Coffee Talk Episode 2: Hibiscus and Butterfly Review

Coffee Talk Episode 2: Hibiscus and Butterfly picks up from the first Coffee Talk game the protagonist is the sole operator of a quiet coffee shop in a universe where people are isolated from each other. This friendly little coffee shop is a place where we can reconnect over a cup of warm drink with people of a variety of races; humans, orcs, and elves; among others, that learned to live together in harmony. So sit down, get yourself a cup of warm brew, and enjoy your patrons’ stories.

Coffee Talk 2 is primarily a visual novel experience where you, as the barista, will interact with a vast diversity of patrons that will come for a nice chat and warm beverage in your coffee shop. You’ll also be an onlooker at all the interactions between your customers and sometimes might have to intervene. As customers come in, you’ll first have to offer them something to drink. This is where the most interesting and unique gameplay mechanics come into play.

While you’ll start off your days with a list of already known warm beverages, as the game progresses, new patrons will show up with their unique requests and it will be up to you to figure out how to cook up their request without necessarily having the recipe off-hand. This means you’ll “randomly” figure out new recipes and unlock them for easy access. Speaking of requests, some NPCs will also ask you to draw on their coffee for a unique visual design. You’ll have five chances to make your patron’s drink. If you don’t feel confident about it, you can trash it. There will occurrences where you’ll be out of specific ingredients meaning if a patron requests a brew with said ingredients, you’ll need to figure out a different drink.

One of the differences between the first and second game is the fact that you’ll sometime have things to give to specific customers. For example, early on, we learn that Freya, a recurring character from the first game, has left town. But she left a postcard for another regular, Jorji, a cop. When serving him, you’ll be prompted to give him the letter as well.

As with most visual novel games, you can set the text on automatic and just watch as the stories unfold, until it’s time to make those warm beverages. Thankfully, if you miss a part of the conversation(s) for whatever reason, you can always catch up by pressing Y as it’ll show every message of the conversation so you can keep up. It’s also very helpful if a customer requests a new drink that hasn’t been made yet and you need a reminder of the hints of what the drink should be.

Once you’ve completed the game’s story, you can take up Endless modes: Free Brew and Challenge mode. The former allows players to create any type of drink and experiment without any sort of penalty. You can also choose the NPC you want to see and interact with. Whereas the latter requires players to create as many successful drinks as possible within the allotted time limit.

The game looks great yet simplistic. Nothing too fancy, but each NPC is uniquely designed, Each character has a bit of a 16-bit pixelated look which makes it really unique and appeasing at the game time. Obviously, given that you’re in a coffee shop, the environment doesn’t change, but the shop is simply designed, welcoming, and warm… even for a videogame. The soundtrack is another banger filled with lounge-y relaxing tunes providing the perfect ambiance… as if you were in a local, small coffee shop. Thanks to your in-game mobile device, you can switch tunes or even pause the music for a more quiet ambiance.

While’s nothing majorly wrong with Coffee Talk Episode 2: Hibiscus and Butterfly, I’m a bit bummed, albeit completely understand, that there’s a lack of voiceovers. While the text can convey part of each character’s unique and quirky personality, it does feel like having the opportunity to hear them would have an extra layer of understanding. Think of it as sometimes when people text you, it can be easy to misunderstand/interpret certain things. And also the visual novel genre is not for everyone and it’s unfortunate that some might overlook Coffee Talk Episode 2: Hibiscus and Butterfly (and its predecessor for that matter) because of that. Also trying to draw something nice can be clunky with the controller. And if you have no knowledge of coffees, lattes, teas and all these types of drink, Google will need to become your friend if you want to be successful.

Toge Productions knocked it out of the park once more with Coffee Talk Episode 2: Hibiscus and Butterfly. It’s the perfect template for a sequel: use what worked the first time around and add a bit more of variety around it. It’s the perfect chill game to relax after a long day’s work; and it’s definitely the best visual novel game available (alongside its predecessor). Even if have little to no knowledge about warm drinks, this game will not penalize you, but offers reasons to replay it because depending on your customers’ reaction to their drink (good or bad), their reaction will vary. Don’t miss Coffee Talk Episode 2: Hibiscus and Butterfly.