I know Kairosoft games have been around for a long, long time now on mobile, and they already have a large and dedicated fanbase, but they have been exposed to a whole new audience on console platforms in recent years that see dozens of them in the Switch or Xbox marketplace and have no idea what they are. I have to admit, I didn't know about Kairosoft at all before they started releasing on Xbox. I can't play mobile games, because I can't see teeny tiny screens, so their existence was totally unknown to me. Thanks to the reasonable $12-ish price tag and relatively easy achievement lists I took the plunge on Xbox and am glad I did. Kairosoft games rock!
So, for the uninitiated, what are Kairosoft games? Kairosoft is a Japanese game developer that has specialized in tycoon-style incremental semi-idle games based on various themes. The basics is that you make decisions - who to hire, how to train them, what they work on, what to research and develop next, when to expand and grow, etc. etc. etc. - for your company or sports team or restaurant or whatever and then the game basically plays itself as your employees do their work and customers come and go. It's not a true idle game because you have a ton of input into what your company is doing at all times, but you can also kind of let it grind for a while if you want, so I'd say they're semi-idle games.
The appeal should be obvious - they're ridiculously addictive and satisfying. Watching your tiny company or low ranked team slowly grow into a powerhouse is just amazingly fun. The games are also incredibly charming and cute and simply pleasant to watch. And, of course, numbers getting bigger and bigger and bigger makes our brains secrete the happy chemicals.
The huge number of different themes is also appealing. You don't have to love and appreciate every single Kairosoft game - that would be way too overwhelming - but you can pick and choose specific themes that appeal to you. You can be a game developer, or run an anime studio, or an arcade, or a farm, or a hamburger joint, or a sushi restaurant, or build a shopping mall, or a cruise ship, or oversee a racing team, or tennis team, or baseball team, and tons and tons of others. You're pretty much guaranteed to find at least one Kairosoft game that appeals to you.
Don't worry about the highest rated or what the top ten best Kairosoft games are or whatever - just pick the games with themes that appeal to you and you'll have a great time. I'm not saying some aren't better or worse than others, but you'll have more fun with themes you kind of understand from the get go instead of going in completely blind.
The gameplay is similar across titles, but never really the same. Some are more involved than others depending on the theme. Burger Bistro Story, for example, has you switching between multiple restaurants and actually making new recipes in the kitchen while games like Game Dev Story or Anime Studio Story are centered on supervising your employees' actions in just one room without that much input from you. Other titles where you manage a team or build a theme park or something also have more dynamic gameplay as well. So Kairosoft games might all look the same, but they actually do play differently.
It has to be noted that there is a bit of a learning curve when you first start, and the controls are, frankly, horrendous on consoles because they're cursor-based frankensteins of what used to be touch controls on mobile. Once you figure out the shortcuts and general flow of how things work, you get used to it and they don't feel so horrible anymore. But there is a definite moment of "did I make a mistake?" when you first start, which I can only assume is why user reviews are often pretty hyperbolic.
Disclaimer time: I haven't played all of them, or even a lot of them really, and I know that there are definitely going to be some duds in the lineup across the 36 games and counting on Xbox and more on other platforms. But I think that, because the cost of entry is pretty darn low at $12 or so, taking a chance and ending up with a game you don't really like isn't that big of a loss. There are a lot more disappointing things out there you can waste $12 on.
I promise you, though, that they're mostly good. And for most of them if you get over the hump and learn how to play them the way you are meant to play them, Kairosoft games are worth your time and effort.
And, boy, will you spend a lot of time with them. They are grindy, and it takes 15-20 hours or more to get to "finish" most of them, but that time flies by because they are incredibly addictive. You unlock new upgrades and abilities and other stuff at a pretty insanely fast pace, so the numbers keep getting bigger and bigger and hours have passed by before you notice. And on Xbox and PlayStation the achievements and trophies do a fantastic job of motivating you even further because these are not very difficult 100% completions - just time consuming.
It also has to be said that they're surprisingly relaxing because it's actually pretty hard to fail at most of them. Even though the games are constantly giving you status updates and performance reports and giving the illusion that you're under pressure, you don't really have to worry about it much. Unless you're just actively trying to make bad decisions and go super deep into debt with no way out, the games kind of self correct your mistakes unless you're intentionally trying to lose or you're just a moron. Playing badly usually just means it takes longer to reach your next goal. You learn from it and figure out how to do better. I like that.
You actually can play most of them indefinitely if you want, as they usually have a New Game+ where you carry some things over and start all over again, but I personally consider myself done with them when I get all of the achievements. The last achievement is always related to having the Kairosoft mascot Kairobot come work for you, or eat at your restaurant, or join your team, or otherwise give you its approval. That is just ridiculously charming and you always feel a true sense of pride that you managed to impress Kairobot.
There's not really much more to say. The Kairosoft games are incredibly satisfying and fun and charming and absolutely worth the $12 or $14 price tag depending on what game you buy. And they do go on sale pretty regularly as well. They're perfect little bite sized time waster games that you should definitely check out if you aren't already familiar with them. Find a theme you like, and give it some time so you learn the controls (because they are awful at first ...) and you won't regret it. Kairosoft games are awesome.
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