one of the most refreshing games I've played in a while. the unique artstyle, gameplay, everything. It's like a fresh of breath air in the current game industry.
the story is enticing, not revealing too much but still keeping you interested. the characters are consistent, keep a solid weight to their inherent traits, and despite the game being based on a lot of fictional concepts, is actually incredibly grounded and teaches valuable lessons every ten minutes of gameplay.
over 50% of the lines in this game are quotable in some way, shape, or form. it has everything I like about a game. and even for a visual novel game, it does something unique, and even if there's no inherent gameplay other than simply reading, the text paired with the visuals just suck you into the game and its characters with gorgeous writing.

i love this game. i bought it at the full price tag, and i don't regret it.

This is a collection of books in the form of a game. By itself, the writing manages to create a very distinguished atmosphere, but Necrobarista takes advantage of its interactivity to immerse the player in its world. It's one thing to read a group of stories about a coffee shop, it's another to read these vignettes while inside the setting itself, right next to the characters that bring the world to life.

The main story is told through what could be comparable to a movie, but one in which you choose how long each cut lasts. You can linger in a moment for as long as you like. Like the characters, however, you'll have to move on at some point. The game utilizes the interactivity of the medium to its fullest potential to create a captivating, convincing world that lets players find bits of narrative by themselves and adjust the experience to their own pace. None of the stories, alone, had to be told through a game. They could all have been animations or books, but the playable experience is what connects them in a cohesive, believable world, aided by the soundtrack and visuals that both communicate a sensation of warmth, like the end of a sunny afternoon. It's a game bathed in the aesthetics of a nostalgic present.

It's this atmosphere that introduces a story about love, loss and acceptance in an imperfect world. Every aspect contributes to a tangible sense of presence in a moment in time. It reinforces all the weight that comes from the "finality" of death.

I was surprised to find the characters so genuine and their relationships so sincere. Necrobarista effectively communicates each individual's personality and worldview through purposeful dialogue that shapes every interaction. The one gripe I have with the dialogue is how awkwardly some of the jokes are delivered. Although rare, it's almost annoying to have to witness these people going on and on about a pointless, unfunny and highly specific bit that only serves to hurt an otherwise tight narrative flow. It's not constant, but it's enough to stick out as a negative (unless you love bad stand-up comedy). If anything, the fact that I still managed to like these characters even after reading two or three lines of painfully unnatural humor serves to demonstrate the quality of the rest of the writing.

Necrobarista is one of the most unique works I've read so far in terms of form. The developers built a cohesive world, utilizing every aspect of a playable experience to deliver an immersive and organic narrative.

Initially, going into this game, I thought it would be good from the things I've heard about it, but I genuinely didn't expect to be so invested and attached to it.

Necro Barista is an indie visual novel that tells a simple story about letting go of the past, moving on, and enjoying your life and everything in it while you still can. With the game having necromancy in the name, I expected a more dark and somber game, but I was treated with a lot of comedy and enjoyable dialogue, to my surprise. The game combines funny dialogue, somber and melancholy themes with unique and fun characters, and it works super well together (almost like a perfectly blended coffee).

The game captures you with its great storytelling and enhances its conversations with great visuals and camerawork. The tone is displayed (and shifted) perfectly with each scene thanks to the visuals and expressive emotions that work really well with the already great dialogue.

And speaking of characters…

Necro Barista has a remarkably unique cast of super fun characters that make the game really enjoyable. Though there aren't many characters in the main story, each of them adds their own uniqueness and has great characters and personalities. In fact, my favorite part of the game is the character relationships/interactions because it's there where the game truly shines, and you can come to appreciate the great dialogue.

Now story-wise, it was a bit slow to get to the main plot, and I did have an issue with one plot hole in particular. Still, overall, the story was enjoyable (especially with the already great cast and dialogue) and sold home the game's core theme, but it was structured a bit weird at times.
Also, the side stories featured in the game were interesting to read, and all kept in spirit with the game's central theme. Despite those side story characters not showing up in the main story or just in one scene, I was still interested in the stories they told. However, some were better than others since one, in particular, did nothing for a specific character and almost felt like a waste of time. I also loved the art style of the game and its music, despite not having a lot of tracks.

