Game Name: Coffee Talk
Developer: Toge Productions
Publisher: Toge Productions and Chorus Worldwide
Release Date: January 29th, 2020 (World Wide) and January 30th, 2020 (Nintendo Switch)
Platforms: Microsoft Windows, macOS, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, XBOX Series X/S
Introduction
This was a game that was free with my XBOX Live subscription. Just by the banner, I loved the old school aesthetic. I am a sucker for these kind of games.
Then I looked at the trailer and I was interested in the interactive movie approach. I believe the actual term is visual novel. I always liked games in the style of TellTale so I decided to give this a shot.
Story
The story is very basic, you play the owner of a coffee shop named Coffee Talk, in an alternative version of Seattle. This reality has different types of characters other than humans. You can see Orcs, Aliens and Mermaids just to name a few.
You have a regular customer (Freya) that comes in almost everyday and she is trying to write a novel but she does not know what. One day she gets the great idea of writing a novel about all of the characters that walk into the coffee shop.
Basically the rest of the game is just a matter of listening to people's situations and making them a beverage of their choosing.
Coffee Talk Trailer
Gameplay
The gameplay is quite simple really. It is not as if you are going to upgrade your coffee making skills by gaining XP (Experience Points).
Here you will be reading a lot of dialogue and once in a while you will be asked to brew up a beverage based on what the customer has requested.
In your coffee making arsenal you have some Milk, Coffee, Cinnamon, Green Tea, Regular Tea and Ginger. Every customer will ask about their own beverage. At the beginning they tell you what you need to do. However, as you progress, they often just hint at what they want and you will need to make sure that you make the correct brew. I will admit, I am not sure what happens if you keep mixing the wrong drinks. There is an achievement for both making all the drinks perfectly and one for making mistakes. In terms of the storyline, I am not sure if there are repercussions.
I know that on the surface this may sound dull but stick around and I will expand a little on why I liked the game.
Coffee Talk - Sample Gameplay
Bottomline
Is this game any good? It really depends if you like this kind of game. I know this is true of any genre of games, but it is especially true here. Some would say this is not really a game per say. There is little consequences to your actions and it can get boring.
However, for someone like me that love story driven games, this is right up my alley. Let me start with the visual aspect. I found this game gorgeous. The old school graphics were really cool. I did like the background scenery outside of it always raining. Also, you see shadows of people passing by on the street like a real coffee shop. It gave it that little something that gave the appearance that the city is lived in.
The sound for the game, I also found exceptional. I loved the music soundtrack. It really fit the game well and it was good to boot. Obviously the characters are not voiced as all the dialogue is text. That is fine. It is probably cheaper and it might have taken away from the experience from this kind of game.
The gameplay is not really gameplay. Yeah you get to make some brews but it is really not that exciting. However, what makes the game is the dialogue between the characters. Some of them have relationship issues and others have family issues. No matter the stories, they are common and make the characters that much more relatable.
I am not going to go into the details of each story as this is the fun of the game. But I am sure someone will find something that they can debate about. However, I looked at it for what it was. It was a very chill game to play and stream. Yeah it was probably not the best of streams to watch as I did not voice all of the characters. I really liked it and I do hope that they make a sequel or a game that is similar to this.
What did you think? Let us know!!
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