• Price: $17.99 USD (currently on sale for $14.39 until October 21st)
• Developer: Kikai Digital
• Publisher: Ratalaika Games
• Release Date: September 30, 2022

A review code was kindly provided by Ratalaika Games on behalf of Kikai Digital. We thank them for being able to cover something they’ve worked so hard on.

Content warning: Rated T; occasional mention of sex and/or prostitution, indentured servitude, suicidal ideation, and violence. Reader/player discretion is advised.

Caffeine: Victoria’s Legacy opens with a princess named Victoria reflecting on the consequences of war – one of which was the loss of her beloved. This appears to be some sort of dream, as the main character, Taka Knight, wakes up on a plane. He describes himself as extremely ordinary: “you will not find someone more plain or boring.” Taka is going to look for his mother because he hasn’t seen her since he was six years old – when she mysteriously vanished.

Something happens on the plane and you’re told to “believe in caffeine.” Then Taka wakes up and is told that his “airship” crashed in a place called Victoria. He’s naturally confused that he fell asleep on a plane from Seattle, only to wake up from an airship crash. He was found by a woman named Alice, who owns Taka Coffee House – the same coffee house his parents owned before. Taka notices that things are quite different here, from the technology to the clothes to the…coffee? Alice is concerned about Taka’s condition after the crash, so she takes him straight to a coffee house…

Taka then discovers that the people in Victoria take their coffee and caffeine very seriously. Alice brought him to a coffee house to get some coffee to heal any lingering issues from the airship crash. He’s completely bewildered by this concept, but apparently healing by coffee is indeed a thing in this world – as well as coffee duels! In the first coffee duel Taka witnesses, each participant describes the flavors and characteristics of the coffee and then uses those traits in bizarre yet cool elemental attacks against each other.

Once Taka feels better, they return to Taka Coffee House together. He finds out that Alice doesn’t have a barista for her coffee house, and an enforcer comes to shut the place down because it’s apparently illegal not to sell coffee at your coffee house. As Alice’s establishment appears to be the coffee house where Taka grew up, he impulsively jumps in and says he’s the new barista to prevent the enforcer from closing the coffee house down. He gets a fifteen day grace period to get licensed, but he knows nothing about coffee brewing, and the test will also require him to display caffeine abilities in a coffee duel!

Victoria may be located in a steampunk alternate universe, but it’s still 2020. There are rather extreme class differences between the upper class “cuppers” (the cupper class?) and those who live in the East End slums. Victoria has had a royal family and a nobility system of sorts since its founding. Cuppers view beverages like espressos, lattes, and cappuccinos as inferior, and Taka will have to comply with certain standards for the barista test.

Alice sends him to register for the test, and he’ll meet a variety of people with different skill sets there and around town. There are four love interests in the game, and all of them (except Alice) will have a coffee specialty that they can help him with. Alice is very caring and allows Taka to stay/work in her coffee house; she wants to become a renowned pastry chef someday. Oceane is something of a “tsundere” character who I did not care for at first. She is a bit of a coffee snob and works at a more upper class coffee house, so she has the ability to teach Taka the technical skills necessary for the barista test.

Mel works as a barista at a middle class level coffee house that serves espressos. She’s obsessed with a prominent (and mysterious) entrepreneur who founded that coffee house, and wants to become a successful businesswoman someday. The final love interest, Eliza, can teach Taka how to use caffeine abilities. She is wealthy but kind, and knowledgeable yet also somewhat naïve.

Taka’s chances of passing the barista test will depend on your many choices. And whether he passes or not, there are still more significant events to come. Taka discovers that his parents had made some enemies in Victoria, so of course he’ll have to suffer the consequences for that. The story involves a lot of coffee, but due to the importance of coffee in Victoria, there are many issues behind the scenes. Coffee is king, and political intrigue may result in your doom if you don’t tread carefully.

I thought they did a really good job with the world building; characters really explain the political situation and “factions” in detail, as well as the history. There’s a reason that Victoria’s Legacy is part of the game’s name. People show Taka books that tell the story of Victoria’s origins; Eliza tells him a sanitized kid-friendly version, while Oceane has him read a darker depiction. I was impressed that they even included art in these books.

In order for someone to use caffeine abilities, they need to know the stories behind Victoria’s legacy. Caffeine users also need to be able to properly savor a cup of coffee, determine its flavors, and truly understand its properties to use them for caffeine. It seems like using high quality coffee beans will affect the strength of one’s caffeine abilities as well – they even go into the details of how coffee beans are graded.

Because the caffeine abilities were so interesting, I especially enjoyed Eliza’s route, which was the only one to have Taka learn caffeine. Her route also goes into some of the economic issues facing Victoria. I really enjoyed Eliza’s route a lot; her design was probably my favorite, I liked her personality, and there was a lot of great content. Mel’s route was decent enough for me, but I found Alice’s route kind of disappointing.

As you meet Alice first, I assumed that she would have more content and involvement, but her route felt a little bland for me. However, I was pleasantly surprised by Oceane’s route. Like I said, initially I didn’t like her much. But they did a pretty good job with her character growth, and there were some fascinating plot lines in her route. And the game also includes a true ending that is reached by completing certain required routes. I did predict one specific plot twist, but there were others that really surprised me.

There is a lot more focus on the love interests, of course, but that doesn’t mean you don’t get to learn more about the side characters. I didn’t love Yayoi’s personality, but her design was definitely one of my favorites. (I also liked Concordia Stanley’s design.) I liked Sir Alex and Song Eve, and wanted to find out more about them – as well as a girl named Kikumi. Regarding the main character, Taka isn’t a bad protagonist. He could occasionally be a little annoying when he focuses on how he “deserves happiness” and wants to find it for himself, but other than that he seems well meaning.

I enjoyed the writing style overall. This is a 450,000 word visual novel, so even though it has some awkward phrasing or typos here and there, it’s an incredible effort. There were many amusing parody names (“Bruno Moon” the singer) and coffee puns that made me laugh. The writing is complemented by English language voice acting, and there are accessibility options for the text in settings. Even the background art was a treat for the eyes, and there were also small animated aspects included in otherwise static scenes. Kikai Digital really worked hard to balance both the visual and novel parts of this visual novel.

Switch it ON or Switch it OFF? Caffeine: Victoria’s Legacy is a massive visual novel experience. (It’s a “venti” VN! ☕️) I did have some minor technical issues with skipping read text and a random black line appearing on the screen sometimes. Some characters and routes are less interesting or detailed, but the rest of them were excellent and full of intrigue. I thought the art was lovely and the soundtrack was quite pleasant. Where the game really shines is its amazingly detailed history of Victoria, as well as the explanations of its current status. Everything I learned came together to reflect Victoria’s legacy. 8.5/10