Coffee Talk
Coffee Talk is a game about listening to people’s problems and helping them by serving up a warm drink out of the ingredients you have in stock. It is a game that depicts lives as humanly as possible, while having a cast that is more than just humans. Immerse yourself in the stories of alternative-Seattle inhabitants, ranging from a dramatic love story between an elf and a succubus, an alien trying to understand humans’ lives, and many others modern readers will find strongly echo the world around them. The game features: Tales of people from an alternative-Seattle, a city where elves, orcs, mermaids, and many other fantasy races live together with humans in a modern world we will all find familiar Branching storylines, where the branches are determined not by the dialogue options you choose, but from how you serve your café customers 90’s anime-inspired pixel art visuals and chill vibes-inducing color palette help to immerse you in the game’s world Selection of jazzy and lo-fi music to accompany the late night warm drinks and conversations An experience to make you think, feel, and rest both your body and your soul
Steam User 14
This game is what I call a perfect visual novel. My god, I don’t think I have enjoyed a game like this one in ages.
This game isn’t for everyone and I’ve seen this a lot while looking at the reviews of Coffee Talk. If you expect too much from it, you will be disappointed for sure. You don’t do much in it; you brew some coffee while listening to the stories that your customers have to say. If you aren’t a fan of relaxing games, then this one won’t be for you.
The stories are very unique and special in their own way. Some more interesting than the others, but never have I thought a customer was annoying or boring for speaking about their day or background. Seeing the relationships between the characters build and grow in real time and in front of you is a very special feeling, one that makes you stay curious and engaged throughout the whole game. The characters’ designs are beautiful, the person who did the art needs a raise as soon as possible.
While this is a relaxing game, it is also highly educational. It touches the topics of racism and other problems that we deal with every day in a manner that it leaves you to think and reflect about them.
The soundtrack is calming and relaxing, there isn’t much to say about it. I do think there are some times when a song ends and another one starts when the one starting will be very different from the other one, making it seem louder and interrupt your flow of the game.
All in all, I highly recommend this game. As soon as I finished it I went and bought the second one as well.
Steam User 10
I would highly recommend playing it with voice mods if you're into that
Coffee Talk is a heartwarming game where you can serve customers and see stories unfold. Thats the most basic explanation. Now the actual game itself...I don't think there was a single customer that I didn't care about. You get to see so many highs and lows, discussions and arguments, and it all feels like a warm, lively place to be in overall. Coffee Talk is meant to be cozy but also it doesn't shy away from conflict, which makes it more believable. Even if its short, it still felt like a long time.
Also the music slaps, I've been using it for study sessions.
Steam User 10
THIS GAME IS A THERAPY
I'm trying to get 100% completion.
---{ Graphics }---
☐ You forget what reality is
☑ ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS, but not realistic.
☐ Beautiful
☐ Good
☐ Decent
☐ Bad
☐ Don‘t look too long at it
☐ MS-DOS
---{ Gameplay }---
☑ Very good
☐ Good
☐ It's just gameplay
☐ Mehh
☐ Watch paint dry instead
☐ Just don't
---{ Audio }---
☑ Eargasm
☐ Very good
☐ Good
☐ Not too bad
☐ Bad
☐ I'm now deaf
---{ Audience }---
☑ Kids
☑ Teens
☑ Adults
☑ Grandma
---{ PC Requirements }---
☑ Check if you can run paint
☐ Potato
☐ Decent
☐ Fast
☐ Rich boi
☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer
---{ Game Size }---
☑ Floppy Disk
☐ Old Fashioned
☐ Workable
☐ Big
☐ Will eat 15% of your 1TB hard drive
☐ You will want an entire hard drive to hold it
☐ You will need to invest in a black hole to hold all the data
---{ Difficulty }---
☑ Just press 'W'
☐ Easy
☐ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☐ Significant brain usage
☐ Difficult
☐ Dark Souls
---{ Grind }---
☑ Nothing to grind
☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks
☐ Isn't necessary to progress
☐ Average grind level
☐ Too much grind
☐ You'll need a second life for grinding
---{ Story }---
☐ No Story
☐ Some lore
☐ Average
☐ Good
☐ Lovely
☑ It'll replace your life
---{ Game Time }---
☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee
☑ Short
☐ Average
☐ Long
☐ To infinity and beyond
---{ Price }---
☐ It's free!
☑ Worth the price
☐ If it's on sale
☐ If u have some spare money left
☐ Not recommended
☐ You could also just burn your money
---{ Bugs }---
☑ Never heard of
☐ Minor bugs
☐ Can get annoying
☐ ARK: Survival Evolved
☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs
---{ ? / 10 }---
☐ 1
☐ 2
☐ 3
☐ 4
☐ 5
☐ 6
☐ 7
☐ 8
☐ 9
☑ 10
---{ You can skip this part }---
I met this game and played it during some tough times. It was mt therapy. It got me relaxed. it made me forget my life. It got me worried about the characters problems... and the one things I absolutely hated about it was that it was too short for me. If I could, I'd want 100 hours worth of content at least.
