Others - Secret Care Cafe [v0.8.37 Patreon] [Rare Alex]

I'm updating this review to be more descriptive. This review is from someone who doesn't enjoy NTR, so my opinion, like any other, is biased.
I'm reviewing the game as it is at 0.7.23. Minor spoilers

Story:
The protagonist and his girlfriend open a maid cafe. The twist is that the maids will flirt with the clients or maybe do more if you allow them to. Of course, you can limit it to flirting, but that cuts you out of most of the gameplay loop. The story is okay, but it's nothing to write home about. I'd say it's above average as it tries to go against typical tropes within the industry. But simply going against the tide doesn't make a story great.

The gameplay is divided into two parts:

Visual novel
The "Visual novel" part is where both the Vanilla and NTR content appears. This part is where you'll get all your story, all* your vanilla content, and most of your NTR content. This part appears at the end of each shift or by using your one action point of the day. For example, you can use the action point to progress your relations with a single maid or have them do things with other people.

Game
The Game side is where you have only NTR content or keep it SFW*.

Before every day, you have the chance to buy supplies you will use to feed your customers or improve your maids, update abilities, access the VN part of the game, or assign maids to the back rooms.

You have four maids you have to juggle between the main floor and the back rooms. The main floor has at most three maids. You'll match your client with their favorite maids to squeeze the most money out of them. You'll also feed them the things you bought. Every time you feed them, you get a tip. You also have abilities that either allow you to get more money out of them or more information about them. These abilities lead to NTR CGs if you have it enabled or SFW* if you don't. Also, with enough ability usage, you can get NTR VN events for most clients.

*the exception is that you have an ability the male protagonist can do on female clients. There are only three static CGs for this. (for reference, the girls have 20+ NSFW CGs each)

There is also the backroom, four of them are SFW related, and the other two are exclusively NTR, The Vip lounge, and a glory hole. They both have their own CGs and animations.

Balance of content?
The gameplay is focused more on NTR, so how about the VN part? Well, it's balanced if you only consider numbers as the sole factor. But the NTR events are way longer and have more effort put into them. Quantity, I'd say, is roughly 55:45. Quality is more like 30:70

Overall?
If you are playing SOLEY for vanilla h-scenes, you'll be disappointed. The gameplay is fun enough, but the feeling that you are getting leftovers is there.

Alex updates the game frequently, so I can assume there will be more vanilla content in the future. But the way the gameplay works outside of events makes this feel like it's primarily an NTR game, No one can tell what the future will bring, but I don't think that will change much.

A decent 3/5 I would say.
I saw this game last year and dig through the comments and decided to wait for more updates to see where it goes. Now I tried it.
The tags are correct. Mostly the NTR tag means here swinging/Netorase. Aka your not the only guy fucking the LIs here but there are no (up to two scenes) bad feelings attached for the MC. Cuckhold yes but not really

I tried the Non-swinging route and later normal route which include swinging. From what I saw the game is more or like 40% vanilla 60% "NTR".
You can avoid every single of such scenes if you dont buy this Triangle Pin but this will lock you out of like what I feel are 60% of the content. Story wise content, side content and what happens offscreen, aka the Flirt/Care/Take out and Give.

Some of the LI seems have their own preferenced paths. Like Chookie is more MC orientated (70/30 Vanilla/NTR), while Rai is (30/70 Vanilla/NTR) and Cynthia a mix of both. (While she has more scens with MC they are short, the NTR scenes with her are fewer but longer and seems more impactful.)

Story is interesting, has likeable characters but is grindy but not that I need to rage quit.

Overall a decent product but lacks in the content I want to see but cant complain because its a swinging/netorase focused game in the first place.

I liked this game and it seems promising, but at the same time there are few things that i think can be improoved. I will focus on those things.

First, it can be fun for a while, but after a few hours is tiresome to be clicking on the item that the costumer wants and dragging it over him. It could be nice if the system were different, more agile, like maybe 2 different icons over the head of the customer and you just need to clic the right one, but having only a few seconds to do so, dunno, is just an idea, but the actual system become boring and tiresome after a while.

Also, the images that come up after using the "take out", "flirt" "care" and "give", i think they make the game very interesting, is something that makes you want to keep playing, but at the same time it would be better if always, or almost always the new unlocked images were the ones that pops up, so u dont have to try 3-4 times until you find the new one, and also, AND THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT TO ME, a stop botton or something that allows you to watch in detail the image, because they are very nice but is like "oh wow thats hot, let me see that... ey, wait! Where did that image go?? I WANTED TO SEE IT, FUCK DAMN IT! I know you could look for them in the gallery, but is not the same.

