Tokyo Coffee: Grinding in the Pandemic Reviews

As someone who lived in Japan throughout the pandemic, and spent most of their social time in cafes, this game is highly relatable to me. I was worried that the perspective would go a bit off the rails but despite some characters early on who seem to be more of semi-caricatures it was actually very relatable and even characters who had views that I personally don’t hold, I can remember talking to people in Japan who did think like that. So for the most part the characters feel very real and the things they complain about sometimes hit on a level I think anyone who lived in Japan during the pandemic can relate to. Any time either of the Go To campaigns were mentioned, I groaned in agreement because I remember seeing those messes in real time. How this relates to someone with no experience in Japan during that time, I don’t know. The coffee mechanics are also pretty good, the idea of grinding intensity changing the flavor of the coffee (as opposed to grind size here in the real world) was a really novel way to gamify coffee making, and brewing the Chemex was really intuitive and the best representation of coffee brewing I’ve seen in a video game yet. I feel it would’ve been cool to add rotating to the pour intensity but I can see how that would possibly be too much. Overall some of the characters hit hard and the setting is dealt with in a really honest way. There’s a certain string of memories you go through that all end in customers holding their heads in despair. The game mechanics are a pretty great representation of brewing coffee in a video game and don’t get too repetitive in my opinion.

[b]Summary[/b] Overall, I liked the game, although it's not without its flaws. For as short and ultimately repetitive as it is, the price feels a bit high when compared to how much more you get with other "bar/cafe simulator / visual novel" titles. With that said, I do appreciate that the devs tried to make a relatively realistic portrayal of brewing pour over coffee, and I enjoyed the time I spent with the game. [b]Positives:[/b] [list] [*] Great vibe - this is a coffee shop I'd like to visit in real life! [*] You make pour over coffee by hand - unique and cool! [*] Different coffee attributes are plausible and match expectations from reality [*] Will cause you to want to make and/or drink a pour over coffee IRL [/list] [b]Neutral:[/b] [list] [*] Story felt sort of middling. Not amazing, not bad [*] Relatively unchallenging, no need to remember customer orders, etc. [*] Quite a lot of typos / inconsistent spelling in the English translation [*] Repetitive - the same 3 minigames over and over (though to be fair, this is to be expected for a "cafe simulator" game) [*] User interface does not support mouse, it's keyboard only - a bold choice, but it works fine [/list] [b]Negatives:[/b] [list] [*] COVID-19 pandemic nostalgia - really?? A bit hard to swallow, for me [*] Very short - only about ~3hrs to see end credits [*] Gameplay ultimately involves nothing more than tapping or holding your spacebar at the right time [*] You only play the card minigame once, making it kind of pointless to include [/list] I think an "Endless Mode" that you could unlock after completing the story would be cool, using randomized drink requests from a wider range of customers. I'd also like to see a little more detail added to the coffee preparation, to bring it closer to real life. And I'm really not sold on the "Pandemic Nostalgia" idea at all, but that might just be my personal preference. Overall, glad to have played it and I hope to see more in the coffee shop simulator / visual novel marketplace.