You CAN replay the game and I halfway thought my second play. Actually, playing it a second time is part of the main story. besides, I am trying to get 100%
Steam User 9
I have now completed my first playthrough of Coffee Talk and feel ready to write a review for it.
The game takes place in an alternate reality where all the fantasy races exist side-by-side. Your character is a barista, and also the owner, of a coffee shop in Seattle. Every day, customers come, you make drinks for them, and they tell you about their problems. Other customers who are at your coffee shop at the same time, often act as agony aunts/advice columnists, even though you also occasionally put in a remark or two - and always lend a sympathetic ear! When the customers return on a different day, their story continues. And the storyline is excellent! All the characters are more complex than they appear at first - including the barista.
Initially, I was a bit disappointed by the lack of actual drink-making - there are never more than 3 customers a day, ordering one drink each, and the rest is just talking. However, the game also has the Endless section, which has two modes - a Free mode, where you make drinks mixing ingredients in any way you like, and a Challenge mode, where various in-game characters tell you what drinks they want you to make and you fulfil the orders on a timer. Both these modes are very good for unlocking drinks for your menu earlier than they appear in the story.
The highest-rated negative review for this game criticises it for the lack of depth and seriousness in handling the issues it raises, but I disagree. The developers of Coffee Talk have obviously realised that not every game needs to be an anonymous hotline, and are content with being advice columnists. And while the issues raised are not particularly tragic, they are all very widespread.
I would also like to praise the game for accessibility. The Challenge mode mentioned earlier is the only one with a timer. I found the default conversation auto-scrolling speed to be perfect for me, making for a very relaxing experience. Finally, although the latte art is quite hard to do "beautifully", I was only tasked with doing it once during the story. I made a random blob with the milk, served it, and the customer still called it "cute" - no problems there.
In summary - an absolutely wonderful game!
Steam User 7
It's a good visual novel game. I'd definitely recommend it if you are in the mood with a lot of reading. It only took a few hours to complete and the soundtrack is to die for! All in all love this game <3
Steam User 9
thought i’d just open it for 10 minutes… next thing i know, an hour’s gone. super chill, cozy and way more addictive than i expected. perfect little escape.
Steam User 6
Coffee Talk is a great game to relax to. I decided to play this when I was pretty burnt out on video games – I'd just finished Persona 3 Reload along with Episode Aigis (~150 hours!) and felt like my head would explode if I saw another randomized turn-based encounter.
Coffee Talk turned out to be the perfect remedy for that. In this game, you read conversations between characters who show up at your late-night coffee shop in a fantasy-world Seattle. People of all sorts of fantastical races show up to talk, work, and relax. The ambiance of the game is very similar to a real-life coffee shop, with lo-fi beats playing in the background. The only thing you need to do is fulfill customer orders as they come in (don't worry, there's no time-crunch like Overcooked or PlateUp) and listen to your customers as they talk about life. Very low-stress and relaxing – just what I wanted.
I found the character storylines in this game to be hit-or-miss. While there are a few that are almost painfully stereotypical, there are some that are very interesting. Hint: if you stick around until the end of this game, watch the post-credits scene. One of the best stories gets even more interesting at that point. Despite the predictability of the storylines, however, I did always enjoy listening to the characters interact with each other. The game does a great job at depicting how people who are very different might talk with each other.
While most of the writing was pretty good, there were many sentences that sounded unnatural. It wasn't enough to really detract from my enjoyment of the game, but it was enough for me to be disappointed that more effort wasn't put into the localization and editing of the script.
The visual style of this game is really fun. I enjoyed the HD pixel style and the character's reaction animations during conversations.
Honestly, the most disappointing part of this game is the gameplay. The only interactive part of this game is making drinks for customers. When you get an order, the game brings you to an ingredients shelf and asks you to pick three ingredients – one to use as a base, another as a primary ingredient, and a third as a secondary. Much of the time, it is very obvious how you should make the drink (for example, espresso). However, sometimes the customer will ask for something like "a drink that will make me feel something." I don't know how I would have made that drink without looking it up. There were other times when the drink they ordered wasn't common and wasn't in English either. I definitely used some google-fu to figure those out.
Frustratingly enough, progress on certain storylines is gated behind getting the correct drink. Because of the lack of hints, people who insist on playing this blind could be in for multiple playthroughs. I had no qualms about using search engines, however, so it was just a minor annoyance for me.
This is probably a minor nit, but I do wish there were more interaction options beyond just making drinks. A simple dialog choice system seems like it would not rock the boat too hard and would help players stay engaged.
Conclusion
Overall, I recommend this game. It was a good break from the RPGs I've been playing lately. The chill music and conversations also helped me relax in a rather stressful season of my life. I'd rate this 3/5 (Good).