Necro Barista was a relatively simple short story, but I loved it. The excellent cast, dialogue, music, scenes, art style, and theme got me very invested and attached to the game. If you're a visual novel fan or just a fan of good stories and even better characters and can forgive some stuff about the story, then I recommend this game 100%. I had a great time and a blast with it.

The presentation is definitely the strongest part of Necrobarista; it keeps you engaged with what's happening on screen and is very distinct from other visual novels I've played. The main story is strong enough and has some great moments, but I think the real gems come from the side stories you find scattered throughout the Terminal, and especially the two main side stories with different characters and their own plots. I found those to be very gripping tales that had little to no fat. They almost made the main story feel a bit weak at times considering how well told they were, which is why the score is a bit lower than some of the other VNs I've played. That, and the game is sort of short for the price you pay. Still a worthwhile game to muse about death and coffee though, especially if it's on sale.

I quickly discovered that the the tenor of the prose and overall narrative style in this is really not to my tastes--Not to any unforgivable fault by any explicable metric, it just has some repeated quirks and a specific tonality that really gets under my skin. Your mileage will DEFINITELY vary and I hope to get over my taste aversion and return to see where it leads ~eventually~ !
I decided to bounce after about 90 minutes, so it feels totally unfair to give this a rating. I'm only writing anything here because it MUST be said that the cutscene direction, composition and flow between frames, and overall visual design/execution here are top class and put other static VNS (or like, most games with cutscenes or "cinematic" aspirations in general) coming from studios with infinitely more resources and manpower to shame. Imagine if the charming but minimal graphic novel sequences from like, Bayonetta/Folklore/Gravity Rush were pushed to their absolute limit and treated with enthusiasm as a space for immense visual opportunity rather than mostly a sleek-ish way to save some development time--that's the entirety of Necrobarista, and it rules to see something capitalizing off a limited style this well. This is a really incredible achievement in cel-shading and kinetic framing and I was pretty stunned by the segment I played!! Im sorry though i just really struggle with the whole snarky slice of afterlife anime urban fantasy thing (Necrobarista feels very kindred with Dead Like Me which is another thing my palate just has complete revulsion to) and the little highlighted words with quippy jaded comments did very little for me! Literally no hate if this is your thing i'm happy for you because what a gorgeous masterful package for your thing to be delivered in!!!! maybe it could be my thing too someday but I need to do some wounded child primal scream regression therapy or something to get over whatever it is i cant stomach about media with this vibe

I wanted to like this game more than I actually did. It's interesting conceptually, but a bit disappointing in its execution. It's quirky and Australian to its own detriment. At many points, it feels unfocused, almost like it needed a rewrite or two. Normally I wouldn't mind weak writing in a game, but this isn't so much a game as an interactive graphic novel. Not necessarily a bad thing, especially since I'd like to make something similar in the future, but I think the writing needs to be top knotch for something like this and this wasn't quite there.

You can't fault its conceptual ambition, though.

From my steam review, almost a year ago.

This game is frustrating and I really wish it wasn't. To keep it simple, the game is not long enough. There's so many things about the main cast that is unanswered in the story that I want to know about, but is completely untouched in the main chapters. I very much believe that this game could use a rewrite.

When letting us into your world, I care more about the main cast than I do a fisherman, or some people playing billiards. Please give me the context and backstories of the main cast, rather than some faceless, nameless beings after every chapter.

I usually hate it when VNs are long, filled with unnecessary scenes... this is the opposite. Necrobarista is short, missing necessary scenes.

This is a very hard game to review since it’s not really a game imo and I’m not big on visual novels. The only gameplay aspects you have is customising the tiny robots you see at the end of each chapter, moving in first person mode briefly to advance to the next chapter and read more background story (I skipped them) and a video editor mode. The last one seems to be editing some cutscenes, but I hardly spent time with it. So I’m not sure if there is more to it. I’m not big on visual novels or reading lots of text but I only have a limited time to try this game out before it gets removed from Apple Arcade. I was hoping the story would be worth it all but even that I found to be on the weak side. The story is centred around a bar that seems to be between life and death. The people who die can stay there before moving on to the real death part. Living humans can also visit the bar to speak with the dead. Then you have a council who collects payment in the form of someone’s life that is measured in time. This all sounds pretty interesting when it’s mentioned like that. But the real focus is on 5 characters at the bar, coping with real death and trying to get rid of their dept. The thing is. The story is boring for the most part and the characters are uninteresting. You mostly see them living their lives, doing mundane things and arguing with each other sometimes. The ending is also pretty bad when you find out that it wasn’t necessary after the epilogue. The game was trying to teach others about accepting one’s time but I’m not sure it succeeded. I enjoyed the 2 DLC stories far more. The characters were more interesting and there was more at stake. About the extra stories, I was willing to read them but I quickly found out it’s dumping pages of text on you. That would just kill the pacing if I end up reading them. The game also doesn’t have a lot of animations and sometimes text is hard to read. The story can be a subjective thing. So others might feel differently. Visual novel fans might like it more. But definitely skip it if you don’t see yourself reading a lot and not having much to do in terms of gameplay.

