Coffee Talk

I played the first Coffee Talk a while ago, and I’ve fond memories of it. There is nothing fancy about Coffee Talk: you play as a barista that opens his coffee shop in the evening for the night people of Seattle. Your best client is Freya, a soon-to-be writer who tries to finish her book. It is a visual novel at its core: clients come and talk to you, and you listen. No choices, except the drinks you can make them. The gameplay of Coffee Talk consist of brewing coffee. Or tea. Or just hot milk with honey because someone has a cold. It goes from espresso to some more fancy drinks. Get the drink right and the story will change. Get it wrong and the story will also change a bit.

The writing of the game is surprisingly good. There are no exposition dumps. Every day begins with a look at the newspaper which gives your the headlines of what is happening in the world. You can piece everything together as the days and the people go by. The world of coffee talk is an AU of our world with a bunch of fantasy beings in it: vampire, orcs, nekos (yes…), elves and so on. The pixel art is very nice. It is a very sweet game, with some twist that were actually well thought out for what the games wants to be.