I keep saying that I have free time to play games, but it’s more like little spurts of not wanting to do homework. I stumbled upon this adorably colorful game that resembles a manga about fishing and saving a town from an overly aggressive real estate agents.

This week is my Sushi Ben review!

Sushi Ben is a cozy adventure game from Big Brane Studio. The game was released on the PC, VR, and PS5 on September 18th and retails for $12.

Huge shoutout to Big Brane Studios for the key. I took a chance on the request, and I am in your debt for it.

You do not play as Ben; you play as a generic office man #1 who “wants to start over and moves to a seaside town in Japan,” and it is almost immediate when the story is slammed into the player’s face. The seaside Kotobuki Town aggressive real estate duo, Minami & Mashiro, has bullied everyone into selling their homes and businesses so that Minami can build her “dream town.”

Generic Office Man #1 takes a stroll to get something to eat at a sushi bar, pets a frog statue, and is now embroiled in an adventure to save the whole seaside town.

What Sushi Ben does best is the characters, full stop. The characters are so well written. Every time I booted up the game, I was transported to some goofy manga about a group of townsfolk coming together to save their town by visiting a sushi bar. You have the super helpful landlady, Botan, who also serves as a gift shop/expert on the supernatural. Additionally, you have Minami and Mashiro, the real estate duo that you know is engaging in heavily illegal activities, but their personalities are borderline absurd. Gen is the heavy-handed rice farmer but has a soft spot for adorable animals, and cannot forget Hyakumaru, the frog statue that absolutely loves to help at any chance he can get.

And of course Ben, the timid and scared restaurant owner who seems like he has no idea what he is doing, but has a heart of gold.

The core gameplay of Sushi Ben is to construct a supply chain for Ben’s restaurant and then go tell exactly 6 people to come visit the restaurant. Most of the time, characters want something from you, so you will be doing tasks for most of the people that you come into contact with. It might be giving a woman in the woods bugs so she can eat them, or interrupt a wig party so that the sake owner then understands that maybe having a club next to the bar is a good idea.

The manga panels that come up when playing Sushi Ben is the most attractive feature of the game. As you talk to someone, manga panels will burst onto the screen, emphasizing whatever it is they are doing while talking. Sometimes it gets completely unhinged, and I was always chuckling, especially when a tuna grows human arms and reverse-parks a truck.

Kotobuki Town is a gorgeous place; obviously, it is meant to be a paradise, so it incentivizes the player to want to save the cherry blossoms, the perfect ocean, the bug-infested forest, or the beautiful traditional Japanese housing. Every moment in Sushi Ben is so God damn colorful that it is hard to not smile at how great it looks.

BRRRRRRRRRRRR AHHHHH is what plays in the background of Sushi Ben. Other than that, you have an absolute all-star cast of voice actors doing God’s work. Exceptional work.

Sushi Ben is an all-around enjoyable experience, though it does falter at times and is borderline absolutely frustrating. The number of times that I had to reload a save because I got stuck in my apartment or my frog helper didn’t spawn so that I could put an item away was often. I would talk to NPC, and they would get stuck, and we would be in a stare off until I realized that I had to reload the save.

Everything else in Sushi Ben is top-notch. I would recommend the game. I think that the overall game is a cozy blast. The characters are funny, the core gameplay loop keeps the player invested, and the art design/voice over is just exceptional.

7/10