Game: Lovely Deco House
Genre: Puzzle, Adventure, Board Game, Arcade
System: Nintendo Switch
Developer | Publisher: GaniTani
Age Rating: US Everyone | EU 3+
Price: US $8.99 | UK £7.59 | EU € 8,39
Release Date: June 11th, 2026
Review code used, with many thanks to GaniTani.
There is something enjoyable about collecting or crafting a range of furniture and then using it to create a perfect setting, and Lovely Deco House promises just that.
Let’s see if it lives up to expectations.
Be Careful What You Wish For!
Lovely Deco House starts by meeting Nana, a young girl who has discovered a new animal-themed claw machine in the street. Having spent all her money, she desperately looks into the machine, expressing her desire for the cute animals. Next thing, she finds herself in a forest, in a change of clothes, and she can hear sobbing.
The graphics style changes, and you take control of Nana to search for the source of the crying. A list of instructions appears on the screen, guiding you through the tasks and controls. Through conversation, you learn that CheeseCat’s house has been taken by Yongyong.
You are suddenly tasked with ‘Defeat Yongyong’. Yongyong is a green dinosaur-like creature who has a key in their back. You are not given the control for attack, and with fireballs heading straight for Nana, it feels a bit panicky. Once you know the attack button, just one well-aimed strike will defeat Yongyong. The dropped key can be picked up and used to open CheeseCat’s house.
The house is totally empty, but CheeseCat doesn’t seem too concerned as more furniture can be made. You are guided through the instructions of gathering, crafting and placing décor. CheeseCat suggests Nana goes to the Rabbit Shopping District, through the cherry blossom forest.
Here you meet BaristaRabbit, who doesn’t know how to decorate their café, but luckily you do. So let the decorating begin in Lovely Deco House.
Gathering and Crafting
There are different biomes in Lovely Deco House, and as trees, stones and foliage fill the landscape, there are lots of resources to collect. Each biome is home to a claw machine toy, and each one has a house or piece of land which needs decorating. There is an extensive catalogue of items, themed to the owner, as well as links to other characters in the world. Crafting is straightforward, but there is a limit of 30 items in the inventory. This is annoying when trying to craft all the items associated with the specific character, as you have to interrupt the crafting to place items and empty the inventory. A strange occurrence happens when reloading the game; the inventory contains items that have already been placed. It’s great you get extras, but annoying to go through the process of either placing or discarding the duplicates.
Unfortunately, the interiors of the houses are not big enough to contain all the crafted furniture, and disappointingly, I struggled to position the items in an attractive manner. Most items can be placed outside, but there are restrictions as to where, and they can’t be too close to the main house. Furniture can be placed on top of rugs, but no other items can be stacked, so cups of coffee have to sit on the floor, rather than on a table. It would be helpful if there was a zoom function to help with placing.
Each property has a decoration target, and once met, the owner will reward Nana. These rewards give Nana a tool which will help her get to the next area, for example, a lantern to light the way in a dark maze. Having rewards, together with mini-games, like the avoid the gnus game (shown above), add a different vibe to what is primarily a decorating game. Nana does have a health bar and will collapse if she loses all her health, but she’ll quickly get to her feet again with full health.
Unfortunately, when I arrived at the final building, Lovely Deco House crashed, and somehow corrupted the inventory and save function. Although I managed to clear the inventory issue with a full shutdown of the console, I could not save the game again.
Controls and Options in Lovely Deco House
I didn’t notice any juddering in Lovely Deco House, in either docked or handheld mode. The text is small, but just about readable and although there is great use of the touchscreen, it is limited, as you cannot move the character using that function.
Most of the controls (but not the attack button) are given on screen during the tutorial and whilst the tutorial is good, it is covered when using the inventory menu.
This might be a pre-release issue, but using the menus is cumbersome. Each time you place an item, the inventory menu closes. Each time you craft an item, the menu reverts to the header, and although the touchscreen is easier, it doesn’t always register what is being pressed. In all the menus, moving between items requires more button presses than it should. Sometimes the D-pad could be used to move between items, but not always and although the left stick works, it moves your character as well. Removing placed items is straightforward, unless they are on the walls, in which case it has to be via touchscreen. Occasionally, only touchscreen will work, which is inconvenient if playing in docked mode. All in all, it’s frustrating.
As well as the near end-of-game crash, I also encountered a problem when I first met Yongyong. Whilst working through the tutorial, the area Nana can move in is restricted with invisible walls. Unfortunately, Yongyong didn’t move into the playable area, so Nana couldn’t fight, and consequently died… a lot. Restarting the game fixed the problem.
Lovely Deco House has a manual save, and saves automatically when returning to the main menu. There is just one save slot per user, and there is no time of day. You can craft and place enough furniture to met the area’s decoration target within 15-20 minutes, so in total, there is around 2-3 hours of play. However, the fun of a decorating game is to spend time creating the perfect location.
Conclusion
There’s lots to admire in Lovely Deco House: the graphics are cute, there is an incredible amount of décor to craft, and the mini-games add a different aspect.
Whilst I like the concept of the game, the lack of interior space and the inability to stack items, the clunky controls and the end-of-game crash spoilt my overall enjoyment. For that reason, I cannot recommend it at this moment.
Final Verdict: I’m Not Sure 
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