Hookah Haze is a visual novel about a terminally ill hookah lounge manager passing through his last moments in life. Read our review to see what it did well, what it didn't do well, and if it's worth buying.
Hookah Haze Review Overview
What is Hookah Haze?
Toru Sumiki has been diagnosed with a terminal illness, causing them to spiral and lose hope for the future and consequently the will to live. Their doctors encourage them to make the most of the little time they have left,
and so in their search, they somehow land themselves a job as a temporary manager at a hookah lounge in Akihabara. There, he meets three girls who end up becoming his regulars, unaware that they needed him just as much as he needed them
Hookah Haze features:
⚫︎ Three heroines
⚫︎ Multiple endings
⚫︎ Thirty save slots
⚫︎ Dozens of scenarios
⚫︎ Customizable User Interface
For more gameplay details, read everything we know about Hookah Haze's gameplay and story.
 Steam |
 Switch[Japanese] |
||||
| $17.99 | |||||
Hookah Haze Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
 Immersive Audiovisuals Powerful Themes Memorable Stories |
Lack of Voice Acting Really Hurts Somewhat Annoying Mechanics |
Hookah Haze Overall Score - 92/100
Hookah Haze is an incredible visual novel that mixes pleasant aesthetics and unique gameplay with a gripping tale on the transience and turbulence of life. It features a very well-defined cast of characters, each with their own tale to tell, on a two-week-long emotional rollercoaster complete with disagreements, comedy, and romance.
Hookah Haze Story - 10/10
Hookah Haze’s story touches on very sensitive topics about personal baggage, such as PTSD, belonging, transience, and self-loathing in a way that doesn’t feel forced down your throat. It does so in an almost casual, relaxing way, too, due to the nature of hookah lounges in general. Despite that, the game does not lack in powerful moments, especially at the end.
Hookah Haze Gameplay - 9/10
Unlike many visual novels, Hookah Haze does not rely on strict binary choices to influence its story. Instead, it relies on your management of a hookah lounge to decide what course of events would occur that day. And even if you don’t have the knowledge about smoking water pipes, the game holds your hand just enough so that the experience is neither intrusive nor agitating. Unfortunately, though, hand-holding isn’t enough to get you through the more vague parts of the game.
Hookah Haze Visuals - 10/10
Everything about Hookah Haze’s visuals are wonderful. But while its character artworks are expressive, idiosyncratic, and cute, special attention has to be given to its user interface. It’s extremely pleasing to look at, with the perfect amount of aesthetic decoration to get you in the proper mood.
Hookah Haze Audio - 8/10
The only thing Hookah Haze really lacks as an atmospheric visual novel in terms of audio is voice acting. It does an amazing job at maintaining a mood with its tunes, and it even has a very immersive yet limited set of sound effects to really get you into the world of smoking hookah. However, its lack of voice acting does more than just make you read text. It slightly compromises the experience as well considering just how well-made the character artworks are.
Hookah Haze Value for Money - 9/10
While each run only lasts for a handful of hours, Hookah Haze has multiple endings to see and many different scenarios to witness. It encourages every playthrough to start at the very beginning, making each session unique and memorable. Overall, it offers an incredible value for $17.99 that you won’t want to miss. It is pretty short, though, even if you consider the time to unlock every ending.
Hookah Haze Review: High On Feels
When I learned that the developers who made AMEDAMA and, more notably, Akiba’s Trip, had a visual novel, I was justifiably intrigued. Its marketing certainly didn’t help to quell my curiosity due to them featuring the three gorgeous heroines front and center. "I must get it at all costs," I thought jokingly to myself. "It’ll just be a fun read."
Well, it was. But at the same time, it was more than that.
Hookah Haze’s promotional video on Steam was in Japanese, so I was wholly unprepared for the actual experience of playing through a route. Sure, it started out just like how I would expect a game that looks like a romantic slice-of-life visual novel would, but as every in-game day passed and I managed to finish a route, realization hit me like a truck.
The opening sequence of Toru, the main protagonist, only having two weeks to manage his shop due to a fatal illness wasn’t a joke nor an attempt to simply hook in players. This was a visual novel that legitimately aimed at its readers’ heartstrings.
Finally realizing the folly of my initial mindset, I immediately started another run and finished another set of endings. And at the end of the day, I’ve come to a conclusion:
Hookah Haze is an incredible visual novel that no fans of the genre should miss.
