Restaurant Story 2 is in the works!

TeamLava have yet to give any official indication of this, but I am led to believe that a sequel to Restaurant Story is in the works, and could be launched very soon.

This story (pun very much intended) originates from a supplementary goal that first appeared in another TeamLava title, Castle Story, over the weekend. The goal asks the player to 'Reach Level 17 in Restaurant Story 2'.

Supplementary goal for Restaurant Story 2

However there's an issue here, because typically a set of supplementary goals starts by calling for the downloading of the game in question. Yet that hasn't been the case here, and rather mysteriously Restaurant Story 2 isn't available on either the iTunes Store or Google Play.

Now this obviously sends alarm bells off. Is there really such an app? Or has there been a catastrophic error on the gamemakers' part? And if this game does exist, then what will it contain and what of the future of the original Restaurant Story?

Well today we've had some answers, although not from TeamLava themselves. Thanks to blackviolets over on the TeamLava Forum, I can confirm that Restaurant Story 2 is indeed very real. This is because blackviolets is from Singapore and has been able to download the new game via the Thai iTunes Store. Not only this, but he or she has uploaded a few screenshots from the sequel title:

First screenshot from Restaurant Story 2

Second screenshot from Restaurant Story 2

Third screenshot from Restaurant Story 2

Fourth screenshot from Restaurant Story 2

Fifth screenshot from Restaurant Story 2

So it looks like Restaurant Story is being brought into the 'modern era' of gaming! If any of you have played Farm Story 2, you'll quickly spot that we've got a similar engine powering this one.

The graphics are much improved - let's be honest the original Restaurant Story's graphics have never been much to right home about. This isn't all good news though. I play on an iPod Touch with iOS5, and have found Farm Story 2 to run rather slow. Whether this is because I'm on a relatively old device I have no idea, but it certainly doesn't bode well.

The  fourth screenshot above does reflect the existing Restaurant Story. You've got tables, chairs, counters, appliances and dividers. There's two walls shown, and the host stands behind a host table. These are mainstays of the app we all know so well.

But it appears from the other screenshots that there's plenty that's different too. From the second image I deduce that we may have to shop around the town for ingredients to buy, with the third and fifth pictures indicating that the 'General Store' and 'Bob's Butcher' will be two such outlets selling foodstuff. This could be a nice addition to proceedings, and provide another challenge.

Less promising are a couple of points made by blackviolets over on the TeamLava Forum:

Each action from buying to cooking requires a few seconds or minutes, depends on what you choose. So it's really time consuming ... and you have the option to post on Facebook whenever you level up. Then you have a storage/inventory with limited space.

The thought of having finite space in storage is horrifying! This is the case in Farm Story 2, although I think it only applies in there to ingredients and parts rather than decorations. And if it's going to be lengthy to get food simmering away on the stove then that won't suit my frantic Monday mornings!

The question we still have no answers for is the most sensitive of all: what is going to happen to our beloved Restaurant Story? For now I think we're safe. My evidence is that the game is still getting weekly updates with plenty of new content. And that's not stopping this week either as the latest teaser confirms. If TeamLava were about to pull the plug on the original Restaurant Story then there would be no sensible reason to keep throwing resources at developing new content for it. However it is inevitable that there is going to come a time when the lights go out for good - just ask the loyal following of Farm Story.

Overall I'm very intrigued and eager to get a go at the sequel to my favourite game. But I'm also tentative as to how different Restaurant Story 2 is going to be from it's predecessor - will I enjoy it as much? And then there's the real worry of what this all means for the original. The thought of TeamLava forcing me to close down The Garlic Tree forever is close to heartbreaking!

If I can gather any more information on this big development you'll be sure to see further posts on the blog.