1 What is a cozy horror game
The developer describes The Boba Teashop as a cozy horror game in which you own and manage a boba tea shop. Both halves of that phrase are meant literally, and the tension between them is the whole design.
You play Risa, a woman in her thirties who is tired of corporate life and has decided to chase her dream of opening a boba tea shop. That framing gives the game a warmth that the horror then works against.
2 How frightening is it really
While serving customers you start seeing visions and hearing things, and the game leaves open whether it is in Risa head or whether something is haunting the place.
The developer calls it psychological horror that builds tension through eerie atmosphere and unsettling events, with moments of intense scare when you least expect them. That last clause is the honest warning: there are sudden frights, not only slow dread.
On Steam it carries a general mature content descriptor and nothing stronger, so the discomfort is atmospheric rather than graphic.
3 What do you actually do
The loop is deliberately simple. Greet customers, take their orders, prepare the drink, and serve it with a smile. Making boba tea comes down to milk tea and boba, sealing the cup with a lid, and adding a straw.
| Element | What it involves |
|---|---|
| Service | Orders, preparation, sealing and serving |
| Difficult customers | Special requests, and people who leave a mess behind |
| Business | Expanding the menu to attract more patrons |
| Story | Risa journey and personal growth as an owner |
The presentation runs through a creepy VHS filter, which the developer lists as a feature rather than an option. It gives the whole game a nostalgic, degraded look that does a lot of the atmospheric work.
4 Languages, streaming and add-ons
Eight languages are supported, and Japanese is among them, alongside English, Simplified Chinese, German, Korean, Russian, Portuguese for Brazil and Spanish for Latin America. That is generous for a game at this price from a single developer.
There are no paid add-ons. There is a free demo, which is the sensible way to test whether the horror suits you before spending anything, though at USD 3.99 the risk is small either way.
There are five achievements, Steam Cloud saves, stats tracking and Family Sharing. It is single player only.
5 Will it run on my PC
| Part | Minimum | Recommended |
|---|---|---|
| OS | Windows 10 or newer, 64-bit | Same |
| CPU | 2.6 GHz or better | 3.2 GHz or better |
| Memory | 8 GB | 16 GB |
| Graphics | GTX 750 Ti or better | GTX 950 or better |
| Storage | 1 GB, DirectX 12 | 1 GB, DirectX 12 |
One note on the minimum row is worth repeating because it prevents a false alarm. The developer warns that on 8 GB of memory there is a long startup of one to three minutes before the game boots, and asks you to wait rather than pressing stop in Steam.
If you have 16 GB, that wait should not apply. If you have 8 GB and the game appears frozen on launch, it is loading.
The Boba Teashop is a single player cozy horror game by Mike Ten, released April 2025 at USD 3.99 with a free demo. You play Risa, who leaves corporate life to open a boba tea shop, and the calm service loop is steadily undercut by visions, sounds and occasional sharp scares seen through a VHS filter. It supports eight languages including Japanese, has five achievements and no paid add-ons, installs in 1 GB, and explicitly permits monetised streaming.
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