Also, it could be nice to unlock different and sexier dresses, not just summer and winter dresses, but thats less important in my opinion.

And lastly, a mini-animation while you are playing in cafe that reflects what the girls are suppose to be doing at that moment (like when they give a blowjob, titjob, etc, but you only see the image pop up, is not reflected in game) but i suppose this is harder to implement, and is less important as well.

Those are the most important things that can be improved in my opinion, but there are many other nice things and i think this game has great potential.

First off... I really wanted to like this game..(Spent 6 total hours playing) However if I'm to rate this based off it being an adult porn game then it is terrible.

Sex: there is maybe under 10 animated sex scenes and they are poor 3 sec Gifs that just repeat and far apart and way into the game(Like hours) The CG's as a whole are about as racy as a Victoria Secret ad I fapped to as a teenager.

Story: Well written with likeable characters and plot. NO trying to Hump your family members cause your Dad died who was also a dick while your finish your senior year in high school and somehow everyone is 18 mixed with jedi Mind tricks and futa dicks. just a guy who hates his 9-5pm job.

Gameplay: you fill food orders and as a cafe sim its 5 stars.... however about at the 6 hour point I had to stop myself and say "But this is suppose to be a adult/porn/ero sexy time game NSFW. I hope the Dev has a revelation and adds MORE SEX and more Cafe customizations revolving around SEX.

I can't believe I didn't play this before

+
Almost everything decently animated
Sex scenes are animated
Fun to play
Cafe management
Manageable shop products
Items and upgrades
Story
A ton of content
Decent story
Dating sim with decent playthrough

-
Badly needs voice
Hard to get H scenes
Grindy


A top tier management dating sim H game with lots of content and updates

Gameplay:
If you didn't get the hint from the liked reviews, here's your chance. This game is about 5-9 hours to get all the content depending on pace etc. The gameplay loop that you'll spend the vast majority of the game in, involving serving food and drinks to customers using the girls, gets grindy and boring after hour 1. Only once you get further into the game is porn a part of the gameplay loop, but we'll talk about that in...

The Porn:
There is very little, and what's there is adequate at best. They are mostly still images rendered in Koikatsu, the same way every game seems to be made these days. It takes hours to get any porn, and it doesn't feel particularly rewarding, because you might notice this isn't a corruption game. There is not a drawn out narrative reward where they get more horny in baby steps. You get 1-3 H scenes with each girl, and then they're down to fuck random customers, in still images.

Writing:
It is serviceable at best. As mentioned, the characters really don't develop that much towards being perverts before they just are. The characters do not come across as speaking like real humans would. There are typos, even many updates after said typo'd thing has been put in.

Overall: 2/5
This game is mostly a slog, with a decent premise and good potential, that has not been and at this point will not be capitalized on. This game needs to be shorter for the amount of H content it has, or have more H content of higher quality. It needs to add better options to avoid the mindnumbing gameplay at some point, or as mentioned be substantially shorter. It needs to consult with fans to fix typos, and develop characters in better ways, and make a progression from uninterested to freeuse waitress more gradual/believable.

Some Quick Fixes that could be made:

• Make food & drinks items cost less & Automate restocking
• Lower relationship requirements for story events

v0.7.14 Public

A management game where you run a maid cafe. The gameplay aspect is okay but unfortunately is the bulk of the game and becomes extremely repetitive.. You manage the cafe while it's open and have to drag your staff around to make sure they're entertaining guests, give the guests the food and drink that they want, and occasionally use special abilities. The writing is good and I like the characters and the storyline. I think it's worth checking out, and hopefully the repetitive/grindy aspects of the gameplay get smoothed out in future versions.

Sexy Maid Cafe without the Sex (Review) [ver. 0.7.13]
Total playtime: 6~7h
Number of faps: 0
Finished the game?: Not yet

Game-play (4/5)
It's a 3D cafe management sim. The game is polished, nothing is clunky. It's an actual game. It has a depth to it. I enjoyed playing it. However, the game is very grindy and it's not rewarding enough. After 4~5 hours, it gets boring super fast.

Sex(1/5)
It has 3D still images with some animated H-scenes. The game has limited customization (a few clothing types) for the characters. No voice-acting. The style and character design is attractive. However, the amount of h-scenes are too few (especially animated ones). You need to solid play for 1 hour for a 10-second H-scene. No free-mode sex, only h-gallery.

