Coffee Talk Episode 2: Hibiscus and Butterfly – Review
In 2020, Toge Productions will release the sequel to their relaxing café simulator, Coffee Talk, titled Episode 2: Hibiscus & Butterfly. In this game, players put on the apron of a barista and serve patrons of the late-night café Coffee Talk. Returning to the fantastical Seattle of the first episode, where orcs, elves, and vampires frequent your establishment several years after the events of the first episode. In addition to returning customers from the first episode, various new characters with their own unique stories and problems are introduced in the second episode.
Coffee Talk is mostly a story-driven experience with some drink creation and player participation thrown in for good measure. Episode 2 has players serving drinks to a wide variety of customers, from long-time Seattle residents to out-of-town visitors. Most of the audience for a sequel consists of repeat customers and regulars, but there are also some new faces to meet.
Whether they’re there to meet a friend or to get out of the weather, almost all of Coffee Talk’s customers are there for the same reason: to have a nice discussion over a hot drink. The player spends the entire game behind the bar, serving drinks and chatting with a wide variety of customers. While many of the same coffees and teas are available in the sequel as they were in the first episode, the menu has been expanded to include Butterfly Pea and Hibiscus teas, giving players a wider selection of vibrantly coloured beverages to try.
People that frequent your café for a cup of coffee and a dose of perspective will become familiar faces as you, the owner and head barista, strike up conversations with them about their life. New faces join the regulars at the café in Episode 2; among them are Riona, a banshee with operatic aspirations, and Lucas, a self-improvement-obsessed satyr with a lot of influence. As you start up a discussion with them over a hot drink, you learn more about each persona. People seeking shelter from the persistent thunderstorms outside or from their own personal burdens can find it in the café, which serves as both a gathering place and a safe area.
The text-based dialogue, despite the occasional grammatical error, is beautifully written and does a fantastic job capturing each character’s unique personality, from the witty musings of brooding vampire Mr. Hyde to the cheery remarks of pop-star nekomimi Rachel. There is no room for improvisation or choice during conversations. The actual process of creating the drink is where much of the player decision-making takes place.
Relationships with consumers can be strengthened or weakened depending on the drinks offered. Things clients leave behind or offer you for various reasons might be kept in the drawer. There are multiple possible narrative consequences for individual characters depending on who you choose to give these objects to.
You may make a wide variety of hot drinks by blending various coffee and tea varieties with honey, milk, lemon, and other flavours. If the customer provides a flavour profile and any other parameters, you will need to use your best judgement to come up with a solution. Honey and ginger, for instance, would be great additions to a sweet and spicy cocktail. Latte art is a method of decorating milk-based drinks with the aid of pouring and etching utensils. Even though the novelty of latte painting quickly wore off, it was nice to have a different way to connect with the game during the brief gameplay intervals.
Despite the fact that most drink orders are simple to deduce, you only have a certain amount of chances to throw out and re-brew drinks to make sure they are perfect. You can access these recipes using the Brewpad app in your in-game smartphone, where you can also adjust the background music playing in your coffee shop and learn more about your customers through the social media app Tomodachill. If you make a fool of yourself after one too many drinks or just want to try again with a certain topic, you can always start over from the beginning of the day or a prior save. By pressing the fast-forward button, you may easily skip over previously-seen speech, speeding up subsequent playthroughs.
On occasion, you’ll need to improvise a recipe using the ingredients you have on hand, which will require some trial and error. I appreciated the brief excitement of making a drink that looked interesting, but I had hoped to have more chances to do so throughout the campaign. After beating the main quest for the first time, you’ll unlock Free Brew mode and be able to experiment with recipes and expand your options. The game’s Challenge Mode puts players to the test with timed objectives like making specific drinks for specific customers.
Episode 2 of Coffee Talk continues with the same pixel art style inspired by anime and features an expanded soundtrack by composer Andrew Jeremy. The sounds of rain and thunder match the soothing lo-fi music, creating a warm and enveloping atmosphere in the coffee shop. Even though I had a great time learning about the fascinating backstories of each character, it was the music that stayed with me long after the lights went down.
After completing the main storyline, players are urged to play through the game again to see all of the possible conclusions. In addition to the main game’s Free Brew and Challenge Mode modes, many post-game features, such as a photo gallery and a list of achievements, are unlocked.
In Coffee Talk, the protagonists are non-human creatures who face very human problems and resolve them over a cup of espresso rather than professional therapy. In spite of their snarkiness, I really enjoyed reading about such a varied cast of individuals and learning what drinks they liked to pair with their stories. Coffee Talk’s touching storyline explores universal social challenges via the lenses of transformation, dialogue, and agency, including overcoming prejudice and finding community.
The second episode of Coffee Talk captures the spirit of lingering conversations with good company over steaming mugs of joe. Players who enjoyed the first episode and are hoping for more of the same will be pleased to know that not much has changed between episodes. While the gameplay remains unchanged from the original, the sequel adds enough new recipes and stories to please both seasoned baristas and newbies.
