enjoyed the atmosphere and art direction of the game, the fact that reaching one of the good endings took me less than two hours, I’d say there are better games out there. If the art style and chill atmosphere are for you, go for it, although I’d recommend waiting for a discount that’s, in my opinion, inevitable. The fact that for the price of US$19, you can get Va-11 Hall-A and enough money to buy Coffee Talk on a sale is enough for me to not recommend buying Hookah Haze for its full price. If, however, you want to buy the game or wait for a discount, you can check it out on Steam.
Anime Corner received a copy of Hookah Haze in exchange for a review.