The Manga Works

Genre: Management Simulation

Players: 1

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Review:

Without a doubt the most prolific developer and publisher of Management Simulation games on Nintendo Switch is Kairosoft, who specializes in games with a retro-style isometric pixel art style, often with the word “Story” in the title. As of this writing, Kairosoft has released 61 games on Nintendo Switch, most of them Management Simulations.

After their earlier games, Kairosoft had established a few templates for their Simulation games that later games would largely follow. Game Dev Story established a Simulation-style game more focused on managing employee time and focus, Hot Springs Story established a Simulation style in line with Theme Park Simulators where you try to cater to guests’ tastes to maximize attendance and income, and Epic Astro Story established a Simulation style akin to games like Sim City, where you’re building out a town or settlement.

The Manga Works originally released on mobile devices in 2016, then saw a port to Nintendo Switch in 2019, then to PlayStation 4 in 2021, to PC in 2022, and to Xbox One in 2024. And this game follows the Game Dev Story formula, having players build up their manga artist’s skills while searching for the right combination of setting, topic matter, and theme to create the next big hit.

The Manga Works actually feels like a pretty well-crafted evolution of this formula, balancing the desire to find the right mix of elements with the need to balance your artist’s own personal life – you can have them skimp on sleep to make sure they hit their next deadline, but then you need to worry about them running out of energy, and if you don’t make them stop every once in a while to get inspiration from outings, they’ll run dry on “Plot points” (PP) to add into their work, resulting in them simply not having the right artistic vision to deliver their next work.

Curiously, unlike many of Kairosoft’s Simulation games, money isn’t really stressed as much in The Manga Works. You’ll need it to buy improvements in your artist’s life that will help them to reach higher levels of artistic competence, but you never really feel like you’re struggling to make ends meet, or staring down the threat of bankruptcy. The lack of this element helps to keep The Manga Works from feeling too stressful, even as you have to deal with pressure to meet deadlines while also keeping extra works in reserve in case one of your publishers makes a surprise request for a rush order. So you’re still managing your resources here, but time and energy are far more important resources than money this time around.

As I mentioned above, this game makes use of Kairosoft’s signature presentation style using simple retro-styled pixel art visuals, paired with repetitive chiptune music and sound effects. Apart from the forgettable synthesized music, everything about this presentation is really endearing, though by this point we’ve seen more or less the same thing in numerous other Kairosoft games.

Overall, I liked The Manga Works a lot more than I expected to. Kairosoft managed to make some clever choices here to ensure that even though this game revisits one of their oft-repeated formulas, it still does so in a way that feels refreshing and unique, and that works well for its topic matter. If you’re a fan of Management Simulation games that focus on time management, character management, and business management rather than building things, I think this game will be worth a look.

tl;dr – The Manga Works is a Management Simulation where players must choose what mix of topic, setting, and theme will make for a popular comic, all while balancing out your artist’s personal needs and their available time. This is a clever take on one of Kairosoft’s classic gameplay formulas that works very well here, and players who enjoy the “management” side of Management Simulation games will want to give this a try.

Grade: B

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