Little Dragons Cafe defies categorization. Despite being the latest endeavor from Harvest Moon creator Yasuhiro Wada, it’s not a farming sim. While you have to manage your cafe, keeping the staff in line and adjusting the menu to fit your needs, it’s also not really a management sim. You instead split your time between exploring with your dragon to hunt down recipes and ingredients and going hands-on at the cafe–and they combine to make a strangely satisfying loop. But Little Dragons Cafe is also held back by frustrating pacing problems in its story and progression, as well as technical hiccups that make it feel outdated.

In Little Dragons Cafe, you’re one of a pair of twins whose mother has fallen into a deep sleep. You learn that she’s part dragon, and in order to save her, you need to raise a dragon while also running the family cafe. You meet new cafe customers with problems of their own, and one by one, you help each of them through their struggles (m…