Video Game / Hungry Hearts Diner

Hungry Hearts Diner is a freeware simulation-shop management series produced by GAGEX Co.,Ltd. focusing on an old lady living in the Showa period of Japan who is left by herself to run the diner after her husband becomes too ill to work. Grandma is tasked with preparing meals for the diner customers, and by feeding her customers, she might be able to listen in on the patrons and learn more about them.

The series consists of the following games (which are all available on Android and iOS):

• Hungry Hearts Diner: A Tale of Star-Crossed Souls - It's currently close to Tanabata, and as Grandma does her best to keep the diner afloat, she lends a listening ear to the troubled patrons of her restaurant.
• Hungry Hearts Diner 2: Moonlit Memories (2021) - Taking place in another diner across town in the summer of 1969 when the Apollo 11 lunar rocket is due to launch, making this a series. While the first game's story is fairly linear with little to no hyperlinking or Plotline Crossover (asides from the stories with Officer Hiro, Ol' Tokei, Grandpa, Grandma, and/or Mabo), the second game's story becomes more complex, with several interactions shown between not only Grandma and her customers, but the customers themselves too.
• Hungry Hearts Diner Neo: A Fresh Start (October 17, 2022) - Taking place in spring of the early 1970's, Grandma has returned to her old diner after her family racked up a huge debt that left the place nearly empty, leaving it up to her to rebuild from the ground up. This time, she is not alone, having hired a young girl named Sue to help around in the restaurant. This game has the dishwashing mechanic return but has an assistant who helps with dishes while Grandma cooks. Another feature introduced in the game is a delivery service, which Sue also takes care of, and a hunger gauge that slowly depletes as customers appear and makes them appear less frequently, which is replenished by activating fever mode or automatically every half hour at the change of day. As a return to the first game (the graphics are very similar), the main storyline of the third game remains mostly linear, but some cutscenes need to be unlocked by completing other cutscenes.
• Hungry Hearts Diner: Memories (2023) - A prequel game set years before A Tale of Star-Crossed Souls, when Grandpa was still able to work in the diner. Retains the majority of game mechanics from the previous game, although collectibles are introduced as a new feature, which doubles as an reintroduced Achievement System that Neo had.

Hungry Hearts Diner contains the following tropes:

• Aborted Arc: Grandma mentions in the sequel that she's been at odds with her family for them taking over the old restaraunt, but it's not revealed if she ever reconciles with them, especially since they're somewhat responsible for starting the events of the third game, due to a rather large Time Skip.
  • We also don't learn about what happened with the Hawaii trip in third game, again because of the time skip.
• Achievement System: Introduced in Neo, called the "Exam". Diner Rank goes up with the number of achievements you obtain, which range from cooking a lot of dishes to completing stories from your customers. It returns in Memories under the "Collection", which gives you various trinkets when completing certain conditions.
• Bag of Spilling:
  • Sometime prior to the second game, Grandma opened a new store after leaving the old one to her daughter. She stated that she's out of practice from not having cooked for some time, explaining why she needed to relearn all of her recipes from the first game.
  • And again in Hungry Hearts Diner Neo. She comes out of retirement and regains ownership of the first game's diner after her daughter and son-in-law drove it into the ground and lost almost all the furniture to debt collectors, explaining why Grandma has to start from scratch for a third time.
• Big Eater: Dr. Mondo eats a lot, and is often reprimanded by grandma for his unhealthy eating habits. Deconstructed, as he explains in his final conversation it started as a promise to himself to eat all the foods his war friends wanted to eat as they were slowly dying of starvation. Inverted by Chuckles in the second game for the exact same reason as Dr. Mondo, having his twin sister dying because of the war. Averted by Furrows in third game, who also shares a similar backstory to Mondo, being involved in the war, and is heavily implied to be one of Mondo's passed comrades.
