Mellow. I see little worth in lowering games to a single phrase, however right here that phrase is inescapable. Coffee Talk is a lightweight visible novel with a drink mixing system, that permits you to gently nudge its subplots in the direction of good or unhealthy outcomes.
I can’t inform you it was a very gripping, dramatic or shaggy dog story. But it was very mellow. That might sound like faint reward. Perhaps it’s, but it surely appears to be precisely what builders Toge Productions have been going for.
Comparisons to Valhalla are inevitable, and honest. Coffee Talk is not any rehash although, and it’s going for a really totally different temper. You’re the proprietor and solely workers member of a late evening espresso store, in a model of Seattle the place your ordinary fantasy races are a standard a part of society. Humans, elves, cat folks, even werewolves and vampires all combine right here. And they’re all welcome to roll up and have a cup of espresso, tea, or no matter different vile concoction you’ll be able to inflict on them by mixing collectively three of the game’s ten components. Most of the small forged of characters will specify a selected drink, or at the very least give robust hints, relatively than the extra cryptic calls for of Valhalla’s prospects.
There was as soon as a spot in Canterbury known as Coffee and Corks. It was the one good espresso place ever.
Coffee Talk’s most difficult thriller drink is requested by a werewolf, who’s searching for a relaxing treatment for his month-to-month “Fury”. But he already is aware of two of its components, and also you get a number of possibilities at guessing the opposite, so it’s not troublesome. When I did an experimental run the place I acquired everybody’s drinks as fallacious as doable, he gave away the third one anyway. The few often obscure requests are simple to move, although they often unlock a bonus line of dialogue or two.
Mixing the drinks is easy and pure sufficient. Each drink has a main ingredient like tea or chocolate after which two extra from the secondary shelf (a pleasant contact I simply clocked is that the milk takes up two cabinets as a result of it’s the one component that’s each main and secondary). I can’t say it made me need a espresso the best way Automachef made me need a burger, however then espresso is horrible anyway.
It’s not a difficult game by any measure, even in its non-compulsory ‘endless’ mode, which places you on a timer, and offers you a lot of customized orders with no dialogue. Nor is all of it that dramatic. Where Valhalla, and visible novels on the whole, have a tendency in the direction of huge tales or melodrama, Coffee Talk is fairly low stakes. Though its setting, and one subplot, includes racism and some political references, there’s not all that a lot exploration of massive themes, or dredging up of feelings, in its brief playtime.
I hoped for somewhat extra, I believe, and I used to be a bit shocked that it ended when it did. The micro-epilogues for the principle characters have been a pleasant contact, though on my milk run (the place I gave everybody milk, except they requested for milk, wherein case they acquired an espresso) considered one of them appeared to contradict what had occurred earlier. None of its characters notably spoke to me, though I kind of preferred the orc who initially simply sat quietly on her personal consuming tea whereas everybody else gossiped.
It was so comfy that on my first evening there I forgot it was a café and left with out paying.
But I had a pleasant time with it. It was an odd type of good, greater than the sum of its narrative components. Coffee Talk has a heat, cozy atmosphere. Its inoffensively jazzy soundtrack (I’m not saying “lo-fi chill beats”, you’ll be able to all go to hell) and engaging artwork co-ordinate to provide a temper that’s plain enjoyable. I’d reclined virtually to the ground by the top of a day’s play, with my keyboard throughout my abdomen and a cup of tea in my hand, lazily doling out pretentious coffees and writing insulting messages within the latte artwork. Silhouettes of automobiles and pedestrians amble previous the home windows, the rain drums on the window on some nights, and no one ever provides you a tough time, even while you’re actively making an attempt to antagonise them.
You haven’t any drama of your individual to cope with. Because of that, and once more in distinction to Valhalla, it feels much less like a slice of life idea, than it’s only a comfy place to hold round.
Sure, it’s a bit unlikely how all these strangers instantly bond and begin speaking about their private lives, earlier than giving one another barely corny recommendation. Everyone’s remarkably receptive to this recommendation too, even when devoted common Freya retains telling the youthful Rachel she’s “not an adult”, a phrase universally assured to bother the hell out of any 18 12 months previous. But the times of Coffee Talk are very brief certainly, so it’s simple to shrug all of it off as a condensed time impact.
I used to make espresso in an Italian place. Lattes are as annoying to make as they’re disgusting.
Like the animations, the digital camera does loads of temper work, panning about and zooming considerably to border extra intimate scenes, or to mark minor transitions. There’s one dialog the place two characters argue, and the display screen is stuffed with their two portraits, within the centre of which sits the third character they’re speaking over, whose portrait will get smaller and extra overlapped the extra she’s ignored. This virtually belongs in a game with extra uncooked battle, and by itself it’s not a lot, however I’m bringing it up in try to work out why Coffee Talk works, regardless of the whole lot in it being pretty inconsequential. There’s a disarming sincerity to it, and even its minor tampering with the fourth wall from time to time is innocent (though sadly probably not compelling sufficient for me to dedicate the time wanted to unlock each element it hints at).
The fantasy references sound foolish out of context. It acknowledges that elves are the worst, although.
Customers are remarkably forgiving while you get their orders fallacious, with solely considered one of them accepting my provide to make their drink once more (I made it much more wrongly, natch). There’s no cash administration side, so no penalty in any respect for errors, actually, besides that the game’s handful of subplots will resolve otherwise. I’m amused by the idea of constructing a cup of tea so catastrophically that it destroys somebody’s long run relationship, however you must shrug off the premise (it makes a type of sense, really, should you don’t take it actually. We’ve all made choices on a whim, primarily based on our rapid mind-set, and convincing ourselves our reasoning was extra superior than simply “I’m in a good mood”).
Feeling comfy and supplied for is vital. That’s probably not a fact that Coffee Talk explicitly will get into, but it surely’s basically what it’s about. It might have been longer, it might have been extra substantial and dramatic. But it’s a great way to chill out for just a few hours.
