Little Dragon’s Café is a unique and utterly delightful adventure. There is no better way to unwind then adventuring with a dragon, while helping people solve their life problems, and indulging in a little bit of cooking.

The game looks pretty yet cheap in places, but the simple presentation is easy to digest, especially with the sometimes-deeper concepts addressed in the story. I may not be the right audience for this, but as I watch my daughter delight in playing, it is easy to take a page from the story and appreciate the title for what it is instead of what it is not. Despite all of its issues, it is oddly delightful to spend a day playing in the old LDC helping friends, cooking new recipes, or exploring with a dragon!

Little Dragons Cafe is a game targeted at a younger audience, and we think it succeeds in delivering a good experience for them. More experienced players won't find them that enjoyable, but we think it's entertaining anyway.

Little Dragons Café can be fiddly and repetitive, but it's not all together awful. A host of interesting, well-rounded characters provide an engaging story as you raise the world's cutest dragon. It might not be the most taxing game, but it provides a cathartic experience with its simplistic approach to café management.

Despite the piles of issues and annoyances, Little Dragons Café isn’t an unpleasant game. The overall art direction, character design, and music all present a storybook charm that pulls you in early and keeps it enjoyable in the midst of the grind. More than anything, the simple gameplay just gets stretched thin over the 40 hour story. While we don’t often focus on cost, the full $60 price tag also seems particularly difficult to justify. With a stronger investment and more developed gameplay, a sequel may still have potential, but as it is, Little Dragons Café could have used a bit more time in the oven.

Little Dragons Cafe is a charming game that has all the ingredients to be an ideal game to play when you’re feeling stressed or overwhelmed, but it doesn’t manage to be fun enough to make you want to commit to it. It would benefit from a pace that isn’t abysmally slow and having more activities to partake in. Even with my adorable dragon child following me around and the game’s visual charms, the overall experience lacks the substance to make me want to stay much longer than the customers who visited my cafe.

Little Dragons Café’s adorable premise of owning a pet dragon can only distract from the slow pacing and repetitive gameplay for so long.