High Times

High Times delivers exactly what players are expecting based on the title. Plenty of donuts get cooked, then iced, and potentially sprinkled. Because of the mysterious mood-altering ingredients used by The Hotbox, all of them have the power to help customers have a better day or deal with a particular situation.

Mixing together a coffee shop sim with a dating element, and sprinkling in characters with plenty of personality, makes for a reasonably tasty time

High Times is a solid visual novel / dating sim.

When I first sat down to write my High Times review, I wasn’t sure what I’d make of the game. It’s a dating sim, a cooking sim, a visual novel, and a surprisingly thoughtful queer game wrapped up in a neon, psychedelic café where you make mood-altering doughnuts for a living. It sounds ridiculous because it is ridiculous, but somehow it mostly works. High Times is one of the most ambitious indie dating sims around. Beneath its colourful chaos is a genuinely fun cooking system, excellent voice acting, and refreshingly gender-neutral character design. The writing does not reach the emotional highs it could have aimed for, but it’s an enjoyable casual dating sim that took me back to the yaoi/yuri visual novels of the 2010s.

Overall, High Times was exactly what I thought I’d be getting into, although probably at a longer length than I expected. Of course, this could have been based on the donuts I served or perhaps I made some of the wrong choices, but it definitely took a bit before I got to the romance ending I was looking for. It feels as though the right way to play is not to try and power through, but to enjoy the journey just a bit at a time. This may have also helped the financial management aspect feel stronger but once I was safely within the $100 range, money never became an issue.

High Times is refreshingly unusual for fans of visual novels who want deep relationships, calm gameplay, and an innovative storyline. It’s not attempting to revolutionize the dating sim genre, but it confidently carves out its own identity with warmth, comedy, and a surprising amount of emotional depth.

Cozy cooking/dating sim in which you'll be working as a donut therapist - a Mood Confectioner

High Times delivers a warm simulation experience that blends narrative storytelling with interactive cooking Its charming cast of characters excellent voice acting and wonderful soundtrack create a relaxing and enjoyable atmosphere making it an inviting experience despite its simple and somewhat repetitive gameplay loop

High Times – Dating/Cooking Sim delivers a deeply personal, heart-to-heart narrative loop, turning a cozy donut shop into a haven for healing and second chances.

High Times delivers an ambitious game featuring engaging characters, solid romance options, and a narrative that spans a variety of themes—all accompanied by fun, addictive gameplay centered on producing treats. However, some dialogue comes across as silly due to an over-reliance on sexual references or jokes, and not all the introduced mechanics and available emotional elements are fully utilized, leaving them feeling superfluous.