• Bookends: The first cutscene in Neo has Sue writing a letter to her deceased grandmother, recalling past times. The epilogue shows her writing another letter to her deceased grandmother - or rather, grandmother-in-law - recalling her time at the diner. Sue's letter reveals that she and Mabo had gotten married years later, but Grandma sadly already had passed before their marriage.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: The monk; presumably due to his enlightenment, he's aware he's in a game and can explain its mechanics.
• Canon Welding: With one of GAGEX's previous games, Showa Candy Shop. Conversations with certain characters and by the end of Neo has Sue revealing herself to be Subaru, the granddaughter of the candy shop owner in that game, who has since passed away as in the game.
• Central Theme:
  • All of the major customers' problems in Star-Crossed Souls (and some in Moonlit Memories) deal with either longing or loss for a loved one in varying ways and perspectives. Grandma herself experiences both in the first game.
  • The characters in Moonlit Memories all deal with the concept of change and how they cope with it. Grandma with her new business in a different location, Mabo with his newborn sister and Rika, Officer Hiro again with his love life, and so forth.
  • In Neo, it's coming to terms and moving on. The returning characters still feel the loss from their past, but in time, they slowly heal and let go of their emotional baggage to live their life. Dr. Mondo, for example, comes to terms that his friends would want him to live the life they could not, and has eaten enough for them. For the first time, he doesn't fall to gluttony and leaves his plate half-empty. Hiro is able to move on from his first wife Sakura, realizing she would want him to without getting weighed down by her passing.
  • Memories revolves around cherishing your memories. Several characters in the game have some part of their past they want to forget, but come around after they face it head on. The entire game is also one long flashback in the form of a dream sequence. Grandma, after having woken up, visits Grandpa's grave and the first diner they used to run, with her letter to him telling how much she loved him and the time they spent.
• Cheerful Child: Mabo, Grandma's grandson. It's still there in the second game, but it turns off once he starts talking about his domestic problems such as his father's alcohol problem and his initial problems with Rika to Grandma. Took a Level in Jerkass in the third game as he's now a teenager, due to further family problems, but gets straightened out by Sue.
• Cool Old Lady: Grandma. She's very spirited for an old woman and she has a knack for guessing some of her customer's backgrounds before they actually reveal them.
• Dead All Along:
  • Grandpa. It's revealed he's been dead since New Year's.
  • In Memories, Sweetie mentions how she's been meeting with her aunt, who just looks like her dead mom. It doesn't take long for Grandma to realize she's actually a ghost.
• Elopement: The shy lady Kiyoko in the sequel ran away from her family with her gardener, and later Rika suggests she and Mabo do the same, but that's Played for Laughs there. Note that it didn't work out for Kiyoko; her husband eventually ran off with another woman, leaving her struggling to make ends meet.
• Distant Finale: Completing all of the stories in Neo has Sue write a letter to Grandma, who would be her grandmother-in-law in the far future, after having married Mabo. However, Grandma had passed away since then, commenting how much Mabo missed her cooking. Though after the letter ends, it shifts into present day, everyone having a picnic for the cherry blossom viewing.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: The first game Star-Crossed Souls is much simpler than the later games:
  • It lacks the dishwashing or delivery mechanics (Grandma automatically does the dishes).
  • There is no hunger gauge (in this one and Moonlit Memories).
  • There is no TV in the first game, meaning that ads to restore energy or activate frenzy mode will only disappear if dismissed. Ads can also give you coins, something that never happens again in the later games.
  • All the customers have a satisfaction meter which will unlock cutscenes when it goes up (including the meal-locked ones). As this can sometimes be a bit slow even when you've unlocked the meal required to unlock said cutscene, this was phased out when individual stories returned in Neo.
  • An in-game day lasted for an hour as opposed to an half-hour in the later games.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Despite Kiyoko being hopelessly innocent and naive, Casanova can't bring himself to swindle her after she admits she can't follow him to America because she's waiting for a lover that isn't coming back. Casanova is so stunned by this he drinks himself into a stupor.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Grandma's conversations with Dr. Mondo along with his own troubles also touch upon senility, especially the last one.
  Grandma: For example, seeing someone that can't be there. Talking to them.
