is a Japanese

adult An adult is a human or other animal that has reached full growth. In human context, the term ''adult'' has meanings associated with social and legal concepts. In contrast to a " minor", a legal adult is a person who has attained the age of major ...

visual novel A , often abbreviated as VN, is a form of digital semi-interactive fiction. Visual novels are often associated with and used in the medium of video games, but are not always labeled as such themselves. They combine a textual narrative with sta ...

developed by Patissier and released on February 14, 2003 for

Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

. It was later ported to the

Dreamcast The is a home video game console released by Sega on November 27, 1998, in Japan; September 9, 1999, in North America; and October 14, 1999, in Europe. It was the first sixth-generation video game console, preceding Sony's PlayStation 2, N ...

and

PlayStation 2 The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October 2000, in Europe on 24 November 2000, and in Australia on 3 ...

consoles by

Princess Soft PrincessSoft is a Japanese company. It specializes in the development of visual novel video games ports for use on home video game consoles such as the PlayStation 2 and the defunct Dreamcast. It has two imprints: ''Primavera'', which specializes i ...

. The story follows Leon, an amnesiac who has to work off his debt to Cafe Little Wish, after he engulfs everything in the cafe without paying any money. ''Cafe Little Wish'' charted twice in the national top 50 for best-selling

bishōjo games In Japanese popular culture, a , also romanized as ''bishojo'' or ''bishoujo'', is a cute girl character. ''Bishōjo'' characters appear ubiquitously in media including manga, anime, and computer games (especially in the ''bishojo'' game genre) ...

. The

gameplay Gameplay is the specific way in which players interact with a game, and in particular with video games. Gameplay is the pattern defined through the game rules, connection between player and the game, challenges and overcoming them, plot and pla ...

of ''Cafe Little Wish'' follows a branching plot line which offers pre-determined scenarios with courses of interaction, and focuses on the appeal of the five female main characters by the

player character A player character (also known as a playable character or PC) is a fictional character in a video game or tabletop role-playing game whose actions are controlled by a player rather than the rules of the game. The characters that are not control ...

. In 2004, a sequel called ''Magical Tale'' was released. An

art book Artists' books (or book arts or book objects) are works of art that utilize the form of the book. They are often published in small editions, though they are sometimes produced as one-of-a-kind objects. Overview Artists' books have employed a ...

and

original soundtrack A soundtrack is recorded music accompanying and synchronised to the images of a motion picture, drama, book, television program, radio program, or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of ...

have also been released.

Gameplay

''Cafe Little Wish'' is a

romance Romance (from Vulgar Latin , "in the Roman language", i.e., "Latin") may refer to: Common meanings * Romance (love), emotional attraction towards another person and the courtship behaviors undertaken to express the feelings * Romance languages, ...

in which the player assumes the role of Leon. Much of its

is spent on reading the story's

narrative A narrative, story, or tale is any account of a series of related events or experiences, whether nonfictional (memoir, biography, news report, documentary, travel literature, travelogue, etc.) or fictional (fairy tale, fable, legend, thriller (ge ...

and

dialogue Dialogue (sometimes spelled dialog in American English) is a written or spoken conversational exchange between two or more people, and a literary and theatrical form that depicts such an exchange. As a philosophical or didactic device, it is c ...

. The text is accompanied by character sprites, which represent who Leon is talking to, over background art. ''Cafe Little Wish'' follows a branching plot line with multiple endings, and depending on the decisions that the player makes during the game, the plot will progress in a specific direction. There are five main plot lines that the player will have the chance to experience, one for each of the heroines in the story. Throughout gameplay, the player is given multiple options to choose from, and text progression pauses at these points until a choice is made. To view all plot lines in their entirety, the player will have to replay the game multiple times and choose different choices to further the plot to an alternate direction.

Plot

Story

''Cafe Little Wish'' takes place in a rural kingdom, with a small town along the highway.

Fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving Magic (supernatural), magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy ...

elements such as magic and fictional species are included the visual novel. Its

prologue A prologue or prolog (from Greek πρόλογος ''prólogos'', from πρό ''pró'', "before" and λόγος ''lógos'', "word") is an opening to a story that establishes the context and gives background details, often some earlier story that ...

shows a starving young man enter a small cafe named "Cafe Little Wish". Without knowing that he has no money, he engulfs all the food in the cafe. Before the man is able to commit a

dine and dash Dine and dash is the US phrase for a form of theft by fraud, in which a patron or patrons orders and consumes food and beverages from a restaurant or similar establishment with the intent not to pay. The act may involve the customer leaving the ...

, he is attacked by the waitresses. They realize that he has

amnesia Amnesia is a deficit in memory caused by brain damage or disease,Gazzaniga, M., Ivry, R., & Mangun, G. (2009) Cognitive Neuroscience: The biology of the mind. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. but it can also be caused temporarily by the use ...

and is suffering a fatal case of memory loss, causing him to not remember anything about himself. Ceres, the owner of Cafe Little Wish, generously allows him to pay off his debt by working at her cafe. As he can no longer remember his own name, he is furthermore referred to as by everyone. The story mostly revolves around Leon interacting with the five heroines and eventually forming a

romantic relationship Romance or romantic love is a feeling of love for, or a strong attraction towards another person, and the courtship behaviors undertaken by an individual to express those overall feelings and resultant emotions. The ''Wiley Blackwell Encycl ...

with one.

