{"id":28791,"date":"2026-01-27T01:00:06","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T05:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/?p=28791"},"modified":"2026-09-15T21:56:35","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T01:56:35","slug":"game-hookah-haze","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/game-hookah-haze\/","title":{"rendered":"Hookah Haze"},"content":{"rendered":"\"HookahTitle:<\/strong> Hookah Haze<\/span>
Publisher:<\/strong> Aniplex<\/a>
Developer:<\/strong> Acquire Corp<\/a>
Release Date:<\/strong> July 11, 2024
Genres:<\/strong> Casual<\/a>, Visual Novel<\/a>
Platform:<\/strong> Microsoft Windows<\/a>, Nintendo Switch<\/a>, Steam<\/a>
Where to Buy:<\/strong> Steam<\/a>
Rating:<\/strong> \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/i><\/i><\/i><\/i><\/i><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t

It's the year 2xxx. The inexperienced Toru Sumiki lands a job managing Hookah Haze, a new hookah lounge on the outskirts of Akihabara, where they meet three eccentric girls. The story unfolds as the girls gradually open up to them, connecting through their fondness for hookah...<\/p>\n\r\n\r\n

<\/span>\n

Review<\/h2>\n

\"\"Hookah Haze<\/em> is a surprisingly sweet visual novel about making friends over a little shisha. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from this game with the key art, but as an avid hookah smoker I couldn’t resist checking this little game out, and I’m glad I did! The vibes in this game are immaculate, and the story renders the finer aspects of preparing a hookah in beautiful detail. The pixel art style is a huge highlight of this game.<\/p>\n

Hookah Haze<\/em> follows the trend of visual novel cafe games that focus on character stories through conversations, similar to games like Coffee Talk<\/a><\/em> and VA-11 Hall-A<\/em>, but in a more contemporary non-fantasy setting. In this game, you play Toru, a terminally ill patient whose last wish is to spend their remaining days enjoying their favorite hobbies (hookah and aquarium fish) and making connections with people. Toru gets to know three young ladies with different backgrounds (and baggage), and it was fun getting to know each of them. The struggle for creative freedom versus a stable career, loneliness and self-loathing, or a destructive need for attention; the game doesn’t shy away from addressing themes mental health but does so with tenderness.<\/p>\n

With a decent amount of shisha recipes to mix and multiple story paths, including one true ending, there is plenty to do. I finished 100% of the achievements for this game in around 11 hours and was never bored at any point. There were some times that I found the scenarios to be a little sickly sweet, and I completely understand critics that found the timeline for the story (2 weeks) to be too short for true connections to be made. Despite that, I enjoy my experience of this game and can comfortably recommend it for gamers looking for something a little different from other games in this style.<\/p>\n

Quote<\/h4>\n

<\/p>\n

“Spend every day you have left doing what you want most.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/center><\/p>\n

Content Warnings<\/h4>\nView Spoiler »<\/a>Bullying, Death, Depression, Drug Use, Family Death, Harassment, Stalking, Suicidal Ideation, Terminal Illness, Trauma « Hide Spoiler<\/a><\/span><\/span>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Review Hookah Haze is a surprisingly sweet visual novel about making friends over a little shisha. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from this game with the key art,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28794,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[30],"tags":[4618,5453,340,4379,5451,4321,4331,2135],"book-author":[],"book-illustrator":[],"book-series":[],"book-publisher":[5449],"book-genre":[56,98],"book-source":[5448],"book-format":[50,52,49],"class_list":["post-28791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-game-review","tag-asian-games","tag-conversation-cafe-games","tag-grief-and-loss","tag-japanese-games","tag-set-in-akihabara","tag-set-in-japan","tag-set-in-tokyo","tag-single-player","book-publisher-aniplex","book-genre-casual","book-genre-visual-novel","book-source-acquire-corp","book-format-microsoft-windows","book-format-nintendo-switch","book-format-steam"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/game_hookahhaze-header.png?fit=1080%2C540&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28791"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28791\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28858,"href":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28791\/revisions\/28858"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28791"},{"taxonomy":"book-author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/book-author?post=28791"},{"taxonomy":"book-illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/book-illustrator?post=28791"},{"taxonomy":"book-series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/book-series?post=28791"},{"taxonomy":"book-publisher","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/book-publisher?post=28791"},{"taxonomy":"book-genre","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/book-genre?post=28791"},{"taxonomy":"book-source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/book-source?post=28791"},{"taxonomy":"book-format","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/book-format?post=28791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}