  • In the second game, Grandma has conversations with Grimm, a sinister customer and ex-yakuza, who she quickly realizes is a messenger of death since nobody else can see him. The fact that nobody else can see him is proof that her time on Earth, or that of someone close to her, is coming to an end. And then it's revealed that Mabo can see him too...
  • Sue's connection to Showa Candy Shop is actually hinted when Grandma mentions the Olympics happening earlier in another conversation. Didn't that other game also mention the Olympics?
• Freudian Excuse: In Moonlit Memories, Casanova admits to Grandma that he started swindling after his grandma ended up cheated out of house and home by ruthless relatives, and she kept apologizing to them even on her deathbed - so he felt he needed to be just as cruel to compete and survive in an equally cruel world.
• Gaiden Game: Within a game! In Moonlit Memories, there are 5 side stories divided into 7 parts. It mostly focuses on the other characters and require in-game or real-life money to unlock:
  • The first story is "Rika Holmes and Dr. Mabo" (While this story is unlocked after chapter 3, it should roughly take place after chapter 5 when Mabo apologises and invites Rika over to his "Secret Base" (i.e: a burnt-down house) due to them falling out near the end of the former chapter). In this story, Rika and Mabo play detectives to find out who stole a pudding from Grandma's fridge. Grandma took it.
  • The second story "Hard Laughs" focuses on Chuckles's comedy career and is the first to be divided into two parts (the first taking place around or after chapter 5 (since Mabo and Rika have made up), while part two takes place after chapter 6 due to the presence of Mr. Zeni (Rika's father), who appears as an in-game customer for the first time there. In the end, Chuckles gets nowhere but reminds himself to stay on the right path for his career, so it's not quite of a downer.
  • The third story "The Man in Black" takes place after Star-Crossed Souls (the first game) and either somewhere before or during Chapter 1, where Grandma meets Grimm for the first time in the new shop. It also takes place straight before Chapter 5 where Mabo meets Grimm for the first time, who not only ends up being some sort of Stealth Mentor to the former but was eventually persuaded by Mabo to give up on revenge and pass on.
  • The fourth story "Love is war" focuses on the Love Triangle between Officer Hiro, Kiyoko, and Casanova. Taking place during Chapter 7 and Chapter 8, this is the first story that is only unlockable by Microtransaction. This goes into the interactions between the three characters as Casanova tries to con Kiyoko, the girl that Hiro has a "crush" on, and hilarity ensues... mostly. Sapphire is also a focus here as she become friends with Kiyoko despite their different backgrounds, while Casanova tries to throw Hiro off the hook. Due to the Sapphire's presence (and disliking of Casanova), a chain of events happen as Kiyoko is taught by Grandma to cook a Salisbury Steak (badly) and ends up accidentally giving it to Officer Hiro (which is his Trademark Favorite Food since his late wife Sakura use to cook it for him), but were nonetheless smitten by each other, much to Casanova's jealousy and disgust, who in the meantime had been snubbed. Having failed to ensnare Kiyoko while at the same time being morally unable to do so, Casanova starts drinking himself into a stupor.
  • The fifth and final story "Hawaii or Bust!" is also a two-parter and also requires Microtransaction to unlock. Taking place several months after the events of the main story (Chapter 12) nearing Obon, we follow up on the lives of our characters. Chuckles now has a permanent gig as both a waiter and an in-house performer at Sapphire's workplace after she took pity on him and have since also become friends, while Sapphire herself has since become more accepting of her gender and is now a lot happier, but has since slipped back from her relatively-metro Tokyo dialect into a Osaka dialect resulting in her and Chuckles having some manzai moments. Grimm makes a return to say hi to Grandma as he has since become a normal revenant/ghost after passing on into heaven (something Grimm is surprised at, despite his sketchy life), and the good officer Hiro and Kiyoko have since married. However, Mabo is having Unresolved Sexual Tensions with Rika, not helping that she and her father Mr. Zeni are moving to Hawaii, and Casanova is still having a hard time since starting fresh... but there is a raffle with the prize being a trip to Hawaii!. In the end, we discover Grandma was originally from Aomori making her somewhat originally of a bumpkin, Grimm passes on to the afterlife when he learns his son is alive after all, Casanova finally comes clean as he reveals that he has the raffle ticket that's the winning ticket to Hawaii and gives it to Kiyoko at the last minute by using his "skills" for the last time and leaves for parts unknown, while Kiyoko and Hiro gave the tickets to Grandma and Mabo despite wanting to go there for the honeymoon, leaving the story as Grandma and Mabo leave for Hawaii to see Rika and Mr. Zeni.
