Yangyang Mobile's High Times is out now across PC and consoles, pairing donut cafe management with dating sim choices, mood-shifting recipes, and branching customer drama.
Image: IGDB
Store links: High Times on Steam, The Golden Time in High School on Steam
High Times is out, with one platform wrinkle worth noting
Yangyang Mobile has launched High Times, a dating and cooking sim built around a donut cafe where recipes can change how customers feel, think, and respond. The release landed on July 23, 2026, according to TheXboxHub, Bleeding Cool, and GamersHeroes, putting the game into a crowded summer release window with a smaller, story-forward pitch: run the shop, listen carefully, cook for people’s emotional problems, and maybe complicate your own love life in the process.
The broad platform picture is confirmed across multiple launch reports, but the listings are not perfectly identical. MonsterVine reports High Times is available on PC, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, and Nintendo Switch 2. The Magic Rain also lists PC, Xbox Series S/X, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, and Nintendo Switch 2. GamersHeroes names PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and PC, then specifies PC availability through Steam, the Epic Games Store, and itch.io. OpenCritic’s public game page lists a July 23 release for PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox Series X/S, but does not show PC in the platform line captured in the provided source text.
That means the practical launch answer is wider than any single listing suggests. High Times PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Switch, and PC versions are all supported by the supplied sources, while Switch 2 availability is specifically supported by MonsterVine and The Magic Rain. No provided source gives a launch price, install size, frame rate target, resolution, cross-save support, or upgrade path details, so platform choice right now comes down to where you prefer to read, cook, and make dialogue decisions.
The cafe hook is emotional cooking, not ordinary order fulfillment
High Times starts from a familiar cozy cooking sim fantasy, then bends it toward visual novel logic. MonsterVine describes a comic-book-style cooking and dating sim with a customizable protagonist managing a busy cafe full of local regulars. The distinguishing mechanic is not simply matching an order ticket. Food in High Times can alter a customer’s mood, feelings, and choices.
That premise gives the cooking loop a narrative job. According to MonsterVine, players prepare comfort food and specialty dishes based on each customer’s needs, with the right ingredients able to calm stress, repair emotional damage, or push a character toward new ideas. The Magic Rain similarly describes a fast-paced, multi-layered cooking mechanic where every ingredient affects the emotional state of the person eating it. Bleeding Cool frames the task as making customized treats for customers who arrive with unusually specific requests and personal baggage.
For players scanning the week for something lighter than a sprawling RPG or a precision action game, that setup is the appeal. High Times is selling a readable feedback loop: listen to a character, interpret what they need, build the right donut or comfort dish, then watch the conversation shift. The risk, at least from the outside, is that this kind of design depends heavily on whether the cooking stays expressive after the novelty wears off. The launch materials promise mood-altering ingredients and layered orders, but they do not provide a detailed breakdown of difficulty scaling, failure states, or how demanding the cafe management becomes later in the game.
Romance is tied to customer care, choices, and consequences
The dating side is not presented as a separate menu stapled onto a restaurant sim. The launch details position relationships as part of the same listening-and-cooking structure. MonsterVine says High Times includes more than 30 customers, each with their own storylines and outcomes, and six romanceable characters. It also notes that “donut woo” is part of the relationship system, with choices changing how each customer’s story ends.
The Magic Rain and Bleeding Cool both describe a branching, dialogue-driven narrative with romanceable characters who have distinct storylines, struggles, and secrets. Bleeding Cool adds that the cast brings “extra baggage” into conversation, which fits the game’s core idea of food as emotional intervention. This is a dating sim 2026 release built around attention as a mechanic: reading a person correctly matters as much as preparing the right dish.
The Kickstarter page for High Times gives useful background for that structure, while also needing careful attribution because it reflects the campaign pitch. Yangyang Mobile described the project there as a dating visual novel and cooking sim hybrid where players listen to stories, offer advice in the form of donuts, and get closure with exes. The campaign also called it a “reverse dating/closure sim,” which helps explain why the launch materials emphasize personal struggles and multiple endings rather than only courtship rewards.
That framing could make High Times attractive to players who like romance systems but want them wrapped in small daily interactions. It also signals that the game may carry more emotional messiness than its donut shop exterior suggests. The sources repeatedly mention drama, secrets, broken hearts, stress, and relationship chaos, so anyone expecting a purely frictionless comfort game should go in expecting warmth with sharper edges.
The cafe progression gives players something to collect between conversations
High Times also has a progression layer for players who need tactile goals between story beats. MonsterVine reports that players can grow the cafe by creating recipes, earning tips, buying decorations, and unlocking better tools. The same report says there are more than 100 store decorations to collect, alongside advanced cooking gear that helps with tougher orders.
The Magic Rain repeats those core features, describing recipe creation and evolution, tip-based decoration purchases, and tools that support more elaborate culinary challenges. In practice, that gives the game a familiar indie sim rhythm: serve customers, turn earnings into a more personal space, and use upgrades to handle increasingly complicated requests.
