Tavern Talk Reviews

Very fun, but there's a few things to keep in mind! For instance: During a lot of the dialog/conversations, you'll get asked to make a drink. Stoking creativity or whatnot. For me, as a person with ADHD, this is great! I can think through everything I've been told, and make my guesses so I don't need to sit at one of the conversation screens with a fidget and take my thoughts to wander. However, I know some people who wouldn't enjoy something like this, so keep your minds open to this :) It's not made for everyone, but it's a good game. And some characters annoy me on occasion, but so do people, so it's good character building. Characters aren't always meant to be made for everyone to adore at all times, especially in high-stress situations when they often look for someone to blame.

I love cozy fantasy, and this visual novel is wonderful! The character and drink designs are so much fun, and the story is robust and surprisingly emotional. Highly recommended for the characters and stories that are so easy to fall in love with. I only have one gripe: as the text fills the box, it halts at punctuation marks, so even on the fastest speed, the flow stops at every hyphen, every exclamation point, and every single period in every single ellipsis. It made reading extremely frustrating for me even while clicking the mouse a lot, and I hope that future games have a way to turn this off.

A delightful treat for those who love fantasy VN but do not want a challenging puzzle. Experienced players will easily get the best ending, but in my opinion doing a bad end run is worth it for the fuller picture. The one thing I did miss was having a skip dialogue option, but I'm a bit spoiled in that regard. Otherwise enjoy relaxing, brewing drinks for your patrons, and being regaled with tales of adventure.

I don't usually write reviews. But after my first playthrough, I just had to. I absolutely love this game. It's much less involved than what I usually play, which means it's what I come to when I need to recover from MMOs and the like. The dialogue is deceptively simple, but it has helped me think about what it means to be a good person--how to accept myself and others. How often can you say a game does that?

I love this game so much! All of the characters are lovable and story is amazing! It's just so good!

Consider this as a mid review. I really love the style and setting of this game, but after finishing it, I felt like I couldn't recommend it to any of my dnd friends. It has some great stuff, the setting is great, the characters are all amazing, and the animation makes everyone look more lively. It's unfortunate that the more I play, the less I enjoy it. The main problem of this game is that it's trying to do too much, so it doesn't give you enough space to breathe. Instead of focusing on 6 to 7 characters, it gives you 11, with additional ones that are not even in the notebook and everyone 'references' each other. The facial animation is lively, but in some more serious dialogues, it just doesn't work. The voice effect is intended to create a more ambient atmosphere, but instead, it becomes so distracting that I have to turn on mute. It's doing so much that much of the stuff becomes a downgrade, instead of a bonus. The problem is the same in its plot and writing. Emotionally, I just can't relate when everyone is trying to fill me with every single tiny detail. I also have some issues with the MC's role of being a bartender, but I will skip it as it's not the main point. I know a sequel is coming. I hope the game learns that sometimes, less is more.

This is a really cute and cozy game, I still haven't finished, but I have been enjoying the time with it, for the moment, the story is nice and soft as well as interesting, I love the graphics and character design, the drinks you have to make are really beautiful, give it a chance :)

I really liked this game in the beginning but I'm having a real hard time finishing it, I really don't want to keep playing. It feels more like a slightly interactive movie than a visual novel, it feels as if the choices you make don't affect your own character development. You don't really feel like you're controlling anything. 'Oh, but I like being a background character!' I do to, which is why I wanted this game. I get to be the innkeeper of a tavern watching heroes do their thing, not involved but helpful? NOPE. We are way too involved in the main story, which is what makes the lack of control even more frustrating. The player characters story is so intertwined with the main plot but I can't do anything? FRUSTRATING. I could forgive that though, I would have still recommended this if the "moral lessons" of the story didn't give me the ick. It makes me so mad, I can't believe we have to pander to their mary sue like character. And the other characters have also gotten annoying! [spoiler] "Oh so this is all happening because of your past mistakes." I didn't know staying alive instead of having a meaningless death was a mistake. As if these characters didn't benefit from the help we gave. "You didn't make a drink?" I didn't know my wares were your god-given right! [/spoiler] Things might get better, I don't know. I haven't finished it and I don't know if I will. Right now playing gives me anger instead of joy so I'm not touching it for awhile.

I thought this might be a rather simple, light-hearted cozy game. And often times, it's just that. But especially towards the end it becomes more than that. I saw every ending of this game and every single one pulled on my heartstrings. I even got a little teary-eyed when I sat there and watch the credits go by. Otherwise, the music is great, the design of the characters is fantastic (Baya, my beloved, especially) and I was very invested in all of their stories and quest outcomes.

Consider this a neutral review. There is a good reason there is only 13% of players who actually reached the final part of the story. The game has great presentation, a solid layer of polish and a very nice OST, but it is, ultimately, a visual novel – a reading experience. Hence it will be judged by its story and its characters. And I will quickly highlight a couple major things that affected my relationships with Tavern Talk on the deepest levels. First of all – the drink mixing minigame. I am somewhat of a big fan of making drinks and changing lives myself. That’s why I will probably be losing sleep for the foreseeable future over the design choices of this game. Imagine reading an engaging conversation. Or even better – an urgent brainstorm about saving the world. And partway through it Tavern Talk grabs you by the balls and drags you away. To a place when you don’t even see people you’ve been talking to. To a place where OST changed into default-neutral. And you have to waste time waiting for animations of pouring liquid to finish. I can’t stress it enough. The game sabotages its own experience by taking you away from the events unfolding. Mixing quest drinks is fun, but it is the overwhelming minority of drinks you will be mixing throughout the game. Feels like devs completely missed the point of mixing drinks in similar games like Valhalla – it was meant to enhance it, not actively take away from it >_< The second moment of tension for me was the story itself. I will not go too deep on the topic here, it is a relatively generic fantasy-esque plot that is enhanced by great worldbuilding. But it has way too many plot-threads that come from a mysterious player's backstory (the Innkeeper backstory) that end up plot-defining; but it will ONLY become relevant the last hour and a half of the runtime. That feels out-of-nowhere, unearned and will affect the reader. But the third and most important complaint of mine. Oof. It is a character driven story. And the game introduces 18 (!!!!) characters that are tracked by your journal and a couple of more minor ones. It is an insane cast that constantly fights for your attention when it comes to character-building, backstories and stuff, while having little to none screen-time to actually become truly alive as likeable and relatable personalities. So if you like, let’s say, character A, well, TOUGH LUCK, you might not be able to see them in hours. Their time was taken by characters B, C and Z. You can pretty much see it in the 3rd act of the story; as the events are moving forward, the game has no idea what to do with so many characters. Believe me, you'll know when you spot it. I know that it might not be fair, but having 15-ish hours of reading to cover more than 18 characters was a task that failed rather than succeeded. So to compensate for the lack of personal touch, Tavern Talk relies on dramatic and emotional pressure that might be effective, but does not feel earned. In the end, I don’t think I was too disappointed about becoming part of the elite 13% club. But… Man……. The game felt more like a massive lost opportunity.