• Gender Reveal: Sapphire, the flirty lady in a blue dress in Moonlit Memories is revealed to be transgender, but she's legally unable to change the gender on her family register (Truth in Television, as Japan did not allow gender changes on legal documents until 2003, the games are both set in the late '60s and early 70's). Grandma had a hunch about this since they first meet, but never condescend her after revealing that knowledge.
• Good Stepmother: Gender inverted in Missy's case in Neo. With Grandma and Sue's encouragement, Missy went to meet with her birth mother, if only to put her past behind her and concentrate on her current life with her unborn child, believing that her mother wouldn't want anything to do with a teenage pregnant daughter. She was not only accepted back by her mother, but her new stepfather has also accepted her, who placed his hand on Missy's belly and exclaimed his happiness of gaining a new daughter and soon-to-be-born grandchild, which brought Missy to tears. Grandma notes that her mother had chosen a good husband.
• Grumpy Old Man: Ol' Tokei in Star-Crossed Souls, Grouse in Neo, and Headmaster Hari in Memories. Gender-Inverted example with Grandma in Moonlit Memories, but she mellows out again by the third game. Grandpa too, of course.
• Happy Ending Override: In the first game, Hiro is set to marry another girl, but the sequel reveals they broke up as she sensed he was not totally over Sakura.
• Hooker with a Heart of Gold: Scarlett is implied to be a hostess and expresses interest in having an affair with a rich, married man but she's motivated to provide for her son and regrets her failures being his mother. Also, she never has said affair, due to actually seeing him with his family, and after some convincing from Grandma, decides to go back to see him.
• Later-Installment Weirdness: The second game "Moonlit Memories" introduced some changes that has since not returned in the later two games.
  • Instead of the customers having individual stories, all their stories are concurrent with the main story which revolves around Grandma settling into a new area. Because of this, there are no days.
  • There are also unlockable side stories that will sometimes instead focus on the customers. A couple of these stories requires Microtransaction to unlock.
  • The character designs in the cutscenes are much more detailed and expressive than the other games (which the developers GAGEX likely later stopped doing due to their time-consuming nature to implement).
• Misblamed:
  • Initially, Pigtails blames her mom for her father leaving due to her nagging and inability to cook anything aside from ham and eggs. After visiting her father, she find out this wasn't the case.
  • Kino blames her father Professor Toki for ignoring her after the death of her brother and focusing only on his work. Turns out that Toki's work was for Kino's benefit as he wants to find a way to make his daughter forget about her brother to move on.
• Missing Mom: Rika's mother passed some time ago, and it's her death that's putting a strain on her relationship with her father.
• Mistaken for Murderer: Mr. Haku, who is attempting to discard something he refuses to elaborate upon, as well as getting caught with dirtied clothes. In reality, he's into crossdressing, and he's trying to bury evidence of his hobby after falling out with his wife.
• Morality Pet:
  • Grandma becomes this to Slick, because she reminds him of his own grandmother. She convinces Slick to leave his criminal connections and run away than becoming a murderer.
  • Kiyoko becomes one to Casanova the conman, after she turns down his proposal to head to America.
  • J.D.'s own morality pet convinced him to go back on the rails after nearly endangering her during a brawl. Not much of a surprise considering that it was a pre-Police-Officer Hiro and his soon-to-be first wife Sakura
• Naughty by Night: In Neo Fudeko the Mangaka becomes Catherine the Escort.