I really wanted to like this game because everything about it is stylish and slick, but it unfortunately did not land for me at all. I didn't find the characters interesting, and it often felt like the writers were trying much too hard with the different characters' mannerisms. The overarching story was low stakes and felt more like a bunch of vignettes, which weren't particularly interesting individually or altogether. The story segments were bridged with this first person exploration, but it was horrendous to control it with a touch screen, and the game performed like total ass. It was outright unplayable on my iPhone X and I wasn't even able to finish the game until I got an iPhone 12. Avoid.

Necrobarista is a visual novel about a cafe called The Terminal that serves as a stopping point for the recently deceased to spend one last day (and not a second longer) to interact with the living. The Terminal is run by a couple of necromancers who are also baristas, hence...

The main conflict is those two necrobaristas, Maddy and Chay, are too lenient about letting the dead linger past their allotted 24 hours, so the cafe ends up shouldering the time debt that Maddy and Chay will have to pay off themselves eventually. Who collects the time debt? The Council of Death, and they just sent an enforcer to get what they're owed.

As interesting as the premise is (and the game does delve into the mechanical intricacies and lore), it's just a vehicle to have conversations and a spot of philosophizing about mortality, responsibility, and relationships. Necrobarista is a VN through and through. You're just clicking through dialogue boxes most of the time, there are no choices to make, and no actual necromancy or barista work to do.

That vehicle happens to have an incredibly slick filmic flair and a soundtrack that is both ~a mood~ and ~a vibe~.

The character design is obviously anime-inspired, which for the most part works except for some shots that make the 3D models look odd because of how flat some of the visual elements look. Ngl I was a bit put off by it from some of the screens I saw before playing, contrasted with the stunning chiaroscuro of the background art. Thankfully, it all comes together quite well in motion.

Speaking of which, there is actually very little animation in the game. When I said it has a filmic flair, I really do mean it relies heavily on cinematic techniques to convey emotion and build atmosphere, expressed through the lens of genre anime with its slow-panning wide shots of urban fantasy vistas and interiors and dramatic dutch angle close-ups of doe-eyed characters in cool costumes. Kinda like in Wide Ocean Big Jacket, the character models transition from one still pose to another every time the camera cuts to another angle. Animation is reserved for key moments, and these only last for a couple of seconds to really emphasize their importance. It's a stylistic direction I dig.

While the genre anime infusion is mostly effective in the aesthetics department, I'm not 100% onboard with it when it comes to the writing, but not so much that it completely turned me off the narrative. It's just that it still hews to certain archetypes and trope-y mannerisms that I couldn't help but feel was trying too hard, especially knowing that the devs aren't Japanese and have Western (and distinctly Australian) sensibilities that made the adherence to anime stylings... a tad fanboyish. Maybe that's harsh, but I can't shake the feeling that there's a sort of culture clash revealing itself in the dialogue that can be a little too clever for its own good and a pinch too Online™. Also, there are enough typos strewn about that annoyed the editor in me lol.

Dedicating a whole paragraph to that might make me sound truly bothered by that complaint, I know! It doesn't really tbh. I got invested in the main plot and the growth of the small cast. Their honest conversations and questions about the fears of dying, losing people, and continuing living without certain loved ones resonated with me. That precocious kid mechanic/gremlin Ashley charmed me with her earnest, mischievous ways. For every turn of phrase that was awkward (or maybe Australian? Melburnian? (i looked it up and hey it's not melbournian!)) or eye roll-inducing, there's an exchange or a line that had me grinning or chuckling.

And hey, the very last thing got me.