Heroines

; : :One of the waitresses in Cafe Little Wish. Merun has an energetic, and quirky personality. She has a classic

tsundere is a Japanese term for a character development process that depicts a character with a personality who is initially very harsh before gradually showing a warmer, friendlier side over time. The word is derived from the terms ('to turn away in d ...

personality, and constantly quarrels with the protagonist. As she is always trying to compete with Leon, Merun finds it difficult to be nice to him. Merun is generally outspoken, but whenever she notices one of Leon's good qualities, she doesn't like to admit it. ; : :A waitress in Cafe Little Wish. Lily is a shy and timid dojikko who is close with the cafe staff, thinking of them as the family she never had. Because Lily has always wanted a brother, this earns Leon the nickname "onii-chan" from her. She unknowingly has terrible-tasting cooking. One of Lily's hobbies include writing romantic poetry. ; : :Mina is a waitress in Cafe Little Wish, and a

nekomimi A is a female kemonomimi character with feline traits, such as , a cat tail, or other feline characteristics on an otherwise human body. Catgirls are found in various fiction genres and in particular Japanese anime and manga. Catboy is a term f ...

with superhuman strength, albeit her small size. She has a positive outlook on life, and has a polite personality. However, she is able to insult Leon maintaining her sweet tone. Mina has a very big fear of bugs, despite how strong she is. Mina came first in the character popularity poll for ''Cafe Little Wish''. ; : :Ceres is the laid-back and selfless owner of Cafe Little Wish. She inherited the cafe when her brother died, including a recipe book that causes magical things to happen. When it is revealed that Leon has amnesia, she sympathizes with him and allows him to work at her cafe. When Ceres drinks alcohol, she becomes a lot less responsible. ; : :A girl who is searching for someone, that someone is Leon, according to her. Karen starts working at Cafe Little Wish in order to jog Leon's memory, as she apparently knows him. She is rather domineering, and protective of Leon. Karen is revolted by the way he is treated in the cafe by other workers, Merun in particular; this causes fights between Karen and Merun.

Development and release

''Cafe Little Wish'' is Patissier's first visual novel to produce. After the development of ''Cafe Little Wish'', they went on to make a sequel of sorts called ''Magical Tale'', which shares the same setting. The company went defunct shortly afterwards. The game's scenario was written by Kaze, and the music arranged by Hideshi Saito. ''Cafe Little Wishs original character designs were by Tinkle, who is known for her illustrations in the ''

Ro-Kyu-Bu! is a Japanese light novel series written by Sagu Aoyama and illustrated by Tinkle. ASCII Media Works published 15 novels between February 2009 to July 2015. The series follows a high school freshman Subaru Hasegawa who becomes the coac ...

light novels A light novel (, Hepburn: ''raito noberu'') is a style of young adult novel primarily targeting high school and middle school students. The term "light novel" is a ''wasei-eigo'', or a Japanese term formed from words in the English language ...

. Digital Works, currently better known as Digital Works Entertainment, assisted in the development and launch of ''Cafe Little Wish''. A fully voiced trial version was made available through internet download on November 28, 2012. Digital Works released a first press edition of the game for

PCs as a

CD-ROM A CD-ROM (, compact disc read-only memory) is a type of read-only memory consisting of a pre-pressed optical compact disc that contains data. Computers can read—but not write or erase—CD-ROMs. Some CDs, called enhanced CDs, hold both comput ...

on February 14, 2003. ''Cafe Little Wish'' for PC is compatible up to

Windows 98 Windows 98 is a consumer-oriented operating system developed by Microsoft as part of its Windows 9x family of Microsoft Windows operating systems. The second operating system in the 9x line, it is the successor to Windows 95, and was released to ...

/ Me/

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

/ XP. A 44-page

containing ''Cafe Little Wish'' character illustrations comes bundled with the first press release as a bonus. In the original version of the game, there are scenes with sexual CGs depicting Leon and a given heroine having sex. Later,

ported ''Cafe Little Wish'' to the

and

consoles without the adult content; both ports were released on May 29, 2003. The PS2 port which is titled was released in both limited and regular editions.

Soundtrack

Digital Works released an

called on March 16, 2003. The CD has twenty tracks, including a mini

audio drama Radio drama (or audio drama, audio play, radio play, radio theatre, or audio theatre) is a dramatized, purely acoustic performance. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine t ...

. ''Cafe Little Wishs opening song is "Cafe LittleWish" sung by Maki Yuzuki; the ending song is sung by Nobuko Miura.

Reception

According to a national sales ranking of

bishōjo game A or , is "a type of Japanese video game centered on interactions with attractive girls". ''Bishōjo'' games are similar to ''Choose Your Own Adventure'' books in the way of narrative, in which the game tells a story but the player may make ...

s sold in Japan, the PC release of ''Cafe Little Wish'' premiered at No. 12. ''Cafe Little Wish'' charted further in mid-February 2003 and ranked No. 28. The Japanese video game magazine ''

Famitsu formerly ''Famicom Tsūshin'', is a line of Japanese video game magazines published by Kadokawa Game Linkage (previously known as Gzbrain), a subsidiary of Kadokawa. ''Famitsu'' is published in both weekly and monthly formats as well as in the fo ...

'' reviewed the

port of the game ''Cafe Little Wish: Mahou no Recipe'', and gave it a total review score of 18/40 (out of the four individual review scores of 4, 5, 4, and 5). On the ''Cafe Little Wish'' official website, a character popularity poll was held, with a total of 2003 votes (Merun: 260 votes, Lily: 452 votes, Mina: 815 votes, Ceres: 125 votes, Karen: 351 votes). Mina won the contest with 815 votes, Lily came second place having gathered 452 votes; as a reward, they were featured on the regular PS2 game package art together.

References

External links

* * * *{{vndb, 2087, visual novel, Cafe Little Wish 2003 video games Bishōjo games Dreamcast games Eroge Japan-exclusive video games PlayStation 2 games PrincessSoft games Single-player video games Video games developed in Japan Visual novels Windows games