Minami Lane Game Review

Minami Lane is a management/city builder game inspired by the Japanese culture and focused on creating a cozy, wholesome environment. It was developed by Doot and Blibloop and released in February 2024. It’s priced at 4,99€ and features about 4 hours of play time. 

Its main point is to build your own street, manage shops in there and make sure the townspeople are happy. 

Which sounds super cute and fun, and just the right palette cleanser after being stuck in the stressful survival of V Rising for a few days. I was eager to just chill for an afternoon, so I gave it a go. 

Did it meet my expectations? Well… not quite. I’m a big fan of cozy games but this one was toeing the line of being boring. I do think it’s a great game for what it is, but I didn’t have a blast playing it (nor was I relaxed). 

Gameplay

Minami Lane is a cozy city planner so you can pretty much guess the game mechanics. You start off with an empty lane in which you have to build homes for the people, as well as a few shops and buildings, all of which fit the wholesome vibe. There’s a ramen shop, a boba tea shop, a bookstore, a karaoke shop, a park, two different types of homes (for old and young people), and more. 

In order to get more people into your town, you need to build houses. The people will then need the shops in which you can adjust your offerings in order to suit the people’s needs. This is really important because what you sell impacts the satisfaction. Fortunately, you can simply click on the people to find out what they need. 

You also need to beautify your street in order to keep the satisfaction up. There are options to make each building prettier, but there are also buildings that serve the express purpose of beautifying the lane (like the park or the onsen). 

The little people will buy items from your shops and this will give you the money you need to construct more. 

Once the day is done, you get a quick overview of the town satisfaction, what they liked and disliked, and so on. Then you have a chance to make adjustments — either to your recipes or offerings or to your lane in general. 

You have the option to speed up the day too, which is really useful when you just want to move on to building more. Along with that, you get news once a day which can at random give you money, take away some of your money, give you discounts on buildings or tips on which prices to improve. 

Mission Mode

Minami Lane begins with a mission mode. There are 5 missions at slightly different levels of difficulty. The requirements to complete missions range from raising town satisfaction to having two 10/10 ramen recipes for young people and old people, attracting a certain number of cats, etc. 

The mission mode was fun, if not overly challenging. It’s made slightly better by the optional missions, which are generally harder to complete. 

Sandbox Mode

Along with the mission mode, you have the option to play the sandbox mode. This means you won’t be limited by missions and can play as much as you want. There are two modes of sandbox — one is a limited one, where you get a smaller amount of money and still have different requirements for buildings; the other is an unlimited one (you get more money, no requirements on buildings). 

I tried the limited sandbox option because having no limits is no fun. And while it was okay in the beginning, it gets boring fairly quickly since there are a limited amount of buildings and there’s nothing new you can really do, especially if you already completed the mission mode. Once you build shops and homes for each group of citizens, you’re pretty much done. 

Tips & Tricks

While Minami Lane isn’t complicated, here are a few tips and tricks that can help make your gaming experience easier. 

• Build double of all shop buildings. Your town consists of two main groups — young people and old people. And these two groups have different tastes in everything: ramen, supermarket items, books, etc. You won’t be able to reach high enough town satisfaction by having just one ramen shop or just one bookstore, so you need to create doubles — each catering to the tastes of a different group. They even have opinions on prices, so this way you can fit all of their needs. 
• Increase the beauty of your town frequently. Whenever you increase the population of your town, make sure that you increase the beauty of it as well. Otherwise, your town satisfaction will go down. 
• Don’t forget to pick up the trash. Whenever you click to pick up the trash, the game will give you money, so it’s a good way to collect outside of the shops. 
• Pet the cats. Petting the cats also gives you quite a lot of money. You should also click on the people or creatures riding a bike. 
• Find the Minami character. Once you start a new day, there will be a little item somewhere on the street or sidewalk that you can click to find the game mascot. This gives you money too. 
• Pay attention to what the characters are saying. Whenever the little people leave one of your shops, click on them to see what they thought. This will give you hints on what to change to boost their satisfaction. 
• Hire a shop inspector. A shop inspector is a character you can hire to tell you what your townspeople need specifically. Once the day is done, you’ll be able to edit your recipes and offerings based on what people like (there will be little icons next to favored items). 

Graphics and Audio

By far the best part of Minami Lane are its looks. It features a cozy, pastel art style that is a feast for the eyes if you need something warm and wholesome. It’s the thing that grabbed my attention and it’s worth playing just for that. 

As for the audio, I expected more — maybe more nature sounds, more lo-fi music to go with it. It would have suited the aesthetics quite well. The audio you’ll get isn’t much and won’t really be memorable (or add to the experience). Maybe you can turn the volume down and find a relaxing lo-fi mix on YouTube?

Does Minami Lane work on Steam Deck? 

I played Minami Lane on Steam Deck and the short answer is yes, it does work on Steam Deck. The long answer is — it does, but not the way I expected. 

There is nothing in the game you can control via buttons. Everything is controlled through the touch screen or touch pads. Which is fine in and of itself, but I just like the tactile experience of pushing buttons. 

If I wanted to play a game on a touch screen, I would get a mobile game.  

Other than that, I didn’t experience any bugs or issues, so if you don’t mind the touch screen thing, it won’t be an issue. 

Final Thoughts

Overall, I had fun with Minami Lane and enjoyed it for what it was. It isn’t my favorite game, or even my favorite cozy game, but it’s all right. It doesn’t aspire to be huge or give you days of play time — it’s a mini game that does what it does well. 

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