The comparisons to VA-11 Hall-A are so obvious that the game seems to lampshade them itself in the first few days. In order to evaluate this game properly on its own merits, I will not reference VA-11 Hall-A again for the rest of this review.
This game has a really compelling visual style. It has a core mechanic that is subtle enough for the game to be a visual novel yet rich enough to allow the player to make meaningful choice through it. And it completely fails to create a story worthy of either of those. In fact it is so desperate to find a story to tell that it contorts itself into a story about storytelling, and not in the good way. The main character (excluding the player's Barista, who is not a character) is a writer. Two other regular clients are video game developers. The writers of the game have nothing to say about writing or game development; it just seems to be the only thing they can relate to.
And even that must have been a sprint across the finish line, because the characters are as shallow as they are vague. I have no problem with short games or simple games, check out all those kinetic novels on my profile, but the allusion to a depth that isn't there is profoundly underwhelming. Earlier when I said the player can make choices through the gameplay? By my count that is relevant exactly once. The only other attempts at longevity are a challenge mode with frustratingly broken English (developer Toge Productions is based in Indonesia) and an achievement for sitting on a certain screen for an hour because of course. As far as I can tell I saw everything there is to see by the end of my second playthrough.
BUT! I did play through it twice! Which brings me to maybe the main tragedy of this game. In the epilogue it teases a new revelation that I won't spoil which encourages a second playthrough. And makes the second playthrough more interesting. And then.... that's it. What in my opinion is the obvious hook for an exponentially more compelling narrative is actually little more than an easter egg. Toge currently has a game in Steam's summer free demo expo, A Space for the Unbound, which suffers from a similar problem and makes me worry it will be a trend with this developer. They can create characters, they can worldbuild, and they don't have confidence to see it through. They line up their dominos, knock the first one over the wrong way and give up. Whereas the individual customers are expressions of the worldbuilding and overarching plot in VA-11 Hall-A, this game fails because it trie- oh god dammit.
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Miscellaneous other things I forgot to mention when I posted this yesterday:
I found at least 2 moments when you can get a reaction from a customer by serving them the wrong drink, but only the 1 seems to have an effect on the story.
Between the portrayal of the police and the mysterious virus C-plot, I picked either the best or worst time to play this.
The soundtrack SLAPS.
I'm not totally sure yet but I think the subplot about the elf and succubus dating in secret is an allegory for racism?
This game has a really compelling visual style. It has a core mechanic that is subtle enough for the game to be a visual novel yet rich enough to allow the player to make meaningful choice through it. And it completely fails to create a story worthy of either of those. In fact it is so desperate to find a story to tell that it contorts itself into a story about storytelling, and not in the good way. The main character (excluding the player's Barista, who is not a character) is a writer. Two other regular clients are video game developers. The writers of the game have nothing to say about writing or game development; it just seems to be the only thing they can relate to.
And even that must have been a sprint across the finish line, because the characters are as shallow as they are vague. I have no problem with short games or simple games, check out all those kinetic novels on my profile, but the allusion to a depth that isn't there is profoundly underwhelming. Earlier when I said the player can make choices through the gameplay? By my count that is relevant exactly once. The only other attempts at longevity are a challenge mode with frustratingly broken English (developer Toge Productions is based in Indonesia) and an achievement for sitting on a certain screen for an hour because of course. As far as I can tell I saw everything there is to see by the end of my second playthrough.
BUT! I did play through it twice! Which brings me to maybe the main tragedy of this game. In the epilogue it teases a new revelation that I won't spoil which encourages a second playthrough. And makes the second playthrough more interesting. And then.... that's it. What in my opinion is the obvious hook for an exponentially more compelling narrative is actually little more than an easter egg. Toge currently has a game in Steam's summer free demo expo, A Space for the Unbound, which suffers from a similar problem and makes me worry it will be a trend with this developer. They can create characters, they can worldbuild, and they don't have confidence to see it through. They line up their dominos, knock the first one over the wrong way and give up. Whereas the individual customers are expressions of the worldbuilding and overarching plot in VA-11 Hall-A, this game fails because it trie- oh god dammit.
---
Miscellaneous other things I forgot to mention when I posted this yesterday:
I found at least 2 moments when you can get a reaction from a customer by serving them the wrong drink, but only the 1 seems to have an effect on the story.
Between the portrayal of the police and the mysterious virus C-plot, I picked either the best or worst time to play this.
The soundtrack SLAPS.
I'm not totally sure yet but I think the subplot about the elf and succubus dating in secret is an allegory for racism?