Papa's Sushiria Game Review

Papa’s Sushiria Game Background

Papa’s Sushiria is the thirteenth entry in Flipline Studio’s Papa Louie restaurant sim series. This time management game puts you in charge of a sushi bar. As Matt, Clover, or a custom worker of your design, create an array of sushi rolls to the exacting demands of Papa’s finicky customers.

With an array of exacting steps to follow in every station, this is the most challenging of the Papa Louie restaurant games.

How to Play Papa’s Sushiria

Getting Started

To select, left click with your mouse or tap on the touchscreen with your fingers. Select Continue on the bottom right corner of the loading screen to bring up the welcome screen. On the welcome screen, select Play on the bottom center to begin.

To get started, select one of the three save slots. Choosing an empty save slot starts a new game, while choosing an occupied one resumes a previously saved game. You can clear a previous save by selecting the X button on the top right corner of the save slot. Select Save a Backup to save a copy of your game file to your device; select Load a Backup to an empty slot to load a previous save file. Your web browser automatically saves your game progress at the end or each working day.

Pick a character. You can choose either Matt or Clover or create your own character. Once you’ve selected a character, a cutscene plays explaining the game’s plot. You can get past the cutscene and jump ahead to the tutorial by selecting Skip Intro on the bottom right corner.

Character Creator

Selecting Create a Custom Character on the character selection screen opens the character creator. There, you can create your own Papa Louie-styled character to serve as your primary player character throughout the game.

Begin by choosing a gender aesthetic and typing in a name in the name space provided. From there, choose from an array of hair styles, hair colors, eye accessories, skin tones, eye styles, eyebrows, and facial hairs. Use the sliders to adjust your body and facial features even further.

You can refine your character’s physical appearance further

The Process

The game has 4 stations that represent each stage of the order fulfillment process:

• The order station, in green, is where you take down order tickets from customers.
• The cook station, in orange, is where you cook the rice.
• The build station, in blue, is where you assemble the sushi roll.
• The tea station, in purple, is where you prepare a boba tea serving to complete an order.

Move from one station to the next by selecting the button of its color on the bottom center of the game screen.

At the order station, wait until the customers arrive at the counter. Select the Take Order button above the customer to jot down the order ticket. You can leave the ticket at the ticket hook on the top right corner for ease of reading or place it on the line on the top row.

Move to the cook station and place the rice order on a rice cooker. While that happens, select a sushi wrapper and place it on the rolling mat. When the rice is halfway cooked, select the sushi vinegar and hover it over the rice cooker to pour it in. When the rice is finished, select the rice cooker, then drag and drop it above the rolling mat to place in the rice.

Once the rolling mat is at the build station, you must place the ingredients on it in the proper order. At times, you may receive an order where the rice is on the outside; select the flip button to have the rice and wrapper switch places. Be careful when placing ingredients; you want them as evenly placed inside the roll as possible. Once you’re done, select the roll button to turn the flat arrangement into a single tube, then drag and drop or drizzle any additional ingredients (extra pieces, sauces, sprinkled toppings) above the roll before cutting it. Select the knife to grab it, then cut along the dashed lines to get 8 even pieces of sushi.

At the tea station, wait until the dispenser is at the star to pour out the right amount of milk. Repeat the process when dispensing the flavorings and the boba of the customer’s choice. Once you’re done, drag and drop the finished tea onto the slot next to the sushi rolls. Select the order slip, then place it on the stand to serve the order.

Basic Gameplay Advice

Summary

The game’s cutscene plays out similarly regardless of the character chosen. The character wins a backstage tour of Papa’s new venture, the Sushiria. After the tour concludes, they accidentally break a maneki neko (a statue of a waving cat) in Papa’s lobby. The cat allegedly brought luck to the restaurant, so when opening day came in, Papa’s new venture ended with a weak opening. Papa Louie rushes to replace the maneki neko, leaving our hero in charge of the restaurant (and possibly working off their debt to Papa).

Basics

To impress customers, you must serve them exactly what they ordered as quickly as you can. The rice must be cooked to the correct doneness, the ingredients placed as evenly as possible, and the toppings distributed well.

The game has a broad array of ingredients to make sushi rolls, many of which are unlocked as the game progresses. The ingredients available year-round are as follows:

• 4 varieties of rice
• 3 sushi wraps
• 1 type of sushi vinegar
• 24 fillings
• 11 placeable toppings
• 6 shaker toppings
• 11 sauces
• 12 tea flavors
• 12 boba flavors

There are also 6 extra ingredients unlocked during every holiday.