With the mixed feelings I have for Necrobarista, it's only fitting though that I close this out with a mix of praise and criticism for an optional system. There are text vignettes that are half-hidden in the cafe. You spot them as these floating words that are actually the vignettes' titles when you're given the chance to walk around the space in between the visual novel parts. However, you can't read the vignettes the moment you find them. You have to unlock them using these various collectible symbols that correspond to a certain story element like "Melbourne" or "Maddy" or "The Terminal". You get those from picking a limited number of words from a word cloud comprised of the highlighted words sprinkled throughout the game's scenes.

The vignettes themselves are mostly good! Some of them explore the dynamics between two of the main characters, some of them highlight the one-off characters that pop up in the story, and some of them tell complete tales of characters that don't appear at all but exist in the peripheries of the world. These vignettes give a glimpse into the interiority of the cast, reflect on and add layers to the overall themes, and do some worldbuilding to reinforce the game's fiction.

It's just that unlocking them feels arbitrary because of the collectible and word cloud system. There are strict requirements for what collectibles you can use to unlock the vignettes. There's a limit to how many collectibles you can get for the walking interstitials. Knowing which words from the limited word cloud match with the collectibles you need is partly memory-based and partly guesswork. Because of this weird system, I didn't get to unlock all the vignettes when they first became available.

It was only until I finished the game that I got every single one, and that's because the game just dumps a ton of collectibles on you anyway with no effort on your part to unlock all the vignettes. While I appreciate being able to see everything the game has to offer without having to replay the whole thing, the gating just felt unnecessary, and I can't even come up with an in-universe reason why any of this is a thing or how this mechanic ties into the game's themes.

I also bet some of the vignettes would have had more impact if I got to read them in between certain points of the main story instead of reading about half of them one after the other long past the credits have scrolled.

The music is fantastic, and is readily available on a bunch of platforms, so give it a listen. It's a cool collection of dark synth, electropop, melancholic keys, and chill lofi beats to contemplate your death to.

Took me about 5 hours to complete the game, and that includes finding all the vignettes and reading through them. You can probably mainline it in 3 hours.

Your mileage may vary with the aesthetic choices and the tonal consistency of the prose (it knocked me out of the ~immersion~ at times), but there's a confidence in the visual storytelling that you're compelled to see how the next scene plays out, even just for how the camera will frame it, and the writing can be thoughtful and introspective to arrive at conclusions that ring true while also being snappy enough to not make the whole affair dreary. I didn't get teary-eyed at any point like I often do with stories that tackle such subjects, but it has put me in a pensive mood.

I have a sneaking suspicion that if I didn't like the look and music so much, I wouldn't have given this game as much thought as I have after playing it, but I do like giving in to astonishment!

I'm tagging this now because I played the "Walking in the Sky"-Chapter and now consider this game done for me. The main game has a lot of ambition and is beautfully put together (with some minor hiccups along the way) but in the end it falters because it doesn't have the time to explore most of the concepts it touches upon.

The bonus chapter tho? It's the most artificial dialogue I've ever seen, with characters talking for literal paragraphs, but that's exactly what makes it work. Because you can tell these are the thoughts of the writer condensed into a love story, and quite entertaining. It feels so much more personal than the main game, because it's... honest. How it is made made clear to me that some love stories are just there to construct a way we all would like our relationships to go, there to assure us that everything is going to be okay. And I think that's actually quite beautiful.

I wanted to like this game, I really did. The problem is that it suffers from far too much narrative ambition; trying to do too much with what little time it has. It constantly jumps all over the place tonally and attempts to balance three or four different emotional beats at the same time, but with only a few hours to work with it just doesn't give any of them room to breathe. I THINK it's supposed to be a story about moving on or letting go but it spends so much time dawdling in plot cul-de-sacs that it isn't obvious until the game is just about over. The regional humour is just obnoxious as well, I have no idea what you're supposed to get out of it if you don't live in Australia and I think pandering to a country with a population smaller than California is nonsensical.

Necrobarista is probably my game of the year.

This is a visual novel in the purest sense of the word: there's very little in the way of interactivity, you're essentially just along for the ride of this story, and as someone who normally looks for interesting mechanics first when looking at a game, that might have been a dealbreaker here, but the writing in Necrobarista is so absolutely sublime that I just can't complain at all. The character work here is phenomenal, I love every character in this story (especially Ned), and I was absolutely in tears by the end. A flawless game, everyone should play it.