Others - Secret Care Cafe [v0.8.43 Patreon] [Rare Alex]

( v0.8.41 Public )
We have a potential gem here. Although this game has a common art and animation style dont judge it by its cover. In this game the developer supported each animation with a developing story to touch the kinks of people who plays it (which is done nicely). Even though I prefer to be at the dominant side of the ntr fantasy I enjoyed the game. Management mechanics and minigames are a little repetitive but its fun to strive it. I can notice in game that the dev planning to enhance the management phases which is a good sign. (There is a slight balance problems in economics at management stage but it didnt trouble me a lot) . Sadly, skills used in management stage felt a little bit uninspired.. I know its a hussle but maybe more dynamic animations instead of cg could fire it up. Well.. in a nutshell the game is a potential candidate for a 5 star but even its pretty solid game for developing stage, it must be supported with more variaty of customers and new characters or more actions with existing customers cus in management games grind and reward balance is something can not be ignored.

Strongly recommend for Netorase enjoyers.

The management game gameplay, combined with the writing, works great as a build-up to H-scenes, it makes for quite natural evolution of corruption.
The main down side is that the game is quite a time sink, which I personally don't mind, because it is very entertaining, but it needs to be said.

I think for a v1.0 release I strongly recommend adding in some scenes at the start of the game, as the grind to content ratio at the start is off. Towards the later stages it is perfectly fine.

The other thing that needs a look at is a rework of the christmas setting, as the scenes assume you unlock this relatively early in the game, which can break immersion if you unlock it later.

All in all though, this game is a great experience and it gets incredibly steamy.

First up: I really, really like this game. However I think this may be one which isn't everyone's cup of tea. I'll try to explain why. The principle of the game is honestly surprisingly fun. It really reminds me of some of the old flash games where you manage a Diner. Moreover it has some added complexity due to "Backrooms" which allow you to put the girls to work for other "means".

However, as others have already mentioned, the gameplay gets quite grindy. For some people that can make the corruption process more plausible: the owner/girls get more and more willing to sell sex for profits. Personally, the stat grind (girls get more lewd/caring/etc.) was sufficient for me and I just gave myself money via save file edit.

Now, most of the explicit scenes are Netorase although you can decide on a girl to girl basis whether you want to enable that kinda content for her. I really don't like NTR but here it was different. Firstly the MC has his own name/backstory so one does not necessarily identify with him. Moreover its more about "everyone has sex with everyone", and not about the typical humiliation kink of traditional NTR.

The individual girls' storylines are decent but nothing special. The main pull for you, dear reader, should be the integrated sex into the gameplay + VN built around it for extra storylines. If you like the idea that girls are serving cakes to the customers in the front and others are dancing on the poles/servicing a gloryhole, then this is for you. Moreover, only play if grinding makes the result sweeter for you, since that seems one of the main pillars of this game.

In summary, even if you do not like NTR give this one a try.

One last thing, the extra cafe skins are great and provide a breath of fresh air!

Really really good, the characters and the protagonist are likeable, the management aspect is well done although its a bit grindy
The open relationships without real jealousy and most importantly with respect and without humiliation set this apart from all the ntr games

my favourite netorase game. The pace of the game is very natural. the process of ntr is lust rather than dark.and the management of the cafe is perfectly combined with nfsw content. although the cgs really fit my taste

I'm a huge fan of the concept of having a business and sharing mc's girls for benefits.

Not a fan of 3d anime renders but It's not a deal breaker for me.

The game scenes are pretty good but with the amount of grind you have to do I'd want more variety in renders when you do an action like "care" or "flirt". This instead of the same renders * 4 skins would be much better.

I like the gameplay but after a while I felt like I had to micro manage too much. Especially after unlocking backrooms.

I'd suggest to make some adjustments or make an easy mode with a multiplier for money, girls' stats and lower requirements.

Like for example it'd so much better for me if requirements in gloryhole skills were dived by 3 or something like that.

The randomness in grinding with you having to micro manage meanwhile makes the gameplay later pretty sweaty.

Overall, the things I liked the most are the setting and most of the gameplay. If you don't like these aspects, then I think this game is not for you.