By the 5th day of the game, you must hire a second worker to assist you. This worker can be from one of the default characters or a new one of your creation. This worker will come with order tickets from the dining area.

Work Week

The game is divided into work days, which consist of the time you spend serving customers. A day ends when the last customer receives their order. Days are grouped into work weeks. The position of each day in the week determines the closer that arrives and the mini game you can play after the game ends. The end of the work week marks the arrival of your weekly pay.

At the end of each work day, you’ll receive a performance evaluation based on the following metrics:

• Waiting times
• Cooking quality
• Build quality
• Tea quality

Use these metrics to guide your improvement across the game.

Seasons and Holidays

The in-game year is divided into 4 seasons comprising 3 months each. Each month has a corresponding holiday:

• New Year (January)
• Valentine’s Day (February)
• Lucky Lucky Matsuri (March)
• Cherry Blossom Festival (April)
• Cinco de Mayo (May)
• Summer Luau (June)
• Starlight BBQ (July)
• BavariaFest (August)
• Maple Mornings (September)
• Halloween (October)
• Thanksgiving (November)
• Christmas (December)

The game’s year starts in April.

Each customer has a preferred holiday and, subsequently, has a distinct preferred order during the holiday season of their choice. Some customers (and all closers) have outfits unique to a holiday. Holidays have a unique set of ingredients and themed sets that you can unlock over the course of a game.

Customers

The game has 106 customers. Only a few are available at the start of the game, with most of them being unlocked as you progress. Each customer has a personal preference, which they will order almost every time they show up. You can check out each customer’s preferred order in their respective profiles on the customer menu. Bring up the customer menu by selecting Customers on the pause screen or the customer button on the startup screen.

You can view all the customers you’ve unlocked so far by selecting the View Parade button on the startup screen.

Once you’ve taken a customer’s orders, they have an order ticket unique to them. Attach the finished order to the correct order ticket. Giving the customer the wrong order is a surefire way to get them unhappy.

Customer satisfaction is tied to leveling up. A satisfied customer yields customer points. The points you earn add up over time, allowing you to move up a level. Leveling up quickly requires pleasing customers well on a daily basis.

Each customer has a star gauge. You earn a star for a customer each time you gain an 80% satisfaction rating from them. By gaining 5 stars, you earn a star customer badge, which comes in 3 tiers: bronze, silver, and gold. Star customers order faster. Although you cannot lose star badges you already earned, you can lose progress toward the next badge if you fail to adequately satisfy a customer.

Closers and Gold Envelope Holders

Closers are the last customers of the day. There is a different closer for every day of the week; what they have in common is that they have far more stringent standards for their orders and are harder to please. Impressing a closer each time they appear is critical to earning star badges from them.

Gold envelope holders have similar standards. Unlike closers, they come at random; ordinarily, they are regular customers. Their standards increase when they carry their envelopes, which contain the recipe for a special. You will only receive the envelope if you receive from them an 80% satisfaction rating or higher.

A special closer is the food critic, Jojo. Impressing him will grant you the blue ribbon, which increases the value of all tips you receive for 3 days.

Specials

Specials are recipes you receive from golden envelopes. Customers have a chance of ordering whatever special you offer on any given day instead of their usual. Instead of seeing a recipe on the order ticket, a special’s recipe appears when you select the S button on the top left corner of the game screen.

Acquire as many specials as you can by impressing golden envelope holders. The special offered for the day can be set on the startup screen before you begin each day.

A special has a unique bonus, which it provides each time it is served to a customer’s satisfaction. These bonuses include extra tickets, extra stars toward a badge, more customer points, and the like. Serving the same special to 5 customer also rewards you with articles of clothing.

Stickers

Instead of the achievement badges from older Papa Louie games, this game employs a system of stickers that you win whenever you make a specific in-game milestone. Earning a set of 3 stickers unlock a new outfit for a specific character.

The game has 123 stickers, which you can keep track of in the sticker screen. The sticker screen can be accessed by selecting the S button on the bottom right corner of the startup screen.

Income and Improvements

You earn money from any of the following means:

• Tips: You receive tips from satisfied customer; higher satisfaction leads to larger tips.
• Your weekly pay: You begin with a starting salary of $100, which increases as you level up.
• Consolation prizes: You sometimes receive a small cash tip if you don’t win the big prize.

The money you earn can be used to buy improvements for your shop. These include cosmetic upgrades for your shop, clothing, and upgrades to your stations.

