Short and sweet, A Pinch of Magic is a cute game about the MC (whose pronouns you can pick as well as a masc or femme appearance) (trying to) manage their Baba's cafe. The music is nice, the artstyle is cute, and I dig the unique UI. I also like how character-driven the visual novel is, and how the LIs have their own goals and stories that are about familial expectations foisted on them and them finding their own ways.

[spoilers]

I suppose I think it's cute how the nicknames play a part into this with Kia turning into Kiana and Mikhail turning into Misha, symbolizing how MC's relationships with them both change.

Kiana is stunning attractive and has a lovely, kind and somewhat dorky gap moe personality. I restarted my game to see her and the femme!MC on screen together. As cute as they looked, I'm disappointed that Kiana has no explicitly romantic CG of her gazing into the MC's eyes like Mikhail does. The lore in her route is interesting, and I love that she has an alternate mermaid form, though I also wish it wasn't white-washed. It's a pity because childhood friends-to-lovers is one of my favorite tropes, but in comparison to the length, complexity and flirtations in Mikhail's route, Kiana and MC deserve more.

I do like the message of them both not knowing what to do with their futures, but for now they'll find out together. That's something I wish I've seen more of. And the writing is gorgeous in all routes. Some of my gripes are about the weird pacing with so much build-up and talk about the MC's family (which is great! we love a fleshed out MC), but it feels like a storyline that gets dropped at the end? Unless you're with Mikhail and he magically (heh) finds your Baba for some reason?

Mikhail... is an acquired taste. The banter was good, and I like the attempt to give him depth, but as a tsundere brat enjoyer, it gets a bit jarring at times. Like him flirting with you then casually mentioning he was poisoned was very much on the Miraculous Lady Bug-levels of strange dialogue. I do like the idea of enemies-to-lovers, especially when it was revealed that his mom might be a witch, but execution could've been better.

I understand time constraints, but I think a lot of the game would've been improved if there were minigames like potion/drink making or decorating, with input from the LIs, of course.

Overall, a lot could be improved in a possible remake, but I do recommend this for the descriptive magic writing and Kia alone. <3