Despite still being pretty sure this isn’t a game I want to livestream, I’m definitely still playing a lot of Lemon Cake. At some point during the last week, I hit a point with the game where I’d unlocked the easier upgrades on the shop tree, and I had to decide if I was enjoying myself enough to justify going for some of the grindier ones.
I’ve unlocked all three ovens, the freezer, the cat cafe option, all of the greenhouse except the lemons, and all the window displays. I’ve unlocked a good portion of the recipes, and only have one more space to unlock in my Daily Menu space. The only unlocks I’m not near the end of are the decorative ones for the bedroom, since I decided to save those for last.
My brain can be so fickle about the games it enjoys. Sometimes it wants achieves, sometimes it wants story line, and sometimes it legitimately wants relaxing, grindy, progression. Just put the brain on autopilot, make a bunch of pastries, and eventually you’ll get somewhere with it.
I think Lemon Cake might be one of the few games where I achieve my goal of 100% completion, just because it’s pleasant enough that I don’t mind the slow progression at this point in the game. It’s one of the games where I pet the cats every day despite being pretty sure that it doesn’t “accomplish” anything.
I’ve always had a sneaking suspicion I might enjoy some amount of grind in a game because a part of me thinks real life ought to be more like that. Not in the grind itself per se, but in rewards for sticking with a task. Maybe I played too many JRPGs as a kid, but I was very disappointed as an adult to learn you can do a good job at a thing for a long time and never really get rewarded for it. You can absolutely plug along at something, do everything right, and still end up with not much reward for the time and effort put in.
It’s possible I enjoy it because it is a Thing For My ADHD Brain To Do while underneath I’m thinking about other things. Or because it’s the kind of gameplay I can do while I’m watching a movie or listening to an audiobook – two things I enjoy but have trouble sitting still for.
Maybe it’s related to my high stress RL job, where I’m often doing 6 things at once and can sometimes be unsure if I’ve made the right decisions. Maybe it’s just relaxing to have a very simple, low stakes series of tasks to perform. Brush the chickens, it makes them happy, they give me eggs, and I make eggs benedict. Simple.
Whatever the reason, I’ve put almost 27 hours into Lemon Cake at this point and there’s enough unlocks left to keep me playing for a while longer. Unsure what my chill game will be when I finish this one, maybe I’ll go back to complete some more PowerWash Simulator? I’m kinda digging my current era of chill games, ngl.
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LFGryph 