We recommend spending on upgrades as soon as you can afford them. They add conveniences that streamline the work process, helping you ensure quality and timely service throughout the work day. The game’s upgrades are as follows:

• The doorbell ($4.50) alerts you to any new customers that come in.
• Cook boosters ($120 each) let you cook the rice faster.
• Rice alarms ($90 each) alert you when the rice is done cooking.
• The cutting guide ($150) helps you cut the sushi down to the appropriate size.
• The milk auto pour ($250) helps you pour the milk in the appropriate amount for boba tea.
• Customer coupons ($25 each) invite a customer to visit your shop again.
• The special sign ($250) entices more customers to order the day’s special.

Interior Decorating

Dressing up the lobby is more than for appearances. Adding furniture and decorations to your lobby helps improve customer patience and, depending on the decor, grants special bonuses toward a specific ingredient bought by customers.

To get started, select Decorate Lobby on the startup screen. From there, drag and drop any item from the inventory and place them on the wall or floor of your lobby. To remove an item, select it and drag and drop it to the put away box to put it back to the inventory. You can also select Remove All on the bottom right to clear everything.

Items on your inventory have a score value that determines how effective it is at managing customer patience. The more items placed in, the higher its score value and maximum score. Items come in themes, which are coded according to letters on their icons at the inventory. Ideally, you should have at least 3 items from the same theme to maximize the points you earn from them.

The lobby also has a freshness rating, indicating how new it looks to the customers who arrive. Over time, the freshness rating drops, indicating that the customers think your shop is growing stale. Improve freshness by swapping out pieces of furniture every so often.

Finally, some posters provide a score bonus to any ingredient they advertise.

Advanced Playing Tips & Strategy

General Tips

Check on the rice periodically as it cooks. You’ll need to come back to it regularly to ensure that it gets vinegared at the right time and is taken off the heat once it’s cooked. Checks are especially important in the days before you get alarms, since you only have a rough idea of how much time you have left before the rice is finished. Fortunately, each station’s progress is staggered, so you can interrupt a stage as needed to get back to the rice.

Try to do most of the time-consuming actions such as taking orders when the rice is first placed at the rice cooker. Conversely, when the rice is nearly done, stand by the cook station to get it out rather than attend to anything else Save time in the early part of the game by preparing the drinks as the rice cooks.

Order Organization

Keep the order tickets arranged so that you are able to fulfill the in-progress ones sooner. Place the current order at being fulfilled at the order hook to make the order easier to see. The next orders to fulfill should be placed to the right; likewise, the orders that are more recent should be kept toward the left.

If you’re having trouble fulfilling orders quickly, consider prioritizing the gold envelope holders and the closers to avoid making them too impatient.

Mini Games

Each day concludes with an optional mini game. Mini games require tickets to play; you can play a mini game as many times as you want as long as you have enough tickets. Winning a mini game grants you a prize; consolation prizes for not winning include smaller tips.

You earn tickets by pleasing customers. You can earn up to 3 tickets in an ordinary day and earn twice as much with a special.

Home Run Derby

This is a simple baseball game. Hit the ball at the right time to get a home run and win a prize. You only have 3 chances to hit. Miss and you get a strike. Hit at the wrong time and you get a foul.

Rico’s Chiliworks

This is a pipe logic game where you must twist pipes around to create a complete path. Finish the pipe works before the timer runs out so that all the chili goes into the stock pot. Select the valve to make the chili flow faster if you finish early.

Papa’s Raceway

This is a simple racing game. Finish first to win a prize. Build up speed by collecting as many coins as possible and avoiding obstacles like traffic cones and oil slicks.

Freeze-Putt

This is a simple mini-golf game. Hit the ball in the right direction to get it to the hole. Bring the ball to the hole within the required number of strokes or less to win a prize.

Soda Shot

This is an arcade-style shooting game. Select enemies to shoot them with soda. To win a prize, take out the required number of enemies before you run out of them to shoot.

Hallway Hunt

To win a prize, find the highlighted customer among a group consist of 2 or more people. The lights will go off and only the customers’ eyes will be visible; follow the highlighted customer’s eyes around, then select their door to find them.

Mitch’s Mess

This is a simple hidden object game. To win a prize, find all of the listed objects among the jumbled items in Mitch’s work station before the timer expires. Avoid selecting anything other than what you need to find; select 3 incorrect objects and you lose.

Educational Aspects

Like all games in the Papa Louie restaurant sim series, this game challenges a player’s time management and task switching skills. It also tests a player’s dexterity even more than other Papa’s games, requiring extra attention to ensure all ingredients are evenly distributed through each roll.

Player Age Recommendations

This game is suited for older school-aged players and above. We recommend this for fans of time management and restaurant sim games who relish a challenge.