The Protagonist

I feel like I can’t stop talking about this game. It was one of my favourites of 2025, and now I’m back to talk about it some more! Not sorry.

Would I recommend Tiny Bookshop?

Yes- I believe it’s a must play if you love books! Or if you are into cosy, casual games that you can pick up and put down whenever. A game like this doesn’t pass by all too often so we must make the most of it.

Narrative & Characters

Tiny Bookshop is a life sim where you move to a sunny sea side town to sell secondhand books. You move your shop around to different locations in the town and befriend the quirky locals. The game is narrative driven but it’s fairly slow paced. Apart from some key calendar events, you can set the pace when you want to complete objectives.

Narrative direction

It’s pleasing to see the narrative executed really well. Pacing is just right. Watching how the story unfolds over time is such a joy.

I live for wholesome, and there are indeed some very wholesome moments in the game. One of my favourites is at the end of summer when everyone gets together and shares something they want to work on about themselves.

Character design

I have loved the characters in Tiny Bookshop. They’re well written and all quite unique. I adored Harper, the super eager kid with an insatiable thirst for knowledge and an equally big imagination. She reminds me of my childhood.

There is also the down to earth, slightly helpless, musician of a start up rock band. This isn’t a dating sim but if it were, I’d put good money on Klaus being the choice for most!

Another character that I perhaps didn’t expect to like as much as I did was the slightly pushy but well-meaning Tilde. She’s full of wisdom because she used to run the book store in town before you arrived. Whether you want to or not, she WILL take you under her wing, so my advice is: don’t fight it.

The only negative here is perhaps there isn’t enough of these charming characters!

Gameplay

As a life sim, the gameplay loop is a day-night cycle. Sometimes they can be relatively long, but for Tiny Bookshop, it was a fairly short and straightforward one.

You start the day by reading the local paper and deciding what location you want to travel to. In the local paper you can find items to decorate your store with, as well as more second hand books to replenish your stock. Each piece of decor has its own effects, so make sure to read them because they could help or hinder your sales in a location. You can also find out other things like when events are happening too.

Every location also has its own top selling or popular book genres (usually two or three). It doesn’t mean that other books won’t sell, but the customers in that particular area will likely buy more of those highlighted genres.

The journal is useful for keeping track of this information as well as achievements at each location. It also has peoples’ birthdays too if you want to give anyone a surprise visit!

When you’ve selected a location on the map, the last thing you need to do is stock your shelves. Inventory management skills do come in handy a little in Tiny Bookshop, as you can run out of a genre entirely if you’re not careful.

Then you’re off to the races. You sell your books at that location. Cut scenes may unfold for objectives. You can interact with objects which might unlock other events. The game itself takes care of the transactions, which is also a big plus.

The only thing you need to do when running your store is complete book recommendations. They happen at random, so don’t stray too far from your store. Book recommendations are the trickiest mechanic in the game and you might not always get it right (and that’s okay). You don’t need to know every single book title intimately, but you are encouraged to get creative with recommendations- especially if you’re running low on what the customer wants.

The work day is only a few minutes long. After it’s over, you pack up and leave the area. This is the gameplay loop in a nutshell- simple and great for playing in short bursts of time.

The only part that I wished was a better player experience was the visibility of the full item description when setting up your shop. I haven’t found a way to easily view an item’s description in the set up UI. You need to go into the journal (and even then you can only see the description for items equipped).

Perhaps it would be nice have the ability to stock your book shop during the day, not just after it. However, I think that would detract from the relaxation of this game so it’s not a deal breaker for me.

Art Style & Sound Design

I combined these two together because truthfully, they were quite minimal. Not in a bad way though!

Both the art style and sound design were simple but effective. The world had a vibrant feel to it. I loved the little details in each area, such as the seagulls that make funny noises when you interact with them. Or being able to pick up bottles to recycle. The art style reminded me of Untitled Goose Game.

The music surprisingly didn’t add too much to the game for me. Most of the time, I zoned out and didn’t pay attention to it. I think I was just too focused on the books though.

Although the game didn’t have full voice acting, having voice effects for the dialogue tone was a thoughtful touch.

Overall Score

Tiny Bookshop isn’t for everyone, but it gets me as a person and that’s all I could ever ask for in a game.

My final score is 9/10.

Look after yourself,

Elena