JoJo's Diner

Having a boring job does not mean you cannot have some fun with it, especially if you use your imagination and find a way to make time fly by. Naturally, it’s a lot easier to do so in the realm of video games, where a simple trip to gather some plants for a potion can turn into a quest to save the world from dragons and an undead invasion.

JoJo's Diner is a visual novel in which you get to work in a diner and maybe go on a wonderful adventure through space if you feel like it. The game is designed to look like a retro adventure in terms of graphics, but the mechanics are very modern, even if all you have to do is pick your answer to a couple of questions every now and again. On the other hand, there are also multiple endings you can reach.

To begin with, it’s possible to name your character, as well as choose a gender, a preferred pronoun, and whether or not you have an allergy to something. The latter does not seem to have too much of an impact on the gameplay, but it’s always nice to have something to choose from. Hence, you are actually filling all this information in order to accept a job at the diner.

The interesting part starts when two other characters arrive at the diner with a broken spaceship, and you have the option to join them on an adventure if you feel like it. On top of that, there’s also the possibility to pursue a romantic relationship with one of them, depending on your personal preferences. Since your choices affect the course of the story, you can reach multiple endings depending on what you say or do along the way.

As mentioned before, the game is very old-school in the graphics department, which means that you shouldn’t expect an awful lot in terms of backgrounds or character artwork. However, the pixelated art can do wonders for the nostalgics out there, even if it’s rather difficult to make out the text sometimes. The soundtrack is also in tune with the atmosphere and the retro style.

It’s always great to have multiple routes to pick from, and JoJo's Diner does a pretty good job in this regard. However, this is still a jam game, which means that it’s short and it’s not as refined as a proper production.