(Full disclosure: I backed the Kickstarter for this game, but didn't finish all the routes until recently.)

Despite the dark supernatural twist the story takes, Hustle Cat is a cozy little game that leaves me wanting more without overstaying its welcome. The routes are fast, with just enough details given about the world and the curse the characters find themselves under to keep things interesting without ruining the mystery upfront. While the major plot beats are the same for a majority of the arcs, the character writing really shines in this game. Each character's respective route gives them a satisfying arc, and their reactions to the the redone plot elements keeps things interesting. There's also enough details sprinkled around through each route before the "secret" one unlocks that the player can make a good guess about what's really going on before the reveal.

However, that also leads into my biggest complaint about the writing. All of the endings, even one for the secret route, feel abrupt. Immediately after the final battle, the explanation about what's going on with the curse is handwaved with an "I don't get it" from the main character, a last CG is shown, and then credits. At first I thought that this was just a writing choice to build suspense for the secret route, but at the end of that one I was left with more questions. It was a little sad to get to the very end and think, "Wait...that's it?"

My only other complaints about the game are technical. The gallery to this day remains bugged, not showing two game CGs. The skip button still lets scene transitions fully play out, and there's no option to continue skipping after a choice if the text has already been read. This ended up adding a lot to the runtime while playing through the other routes. Also, and this nitpick might just be personal, but the audio mix was too loud on default settings. I nearly blew out my headphones when I first booted up the game.

But with all of that said, Hustle Cat still really charmed me. I wanted to stay in this world with these characters just a little bit longer. There's bits where the game is rough around the edges, but there's real heart and love in there. I can see why people still think fondly of it, and I'd say that anyone interested should give it a try.

Visual novel focused on coworkers at a cat cafe. Allows you to date women or men and gives you multiple gender options to choose from. Characters are likable and the writing while nothing amazing or thematically interesting fits. I did really like Mason. Some good music. Not the strongest art but looks decent and no character looks or dresses completely ridiculously like in a lot of visual novels. Short and kind of an odd and quickly resolved subplot that would seem much more important and have more of an effect on each route. Not enough cats.