Thank you Odencat for sending us a review code!

The topic of death is something that many games have explored, with recent indie titles What Comes After and Spiritfarer offering a somber yet touching look at the afterlife. Bear’s Restaurant has recently hopped to the Switch from its mobile incarnation, and it’s a surprisingly deep and complex story with some very mature themes that older teens and adults may relate to.

In Bear’s Restaurant, you control an amnesiac Kitty as she wakes up in an odd place: a restaurant handled by a chef only known as Bear. As you try and regain your memories, you find out that this is a peculiar place because it acts as a rest stop before one goes to heaven. The clientele are people who have recently passed away and want to experience one final meal before going on the train to heaven.

The game features no difficult mechanics and acts like a mix of walking simulator and visual novel as you explore the restaurant. Sometimes, you’ll be given the opportunity to dive into a person’s memory to find out what they would like to eat; this will trigger a flashback sequence where you can explore how they lived. It’s a rather simple system that works well enough here, but I feel like it would have benefitted from it being a traditional visual or kinetic novel rather than an adventure game. That said, the music and art style work well here, with the game benefitting from the lush pixel sprites of the playable animal characters.

There are conversation trees and other optional dialogue you can engage with the patrons, but they feel a bit too limited to be engaging. However, finishing their requests will give you a memory shard, where you can see how a person died; these are all sad and emotional, and while the dialogue is voiceless, the writing is done in such a visceral way that you’ll tear up. From accidents (such as a mother and her unborn baby getting run over by a car) to suicides, these sequences show a darker yet emotional side to Bear’s Restaurant.

However, the restaurant is only half of the story, as halfway in, you’ll need to go to hell as Bear in order to save someone during an event. Here, the game opens up a little bit more as you’ll interact with unsavory personalities and figure out what’s going on. This flips the game on its head, because now instead of fulfilling orders for good people who had the misfortune of dying unexpectedly, most of these people in this area are fully deserving of their punishments. The game subverts its adorable art style with some gritty storytelling and visuals near the end. In addition, this version is dubbed as a complete package, which includes all the content plus an exclusive epilogue after the true ending. This means the game clocks in at around 2 hours with everything considered. It’s a bit pricey at $12.99, but I would definitely recommend it if you’re interested in the premise. However, I should note that the fully mobile version can be unlocked for $4.99, which would be a better price even if it doesn’t come with the Switch-exclusive content.

Honestly, I had a great time with this game and teared up a few times at some characters. While the game’s concept of heaven and hell is a bit distorted from a Christian worldview. The biggest point of contention comes from the idea that those who didn’t do too many bad things or regretted their decisions can be reincarnated after enduring challenges in hell (though the worst people are shown to be eternally erased). God is mentioned as a positive force and feared by some characters, which I thought was a nice touch. The train station motifs felt like C.S. Lewis’ The Great Divorce (which features a similar location), and I think it would be a great way to open the topic of life after death to an older audience.

For a game with a cutesy art style and initially innocuous premise, I was surprised at how much the game pushes its T rating. Every common swear word except for the f word is used at a PG-13 level, with a few instances of the blaspheming (the term “omg” and full utterances are used). The game doesn’t shy away from the brutal nature of some deaths, with some characters briefly shown to be bleeding to death or shooting themselves with a gun; these sequences end very quickly, but are still displayed on-screen. In addition, atrocities like rape and human torture are referenced, but nothing explicit sexually is shown here. These people are shown to be punished eternally. There is some frightening imagery during the second half of the game, and some dialogue options can allow you to be rude to people undeserving of the response.

While it’s over a bit too quickly, Bear’s Restaurant is an interesting look at the afterlife. With some emotional moments and great characters, this is a great indie title if you’re looking for a short yet bittersweet look at a cozy restaurant at the end of it all.