Nothing can warm the cockles of the heart quite like slurping a warm comforting brew whilst telling stories pertaining to personal affairs. After a lovely-if-understated debut, Toge Studios returns with Coffee Talk Episode 2: Hibiscus And Butterfly. Containing new brews, new stories and new characters, Hibiscus And Butterfly is another simple pleasure to indulge in, just like the myriad of coffees and teas you serve to the customers.
Taking place in a rain-drenched Seattle Washington at night, Hibiscus And Butterfly contextually introduces us to the vibes it wishes to set, by illustrating the predicament of people who are trying to survive and thrive in the big city and who are looking for meaning and substance in a fast-paced world that’s distancing them from their realities for the sake of their indulgences towards electronic devices.
The premise is straightforward, but themes pertaining to mental health and wellbeing are made clear, so it’s a fitting introduction as you are about to listen to characters regale you in their stories be that their hardships, their triumphs, their insecurities, their dilemmas and of course, their infatuation with a nice hot drink served by you. After all, you are the barista who aims to please, by concocting the drinks that warm souls and puts the customers on a path of wellness and rejuvenation.
Hibiscus And Butterfly is told in a text-heavy manner, opting to forego voice acting completely. This means that a reliance on reading takes precedent in order to understand the characters, the stories they tell, and their relationships to each other. This will mean that engagement is critical if this sequel will stain the memory like spilled coffee over your best dress shirt. Luckily there are several stories that will linger in the mind, but the drama is generally low-key, therefore not overly eventful. The saving grace, however, is that your actions as a barista will change the outcome of the story. For instance, if you keep making the wrong cuppa for your guests, they may become distant from you, but if you do as they request they’ll be happy for you to keep inspiring them with your creations.
The original Coffee Talk was an inspired experience, thanks to an assortment of personalities that were fantastical and splendidly diverse. Hibiscus And Butterfly carries this forward, by bringing back the gentle hearts from the first outing, whilst sprinkling a few new customers into the mix. Rhona’s blazing blue hair ravishes the screen, though you’ll find out that she’s hiding heavy insecurities as the weight of the world bears down on her. Lucas is another debutante, who has a chill demeanour, and who likes to refer to officer Jorji as “pops”, showing that he admires and respects officers of the law. More new characters would’ve been appreciated to help flesh out Hibiscus And Butterfly further, but it is pleasant that this sequel doesn’t overcomplicate, opting to keep proceedings straightforward-which is the ideal approach.
The chapters in Hibiscus And Butterfly are broken up into half an hour segments, collectively adding up to a game that should take around eight and a half hours to complete. Each chapter is introduced with a newspaper headline and story, but the topics of the headlines feel tangential, as the stories told by the cast don’t touch on the vital issues addressed in a clear and evident fashion. There is a pervading fear of aliens though, which provides light drama in a few chapters during the story regarding Amanda the astronaut and a secret agent, but few of the other headlining stories hit home with as much boldness and success.
Similar to the original Coffee Talk, Hibiscus And Butterfly is a largely passive text-heavy adventure, where your main piece of gameplay stems from the drinks you concoct and serve to the customers. Every customer has his/her/their preferred brew, with a helpful bubble of text often telling you the exact ingredients you need to use to whip their favourite beverages up. At times, they may ask for you the trusty barista, to conjure up a drink that will lift their spirits, so you will need to give additional thought as to what they require, by picking out the ingredients you think best suits their needs. Remember, Jorji doesn’t want milk based beverages and adores his Espressos.
Customers may leave items for you to look after in your drawer, so be sure to return them when the time is right, or use them how you please-just keep in mind if you have possessions that don’t belong to you, you still have free reign to abuse their trust.
If you’re struggling to know what a customer wants to drink, the Brewpad app can help you out in a pinch, showing you the ingredients needed for all the drinks so you don’t get stuck. Coffee Talk has always done a wonderful job of being open and accessible to all players, and Hibiscus And Butterfly carries this ease onwards, ensuring you can serve steaming hot elixirs without the bother a real-life barista has to contend with.
