Hibiscus & Butterfly, the sweetest drink in the most beautiful cafeteria in video games

Is there anyone who does not like to drink a good hot coffee in the morning? I say no and I am totally suspicious of anyone who rejects this position. In order to embrace the vices of caffeine, I have taken to serving drinks everywhere in Coffee Talk Episode 2: Hibiscus & Butterflythe sequel to the magnificent title from Toge Productions.

What do you wish?

The success that catapulted the first Coffee Talk It was based on creating a pleasant, familiar environment that did not pose a challenge for the player. The biggest difficulty we could run into was finding the drink that the client asked for, often having to prepare it blindly. This time they wanted to further enhance this aspect and add spiciness with a certain degree of intervention on events.

However, you have to set the context. Coffee Talk 2 is a direct sequel of the previous title, so we will once again have characters as recognizable as Jorji, Lua, Silver and Myrtle sitting at the bar of our premises. All of them go on with their lives, be it as video game programmers, with night patrols around the city of Seattle, or exploring the planet. However, their stories have not ended and they return to add more concerns.

As always, it’s time to serve everything they ask us with the classic ingredients such as milk, coffee, green tea or ginger, but two completely new ones have been added, such as hibiscus tea and anchan tea. They do not change in any way the work we have been doing for so long, although they offer a greater variety when looking at the shelves and thinking about which drink we should choose.

Nor does that delicate ritual change, which, even though it happens on very few occasions, is always appreciated. Milk drinks can be decorated like a bartender, although I have to admit that it is a discipline that is beyond my clumsy skills. On the other hand, we do have the appearance of new races, so let’s remember that In the Coffee Talk 2 universe, humans coexist with species from the classic fantasy medieval.

a little spicy

One of them is that of the banshee, represented by Riona, which goes hand in hand with the appearance of Amanda and Lucas as completely new figures. Because we are facing a visual novel, our only task will be to listen to their stories, setbacks in life, and resounding successes. Not only will we find out from their own mouths when they are in front of us, but our mobile incorporates the Tomodachill application that has new functions.

One as simple as showing stories from each of the customers, being able to give our likes and check what they are doing away from the Coffee Talk seats. If we are very attentive, we can intuit clues as to what kind of sensations they prefer to later elaborate the drinks, although frankly it is difficult to unravel. What is much more evident are the themes that she touches on. Coffee Talk 2.

According to the chronology of the work, everything is located towards the end of the year 2023, and regardless of the fantasy that surrounds us, the problems are very similar. Discrimination based on race, constant exposure on social networks, moral conflicts and a whole series of issues with which it is easy to identify. And if this is not the case, of course it is easy to situate yourself in the conversation, since the ideas and concepts that are handled can be extrapolated to reality.

In this urban fantasy Capuchinpunk -as defined by Toge Productions- we can select the background music we want, but we can also do the same with the objects that we will find. This is one of the fundamental inclusions to the gameplay of Coffee Talk 2since it is the only moment in which we can have a direct influence on what is going to happen next.

For example, the influencer Lucas wants to get in touch with Riona, but we can decide if it is better to do it through a fidget spinner or a card with the young man’s information. A drawer collects all the forgotten elements or that we are entrusted to deliver and we must remember that they are there every time we serve a cup. It is appreciated that we have a more incisive capacity for intervention, since nuances can be added to future meetings.

What has been accomplished again with the precision of a Swiss watch is the stupendous visual finish that Toge Productions achieves. Coffee Talk 2 is a delight to play thanks to some phenomenal artwork, in which we have very charismatic characters, with a great presence in their clothes, way of interacting and their own hallmarks. Not a single hit for one of the excellent sections of your franchise.

Not that it was necessary, but it is appreciated that two game modes have been incorporated. One of them consists of an infinite mode that takes the relaxing core of Coffee Talk and turns it into a loop where we simply serve drinks to the character we want. The other branch complicates things a bit more, since we have a limited time to prepare the cup that we are going to serve, depending on the client’s request. As if that were not enough, we must bear in mind that we find ourselves again with a mysterious ending that forces us to relive the game with other decisions.

iGamesNews’s opinion

Coffee Talk Episode 2: Hibiscus & Butterfly It is a continuation of a manual, one of those that does not touch anything on the foundations of a building that was already perfectly built. The only thing it adds is a coat of paint here and there along with requests from the community that are very easy to satisfy. Therefore, we are before a work that fans of the first game won’t be disappointed at all.

Of course, there is a certain handicap when characters from said title appear in a massive way, which conditions newbies. The appearance of a third title cannot be ruled out, but perhaps it is time to abandon most of the characters to show us more refreshing stories. In addition, it is still really difficult to make some of the drinks, since the clues they give us are very subtle and do not specify the order in which we must include the ingredients.

Precio de Coffee Talk Episode 2: Hibiscus & Butterfly

Coffee Talk Episode 2: Hibiscus & Butterfly is available for PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch and PC from April 20, 2023 at a recommended price of 14,99 dollars in its standard version on all platforms.

Duration

The approximate duration of Coffee Talk Episode 2: Hibiscus & Butterfly it is 6-7 hours, depending on the speed at which you read the dialogue bubbles. You can activate the automatic mode, but the text will go slower than with your direct intervention. You can also waste a few minutes getting the drinks wrong, but nothing that significantly increases or decreases the time it will take you to complete the game.