Midnight Ramen Review

Midnight Ramen is the debut visual novel cooking game by Continue Games. You play as Homura, a teenager who works at a ramen stand run by the stall owner, Blaze. However, it’s not quite like other ramen stands; in fact, this one is only open at night.

I have to admit, considering how much I enjoy ramen and the vibe of eating at night, I was immediately intrigued. It has cute art that’s not generic anime, and each character has their own unique design. Plus, my Steam said it was similar to Coffee Talk, and I’m quite a bit of a fan of that one. So, naturally, when I got the opportunity to review it, I took the chance.

However, before I go into too much detail, I’d like to give readers a little bit of a warning. This review will contain discussions around the topic of death. Specifically, if you are affected by topics such as cancer or suicide, so I’d just like to give you a heads up.

So first, let’s set the scene. Set in, presumably, Japan, (I’m not entirely sure, because Homura is the only character with a Japanese name. The rest are localised, but I’ll delve into that a little later), Homura is nearing the age of 17 and works at a ramen stand where she serves food and drink to anyone who comes to them. You might think that midnight is a weird time to come for food, but honestly, so are the customers. Oh, some are normal people who are struggling with different things, such as Adora, Ethan, Aster, and Zoro, but the others? Oh, they’re ghosts. They’ve already passed, but they’re newly passed, as is revealed when Frank, an overworked software engineer, realised that he was too overworked by the company, and has therefore died.

Despite the cute art and the relaxing lo-fi beats, I have to admit Midnight Ramen has some incredibly heavy themes. It tackles subjects such as cancer, death by overwork, suicide, and just the overall theme of grief. But, alongside all these topics, there’s a heavy layer of worldbuilding. See, spirits can go through the Door of Light when they’re ready to pass on, but they also need to be careful of Chai, or otherwise, Chaos, who are beings that can attack them. Or, if you don’t go through the Door of Light and burn up your Soul Energy, you’ll find yourself becoming Chaos. As someone who’s grown up with a love of BLEACH, this sounds very much inspired by it. It gave me Hollow and Shinigami vibes, and I’m here for it.

Of course, it’s not only about talking to the spirits and humans who come by but about making the meals. There’s a set menu of items that you can make, you just need to click and drag the specific items, and you get different broths and firmness levels for your noodles. You can also pan-fry ingredients, and serve different drinks to your customers. Sometimes, they’ll ask for more, and if you mess up, it might impact your story. However, the good news is if you do mess up, you can always go back to Chapter Select at the end of the game, as there are some elements that you might not realise until you go back, as it depends on whether you’re listening to them, or if you make a decision that’s actually better for them. This could be by changing the broth of the ramen they want or serving a drink they don’t expect.

In all honesty, I liked making the ramen. The recipes are all in a notebook, and it gives you some freedom to experiment in certain situations. It also has different achievements depending on how you’ve served the food. But what’s the goal here? Well, the answer is to ensure the spirits pass on to the Door of Light, but the challenge is that we’re not meant to strictly help the living. Of course, Homura’s not sure about the rules, as despite being trained by Blaze, he’s kept some elements tight-lipped due to his own secrets. Secrets, I won’t reveal here, as those are some significant spoilers, and I like to keep some things hidden so you can enjoy the twists as I enjoyed them.

Each customer has their own issues, and I can’t lie, they’re emotional, and I can admit some stories made me tear up. Specifically, I was really empathetic to Ethan, a nine-year-old whose mother passed away from cancer, and he’s been trying to look for her. Unlike other kids, he can see spirits, and his mother has been avoiding him to ensure that he learns to let go of her. Homura is equally impacted, being an orphan herself, and it’s hard not to feel sympathy for a kid going through this. Likewise, there’s another child called Zoey, who commits suicide after too much pressure from her mother, and then discovers how badly affected her death has impacted her. Seeing the way grief is interpreted by both the living and the deceased, and how they are affected, well, it’s a pretty tough game. It’s beautiful, but it’s still tough.

That’s not to say there aren’t any light moments. Homura, as I said before, is a teenager, and because of that, she’s not always aware of what the right thing to say is. However, she has a good relationship with Aster, a Hunter who previously worked with Blaze, and has been visiting the ramen stand for years. She brings her apprentice, Zoro, a glutton who often sticks his own foot in his mouth. Neither he nor Homura could stop bickering, which was hilarious because of the fact this guy was named Zoro? Yeah, this felt like the relationship between Sanji and Zoro from One Piece, and it felt like a nod to it. The fact that Homura would kick him to get him to stop saying something really added to that. So, this was a game that felt like it came from a team who’d grown up with the same anime series I did, which was nice.

The Hunters and Guides work for the Prometheus organisation, and there aren’t a lot of people who can see spirits, so they’re given a lot of freedom regarding what they do. They’re located all over the world, and it seems that Homura and Blaze have both elected to remain in Japan, with Blaze opting to stay there following meeting Homura at the orphanage all those years ago. It’s said that Mitras, the Judge and their boss, lives in Europe, and Aster travels all over the place. Hearing all of these stories, I have to admit that I’d love to know more about the world here, which could leave it open for exploration.

In terms of story, I have to admit, that it’s very well done. The music is relaxing and emotive, and I can understand why they recommend headphones to play. You can really lose yourself in the music, and while it is a short game, I clocked in roughly four hours on it, it’s still a lot of fun. Each character has a unique design and their own stories that will resonate with different players. Plus, while the cooking mechanics don’t feel like they’re intense, there are some curious challenges in the achievements where you need to serve ramen in a full meal under 20 seconds and experiment with the recipes. Different parts of Midnight Ramen will also have elements where you can’t use certain ingredients, which means you’ll have to think about how to please your customers.

I can’t really say there were many flaws aside from the odd typo, but that’s what they were, typos. They weren’t exactly frequent either, but I also can’t say that it really added more to the cooking elements. You could experiment with recipes, but I think that it could have benefited from a free-play mode where you could focus more on the cooking. But, that’s just a personal preference based on my time playing other cooking games. Overall, I enjoyed the hidden storylines and the chapter select function, which could give you hints based on what you need to do next to get the hidden ending. Once I got that, I can’t say that I wasn’t happy about it. The elements that changed ensured that the ending made sense, and it offered a bit of a happier ending, while the good ending is more bittersweet than anything.

So, if you’re a fan of hard-hitting stories with relaxing gameplay, then Midnight Ramen might be a good suit for you. While the gameplay itself doesn’t bring many new elements to the table, the story and worldbuilding more than make up for it, and I can imagine going back to it again. Plus, there are achievements I would still like to unlock, and those do offer a nice amount of challenge.