Recent reviews by Young Atlas

I really cannot recommend this game to others, even if you enjoy time management games in general. It's better to spend your time on something else that actually feels fun to play and not like an unpolished, repetitive chore.
The controls are extremely awkward and clunky, your character and everything else performs actions too slowly, the menu is a constant hassle to deal with if you want to maximize profits every day (especially since all upgrades quickly become quite expensive pretty early on, forcing you to grind through several play loops before anything new is unlocked)... it's a real test of patience to get through this one. I can usually tough it out with tedious games just to get 100% achievements for my own sense of 'completionist' satisfaction, but after a while, this game's annoying game design choices actually made me stop and rethink "why am I doing this to myself", and I thankfully stopped playing any further.

Lemon Cake looks and sounds charming and cozy, but pleasant aesthetics aside, there's nothing else here but frustrating controls and extremely slow pacing that kills any sense of fun after a couple hours. There's no challenge, just the feeling that you're doing a whole lot of poorly designed chores that are a real slog to get through--I never once thought that I might fail by letting something burn in the oven or have a customer run out of patience. Yet simultaneously, your character can't move quickly enough to really bake as much as you would hope during the lunch rush. And don't get me started on the 'sprint' feature launching you forward in a straight line like an awkward projectile.
There was only one time that I couldn't get through a business day, and that was when the game froze and crashed on the daily report menu. And honestly, I wasn't too bothered by that--I could forgive that one hiccup more than I can forgive the frustrating gameplay choices that were deliberately baked (no pun intended) into the game.

A pretty presentation isn't enough to save the problems here. I regret not listening to the warnings from negative reviews back when this game was rated "Mostly Positive"; I'm genuinely shocked that now, at the time of writing this, the rating has increased to "Very Positive", but to each their own. I'mma head back to PlateUp!.

Really relaxing & cozy game to come back to when I have some free time now and then. I'm honestly surprised by how wholesome the community continues to be, just as it was in the first Kind Words game. I personally haven't encountered any trolling or ill-meaning behaviour, which is a nice change of pace from... almost everywhere else on the internet that I've been. This game's community is a pleasant, safe place to anonymously vent out a few things or spend some time to be kind & encourage or support a stranger. Or you can also just suggest great cat names on the town board :)

I do love all the additions that Kind Words 2 has brought, especially the fun chain thread 'forest' and a place to ask for general recommendations. Character customization and locations are otherwise limited, but I think it's already enough considering the focus of the game is really on spending your time actually reading, reflecting, and writing. Collecting & sending stickers with your letters is also fun for someone who loves to collect things, like myself; the devs also seem to keep adding more sticker sets, which is awesome!

The only thing I would wish for is more variety in the music tracks. The songs themselves are fine but they do get repetitive after you've played the game over enough time. Seems a shame to turn the in-game music off and just have my own music app playing in the background, it'd be neat if the game had some smaller Lo-Fi artists submit their tracks or something to get some exposure; it never hurts to have more music!

All in all, I do love this game, and I can tell the devs care about its quality and its community. The early playtests and demos were already great and very open to feedback. As of right now, any reported bugs have had a fix patched out very quickly; in fact a bug I found on launch day had a fix pushed out in less than an hour with an in-game thank you note from the dev. Made a great first impression. Much love to the devs, warm hugs for all Kind Words players out there :) Please get the game to join in on the wholesome vibes if this seems like the type of game for you!