Coffee Talk

This is a game that talks to me in the title alone.. Coffee!

Coffee Talk is a visual novel with a coffee making gimmick. I always love when visual novels can include something that lets you interact with the story. Coffee Talk needs that because you are just reading a story otherwise without any branching stories that you can choose. The story is set in a world with orcs, elves, werewolfs, vampires, and extra terrestrials, in modern times. You are the coffee shop owner with opening hours that go all through the night. So of course you are going to get some interesting customers in. The stories range from interspecies relationships, to father-daughter quarrels, to writer’s block, and even an existential crisis. The game is segmented into nights, making the story bite sized like episodes of Cheers with coffee. As the story progresses each character comes into contact with the rest making for some fun interactions, and heartwarming conclusions.

The coffee making is simple, more often then not I was frustrated at the lack of tutorial in making the coffee. After many wrong orders given, I realised that the order you put the ingredients in creates different coffees. By the end I was down with the system. Each night will last for about ten to fifteen minutes, and there are fourteen nights so you can finish the game in around three hours. The art style is retro inspired like the graphics you saw in the old PC adventure games. The music is delightful as you can change it on the fly to create the type of atmosphere you want.

The sequel Coffee Talk Episode 2: Hibiscus & Butterfly is due out this year. It looks like at least some of the characters from Coffee Talk return, so it will be neat to spend more time in this relaxing atmosphere. Sadly the creator of Coffee Talk, Mohammad Fahmi died last year, at 32. From all accounts he was gifted and to make a game like this so young it looked like he had a ton of future potential. Hopefully the studio can honour his memory by keeping the heartfelt narrative at the sequel’s core. I would love to see this format be used with the cast of Seinfeld. Wouldn’t that be grand fun?

Coffee Talk is a great game to play after a long day or if you’re looking for a chill afternoon. Do you have a favourite type of coffee?

Robert Ring

Available now on PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, and PC.