Welcome to Castor Yard, the urban “citypunk” hot spot for young entrepreneurs, virtual CyberLife-run businesses, and more. The year is 2011, and Miki feels stuck in their dead-end job as an architect. To make enough money to hopefully move out of Castor Yard, Miki takes up a side job as a “mouthpiece” – a person who has the tough conversations that other people can’t always bring themselves to have. Over the course of nine days, Miki will interact with a variety of clients, solve their problems, chat with friends, and perhaps even find love.
S4U: CITYPUNK 2011 AND LOVE PUNCH is a text adventure, visual novel and simulation hybrid developed by U0U Games and published by GCORES PUBLISHING. Each day consists of two parts. First, Miki must take on the day’s case, posing as their client in order to solve problems such as workplace harassment, a lovers’ quarrel, a desire for an internship, and more. While online, they can also chat with their friends, check the social media site “Tico,” design architectural projects with the hope of entering a competition, and more.
At the end of the day, once Miki has finished their work, they can head out onto the streets of Castor Yard. There, they can connect with people – perhaps even some of their clients! – purchase items from a CyberLife-run vending machine, or simply relax and enjoy the sunset. While the online sections of S4U are progressed through selecting from pre-written responses in text fields, outside Miki can actually move around and interact with people, which is a nice touch.
S4U is a lovely game with an air of sadness and nostalgia too it. It’s not exactly a happy story; life in Castor Yard is stressful for Miki, many of their friends are moving away, and not every client’s story is always resolved happily. But there are moments of joy too: matchmaking an adorable pair of coffee lovers who were too shy to confess their feelings, finally getting the CyberLife running the vending machine to open up to you, and even just sharing a silly Tico post with a friend. The game really encapsulates one key truth about the Internet: it can both isolate and bring people together.
It’s a decently short game – one run takes between five and seven hours, and there are a few alternate endings (mostly based on who you choose to share a romantic end-game scene with, if anyone). Collecting every achievement is estimated to take about 12 hours, though I’m still missing a few. S4U is a fun little game that does not overstay its welcome, and the fact that each day is in many ways a self-contained story makes it great to sit down, play for a bit and then pick it back up later.
I liked both the online and offline parts of the game, although I was disappointed that my favorite character (Levi the CyberLife) is primarily found only in the offline sections. I was very bad at the overall “saving up money” goal because I kept spending my money on decorations for Miki’s desk, which you can buy at random from the vending machine. Oops! The only gameplay element I wasn’t a fan of was using the architectural software to work on Miki’s projects. This consists of a rhythm mini-game that is extremely fast paced and difficult because it uses so many keys on the keyboard rather than limiting itself to a consistent few. This mini-game added a lot of stress to what is otherwise a laid back and chill game, so I found myself avoiding it often.
S4U’s art style is great, with a pixel style that made me think of the 90s and early 2000s (although the game is set in an alternate 2011). The “vintage” computer UI is accurately designed, and really takes you back to the early days of chat rooms. The outdoor setting is absolutely stunning, with the adorable character sprites (especially Miki and Levi!) and the beautifully designed sunset city. I highly recommend taking some time to sit on a pipe and just look out at the city while listening to some tunes. Speaking of tunes, the game’s soundtrack is excellent, consisting mostly of lofi tracks that really emphasize the “citypunk” feel.
Unfortunately, S4U has one major flaw: the localization. The game was originally written in Chinese, and the English translation is… inconsistent. Some conversations will be fully solid, others will venture into the nonsensical. I noted that Miki’s internal monologues were particularly bad, which was frustrating because those are some of the moments when you learn the most about Miki’s character and feelings. It’s also annoying because there are some characters who deliberately talk awkwardly or use bad grammar during the online segments, and it’s difficult to tell when it is done on purpose or when it’s the localization messing up. The game could definitely have used a few more editing passes before its full release.
Other than that, I have a few minor quibbles. As mentioned, the rhythm game for the architecture software is really difficult and doesn’t suit the game’s tone. I would have liked a bit more explanation about CyberLife and AI – you get a few posts on Tico, but I feel like there was a lot I still didn’t understand. And while the game has an option to give Miki a neutral gender identity by selecting “Just Miki” when Nil asks what to call you, a few characters (including Nil himself) will refer to Miki as feminine or say they “look like a girl” which made it feel less like a true gender-neutral option. Finally, some of the Mouthpiece cases Miki takes on could probably use a brief content warning – the very first one, for example, deals with a woman sexually harassed in the workplace, and her boss’s texts are pretty explicit and disturbing.
Overall, however, S4U: CITYPUNK AND LOVE PUNCH is a lovely laid-back, nostalgic visual novel that doesn’t take too long to complete. It’s a fun (if often sad) story that is definitely worth spending a few hours with. So log in and head over to Castor Yard, because these clients aren’t able to speak up for themselves – they need your help, and soon!
Kate played S4U: CITYPUNK AND LOVE PUNCH on PC via Steam using a provided review code.