Its gameplay alone is unique enough. If you’ve ever played VA-11 Hall-A, then you’ll immediately have a sense of familiarity with it. Basically, this visual novel doesn’t operate like many of your standard, run-of-the-mill titles. Instead of providing you with dialogue choices or decisions to branch the story out from, the game shapes its events through the management of your hookah lounge. Specifically, by what blend you decide to put up as your daily special.
See, the game puts you in the shoes of a hookah aficionado named Toru. Due to a fatal illness, he was allowed two weeks to manage a hookah lounge as a gift from this game’s version of the Make-A-Wish Foundation. As part of his work, he posts "daily specials" on social media to attract customers. These specials eventually attracts three regulars who would serve as the "romantic interests" of the protagonist.
Other than that, the rest of its gameplay centers on how well you can interpret the girls’ moods and tastes as well as how hot they prefer their smokes to be. Simple, right? Kinda.
Before we get to that part, though, it’s better to talk about the three characters you serve hookahs to in the first place. Hookah Haze features three heroines: Amu, Kokoro, and Kurumi. Each of them have distinct tastes in smoke and will be attracted either separately or altogether depending on the special blend you advertise. And just like any normal adults at their age, they have unique circumstances that lead them to becoming patrons of a smoking lounge.
These are not simply issues with their lovelife or short-term financial troubles. Their baggage affects them deeply, and are so ingrained in their personalities that it affects their everyday lives. It is only through the ambiance of the lounge and Toru’s almost enlightened purity do they gradually open up and share their problems with you.
This narrative, impressive by itself, is complemented by the game’s exquisite aesthetics and audio working together to be as immersive to a visual novel reader as possible. Despite the artstyle, you can’t help but feel that the doe-eyed anime girl in front of you is somewhat alive due to their expressiveness. Plus, the way they are animated along with the sound and sight of the hookah being used and smoke being exhaled makes for an excellent experience.
Unfortunately, the game isn’t without its faults. Remember when I was unsure of whether to call its gameplay simple or not? Well, it is. But it’s also rather vague. See, while the game does tell you that your daily specials decide your clientele for that day, it doesn’t tell you how the other flavors influence it. That’s because there’s five different flavors available for you to experiment with, but only three heroines to attract. What if your blend is only flavored by things they’re not particularly interested in?
There’s also the issue with heat maintenance. As part of your job in entertaining your customers, you must replace the coal on their hookah once per session. The temperature affects the strength of the smoke’s flavors, so getting it just right is the key to making their visit as pleasurable as possible. Fortunately, since I’m willing to bet that the vast majority of us don’t smoke hookah, the game does hold our hands by giving hints as to how much coal you need to add. Unfortunately, the game is also vague about its hints, and would sometimes give counterintuitive instructions.
Lastly, Hookah Haze’s lack of voice acting is also quite noticeable. Sure, other visual novels don’t have that and most of the time it’s acceptable. But in Hookah Haze’s case, its amazing visuals make that deficiency much more apparent. The reason is simple: the game looks so good that you’ll easily notice the seconds you spend not looking at the characters, the smoke, and the aquarium.
Those are minor problems in the grand scheme of things, though. Hookah Haze is still one of the best visual novels among its modern sub-$20 peers due to its aesthetics, themes, and flair. On top of that, as you would expect from a work that deals with the transient nature of things, Hookah Haze’s story has a lot of powerful moments that you can enjoy repeatedly, especially considering its multiple endings. In fact, a couple of the endings even left me shedding a tear or two.
So, do get the game. You’ll enjoy the story just as much if not more than its design.
Pros of Hookah Haze
| Things Hookah Haze Got Right |
|---|
|
Immersive Audiovisuals Powerful Themes Memorable Stories |
Immersive Audiovisuals
A lot of work went into the game’s visuals, at least as far as visual novels are concerned. Each character, particularly the heroines, are expressive to the point where just glancing at their eyes tell more than enough about their moods. They also have nicely-detailed animations for the most part and don’t just transition from holding a hookah pipe to a phone as if you’re clicking through a powerpoint presentation.
UI design is also excellent. Not only is it very pleasing to look at, but it’s also customizable with different themes and even a slider to adjust their brightness. The usual UI also comes with a view of the protagonist’s favorite aquarium, a view of the outside for added elegance, and the lounge’s music player at the bottom for players to browse with.
