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On May 21 2026, indie game developer Chorus Worldwide Games released the newest installment in the Coffee Talk franchise to the world: Coffee Talk Tokyo. This game puts players into the shoes of a coffee barista in Tokyo as they spend half a month serving drinks to a variety of characters and listening to their life stories. With a handful of ingredients and an open ear, a good barista can change a person’s life. So, is this game worth checking out, or should gamers visit a different dive instead? Let’s dissect the game piece by piece and make the decision for ourselves!
Satisfying Drink Brewing
The main gameplay loop of Coffee Talk Tokyo consists of listening to customers talk about their problems, taking a drink order, and selecting the right ingredients to make the right drink for the situation.
Each drink is made of three different ingredients that the player can choose to brew into either a hot or cold beverage. Depending on what you brew together, you may end up with either a special named drink or just a bundle of liquid.
By giving customers the correct drink, the player’s friendship with them will increase. While this might not seem to do much at the moment aside from unlocking more of their profiles in your phone, it’s actually directly related to the game’s endings.
Giving customers the correct drinks might not seem to do much in the moment, with even their dialogue remaining the same after the initial surprise on most occasions, the player will be able to notice subtle changes in their moods as the game goes on. Whether this be from them making friends with the other customers in the bar or them simply being able to think things through with a clear head, thanks to your beverage, your small actions do matter for these people.
While listening to the characters talk about their lives is the main appeal of the game, it is hard to deny that there is a feeling of joy and excitement whenever a customer asks for a drink that you don’t know the recipe for or asks for a specific type of flavor, requiring you to experiment with the ingredients you have on hand.
Don’t let the amount of time I spent talking about how fun brewing drinks understate the appeal of those character stories though, the reason one plays Coffee Talk Tokyo is because they want to talk to this game’s colorful cast of characters and learn exactly what makes them tick.
Creative Character Stories
Seeing a newcomer slowly transition into a regular customer as you figure out exactly what kind of drink they like or watching a character who is already a regular figure out what direction they want their life to take are the highlights of the game. Seeing your favorite characters walk into the shop again will always bring a smile to the player’s face.
Customers whose stories I thought were highlights of the game included Erika, a genius young fox girl who is having difficulty making friends at school, and Jun, a blind musician who has been struggling with creative issues lately. Both characters are not just interesting in their own right, but also amplify the stories around them as they have excellent character interactions with other customers and push their plotlines along.
Jun’s relationship with Kenji in particular is worth highlighting as it tells a compelling story about regretting events that, while beyond your control, you can’t help but regret and how that can affect the way you see the world.
One of the best parts of the game is the inclusion of an in-game social media known as Tomodachill. Each customer who visits the coffee shop has their own account on this platform and makes new posts that the player can read each day, and occasionally mid-way through the day.
While the player cannot interact with this feature aside from reading posts, I truly appreciate this feature as a way for the game to portray the world beyond your counter. The lives of your customers do not begin and end when they enter and leave your shop. Events you couldn’t possibly see through the game’s format, such as Erika winning at the science fair or Makoto hanging out with Jun, can be glimpsed at through this feature.
Aside from giving the player a glimpse into the lives of characters, Tomodachill is also very useful for gameplay purposes, as the player can learn several drink recipes by reading through posts on this platform. With how vague some customer orders can be later in the game, learning recipes like this can be a lifesaver.
While plenty of the characters’ stories are fully developed, a few of them feel underbaked. Either due to a lack of appearances (thus leading to less opportunity to serve them drinks) or because a regular’s story didn’t feel fully realized. Sadly, one story in particular that fell flat for me was Fuku’s, despite loving her design.
Fuku’s story has an interesting hook of her initially helping the ghost Ayame, both because she wants a promotion and has a genuine desire to help people, but sadly, this doesn’t really develop beyond her initial explanation of her motive. Ayame herself gets plenty of development to the degree that I would consider her plotline to be one of the main two of the game (Vin’s being the other), but sadly, Fuku just doesn’t get much in her conversations.
Now, it would be far from professional for me to complain about the game’s LGBT content in a game that already has excellent nonbinary representation in the form of VIn, but I couldn’t help but feel a bit baited by how often Fuku and Ayame flirt with each other (to the point of Ayame calling Fuku a tsundere), yet no relationship ever emerges there. Combined with the fact that the only other lesbian in the game, Yuki, has her storyline centered around how her wife is dead, I couldn’t help but feel a lack of representation for my identity in particular in this game.
Beautiful Presentation
Visually, Coffee Talk Tokyo is a very beautiful game. The player may only be staring at a single background the entire time, but the sprite work of the customers, the ingredients you use, and the drinks brewed from them are absolutely beautiful.
What really makes the visuals of this game shine are the small details. Each character’s expressions and the ways they interact with their drinks and those around them allow their personalities to shine through at all times.
One of my favorite visual details is how one of your regular customers, Kenji, doesn’t typically drink coffee through his mouth. Because he is a kappa, he instead pours the drink on his head.
Details like that are a dime a dozen in this game. From start to finish, I loved looking at the way each ingredient was drawn during the brewing process and found my attention constantly kept by small details like the shadows of people walking by the window.
If there is any complaint I have for this game’s presentation, it would be the soundtrack. Or rather, how the soundtrack is used. While all of the music is good, I have never been a fan of how this genre of the game relies on shuffling a playlist of music instead of playing or looping a chosen song for a story moment.
As a result, I felt the most moving moments in the game were either when the soundtrack stopped entirely or when Jun brought out his guitar to play one of his songs. I much prefer when the music I’m hearing is curated to the moment instead of shuffled through various relaxing tunes.
Closing Thoughts
Overall, I quite enjoyed the time I spent playing Coffee Talk Tokyo. With the main story taking only about ten hours to complete, it is a game that doesn’t overstay its welcome and will keep the player wanting more. While I do have some issues with a few characters’ stories feeling underdeveloped, the stories that I did find great kept me entertained from start to finish.
Coffee Talk Tokyo
Bottom Line
Coffee Talk Tokyo is a great game for those who want a relaxing visual novel experience. While some character stories within feel underdeveloped, the game's beautiful visuals and the central characters of the game will keep readers engaged from start to finish.