Verdict (2,5/5)
This is a well thought-out management sim, I enjoyed playing it; however, I won't be playing anymore since it lacks the H-content I'm looking for. I like grindy games provided that the reward is good enough. Earning 3 still images and a 3-second loop H-scene for an hour of game-play is not a good design choice. I wish they had included a limited free-sex mode as rewards. They definitely have the means to do so. You won't be able to fap to this game.

Why only 2 categories (game-play and sex) for the review?
I only care about how good and entertaining the game-play (mechanics, replay-ability, enjoyment, etc.) and whether I can fap to the h-scenes. The rest doesn't matter to me.

This game continues to be one of the best ones I've played on this site. Excellent writing, has some tropes but they're very light, even with NTR on the MC isn't some loser but an actual partner with his gf just with some kinky shit going on. It's just really really well done.

Pretty good game where "game" part actually requires something from player. Dialogues and and characters are very much taken from some manga/anime. Even some strange translations as well. As for gameplay its nice that there are more and more options but at this point active pause is needed. If dev thinks that would make game too easy then maybe active pause with time limit depending on some skill or upgrade. All in all cool game.

A really nice passion project, it's both hot and funny whenever it wants to be, though one downside I can see would be the randomness of certain events. I think implementing ways of buying events with popularity or money after certain requirements are met could be a good way around this issue. Despite that, I would personally keep playing the game even if these changes weren't made.
(side note: the ntr tag is a bit misleading as the actions you take fall under the netorase (sharing) category and the dev has stated there will be no netorare in the game)

absolutely based, totally recommended, the people on the discord while annoying are great (looking at you tilly) so absolutely give it a try, if you to the discord server say @verkien sent you you´d be really helping a homie out

The game is so fucking amazing that i can't even describe, the maids are so adorable and lewd at the same time, they dialogues, scenes and looks perfect with each of them. Just play and enjoy the best game.

Really fun gameplay loop. If you're just looking for sexy content you might want to skip it, but if you can enjoy the actual game involved, it can get really addictive.
The gameplay itself could benefit from some more variation. Currently there are only a few special events and not that many girls available yet, but as those elements expand I think this will be an excellent title.

Currently my most favorite game on the site.
+ Consistent updates.
+ High quality art and animations
+ Great story
+ Amazing characters and development
+ Great soundtrack
+ Tons of fun and interesting game mechanics (flirt, take out, give care, the backrooms, etc.)

It's fun and it has actual gameplay, which is hard to find in many porn 'games'.

It continues to hold my interest after months of following its development, and I keep being impressed by Alex, the dev, and his vision for the game.

The game during the day goes a little fast even on the slowest speed, so if you're like me and want to play completely at your leisure, you can use cheat engine and speedhack the game to be slower. That way you can enjoy all of the CGs that pop up when you use maid skills without annoying customers.

And if you hate grinding, you can just edit any value you want in your save file.

3.5 stars because this game is basically one of my ideal setups. Hot girls that you employ to make extra money by slutting themselves out? Yes please!

Minus 1.5 stars because there are some kinks that still need ironing:
-The pacing is kind of off, especially with lewd progression.
-Money is too hard to make from just running the cafe, and there should be a way to automate it eventually.
-I would appreciate more variety with the lewd service scenes, even if they left a lot to the imagination. It starts to feel like everything is on rails pretty quickly. “Implied” sexual content could provide a lot of bang for the buck by adding some repeatable sexy stuff without needing a lot of art/dialogue.
-There should probably be more reward for having a girl lewdly engage with customers.

If they keep working on the details, this will easily be a 5 star game eventually!

If you just look at the cafe management perspective, it's a pretty decent time killer.
For the lewds, it's nicely done and absolutely quality. Of course, there's the issue of the genre involved but if it's for you then it's definitely enjoyable.

Adding to all the postive reviews that perfectly describe the game as a 9/10 with potential for a 10/10, i have to give a shoutout to the creator.
He is always engaging, be it on discord, patreon or here in the forum. If you have a question, criticism or something new to add to the game he will gladly reply.

Really cool game! Yes a little grindy but you get new content for at least 100 days. You have a lot of choices and I think the longer gameplay lets you know the characters quite well. Definitely worth playing! I am really looking forward to the next update

I maybe biased because I'm an NTR fan and has a weak spot for management games, but I don't see any real weakness the game has if you like those 2 genres I mentioned, the only problem the game has that it lacks any other quantity except those 2, would be really perfect if it has other interesting feature, maybe like more hot idle animations during the opening of the cafe that depends of the girl stats - that they just grabs the customer to the back room, just my idea but the game surely will develop to that stage sooner or later.

9/10 - its 10/10 if not for the current lacks of any other quantities