inKONBINI: One Store. Many Stories has you working at a Japanese convenience store and learning about its customers.
inKONBINI: One Store. Many Stories is a game all about working at a small convenience store during the night shift in the 90s. This isn’t a spooky game or a thriller, and instead is sort of cozy and wholesome as you help your auntie run her little shop before you return to college.
I got the chance to play this game at Day of the Devs. On the first day, you sort of get your bearings on the shop. Your auntie has run everything very smoothly for quite some time, so she knows exactly what customers want and what to stock the shelves with. Using sticky notes, you can find her suggestions dotted around. She also gives you a call to tell you a bit about what you should do. You have a notebook that you can take notes in, a backroom full of extra stock, and of course, the front of the store.
Working in inKONBINI: One Store. Many Stories. is quite intuitive. You can zoom in on shelves to see their products, place new items on them, or fix them if they are facing the wrong way. The daytime workers are often messy, it seems, so there is a lot to go around and fix. If you don’t fix different displays and re-stock them correctly, customers will notice, but this adds to the story instead of giving you a negative mark or something similar.
The customers that come in have been coming here for quite some time, mostly, with their own quirks and stories. They might know your auntie, they might have a specific meal they get everyday, or they might even be someone that your co-worker has written about in their discarded notebook. You can help them when they have questions or cannot quite read the font on the front of a package, along with checking them out when they are done, counting out the change.
Nothing feels rushed in inKONBINI: One Store. Many Stories. Instead, it feels deliberate and like taking on the role of working in a small town in a known shop. I do like finding the little post-it notes with side quests on them as well, giving you something to do to pass the time.
inKONBINI: One Store. Many Stories is currently in development, but in the meantime, you can add it to your Steam Wishlist.
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