Coffee Talk Episode 2: Hibiscus & Butterfly Review (PC)

Finally, someone is actually ordering straight-up coffee in this coffee shop. No more wondering about vague suggestions of blending warmth with happiness and color. No more having to worry about their polite but clearly disappointed reactions when I don’t actually deliver what they want. The cop wants straight-up caffeine with a chaser of caffeine.

I punch three coffees into the machine and get ready for him to be satisfied and to tell me another story about cars, vandalism, and, possibly, ghosts. A part of me wants to suggest a few fantasy races that might be responsible for his troubles. But my barista’s lines are pre-determined, so I only reassure him and hope that other regulars might add context.

Despite the many ingredients available for use in my complex yet streamlined brew machine, most of my coffee shop activity involves active listening. No money changes hands. No one is too bothered by the quality of their order. They just want to spend time with friends in the presence of a neutral third party that can hear them out and, sometimes, gently suggest how they might approach a particular situation.

Coffee Talk Episode 2: Hibiscus & Butterfly is developed and published by Toge Productions. I played via Steam on the PC. Versions are also available for the Nintendo Switch, the PlayStation 5, the Xbox Series X and S, and older devices from Microsoft and Sony. The title simulates the life of a barista, with an emphasis on social interactions with a good cast of characters.

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The sequel keeps the setup unchanged: Seattle, late-night coffee and now tea shop, and plenty of fantasy races thrown in. Players take on the role of the owner and only employee (a lot of automation is probably helping in the background) and a cast of characters rolls through, getting their favorite beverages and talking about their lives and the world around them.

Some faces will be familiar to those who played the first episode, while others are new. Conversations also seem to serve as a sort of impromptu therapy for many of them and touch on a wide variety of ideas and situations, some clearly drawn from our world.

Given how much the player barista listens to them and even tries to improve their situation, the game should show them giving out some generous tips. There’s a lot of writing in the game and the quality is high, managing to capture the personality of the cast and point toward their emotional troubles without becoming saccharine.

There are branching paths to the various stories but I wouldn’t worry about the at first. Just watch what’s happening and think about how to best serve certain items alongside drinks. The game makes it relatively easy to try again and to aim for different endings.

It’s clear from the game’s opening scenes that despite the openness and kindness of its setting, smoking indoors is both legal and socially accepted. That, alongside the types of conversations that the barista extracts out of customers, makes me think that the entire experience would function better if built around a bar than a coffee shop.

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It's also weird that money is mentioned in the game but the barista does not seem to get paid. Coffee Talk is centered around conversations, with limited gameplay built around ingredients and drinks. As the name makes clear, there are more options to work with, but the core process is simple and familiar. Listen to the customer, select the base for a drink, add milk and other bold flavors to make it special, and then serve. Optionally, add an item to an order to influence narratives, or make some latte art to impress.

The game serves up a variety of orders, some clearly spelled out, some vague, and it feels good when you deliver exactly what a character is expecting. The game also managed to show off some very interesting tea-based drinks that I’ve never heard of before and might actually try to order.

To discover the many drinks in the database, go into the endless mode and choose creative. It’s fun to try out ideas and evaluate the results. The same mode also allows players to challenge themselves when it comes to execution, delivering the best drink to a never-ending stream of customers.

Coffee Talk Episode 2: Hibiscus & Butterfly is relaxing and engaging. The characters work and interact in fun ways. I like to see them work through their issues, despite the relatively low stakes, while offering a sympathetic ear and the space to unpack what they can and should do.

The game could have done more with its alternate reality setting. I like the various fantasy races and how some common tropes get tweaked. But the characters often feel disconnected from their world as depicted in the morning papers.

Coffee Talk Episode 2: Hibiscus & Butterfly is a great-looking example of how pixel art can add to a narrative. All the characters have a lot of small details that show off their personality and add to the lore of this fantasy world. The moments when the intensity of the conversation requires a change in perspective are also well handled.

The graphics suggest coziness and the sound design adds another layer to that. There’s no voice work in the game and I quickly grew tired of the tap tap tap associated with text flowing across the screen. But the ambient sounds and the soundtrack work hard to add to the chill vibe and to give players the space required to focus on emotions.

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The Good

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