(Mohammad) Fahmi, prominent Indonesian developer and creator of the Coffee Talk series, What Comes After, and Afterlove EP, sadly passed away last year. His legacy will live on in many ways, including these works of art.

• Price: $14.99 USD
• Developer: Toge Productions
• Publisher: Chorus Worldwide Games
• Release Date: April 20, 2023

A review code was kindly provided by Stride PR on behalf of Toge Productions and Chorus Worldwide. We thank them for being able to cover something they’ve worked so hard on.

Coffee Talk (2020) is one of my favorite games on Switch (and it happens to have a demo, if you haven’t played it yet). I recommend playing the first game for sure. There’s something to be said for a short but sweet storyline with a relaxed atmosphere. I’d been hoping for a sequel because of how much I’d enjoyed the first game, and the coffee gods have answered my prayers with Coffee Talk Episode 2: Hibiscus and Butterfly. I’ve had excitement “brewing” in me ever since the sequel was announced, so I will admit to being somewhat biased towards the series. Let’s see if they “got the order right” with this sequel.

As was the case in the previous game, the setting is an alternative fantasy version of Seattle. Again, you’ll run a café called Coffee Talk. Your customer base consists of a satyr, banshee, vampire, and more. The café is unusual in many ways; it stays open late into the night, and people come in not only for the drinks, but for the company.

The Coffee Talk series is essentially a sort of “slice of life” type of thing – you get to know your customers and learn what’s going on in their lives, and they also support each other by giving advice and encouragement. While there is a Free Mode to practice making drinks, and an Endless Mode to challenge yourself, the main draw of the game is its story.

The story takes place across 15 days. Both new and old faces will come into the café, but they all order something to drink. In the first game, the drink menu was more concise. It offered coffee, green tea, tea, chocolate, and milk drinks. This includes all of the menu options from the first game (plus some extras in those categories), and they added lovely new hibiscus and butterfly pea/blue pea teas to the mix.

It was cool to see drinks from different countries, with some from Indonesia, Malaysia, Yemen, and more. Each customer has their own drink preferences; for example, Jorji is lactose intolerant and doesn’t drink anything with milk. Sometimes a customer will tell you exactly which drink they want, but other times they’ll just give you a description of some ingredients they’d like. It’s up to you to get it right!

If you are unfamiliar with Coffee Talk, you have your base ingredients like coffee or tea, then secondary ingredients like honey or ginger. Each drink recipe consists of only three ingredients. Key recipes are added to your recipe list after you make them, but you can also make drinks that aren’t part of that list. There’s no wrong combination of ingredients, but there are correct drinks to give the customers.

The game has an extras section with an art gallery and achievements; you’ll see normal, good, or best endings for a character depending on whether or not you got their orders right. They also added a new function where you can give customers items that they lost or that another customer asks you to give someone. I believe that also affects the ending you’ll see.

Regardless of what drink you serve, they’re all beautifully illustrated. I actually do not like to drink coffee or tea I know I’m a heathen I’m sorry but the drinks here sure look inviting and appetizing! You can even add some latte art to some drinks, which is a nice feature even if the art is not as precise as it could be. I loved the larger variety of drinks, but it could have been interesting if the café also had a limited pastry menu. A few customers even mentioned the lack of food, and one even left at one point to go get food elsewhere. The low stress environment is great – it’s just that it could have been neat to have food offerings too.

None of the customers really have any major complaints about the café though (and I don’t have many issues with the game either). They all find it very relaxing and feel like they can open up to people there. I was so happy to see more from the characters I met in the first game. Their stories continue in Coffee Talk Episode 2. Just like in Coffee Talk, customers come in for drinks and find themselves befriending complete strangers as they talk about their struggles. Most of the conversations are on the personal side, but there are some mentions of the sociopolitical landscape here and there to flesh out the world more.

Characters will discuss what’s happening with their friendships, their love lives, and their jobs. Thankfully, none of it is life or death, and none of it reaches reality TV levels of drama. It’s all about everyday struggles and learning how to overcome them. The storylines are low-key yet charming. You’ll learn about your customers directly from the source in your café, but you’ll also get brief glimpses into their lives on the social media app.

What’s great to me is that once again, all of the characters are likable. I was unsure about newcomer Lucas (the influencer satyr) at first, but I ended up liking his character. Another new customer was Riona, a banshee who dreams of becoming a singer – I really liked both her character and her design. Aqua, Gala & Hyde, and Rachel are among the returning cast members, and they’re some of my favorites as well. (If you play your cards right, you may even see a fun cameo courtesy of Spooky Doorway and Akupara Games…)

I think it’s pretty difficult to come up with this many likable characters in one game. The writing, the art style, and the way they animate the characters’ expressions and gestures all contribute to what makes them great to me. The background details, like Rachel’s albums on the shelves, help tie everything together too. 60-hour JRPGs are a lot of fun, but sometimes you just need to sit back, relax, and play something soothing and shorter like this. I did wish some of the days were a little longer, and I wanted to see Aqua a bit more, but I definitely enjoyed my 6-7 hour play time a “latte.” 😉

9/10