The game while not perfect, is actually pretty enjoyable. The writing is a strength of the game and the setup for NTR is believable though it would be more accurate to say this game is netorase. It's definitely a slow burn and it will take a bit to get to some of the scenes. However when you do get the scenes, they are well worth it.

I do want to warn that the game play loop can be incredibly grindy. Getting money will be a massive bottleneck to advancing in the game and purchasing upgrades for your girls and the cafe. It will easily take over 20+ hours of grind to unlock most of the upgrades. There is some complexity and nuances to the gameplay when it comes to getting money.

How to make money
Some clients prefer certain girls which will increase the tips that you get from selling food and drinks to them. You want the amount they tip you to be as high as possible before you use care option for the maid which will act as a tip multiplier for the existing tip value. Then use the take out option for that client which will act as another tip multiplier on top of the previous one thus earning large amounts of money.

Constructive Criticism
The problem with this system is that it renders the flirt option completely obsolete outside of seeing the little cinematic that appears. However strangely the flirt cinematic is less lewd than the care cinematic for the same level of upgrades which seems backwards and renders it even more useless.

I think a lot of the grind could be fixed by increasing the tip amounts globally for the clients. I know there is an ability that does this but the max increase I believe is only 30% and it costs a fortune to get there. Additionally some clients tip so much more than others that it's not even worth serving items to lower tipping clients bc you could be depriving a higher tipping client from an item. This results in the optimal strategy to mostly ignore them outside of making them mad as they are not even worth the time to click on.

Mid to late game when you unlock more rooms to your cafe, another bottleneck you will encounter will be Bugs
I got a few scenes with Ame in the cafe prior to even unlocking her. It's hard to remember specifically which scenes but I believe one had to do with one of the stages with the exhibitionist girl.

Overall it's a good game, but it's a grindy game.

Story/Character:
Another story that surrounds on building a cafe/hotel business with cute girls to earn money. There’s honestly not much story other than the whole aim of the game is to make the secret care cafe the best cafe in the world.

The MC is a cool protagonist, a chill but yet a person who oozes confidence. MC has a girlfriend which in this game has NTR + swinging content, your girlfriend is one of the maids in the cafe. All the girls are heels over you, they think you are the perfect guy and endlessly flirt with you. The maid characters are okay, nothing too revolutionary. Each maid character has its quirk, but they honestly seem all bland.

Content:
There’s a good amount of content in the game. Ranging from a limited main story at the moment to customers having fun with the maids. However most of the content are from the maid characters. Indeed, there are scenes where the MC have sex with the maids. Mostly with his girlfriend. More often of the time it’s usually teasing or the maids having fun with other customers.

At the end of your shifts, there are so many scenes that involve the MC and the maids that were so fun & entertaining. Maids being fingered by customers, MC having fun with his girlfriend or just funny moments where maids fall and their panties are exposed.

Gameplay:
The gameplay is the sole reason why this is game is so great. It’s obviously a management game where you can upgrade your cafe and maids in order to improve the cafe to become the best it can be. Maids can be upgraded to have special abilities to earn more money and manage customers more easier. The cafe can be upgraded to have more rooms, to have more sex scenes and more ways to earn money.

The REAL CRUX of the game is the actual gameplay of trying to manage a shift at a maid cafe. You have various maids which you need to make customers happy by mico-managing them to attend to the customers needs and to deliver them food. It is very addicting, I often get into a trance into playing this game. As you progress in the game, there are new types of customers as well as bosses to conquer that are very fun. This aspect of the game is the grinding part of the game, that will be most part of the game.

However, I believe even as a love grinding game of myself. It is very hard to justifiable grinding every single content in this game through playing the gameplay alone. I reckon itll take like 50 hours plus, if you were to try to grind through everything. The grind for all content, is honestly not worth it.




Visuals:
The visuals are good. Nothing too spectacular, but nothing too terrible. It’s a koitatsu game, that does it jobs well. Sex scenes are average, I personally don’t find koitatsu models that fappable so it’s more so eye candy for me. The UI is the game is great. It’s polished and the menus are easy to read.
Sound:
The sound design is average. There’s background music that does its job. As well as the sound effects & sex sounds that serves it purpose as well.

