Featured Image Credit: Purpledoor Studios
I don’t know about you but I have always wanted to run my very own café, tavern or inn, and although I may not be able to flick my magic wand and deliver plates to customers, fire bomb cobwebs from the rafters or clean tables in real life, I could at least make a comfortable environment for guests to frequent.
Although I don’t see this in my five-year plan, it was my role throughout my time at Magic Inn, a brand-new tavern life simulator where you will become an exiled wizard-turned-innkeeper as they do what it takes to make this shabby old inn the talk of the town.
Developed by Purpledoor Studios and released into early access just last week, Magic Inn is perfect for fans of life simulators such as The Sims, Stardew Valley and Tavern Talk.
Players will begin each day as the manager of a small tavern/inn in the heart of a magical village and it will be up to them to gradually bring renown to the building after finding it in a sorry state.
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Using wizarding skills and the flick of a magic wand, our innkeeper will be able to cast all manner of spells to help around the place as well as hiring staff, organising menus, decorating rooms, crafting furniture, shopping at the market and mixing drinks.
When you are not serving food and drinks, you will have to get to know your very large pool of clientele (seriously, this game is full to the brim with magical NPCs) and increasing your relationship with them will allow you to access their highly-sought-after wares and custom.
Make them VIP guests, purchase their wares at a discount and even learn how to craft new furniture from them, but if you make their stay unpleasant, be prepared to start building that friendship from scratch once more.
You may not know this, but being an innkeeper is a full time job and you will have to manage every aspect of the growing establishment. This includes: organising your regulars, drumming up custom at the local market, trading with merchants, searching for rare gems and even impressing critics and the King himself.
It is your goal to make the inn receive a five-star rating but that is a lot harder than it sounds with custom gradually building and, as your popularity grows, so too do your every day tasks.
On top of furnishing, decorating and tending to your inn, you will also be able to take part in deckbuilding features which will allow you to put together a selection of cards to help you negotiate, persuade and even romance the locals.
So if you are looking for a cosy life sim with the surprise element of deckbuilding mechanics, Magic Inn is the perfect treat for you.
However, if that’s the case, why do I hint at Magic Inn being a series of unfortunate events?
Well, I was lucky enough to play the game two weeks ahead of its release and, unfortunately, I ran into a series of game-breaking bugs and glitches. As the game does not support manual save, I had to sometimes repeat the same in-game day multiple times.
The bug that I ran into has since been patched but once I could finally progress, I ran into a handful of other issues which just meant that my experience was less than smooth.
Although it is a shame to have to deal with game-breaking issues in a game that I was absolutely loving, multiple updates and patches have been released for Magic Inn and so it is clear that Purpledoor Studios is dedicated to listening to fans and making the experience much better in the future.
After all, Magic Inn is currently in its early access stage and things like this are to be expected.
Nonetheless, I cannot praise the game fully due to these issues that made progression impossible as I would constantly lose days at a time with the auto-save feature only taking place each in-game morning.
However, if it wasn’t for these issues, then my time with Magic Inn would have been a delight.
It reminded me of my childhood days playing games such as Cooking Mama and Diner Dash as I raced around the inn, cooking meals, dealing with frustrated customers and feeling that familiar stress as organisation soon turned into chaos.
With Magic Inn receiving regular patches in an attempt to fix the teething problems that launched with the game, I would still recommend giving it a shot as players will find a cosy, life simulator with that touch of magic. It may not be as polished as others in the genre but, issues aside, it still offers an enjoyable experience with heaps of replayability.
Pros: Lots to do, adorable art style and perfect for cosy time
Cons: Multiple bugs and glitches on launch (which have since been patched)
For fans of: Stardew Valley, Tavern Talk, Cooking Mama
Magic Inn is out now on PC (Steam version tested). A review code was provided by the publisher. Read a guide to our review scores here.
