Review: Universe for Sale tells an engaging story I couldn’t put down

I’m no stranger to visual novels, but Universe for Sale took me to a whole other planet – literally. I grew up playing the old dating sims you’d find on Newgrounds, so I always erred more toward visual novels like NEKOPARA or (more questionably) Hatoful Boyfriend.

Universe for Sale captivated me in a way those games never came close to achieving. Not only are the graphics nostalgically endearing, but the story had me hooked even on parts where I wasn’t quite as engaged.

Universe for Sale’s Story / Gameplay

Universe for Sale opens up on some confusing scenes, but this isn’t a con. The confusion you feel may not be something you immediately appreciate, but as the game progresses, it’s evident as a necessary component of the over-arching story.

You’re dropped into the bedroom of a child with their mother reading them a poem. It’s actually a pretty disturbing story that we get told in bits and pieces throughout the game, but suddenly your perspective is zooming in on Jupiter from out in space.

Sliding down into the atmosphere, we’re dropped into the control of someone lying facedown in an alley, acid rain pouring down from above. We trudge our way through the Jovian Mining Colony until we find a small tea shop, Honin’s Tea House. Here is where the confusion really settles in.

Not only do we see that we are a mostly skeletal being, but we’re meeting someone. This first meeting with Lila will set a tone of feeling off-kilter and like you’re missing the bigger picture. It’s only as you play through the game, revealing more clues that things really start to slide into place. 

We play as someone simply called ‘Master’, learning that we are a cultist from the Cult of Detachment. Followers of the Cult are interesting characters with floating body parts. Each part is connected to something holding you back. For instance, we meet a girl who had trouble letting go of her past, so she detached herself from her ears. Yet, they’re still there, floating alongside her head.

It can be quite jarring, especially when you add in that there is a Church of Many Gods and those followers play a somewhat integral background role in the story.

Most of the game has you dropped into Master’s point of view, but every so often you’ll play as Lila. She’s quite an interesting character with octopus tendrils for hair and a power for creating universes out of materials like rust and eggs.

These universes are merely visuals – you don’t drop into them, but they’re all unique and fascinating. Playing as her, you’ll be able to play a mini-game that lets you stir up different ingredients to make universes for sale.

Universe for Sale offers a lot in the way of theorycrafting. You’ll have guesses that you make as the story progresses, but there’s enough unsaid until the finale that you’ll be unsure if you’re right or if the story is going in a different direction.

The world is rich in detail and story, so even though you’re unsure exactly what the bigger picture is for most of the game, it’s engaging and leaves you wanting to know more.

Art/Music

The music is gentle and sweet, but not a huge part of the game, I mostly only noticed it during the scene where we’re being told the bedtime poem. However, the sound design is amazing. There were times when I thought the sounds in Universe for Sale were coming from around me.

I highly appreciated the detail and care that went into the sound choices because it really brought a lot of life to the visual novel.

The art brings about a highly nostalgic feel to it. As someone who grew up with point-and-click games in the 90’s, the hand-drawn style evoked an immediately charming and familiar feel.

A ton of detail went into the backgrounds and character design, so everything felt like I’d been dropped into a complete world. If I’m honest, this little colony on Jupiter felt like being transported into Mos Eisley or a comparable place in Star Wars. 

Coziness

The cozy vibes are off the charts. If you love a good storytime, then you’re going to love playing Universe for Sale. The only thing that knocks the cozy score a bit is the same thing that knocks the score overall – the mini-games.

It’s not a huge deal if you feel stuck. You can generally parse out what you need to do within a few minutes, but you are kind of in a boat without an oar. So, if you get stuck on a puzzle… you’re stuck there. 

The only thing that really stalls is the universe making part and I’ve written up a guide that should help with most, if not all the combinations.

Cons

Truly, there’s very little in this game that I have any curmudgeonly thoughts about, but what I found lacking kept this game from being a full 10 for me. 

When it came to the mini-games, I felt a little like a fish out of water. I predominantly felt this way when I was building the small universes. I’ll give the game credit in that it tried with three pages of doodles to tell me what things did. Unfortunately, I found most of them undecipherable for me save for the one page about ingredients and even that page was a little up in the air. 

Building universes comes from a formula that you’re given a very basic run-down of. You pick a bowl and two ingredients, then you form a shape. I don’t think the bowl affects the outcome, but when it comes to shapes, it’s more about how much fluid you use and less about what it looks like.

I don’t trust myself to do math correctly, so I just counted the combinations manually. With 6 ingredients and using 2 ingredient combinations with 2 shape variations, we have 42 world outcomes. Thankfully, the bowls don’t come into the equation or that’d be a silly amount of combinations since there are 6 different bowls – 2 to start with and 4 you can purchase in the market.

So, with 42 world outcomes, a vague diagram, and requests like wanting a banana or a universe shaped like a cup… it can be a little frustrating.

Thankfully, you can stand up from your workbench and click back into it to get a new customer with a different request. I had to do this for quite a few, but as you tinker, you get a feel for how the ingredients work together. It just takes a lot of patience up front.

Honestly, with different art and descriptions for each combination, it kept things interesting enough that you never feel too frustrated. If you’re really stuck, you can follow the guide I wrote up which should help you get enough correct universes to advance the story.

Verdict

I highly recommend that you get Universe for Sale. Especially since it’s only $14.99. I didn’t know what the price point was when I started the game and only reached out after I was done to ask. I was expecting a price that was more in the $20-25 range and I wouldn’t have felt that was too high. 

You’ve got about 8 hours of gameplay and there’s a bit of replayability if you’re hunting down achievements in Steam. 

This seems like a no-brainer for science fiction and visual novel lovers. Hell, even if it’s not your usual cup of tea, I think the story was engaging enough to give it a try.

You can try the demo (they call it a prologue) of Universe for Sale or go all in and buy the game. From November 16th-23rd, you can get it for 10% off which makes it an even better deal!