If it weren’t for the gameplay it’s a 2 star for me, but since the gameplay itself is very fun and addicting it bumps it up to me for a 3 star. As an NTR fan, the NTR is pretty meh in my opinion. Not worth it alone, if you’re going in just for the NTR content. If you’re looking for an cafe maid game with great fast paced management gameplay, this would be a great game for you. If not, this game is not for you as the only redeeming quality of this game is the core gameplay.

Want to jerk off to it? Don't bother
Want to play a good management game? Don't bother either
I don't see the quality of the game, without the H in this, at all.
The H itself is practically non existent, thinking about the hear say about the game.
The Gameplay Loop wears out quickly.
Couldn't enjoy this for the most part... Except the little ass wiggle animations of the girls in the upgrade screen. Those were my highlight

More fun as a game than a source of porn.

My only two complaints are the grind and the anime-style writing.

The grind doesn't feel too bad because the game is fun and has a good gameplay loop, but regardless, the grind is long enough that you will not be fapping. Far too little reward spaced far too apart so that you'll be distracted by the gameplay in between. It redeems itself because the game is fun, but still, understand this is not a game that will help you fap and instead one that will distract you from your desire to. Perhaps towards the end it might get more frequent, but you're not going to achieve that endgame in a day.

Other than that, my one complaint is that some games have writing that makes it obvious the creator is addicted to anime. This is one of those.

The main protagonist is effectively a harem protagonist, and then they check all the boxes for the obnoxious anime tropes that you've seen a million times before that you're probably sick of: the tsundere girl, the psycho girl who threatens to kill people for touching you, the scenes dedicated to all the girls talking about how great the protagonist is while you self-insert yourself onto him...Ugh. I personally hate this stuff, so if you're like me, expect any degree of story quality to be sunk by this style of writing.

Beyond that, it's a fun game with a fun gameplay loop. Simple as that.

One of the few games where the gameplay, the story and the adult content are equally good and I would buy a SFW version just for the great gameplay.

The personalities of the characters are all unique and they have their own motives and circumstances.
The story is staightforward and lighthearted but it fits to the gameplay and is welcomed change of pace inbetween the work days at the cafe.

i love this game so much! i'm surprised it only has four stars.

i usually use cheat codes or gallery unlocks to save time, but this is one of the few games i wanted to play start to finish. i got invested in the characters, and enjoyed the non-sex gameplay too. i did cheat on money -- you can just edit your save files really easy.

it is NTR, so if you're not into that you won't like it. if you are into it, though, you just struck gold.

I'm usually not very fond of Koikatsu-based games, but this one is fairly good. I like that you can skip out on a certain ending which gave me somewhat of a fright because I wasn't expecting it at all.

Overall a fairly fun game with interesting characters and good animations. The gameplay is pretty entertaining for a little while, but it gets way too grindy way too quickly. It takes forever to see all of the art and scenes, so it gets repetitive and boring to see them all without cheating.

Disappointing that there's so much grind, because otherwise it would be 5/5.

Updating my analysis after another year of play to my most recent play experience with the game.

I need to make an edit about Rai's scene with the twins with a small observation about the MC never being with the girls even though it's an NTR game, the random weird guys fuck girls more than the MC himself, when a girl gives in on top of him, he just laughs and scratches his head, most of the scenes are always between the girls and other guys, he wants to see girls get fucked but he barely fucks them..

I was kind of discouraged about how everything happened in Rai's scene with the twins, the MC tells her to stay late at night with the twins to see if they spend more on coffee orders, but the mc is with cynthia, he just asks rai to send photos in case something more intimate happens between her and the twins, so the mc stops responding to rai when she asks him about what he wanted her to do with the twins, and she thinks it's because of Cynthia, and gets jealous
So she starts doing things without waiting for the MC's approval or even waiting for his messages, until things happen very quickly and the next thing she knows, they're already doing double penetration and almost getting the girl pregnant. .
because mc slept with his cell phone in his hand next to cynthia, she finds out about his affair with rai and then he starts sleeping alone... kind of taking a break from the relationship... and rai starts to leave and get more attached to the twins staying with them even without taking photos for MC, like Cynthia with the football players, who starts hanging out with them on a daily basis as if they were dating even without even telling MC that she's going to meet them

So in short, at the end of the day the mc takes a break with Cynthia, and without Rai since she's with the twins, and the cafe becomes like a stage for a porn film since Rai literally becomes a porn actress thanks to that film crew, and she starts fucking the twins in the middle of the cafe for anyone who pays for entry to the establishment to watch her fuck the twins

So why was I discouraged? because everyone kind of went out of character... there is no explanation or coherence for their behavior, nor did the game know how to explain how everything led to what happened... and the maid cafe like a porn show... it kind of all came out outside of the original or realism.