This pleasantness can have a little bit of a downside, however. If you serve the wrong drinks, naturally your customer will comment saying the drink you gave them is not what they ordered. Instead of kicking up a fuss, every character merely accepts what you gave them like it wasn’t a big deal, forgetting about the error made, maybe even drinking the unwanted cuppa. This isn’t a huge issue, but it would’ve been swell if characters reacted differently – though on the flip-side if they got too angry, it’d oppose the gentle welcoming vibes Coffee Talk nails so gracefully.
The amount of drinks you get to serve in Hibiscus And Butterfly are plentiful. From various types of coffee including Espressos, Cappuccinos and Lattes, to teas like Matcha and Chai, as well as a wealth of inspired combinations like The Grinch and Lemony Snippet-there are plenty of ways you can build the best beverages adorned with quirky names and appearances. With the utilization of secondary ingredients like Honey, Ginger, Lemon, Cinnamon and Mint-you can experiment and let your inspirations run wild. Unfortunately you won’t be able to whip up Mochas or Espressos, but there are still a lot of drinks to discover.
If you weren’t clued-in by this sequel’s title, Hibiscus And Butterfly contains you guessed it- Butterfly Pea and Hibiscus as base ingredients to conjure up an array of vibrant and glistening teas. Though only these two additional ingredients have been added to Coffee Talk this time out, their inclusion gives a heightened sense of classiness and an uplifting radiant appeal not found in the original Coffee Talk. Marvel at the florescent galactic glow of the Galaxy Mint Tea, and be excitedly baffled by the decadent Berry Blue Hibiscus “Pie” for these drinks and many others are on a whole other level of luxury.
If you so crave, you can add fancy latte art to your drinks for a meticulous and special touch. Creating the art is a little strange with puffy blobs of milk subtly decorating your drink. The option is solely artificial and there aren’t ways you can further decorate your drinks, but you can spend copious amounts of time making a milky masterpiece.
Other ways to refine your barista skills can be found through the increasingly difficult Challenge Mode, where you need to serve the correct drinks fast under a dwindling time limit. Serve the correct drinks and additional time will be added to the clock, but if you fail precious seconds will be taken away from you. Be prepared to rush like a busy barista on a bank holiday, following the requests of customers continuously until the time runs out. Initially, the orders are easy as you’re told exactly the ingredients needed, but by the time you’ve reached your 50th customer they’ll make your life difficulty by stating how cool, warm, sweet and bitter they want their drinks – begging you to ponder whether any coffee shop packed with customers would be so intentionally vague about their requests like a huge guessing game.
The ambience of Hibiscus And Butterfly may well be its strongest aspect. The jazzy piano music is subtle with bluesy melodies that simultaneously reflect sadness and comfort. The soundtrack can be listened to on the app menu, with songs unlocking as you progress through the game, which goes to show how much Toge Studios value the music they’ve created.
Hibiscus And Butterfly retains the same minimalistic graphic-novel-style look as its predecessor, containing minor facial expression to show how characters are feeling, but there’s little flair to them besides some of the beverages and how they look so pretty. It’s not a great looker then, but it still carries a pleasant motif that will come across as warm and welcoming as the cast.
Conclusion
Warm, inviting and pleasant, Coffee Talk Episode 2: Hibiscus And Butterfly is a wonderfully accessible and gentle graphic novel game with a beautifully well-meaning heart. Changes from its predecessor are minimal, but Hibiscus And Butterfly encourages you to discover an array of comforting drinks, while the cast of fantastical and not-so fantastical characters tell you about their life predicaments, their perils and their successes. Much like a good pick-me-up, Coffee Talk Episode 2 is as easy as you’d like but has space for you to master the fine art of being a top-tier barista in a busy bustling café. The addition of Hibiscus And Butterfly Pea brings a classiness and a radiance that will lighten your day, and there are reasons to replay the story several times through to see everything it has to show for itself. There’s still plenty of room for Coffee Talk to grow and flourish, but this sequel is well-worth diving into if you just want to take a pew, grab an eye-opener and relish in a bevvy of stories.
This game was reviewed based on Xbox S|X review code, using an Xbox S|X console. All of the opinions and insights here are subject to that version. Game provided by publisher.
