Share This Article
As I’m writing this, I’m doing so while taking a sip of an iced vanilla soy latte — one, because I was motivated to do so by Coffee Talk Tokyo, and also because it is getting hot outside. After 10 hours of serving other people beautiful and delicious drinks in a virtual café, I felt it was time to treat myself.
Serving drinks is just a part of the work, though. This is a visual novel that places you in the role of the bartender of a cozy cafe in the heart of Tokyo, and your main job is to listen to your customers and see how events unfold.
For this game to succeed, it needs to have a strong cast of characters that can carry the narrative, good dialogue, and, of course, engaging gameplay that does more than just being present.
Today, I’m reviewing Coffee Talk Tokyo to see whether it is worth your time or not, so join me — and before you do, feel free to pour yourself a drink.
Disclaimer: I was sent a review key for this game, but as usual it will not influence my opinion in the slightest. I will praise what needs to be praised and critique what has to be improved.
The Gameplay: Coffee Talk Tokyo’s Weakest Point
As usual, I like to start with the less good so we can finish on a positive note. And my major issue with this game has to be with the gameplay.
Your first playthrough will take you about 7-8 hours, depending on how fast you go through the text, and you will see the story unfold in 15 days, plus an additional one. During these days, the only change you will see is the amount of ingredients you have at your disposal to prepare your drinks, and you will unlock almost all of them during the first few days. This means that gameplay-wise, there isn’t much to expect going forward.
Each time a client asks for a drink, you will need to combine 3 ingredients to prepare it. You have a good variety of options, from coffee to chocolate milk and even fruits like mango and lychee. Sometimes the clients will not tell you precisely what they want in their drink, and you need to interpret the dialogue to hopefully serve what they want — which is where the challenge of the game lies.
While I like this idea, sometimes it’s frustrating.
It might be a ‘me’ problem, but in the first few days someone asked me for a Viennese coffee, milk but no honey. I had no idea what a Viennese coffee was.
The Brewpad and Tomodachill App
So, I tried to look at the game’s Brewpad to see if there were any recipes for it, and after not finding what I needed, I turned to the Tomodachill app. This is an in-game social media app that is neat to check to see how the main cast of characters are doing — which I highly recommend because it provides more insight on them and shows how some people never portray what they truly feel when they are online.
You can also find different hashtags trending in the game, and one of them is usually #Recipes, but even here I could not find any info regarding the Viennese Coffee on that day.
When brewing a drink, you can trash it 4 times before serving it, and after expending all my chances, I served something that clearly wasn’t what they wanted. But the game does a good job in allowing you to repeat any day you want whenever you want and even speed up the text so you can reach the drinking mini-game fast and prepare the correct drinks each time.
What Happens When You Serve the Wrong Drink?
There are multiple endings in this game, and your drinks have the power to guide the people you meet to their good ending.
On my first playthrough, I think I only got the good ending with 3 of the main cast characters because I didn’t want to repeat days or save-scum before I prepared each drink. I’m currently going through my second attempt, and so far I haven’t missed a single drink — and I was even able to brew that Viennese coffee!
Also, the recipes you unlock on your Brewpad will carry over to other playthroughs, which is super useful. And even better, you can enter the Endless game mode where you can either challenge yourself to serve as many customers as possible in a certain amount of time or experiment brewing new drinks freely.
This is a great way to unlock new recipes, although experimenting freely can be a tad boring, since all you are doing is matching 3 ingredients and hoping for the best.
There is instant gratification when you get a drink right, though — the customer will compliment you, and you’ll feel good knowing you’re helping them the best way you can.
Still, if the series continues, I’d love to see the gameplay evolve into something more dynamic. More complex drink preparation, branching mechanics during conversations, or even light café management elements could go a long way toward keeping the gameplay engaging throughout the entire experience, instead of relying almost entirely on its writing and atmosphere.
But both of these are top-notch here.
The Story: Coffee Talk Tokyo’s Greatest Strength
I honestly didn’t know what to expect from Coffee Talk Tokyo’s story. I went in as blind as possible, and I didn’t even know a thing about the previous titles. And to my surprise, Coffee Talk Tokyo has a unique setting.
We play as the bartender and owner of a café in a futuristic, progressive, and mystical version of Tokyo. Because of this, our clientele is diverse — from a retired Kappa named Kenji, a blind Dragon Singer named Jun, and an elementary school student named Erika, to even a ghost called Ayumi.
Characters You’ll Actually Care About
But even with all this diversity and impossible-to-relate-to setting, the problems they each face are quite relatable.
The Kappa just retired from a long life of hard work and now feels lost. Jun has lost his passion for singing and is considering retiring. Erika has trouble making friends at school. And the ghost lost her memory and because of this cannot pass to the afterlife. Her story was the saddest to see unfold and almost made me tear up by the end.Thankfully, her orders were not that difficult, so I managed to see her have a happy closure!
But if I have to choose my favorite interactions in the game, I’d have to choose the dialogue between Kenji and Jun.Without spoiling much, these two don’t see eye to eye for a few reasons, and I was surprised at how Kenji could behave toward Jun. It shows that these characters are not one-tone, have depth, and have room to grow.
And this is true for each character. Just meeting someone for the first time will not make you know them — how they work, what their ambitions are, and what troubles them.
They are all dealing with hardships — from grief to lack of motivation and even pain. And the only thing that can soothe their soul is the drinks you serve.
This is truly the strongest part of Coffee Talk Tokyo, and every visual novel enjoyer will love to experience these characters’ stories.
The Art and Atmosphere: Absolutely Unmatched
Sometimes a good story will only hook you if the atmosphere of the game complements it, and Coffee Talk Tokyo is unmatched.
I’m biased, but artistically this game has two things that I absolutely love: gorgeous pixel art and chill lofi beats.
To get into the mood of writing, I like listening to different lofi livestreams on YouTube, and the one I listen to the most is this chill Sonic Lofi Radio that has a great animated pixel art background.
So every time I turn Coffee Talk Tokyo on, it never fails to get me right into that perfect mood.
Should You Play Coffee Talk Tokyo?
I have only played a single visual novel in my entire life, and that’s only because it had Digimon attached to it. And my opinion of Digimon Survive is similar to Coffee Talk Tokyo.
Fantastic story, great characters, and amazing dialogue — but brought down a notch by the gameplay. If anything, though, these games are showing me that I, in fact, enjoy visual novels — especially Coffee Talk Tokyo!
And I don’t know what took me so long to realize this. I mean, I do enjoy reading a good book and also manga, so I might have to get myself a few more of these games. Lucky for me — and maybe you — there are 2 more titles of Coffee Talk available to purchase on the Nintendo Switch, and they are usually pretty cheap.
But before that I’ll keep on with my second playthrough, where I’m learning to be a better bartender so I can give all of these characters the closure they deserve.
Thanks for reading, and I’ll be seeing you next time with brand-new content.