The presentation is another part of the pitch. MonsterVine says High Times features a full English voice cast, original music, a theme song, and animated cutscenes. The Magic Rain describes it as having a comic book art style, a full English voice cast, a soundtrack, and fully animated cutscenes. The Kickstarter campaign previously advertised dynamically animated comic-book illustrations and full English voice acting, including named performers such as Johnny Yong Bosch and LilyPichu in the campaign text.
Those production details matter for a narrative cooking game because so much of the experience depends on character contact. If the writing, voice performances, and animated presentation land, the cafe can feel like a social hub rather than a checklist machine. If they do not, the mood-shifting mechanic may have to carry too much weight on its own. The supplied sources confirm the feature set, but they do not include GameLoop’s own hands-on testing, so this should be read as launch coverage rather than a review.
A crowdfunded Filipino indie project has reached a broader release
High Times arrives with a longer development trail than a typical surprise eShop or Steam drop. Its Kickstarter campaign, created by Yangyang Mobile and listed from Manila, Philippines, raised $52,471 from 1,041 backers against a $12,000 goal. The campaign was marked as a Kickstarter “Project We Love” and pitched the game as inspired by Scott Pilgrim, Papa’s Donuteria, VA-11 Hall-A, and Good Pizza, Great Pizza.
That mix of references is revealing. Papa’s Donuteria and Good Pizza, Great Pizza point toward approachable food-service pattern recognition. VA-11 Hall-A points toward tending bar, listening, and shaping people’s stories through what you serve. Scott Pilgrim suggests a stylized, comic-driven attitude. The launch materials do not require players to know any of those inspirations, but the campaign history shows that Yangyang Mobile has long been trying to fuse food prep, banter, romance, and emotional closure into a single loop.
There is also a timing shift to acknowledge. The Kickstarter page in the provided material lists “Release: 2025” as part of the campaign-era description. The launch reports now place the actual release on July 23, 2026. That is not unusual for crowdfunded indie games, especially narrative-heavy projects with voice acting and multiple endings, but it is a real gap between the original public target and the finished launch. None of the provided sources explain the delay, so the responsible read is simple: the campaign target shown in the source material was 2025, while the confirmed launch covered by multiple outlets is July 2026.
The campaign also estimated 15 to 25 hours of playtime and roughly 300,000 words, with English, Chinese, and German listed in the Kickstarter text. Because the launch reports provided here specifically confirm the full English voice cast but do not restate the full language or playtime information, those details should be treated as campaign-era claims unless verified on current storefronts.
Early review signals point to a cozy game with bite
OpenCritic’s High Times page currently shows four critic reviews in the provided source material, with scores from PS4Blog.net, Raider King, GameBlast, and NoobFeed. That is a small sample, but it offers a useful early read on where the game may land for players deciding whether to jump in at launch.
PS4Blog.net gave it 8.5 out of 10 and described it as a cozy cooking and dating sim where players work as a “donut therapist,” or Mood Confectioner. Raider King scored it 8.8 out of 10, praising the visual novel and dating sim side as engaging while also saying the actual cooking mechanics are simple to the point of becoming repetitive. GameBlast scored it 7.5 out of 10 and credited the game with engaging characters, solid romance options, and fun treat-making, while criticizing some dialogue for leaning too much on sexual references or jokes and saying some emotional elements are not fully used. NoobFeed gave it 77 out of 100 and described it as a personal, heart-to-heart narrative loop centered on healing and second chances.
Those excerpts sketch a clearer buyer profile than the launch trailer language alone. High Times appears best suited for players who prioritize character writing, romance routes, and branching conversations over a deep management challenge. If your favorite part of a cafe sim is optimizing stations and mastering increasingly punishing service rushes, the early criticism about simple cooking is worth noting. If you want a story game with a repeatable serving ritual, a stylized cast, and a little chaos in the dialogue, the early response suggests the game is aiming directly at that lane.
Who should consider playing this week
High Times is easiest to recommend, based on the available launch information, to players who want a cozy cooking sim with narrative stakes rather than a pure business simulator. The appeal is immediate: serve donuts, decorate a shop, learn the regulars, and make choices that can change customer outcomes. The confirmed presence of more than 30 customer stories, six romance options, over 100 decorations, English voice acting, original music, and animated cutscenes gives it a fuller feature list than many small visual novel hybrids launch with.
The reasons to wait are equally practical. None of the provided sources include price, performance impressions, accessibility options, controller details, or platform comparison notes. The platform listings are broad, but not every public listing captured here mentions every storefront or system. PC players have the clearest storefront spread in the supplied material because GamersHeroes names Steam, Epic Games Store, and itch.io. Console players have confirmation for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch across multiple sources, while Switch 2 is supported specifically by MonsterVine and The Magic Rain.
If you are choosing today, pick the format that fits your reading habits. A narrative-heavy dating and cooking game can work well handheld if performance is solid, but the sources do not provide Switch or Switch 2 performance data. On PC, Steam is confirmed and gives the most straightforward place to check current price, language support, reviews, and system requirements before buying. For anyone searching High Times game launch details or trying to decide whether this High Times dating cooking sim belongs in the week’s rotation, the short version is that Yangyang Mobile’s donut drama is out now, and its strongest hook is the way it turns comfort food into a dialogue choice.