As at least one other reviewer has said, feels like an enormous amount of effort for a few animations (I even don't mind NTR, so at least I don't get completely shafted).

It gets an average rating from me because the actual game is pretty good and well crafted and the models look hot and everything seems okay on paper. It's just when you play the game it feels like an utter chore with some extremely mild rewards every now and again.

Written at version 0.8.18, October 2023.

A lot of people complain about how the game is grindy, this is mostly correct. While in itself it may not be a problem, the fact that money is ultimately kind of useless is what makes it a big issue for me.

Your basic income comes from tips. A maid sits with a client and takes orders, you deliver the item, the maid gets a tip. I've played about 120 in-game days and I'm still not entirely sure how the money you get is calculated. Sure, some clients tip more, but I can't tell if the value of the item delivered is taken into consideration at check-out. In any case, restocking will take a substantial amount of your daily income, leaving you with pennies at the end of the day unless you were really lucky.

How the maid's abilities work, while technically explained, is also somewhat obscure. I use 'Take-Out', which is supposed to increase the payout, but can't really compare because there is no log or 'receipt' page to corroborate the effects. I use 'Flirt', which is supposed to extend the sitting time... no noticeable change. Use 'Care'... sure I see the pop-up but what does it really do? Does it really bring better tips? Can't be sure.

But, again, money ultimately isn't that important anyway. What do you need money for? At some point I was told my maids would have to be paid, but that event never happened. So I spent my money in upgrading their skills (which, as stated above, have obscure effects) which ultimately should lead to me making more money. What do I do with that extra money I'm getting? Well, upgrade the cafe... which technically only servers the purpose of making more money IF you are okay with whoring out your employees.

And if I don't want to whore out my employees? If I opt out of the NTR stuff? Well... then your cafe upgrades really don't serve much of a purpose. The most expensive upgrades (the ones you will be grinding for) are all related to the NTR stuff, so unless you go down that path there's not much for the girls to do in the backrooms other than take a break or clean.

Still, even if you do go the NTR route and grind for all the money needed to build and upgrade the backrooms... they only serve the purpose of giving you even more money, which is completely useless at that point. Sure, you can check out a few animations when the girls are servicing clients, but it seems like an absurd amount of effort for such a small reward. And you still will have to grind the skill so your girls actually do anything other than handjobs (and the grind is per-maid, not global).

So, as you can see, the game loop is kind of broken right now. Specially if you aren't into the NTR stuff... and if for some reason you are playing safe mode (as if it was just a management game) then it's literally a very basic time sink.

In regards to the story, as said before... it seems heavily eschewed towards NTR content. The game's description said you'd get a choice to do it or not, and that your decisions would matter... I tried to keep it clean for as long as I could, but it comes to a point where it seems you are literally just locking yourself out from 80% of the game.

Now, if the NTR stuff is your cup of tea, that's all fine and good. I ain't here to kink-shame. But it annoys me how little content there is for the other path and how the game literally bores you into accepting it.

I think 3/5 is a fair score in the game's current state. It could get better with more content added, but if it's just going to be more NTR stuff I think I'll pass, as it isn't my cup of tea. Add a star if the kink fits.

I feel like this game is a high quality cup of tea, but I hate the flavor. I went from loving this game and paying to support it to giving up on the characters fairly quickly at a specific point in the plot, so this will be a wall of text as I try to figure out what went wrong (for me)!

