This review contains spoilers
This game has been on my list for a while, mainly curious by how a game this inspired by VA-11 Hall-A would handle similar mechanics and themes.
Gameplay wise, it is even more basic as you only get to mix 3 ingredients per drink, and not all combinations are possible. As a twist, however, most drinks are unknown in the menu and you must make them first before they get added. This ends up in the puzzle elements coming in occasionally, when a client will ask for a drink with certain characteristics and you must think of how to make them. Sometimes it's fairly fun, but a couple of times the clues given are not great and I'm not sure of how you're supposed to figure it out without trial and error.
Now, in terms of presentation I have a couple of issues. The music fits, but it doesn't stay in my head nor am I excited to put the soundtrack on when not playing. And the artwork has some problems, often with weird anatomy or uneven parts (Look at Freya's eyes). I know this is nitpicky, but it's hard to unsee when these things present themselves. That aside, I appreciate how animated the bodies are at times, and also that there's actually animation for the characters drinking after you serve them, just a nice touch to connect to them more that VA-11 Hall-A didn't have.
But on to the big thing about games like this: the writing. I like most of the characters and the only ones I don't are the ones that appear little (except for Hyde), but I was still able to empathize with all of them. They're all people who live in a world similar to ours, in what was basically current day at the time of release, but pretty fantastical in many ways, yet they have problems we could consider ordinary which is what's supposed to draw us in there. Nothing wrong with the concept there but the allusions to our world are often corny and lacking in giving context a few times, which ultimately makes me wish some more thought was put into presenting it alongside the characters.
There is an exception to what I qualified the characters as for me though, which is the main character, the Barista. I am pretty conflicted on them as they're both a "Link" and their own character themself, but not fully either.
At the start of the game you're asked to name the Barista, and my biggest mistake was giving them my name. They are not a blank slate and have ruined some of the connection I had to the other characters by saying things I would not have said. This isn't something that would bother me normally, but the Barista isn't a fully fledged character either, not having much to their character asides from their words. We don't know what they look like, what they do outside the coffee shop, what their life is like outside of the nights when clients come in.
By comparison, and I don't mean to say copy VA-11 Hall-A, but it has an example of a main character who's her own person and really effective at connecting you to her world, as half the fun is understanding her as much as you understand everyone else.
Now all this is for a reason, and that reason is why this review has spoilers: The twist is that they're a time traveler. We are supposed to wonder and get intrigued by how this comes to happen and what they're doing, but the way this just sort of turns up when you finish the game once and then replaying parts of it reveal a little more dialogue which just ends in Freya going "I know what you are :)" makes this felt out of place for me. I didn't really connect more with anything nor was I satisfied with the outcome, I was just left a little disappointed and less able to relate to the main character. I'm not sure this was handled well, and it's not making me jump with excitement to check out Episode 2 immediately.
I maybe bitched a lot but overall I think the time I spent on this was worth it, and despite some areas falling flat for me, I appreciate they had a vision with potential. Not the most excited to see the rest of it, but I probably will eventually and hopefully it manages to win me over where this one didn't if the time comes for it.
Gameplay wise, it is even more basic as you only get to mix 3 ingredients per drink, and not all combinations are possible. As a twist, however, most drinks are unknown in the menu and you must make them first before they get added. This ends up in the puzzle elements coming in occasionally, when a client will ask for a drink with certain characteristics and you must think of how to make them. Sometimes it's fairly fun, but a couple of times the clues given are not great and I'm not sure of how you're supposed to figure it out without trial and error.
Now, in terms of presentation I have a couple of issues. The music fits, but it doesn't stay in my head nor am I excited to put the soundtrack on when not playing. And the artwork has some problems, often with weird anatomy or uneven parts (Look at Freya's eyes). I know this is nitpicky, but it's hard to unsee when these things present themselves. That aside, I appreciate how animated the bodies are at times, and also that there's actually animation for the characters drinking after you serve them, just a nice touch to connect to them more that VA-11 Hall-A didn't have.
But on to the big thing about games like this: the writing. I like most of the characters and the only ones I don't are the ones that appear little (except for Hyde), but I was still able to empathize with all of them. They're all people who live in a world similar to ours, in what was basically current day at the time of release, but pretty fantastical in many ways, yet they have problems we could consider ordinary which is what's supposed to draw us in there. Nothing wrong with the concept there but the allusions to our world are often corny and lacking in giving context a few times, which ultimately makes me wish some more thought was put into presenting it alongside the characters.
There is an exception to what I qualified the characters as for me though, which is the main character, the Barista. I am pretty conflicted on them as they're both a "Link" and their own character themself, but not fully either.
At the start of the game you're asked to name the Barista, and my biggest mistake was giving them my name. They are not a blank slate and have ruined some of the connection I had to the other characters by saying things I would not have said. This isn't something that would bother me normally, but the Barista isn't a fully fledged character either, not having much to their character asides from their words. We don't know what they look like, what they do outside the coffee shop, what their life is like outside of the nights when clients come in.
By comparison, and I don't mean to say copy VA-11 Hall-A, but it has an example of a main character who's her own person and really effective at connecting you to her world, as half the fun is understanding her as much as you understand everyone else.
Now all this is for a reason, and that reason is why this review has spoilers: The twist is that they're a time traveler. We are supposed to wonder and get intrigued by how this comes to happen and what they're doing, but the way this just sort of turns up when you finish the game once and then replaying parts of it reveal a little more dialogue which just ends in Freya going "I know what you are :)" makes this felt out of place for me. I didn't really connect more with anything nor was I satisfied with the outcome, I was just left a little disappointed and less able to relate to the main character. I'm not sure this was handled well, and it's not making me jump with excitement to check out Episode 2 immediately.
I maybe bitched a lot but overall I think the time I spent on this was worth it, and despite some areas falling flat for me, I appreciate they had a vision with potential. Not the most excited to see the rest of it, but I probably will eventually and hopefully it manages to win me over where this one didn't if the time comes for it.