The coffee-as-visual-novel trend in video games is largely due to Coffee Talk. Announced back in 2018 and then released in 2020, a year when everyone was looking for the effortless human connection that comes from hanging out at their favorite coffee shop, Coffee Talk stripped away a lot of the typical gaming elements and offered a low-stakes experience. And people loved it. It spawned a sequel in 2022, Coffee Talk Episode 2: Hibiscus and Butterfly , and now it’s back with another installment, this time set in Tokyo.
As reported Noisy pixelThe latest Coffee Talk was announced on August 27 as part of Indie World Show, Nintendoevent to announce up-to-date titles coming to their indie platform. Slated to launch in 2025, this is the first time Coffee Talk has left its hometown of Seattle and headed to the nightlife paradise of Tokyo.
Coffee Talk Tokyo is set in a coffee shop in the back of a skyscraper. It features all sorts of fantasy creatures living together and interacting with each other. Humans, sprites, orcas, sea creatures, vampires, aliens, you name it. You play as an imperceptible barista, chatting with customers and trying to understand their drink orders (they aren’t the most decisive or open-minded). It’s all very low-risk and very laid-back.
According to Clamorous Pixel, a game developer Toge Productioncollaborated with an independent game publisher Choir around the world to revive Coffee Talk Tokyo, and is set to launch on Nintendo Switch next year. It has not yet been announced whether it will also be available on Steam, where the original Coffee Talk premiered.
While Coffee Talk may not necessarily be everyone’s cup of tea in a video game — I need a goal in my game, a mission to complete, or a puzzle to solve — and the solitude that helped make the original game so popular could be replaced by a return to “normal life,” it’s still a worthy endeavor. No need for complicated gameplay mechanics or convoluted plots. Just coffee and conversation with both humans and nonhumans.