I jumped into this one hoping for a slice of life maid/brothel management story about a couple open to a swinging lifestyle. The first 40 or so days in game were a blast, but the long grind gaining money/stats and doing the same repetitive tasks started to get old when there weren't as many new pictures and scenes to discover daily. Each small advance in plot required I sit there for 5 minutes and micromanage item handouts over and over, and I found myself taking breaks or stalling when I wrapped up my daily tasks and knew I had to sit for another 5 minute maid-sim cycle. The building of the cafe is really cool, but it didn't feel like there were enough new scenes and story to justify the amount of grinding required to get them. I often found myself confused about what exactly I needed to do to move the story forward, or if there was any more to expect at the end of each day. Still, the promise of the early game’s story and the fun intros for each of the girls kept me happily moving through this grind.

Around day 80-ish I finally handed out Cynthia's number enough times to Ricky to see his scenes… and oh boy, I quickly realized that this is not written as a fun swinging netorase story. I was very attracted to Cynthia at the start, because she appeared to be my ideal type of love interest in these games. Sexually experienced, promiscuous, and creatively kinky. But she also (seemed) to be able to maintain self control and was loyal to the MC's interests. This game is in the ballpark of netorase, in that the author will have the LI ask if she can "go on a date" and "have some fun after" with a guy (or group of guys), and the LI won't go on the date if you say no. This game is in the ballpark of NTR, in that if you let her go on a date the LI will fail to send any of the agreed update texts or pictures (except demanding to be picked up afterwards), loses all self control upon receiving slight sexual pressure or seeing a big dick, will let the guy(s) raw dog her immediately and cum inside only to lie about how it happened after, will squirt for the first time in her life 2min into fucking big NPC dick and then tell NPC how her boyfriend has never made her do that, will let NPC turn her into a fuck sleeve for dozens of rounds staying out later than agreed, promises to go on follow up dates without confirming the MC is OK with it, maintains close private relationships with NPCs after encounters, and will even be ready to fuck random delivery guys as a tip on the orders of the NPC without ever consulting MC. Then afterwards the MC hears about (almost) everything that happens and how the girl feels super bad about what a dumb whore she was and then the MC always says something like "heh... yeah that's what I wanted and I knew all along lul... c'mon I'll go buy you a Plan B pill cause I'm a chad right!? RIGHT? Oh okay I’ll take some pictures of your vag to send to NPC before we leave. Can you stop texting him while I’m talking to you?"

I think that Cyn scene led to my fastest "Join Patreon, Leave Patreon" turnaround among all the projects I've supported. The author tries to convert these otherwise pure NTR scenes after the fact into netorase or some type of loving “I’m doing this for you” situation by having Sergil reiterate how much he loves his girls becoming mindless free use whores after each scene. Instead, the writing converts Sergil into a coping sub cuck in an NTR story where some of the sharp edges have been smoothed over. The first pin scenes with Cynthia soured me on the entire relationship because of this, she became immediately undesirable for any self-respecting swinger (I see this sometimes referred to as being an “alpha cuck” – willing to share a partner but not be disrespected). She is written as the epitome of the whore that you’re not gonna turn into a housewife, unless you embrace being a sub cuckold. Sergil went from being an alpha male running a cafe, a magnet for loyal and kinky maids, to a spineless cuck waiter serving groups of men who clearly don't respect him or his girls and get away with every gross advance, no matter how disrespectful it is. Player options here are "NO DATING ALLOWED (incomplete vanilla slice of life story)" or "CUCK CITY (you're the actual maid serving cake to the boyfriends of your free use whores)."

I feel that the kinky/sharing approach is basically dead at this point with the pin scenes because a lack of nuanced writing leads to a forced cuck POV in almost every non-vanilla situation. Why is my loyal, kinky, experienced whore girlfriend immediately mind broken when seeing a big cock on an overconfident doofus? Why is Cyn not riding Ricky like a porn star, putting him in his place and shutting him up, taking everything he throws at her and giggling thinking it's cute while video calling the MC asking for tips on how to get off while fucking loser dick? There's zero empowerment options in these scenes for the main pair, and the author often goes out of their way to make the opposite experience happen for the reader. How about at least adding an option that lets Cyn say something like "Hey put a condom on and don't nut in me raw because I think that's gross for a rando guy to do" or "Wait let me call my BF to see if I should answer the door naked covered in cum and fuck the delivery guy as a tip." It would even be fun to grind for this, let Sergil build a "training room" to teach these fickle girls how to act when they're being loaned out! I know this spineless sub/cuck POV is likely a specific fetish the author is going for, but it's not netorase in my opinion and I see this on a lot of “this is a great netorase story” review lists. Let Sergil embody the actual Pimp he’s been set up as, not a helpless cuck totally out of control and lacking any respect outside of empty and forced-feeling “oh yea you’re totally the best though” comments from love interests.