Those tunes are equally effective at setting the right mood, albeit often mellow due to the setting. Fortunately, the game does have separate tracks for more essential or emotional moments in the story so that you won’t have to read through its more striking events with inappropriately soothing music.
Even the very minor sound effects do wonders in dragging you into their world, such as the intricate sounds of the characters’ use of the hookah. At times, it almost feels like you’re there yourself, sitting comfortably on a couch while indulging in its ambiance.
Powerful Themes
Each of the characters in Hookah Haze suffers from some form of baggage. These range from PTSD, to self-loathing, transience, and even suicidal thoughts. Your time in Toru’s shoes as the manager of a hookah lounge will expose you to these issues as the girls open up to you more. The way they resolve these issues with your help is central to the game’s endings, which will inevitably swing one way or the other in favor of a special few.
In other words, in a blind playthrough, you won’t be able to help everybody equally, leaving the others to continue carrying their emotional baggage to an extent. But that’s what makes the game better; there’s stakes involved.
Memorable Stories
As you would expect from a game with harrowing themes and a relatively slow pace, Hookah Haze does an amazing job of narrating the tale of someone trying to enjoy his last moments being surrounded by the things he loves. Though the story that unfolds between him and the three heroines aren’t exactly romantic in nature most of the time (though the game does have romantic undertones), the way they break the walls of estrangement between them as the plot progresses is incredibly heartwarming. It really makes you want to root for a happy ending that would last longer than the story implies.
Sure the game also has a lot of forgettable filler, but those transient memories only serve to make the important turning events more endearing.
Cons of Hookah Haze
| Things That Hookah Haze Can Improve |
|---|
|
Lack of Voice Acting Really Hurts Somewhat Annoying Mechanics |
Lack of Voice Acting Really Hurts
One of the game’s strongest aspects is its character artworks. They’re incredible to look at, particularly due to how expressive and animated they are. However, the lack of voice acting means that you can’t rely on it to tell the story, dragging your eyes away from the scene just to read text. It’s a case of being too pretty to hide its deficiencies.
Somewhat Annoying Mechanics
Hookah Haze’s gameplay is quite simple. It only requires its players to do a bit of social media interactions with customers, create blends to suit your customers’ needs, and manage the temperature of their hookah once per customer. However, that doesn’t spare it from having oversights that can be pretty annoying to deal with.
For example, every day in Hookah Haze starts with you posting your daily special on social media. The flavor profile of your blend decides which character would appear on your shop that day. Its three characters accordingly have a specific flavor that they prefer, so posting a special that caters to their taste would attract them to you. However, there are five flavors in total, so what if you post a special with none of their preferences?
In addition, the heat management aspect of hookahs are also pretty vague to deal with. Once per visit, you’ll have to replenish the coals on the customer’s hookahs according to the mood. The game holds your hand with this part by implying the amount of coal you should add. However, these hints are sometimes too unclear, such as saying that you shouldn’t add "too much" only to be greeted by the right answer being near the game’s maximum of five coals.
… At least you can save scum.
Is Hookah Haze Worth It?
This game is NUTS! Buy it!
Hookah Haze is an amazingly emotional and inspirational visual novel that you can purchase for just $17.99. It has a rather unique gameplay compared to other visual novels, complete with amazing artworks, interface, music, and story. Plus, it’s very replayable, with multiple endings and a veritable sea of scenarios to enjoy.
| Steam |
Switch[Japanese] |
||||
| $17.99 | |||||
Hookah Haze FAQ
Is Hookah Haze an adult visual novel?
While the art may imply that in some form, no, Hookah Haze is not an adult visual novel. It does, however, have mature themes.
How many heroines are there in Hookah Haze.
There are three heroines: Amu Aigami, a waitress that works in a maid cafe, Kokoro Meigetsuin, a part-timer in a novelty store, and Kurumi Komori, a doll-maker.
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Hookah Haze Product Information
 | |
| Title | HOOKAH HAZE |
|---|---|
| Release Date | July 11, 2024 |
| Developer | ACQUIRE Corp. |
| Publisher | Aniplex Inc. |
| Supported Platforms | PC(Steam), Nintendo Switch |
| Genre | Visual Novel, Anime |
| Number of Players | 1 |
| Rating | CERO C |
| Official Website | Hookah Haze Official Website |
