ReStory: Chill Electronics Repairs is Steam's coziest sleeper hit right now

ReStory: Chill Electronics Repairs, developed by Mandragora and published by tinyBuild, is out now on Steam — and it's quietly become one of the platform's most talked-about cozy releases. Set in early-2000s Tokyo with an anime-inspired aesthetic and lofi soundtrack, it blends the tactile satisfaction of PowerWash Simulator with the nostalgic warmth of Unpacking.

The core loop has you disassembling, cleaning, and reassembling retro-inspired gadgets — a Pokia phone (not a Nokia), an Atari-style controller, a PMP handheld that's definitely not a PSP. You pop off casings, unscrew highlighted components, sort parts into a tray, and order missing pieces from an in-game CRT computer. The mail carrier delivers in seconds. Clean, sort, replace, repeat. The game handles the fiddly bits thoughtfully — screws get auto-collected, and if you're missing a part mid-repair, the game prompts you to re-box everything and come back later rather than leaving you stuck. The main input is pointing, clicking, and a lot of left-mouse-button dragging, which some players may find repetitive, but that's also kind of the point.

ReStory sits comfortably in the same genre space as Unpacking and PowerWash Simulator — games where the pleasure is in the process, not the challenge. The early-aughts setting does a lot of heavy lifting: weathered Atari posters, gray CRT monitors, cassette tapes with the ribbon wound out. It's the kind of environmental detail that hits differently if you actually grew up with that hardware. tinyBuild has been publishing a steady stream of indie titles across genres, and Mandragora appears to be a new studio making its debut here.

Beyond the repair loop, there's a light narrative threading through — shady secondhand sellers, a landlord who doubles as a business coach, an upstairs neighbor who needs a joystick fixed before a Pac-Man championship. It's gentle, low-stakes storytelling that gives you just enough reason to keep going. ReStory: Chill Electronics Repairs is available now on Steam.