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Cultivate a clowder of cute cats with Mineko’s Night Market, coming in 2018

Mineko's Night Market

We’ve seen games where you live with animals, we’ve seen games where you run a farm but I’ve yet to see a game where you actually grow animals from the ground. Clearly not your average farming adventure, Mineko’s Night Market is one for all the cat lovers out there.

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Tasking you as the young Mineko, players arrive on a superstitious Japanese island, where hundreds of cats live around the base of Mount Fugu. With Mineko’s new home struggling financially, it is up to you to build the town up by making major bank at the weekly night market crafting and selling various cat-themed trinkets and curios. This involves gathering resources from around the island, completing odd jobs for townsfolk and occasionally growing cats in the back garden.

Yes you did read that right, you can actually grow your own feline friends in Mineko’s Night Market. In the trailer, you simply plant a seed in your patch, water it every so often and voila, you’ll have a freshly grown cat ready to harvest. I’m not sure how these free range felines will help you run a successful market stall, but you can at least ride them in special cat races against fellow townsfolk. I really have seen it all now.

It’s not all ruthless kitten farming though, as you’ll be uncovering the mysteries of your new home, reinvesting in the night market and engaging in seasonal mini-games like taiko drumming and karaoke competitions. Mineko’s Night Market’s reverence for Japanese culture is very clear with its cutesy anime art style, recreation of Japanese festivals and its adoration of cats. You even get to be mates with a giant cat god. That’s pretty cool.

Hoping to emulate that warm, cosy feeling you get when a cat sits on your lap, Mineko’s Night Market looks like the perfect game to chill out with after a stressful day. You will have to wait a fair while to run your own market stall, with Mineko’s Night Market scheduled to release in late 2018. Better curl up by the fire and wait then.