Nivalis Nights hands you a free noodle bar in a neon cyberpunk city. Two in-game days later CMoney had $0 in sales, $50,000 of debt and a good time.
A copy of the game was provided for these impressions.
Verdict Keep an Eye On It
Nivalis Nights opens by handing you a noodle bar for free. No strings, no paperwork, just “it’s yours, kid.” I said it out loud the second it happened: that sounds like a setup. It was. Two in-game days later I had made exactly $0 in sales, I was sitting on $50,000 of debt, and I had just lost money on asparagus. And honestly? I had a good time.
A really chill game to play just at home relaxing.
CMoney, OnPoint 4 Gamers
What you're getting into
Nivalis Nights comes from ION LANDS, the studio behind Cloudpunk, and it’s published by 505 Games. It’s back in the cyberpunk city of Nivalis, but this time you’re not delivering packages. You’re living there. It’s a slice-of-life sim where you run businesses like ramen bars, restaurants and nightclubs, buy or grow your own ingredients, decorate your apartment, go fishing on your own boat, build relationships with the people you meet, and even sabotage rival businesses under the cover of curfew. There’s a chess tournament in there too.
It launched September 29, 2026 on PC through Steam for $24.99. An Epic Games Store version is listed as TBA, and 505 Games hasn’t announced a console version yet, so no Xbox for now. I played it on PC.
This city looks really cool
The first thing that hit me is the look. The city is built out of blocky squares, so it almost has a slight Minecraft vibe, but then they layered all this detail, neon and rain right on top of it. The use of color is really nice. And they filled it with people. There are so many NPCs walking around that the city actually feels alive, and it kind of zones you out a little in a good way.
The story setup has some edge to it. There’s a serial killer loose in the city, and the Localized Unity Zone, the LUZ, is in effect, which means a curfew. So on top of running a business, you’ve got to get your tasks done and get home before the streets lock down. My one knock on the intro is the narrator. Her delivery is very monotone and low-key. I needed a little more energy from her.
Running a noodle bar is harder than it looks
Here’s how my business started: I searched the garbage and then used what I found in my restaurant. Yes, really. That’s how you get going. You also need more than one dish, so the game sends you out to other restaurants to talk people into giving up their recipes. The rudest one in the city handed me the specialty of the house, a dish I can’t print here, and the game counted it as a recipe. I loved that.
Then the clock got me. Day one ended with me running around looking for a character I couldn’t find, sales at $0 and $50,000 of debt still on the books. I was out past curfew, I didn’t even know where my house was, and when I finally found it, it was right in front of me the whole time.
Hiring help, sort of
Day two is where I started figuring it out, kind of. At first you’re the waiter yourself, and customers are not shy about how they feel. One gave me three stars. Another was just mad for no reason. So I hired help. I offered a job to the first guy I talked to, and he said yes. I offered another person a job, she said she’d come by early next week, and then turned out to be too good for my job. Wild.
How would you run your Nivalis noodle bar?
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The writing is where Nivalis Nights really shines. A local influencer goes live right in my face and tells me I’m the ugliest person she’s met all week. A game developer NPC complains about crunch and describes a game where your camel dies in an unskippable three-hour cutscene unless you buy golden camel armor, then the game tries to sell you armor for your next camel. That one is way too real. And then there’s a robot cleaner who is, technically, a woman’s late husband loaded onto a chip, begging me to tell her he isn’t there. I covered for him. She didn’t believe me. Kind of rude.
Money problems
Your assistant keeps an eye on your finances, and by the end of day two she was worried. Her advice? Go see a loan shark. Thanks for telling me that before I sold my stuff. Meanwhile, customers were walking out because nobody served them, and I made the worst move of the session: I bought $60 worth of asparagus, it was worth less the second I owned it, and then I bought more asparagus by accident. Two days, all my money spent, and not a lot of success. But I wanted to keep going, and that says something.
Verdict: Keep an Eye On It
Nivalis Nights is a very different kind of game, and it’s definitely interesting. If you’re the type of player who loves managing stuff, I think you’re going to find something unique here. I like the graphics, I think the art style was a cool choice, and the writing made me laugh more than I expected. It’s a really chill game to play just at home relaxing. It’s PC only for now, so Xbox players will have to keep an eye on it. Thank you for sending me the game.
This is not a review, so there’s no score here.
Screenshots captured by OnPoint 4 Gamers from gameplay. Featured image: OnPoint 4 Gamers, built on official Nivalis Nights key art (ION LANDS / 505 Games).