I get that a lot of people love this sub/cuck POV, and I absolutely respect that, but the "NTR haters" group that I sometimes fall into is many times complaining about exactly this lack of nuance in love interest behavior. Empowered sharing/swapping is a thing too – and it’s often overlooked or written in a style that inelegantly tries to gloss over what are otherwise pure NTR scenes. Netorase, to me, is in part about the LI being able to follow established rules of engagement and maintaining control/respect for herself and her lover from the beginning to the end of sexual encounters. It evokes a feeling of empowerment in the MC when their love "passes the tests" and proves their loyalty, proves that they love the MC more than the often powerful draw of their carnal instincts. Confidence in this rule following and boundary setting is what lets some sharing couples have fun in a swinging/sharing environment, shifts in behavior and tone can quickly shatter enjoyment for either party. Ultimately, I feel there isn't enough content here to carry either a "pure" or "non-depraved swinging" route for people who don't want to read a story from a disrespected cuck's POV, but for those into that fetish there is a lot to love here!

[Warning. I focus entirely on the story in this review.]

Fuck man I don't think I can continue playing this game... I mean it looks fun, it has the bright colours, the poppy characters and the somewhat exaggerated sex-scenes but every time I make a choice it feels like I'm driving this fucking guy (Sergil) further into fucking ruin. The scenes that come after to literally show you the despair the character feels, I now it sounds stupid but seeing his despair after every choice breaks my fucking heart. Especially since I'm the one pushing the buttons. Suddenly the responsibility is mine even though I didn't ask for it. I'm just some random asshole trying to get his rocks off and now I'm the cause of all the demons in his life. I am not fucking joking I literally feel physically sick to my stomach just remembering the scenes. I actually fucking gagged at it today. And I didn't even mention whatever the hell is going on with Ame. I've played and watched and read NTR before and never have I reacted this way.

So in a way I actually want to commend the Devs behind this. I genuinely want to praise, applaud and congratulate you for writing a rousing and compelling story thats truly heart wrenching.
I'm also personally saddened by just how fucking tragic this story is to the point I feel uncomfortable playing it. But in my opinion: That's one hell of a fucking achievement. Rarely has any piece of media evoked such feeling in me. Never have I ever felt such deep caring for a video game character and their wellbeing. Only once before have I ever been so heartbroken over the tragedy pertaining to the character that I'm actually left in tears over what happened.

Fucking Kudos to all of you.

If you have a stronger gut and bigger balls than me I implore you to try out this game and unlike other people look past the gameplay (that while a little grindy is still pretty fun) and not see the sex as just sex and actually focus on the words on the screen when a character talks, listen to the music and it's changes when scenes advance.
And if you do decide to play this game I also implore you to think about getting it straight from the source and support the talented sociopaths behind this game.

I like the game so far, it is a bit grindy but so far I haven't minded it. Probably about half way through maxing everything (unless there is a steep curve at the end). Overall I'm enjoying it. I like the constant progression, and I don't think I've seen a duplicate cutscene yet. There is a ton of different after work events.

I do wish I knew you needed to put the pins on earlier. I kept wondering why my upgrades didn't make any changes.

The one thing that I really think the game needs, like said in another review, is some kind of automation for the cafe portion. It's a bit tedious to move the girls around and then fill orders. Maybe a "conveyor belt" to automate delivering food (Automatically fill in x seconds after order is placed). Also maybe a "Hostess Tablet" or something to automatically assign maids. By design you'll take a hit on efficiency and lose the ability to juggle girls around (just ignoring the 4th customer?), but it would definitely help make it easier to grind a few day's of cash or popularity without having to be micromanaging every detail. If you really want to min/max, you'll have to do that manually.