• Parting-Words Regret: Ol' Tokei the last time he saw his daughter Sakura refused to eat the Salisbury steak she made for him because he was jealous about her learning the dish for her husband. Sakura died in an accident involving a drunk driver just days later and he's regretted this since.
• Parental Marriage Veto: Downplayed. Grandpa did not approve of his daughter's (Mabo's mother) choice to marry an actor because he didn't make enough so she had to work too. This caused their relationship to be strained and they have clearly not interacted much since even though she still lives nearby, although it appears Grandma still keeps in touch with her.
• Put on the Bus: Only the characters Mr. Jizo, Mabo, and Officer Hiro return from the first game to the second (besides Grandma). Justified in the second game, Grandma has moved to a different part of the city and the other character's story arcs have concluded, so it wouldn't make sense by bringing them back. The same four characters return in the third game.
  • Played straight with Officer Hiro's wife in the third game (Kiyoko from Moonlit Memories), who is otherwise pregnant.
  • Played straight again with Memories with only Mr. Jizo and Grandma, and Mabo only reduced to being The Cameo as the game's mostly set before he was born (Dr. Mondo is so much reduced to just a cameo by name). Or so we thought with JD and Sweetie being younger versions of Officer Hiro and Sue.
  • The Bus Came Back: In the third Game, Dr. Mondo makes a return, as Grandma also moves back to the same store from the first game. Grandpa also makes a return in Memories.
• Redemption Equals Death: The conclusion of Grimm's arc, after he saves Mabo from a fire that was fated to kill him. Without a soul to bring back after 49 days of being a messenger of death, Grimm is doomed to heaven or oblivion, but he's become at peace with his decision over getting revenge on the yakuza who burned his house, and even learns his son is not dead after all in the epilogue.
• Sand In My Eyes: As she watches Rika and her dad reconcile, Grandma notes that some curry powder must've gotten into her eyes.
• Second Love: Officer Hiro mentions how he's found someone else he wishes to marry, and this is why he's been nervous approaching Ol' Tokei. His wish is asking Sakura to forgive him for moving on.
• Secret Secret-Keeper: Grandma's final conversation with Slick reveals she's aware that Slick going to Macao to escape his criminal connections and expresses hope he could return someday.
• Shinigami: Grimm turns out to be one, with several rules to work with: only those fated to die, or those close to them, can see shinigami. Shinigami also can't remember details about their past lives in order to keep them focused on their job of soul collecting, and once 49 days have passed without a soul to collect, shinigami fade into oblivion.
• Survivor Guilt:
  • Dr. Mondo is the Sole Survivor of his platoon because he was the doctor and was given extra rations, leaving the rest of them to die of starvation. He is still relatively affected by it in Neo, but has sinced moved on.
  • Chuckles decided to become a comedian after his younger sister passed away from starvation, becoming too weak to even drink water. Since then, he's never been able to finish a meal completely out of guilt for his sister.
• Teen Pregnancy: Missy from Hungry Hearts Diner Neo, who's pregnant at 17 years old, to Grandma's shock.
• Trademark Favorite Food: In the first game, all the major customers have three foods they love the most and gain extra points if it's available and served to them. This mechanic was abandoned in the second game, but brought back in the third game, although some customers may have either one or two favorite foods
• Unusual Euphemism: Mabo's parents are going to have a baby, but there have been complications and when his mother (Grandma's daughter) previously miscarried, his father apparently explained this to Mabo by telling him that his little sibling "became a star"
• Wham Line:
  • Once you complete all the conversations with the customers in Star-Crossed Souls.
  Mabo: Grandma are you alright? Why do you keep talking about Grandpa? He passed away last New Year's, didn't he?
  • And twice again in the second game, after Grandma realizes that Mabo can see the Grimm, messenger of death, and the new student Mabo befriended turned out to be Grimm's son, Masaru, who survived the arson fire Grimm thought he perished in.
• When You Coming Home, Dad?: Rika in the second game, who deeply resents her father and his neglectful parenting.