Papa's Mocharia Deluxe Reviews

Thought this was gonna be a chill game like the other one, I was wrong! I keep putting the ingredients in the cup in the wrong order and throwing them out, the customers are getting mad at me for burning the milk during rush hour and when I put their whip slightly off center they give me a bad review, how accurate to a real barista job. (just give me pancakeria, wingeria and hotdoggeria next PLEASE.)

[h1]A negative review by someone who got all 90 achievements in both Papa's Freezeria and Pizzeria Deluxe[/h1] After almost 6 hours of gameplay, I've found my experience on Mocharia thus far to be the worst among the Deluxe games as of this writing, with my predominant feelings all throughout ranging from mild annoyance to a level of frustration that is making me consider quitting this endeavor altogether. As for why, here's an abridged summary: a) Order ticket is confusing and makes it more difficult to multitask orders b) Brewing Station mechanics are clunky by asking you to play both a timing game and a "hold down the button" game for every order, disrupting the flow of order preparation c) The Topping Station is a perfectionist's nightmare d) The rest of the game has nothing new to offer, making the flaws of the new content (the actual "serving customers with drinks and cannoli" part) all the more frustrating [h2]a) The confusing order ticket[/h2] The gameplay mechanics seem to resist efforts at multitasking, and it starts with the confusing order ticket format; typically, you start from the bottom, then work your way up the order ticket. Since I can't attach pictures of an order, here's a list of how a typical order ticket goes in Papa's Freezeria (start from 1, then work your way up): 7) [TS] Toppings 6) [TS] Toppings/syrup 5) [TS] Toppings/syrup 4) [TS] Toppings/syrup 3) [Topping Station] Whipped cream flavor 2) [BS] Flavor and syrup 1) [Build Station (BS hereafter)/ Mixing Station] Cup size and level of smoothness Very straightforward; it very cleanly follows the flow of Building -> Mixing -> Topping, and when it doesn't, there is one outlier, and its location on the order ticket makes sense—right beside the cup size. Then here's a list of how a typical order ticket looks like in Papa's Mocharia: 7) [TS] Toppings 6) [BS] Ice (depends on customer) 5) [BS] Syrup/Powder 4) [BS] Syrup/Powder 1) [Brewing Station] Coffee/milk type 3) [BS] Syrup first (depends on customer) 2) [BS] Cup size 8) [TS] Cannoli ingredients This order ticket tries to combine both tasks of (a) preparing the chronological order in which you make the drink (Brewing Station -> BS -> TS); and (b) the way you combine the ingredients together (Cup size -> Syrup first (optional) -> Coffee and milk -> Powder and syrup -> Ice (optional) -> Toppings -> Cannoli), only to end up with a mishmash of the two and thus failing in both. So now you have to have your eyes scan up and down the order ticket to figure out what you need and what you're missing (oh, and left and right too, because if the coffee is on the left side of the ticket, it gets poured before the milk, and vice versa), which breaks the flow of immersion you can get when trying to multi-task different orders. This is worsened by how there is very little to differentiate between the sections in this order ticket, compounded by how both the Build and Topping Stations use the same icons for ingredients. I can't even write this off as a skill issue because (a) Papa's games have historically encouraged juggling multiple orders in a given in-game day—in Papa's Mocharia alone, you have 6 different slots for brewing coffee or frothing milk, so you can prepare about 3-4 different orders at once; and (b) the order ticket is supposed to help set the pace for the player in preparing orders. A good user interface is supposed to be invisible to the user. If the user feels off about it or finds it difficult to read, then that is a UI problem, not a "difficulty" problem—and it sets a negative tone for the majority of what you're expected to do in-game. [h2]b) The clunky Brewing Station mechanics[/h2] Another negative review on this game pointed out that the mechanics seem to be geared towards mobile play—there's a lot of "holding down the button" that you do in this game, from pouring milk and coffee in containers to speeding up brewing or frothing—which may explain why preparing the milk and coffee is such an awkward endeavor, especially if you're trying to go fast. Essentially: you have a "hit the button at the right time" activity for the coffee before brewing it, and a "hold the button until you have enough" activity for the milk before frothing it, and every order asks for both milk and coffee. This system would make sense in a mobile game—you can use both of your hands to conduct both activities simultaneously—but not with a PC port, where you have to do both activities with your mouse. The milk pouring activity in particular disrupts the flow of order preparation; you have to spend several precious seconds that you could have used doing something else to hold down a button, and the fact that you have to prepare both the milk and the coffee for every order means that you have to play both a timing game and a pouring game, making it awkward to sync the two activities more seamlessly. There is no way of speeding up the milk pouring process, which means you spend several seconds just holding down a button—disrupting the flow of order prep as a whole. At least with Papa's Pizzeria and Freezeria, you could hop to a different station to handle other orders, but not with Mocharia. And to think, this is the easiest part. [h2]c) The Topping Station and the many ways you can achieve a 99% rating[/h2] Although the mechanics are similar to that of Papa's Freezeria, i.e. you place toppings and whipped cream on/in the drink/cannoli you are preparing, the grading system is much more unforgiving, and the in-game guide that tells you what you did wrong does very little to explain exactly how to correct your inaccuracies. This is worsened by how there are many ways an order could go wrong: (1) you could pour the sprinkles unevenly; (2) you could pour the syrup unevenly; (3) the whipped cream could be slightly off-center on the cup; (4) the whipped cream could be slightly off-center in the cannoli; and (5) the sprinkles could be slightly off-center in the cannoli—which you have to add twice. The Topping Station has its own version of these inaccuracy messages, but these are much easier to avoid in comparison. Still—the game offers little guidance on this matter, and no upgrades to make it easier; all upgrades are for the Brewing Station (e.g. alarms to alert you to milk that has finished frothing—but only the milk, not the coffee, limiting the utility of your $90 alarms), which again, is the easiest part of this process. Is it possible to get a perfect order? Most certainly—I have the 30 Perfect Orders achievement, and I'm sure that other people will attest that it’s possible. But it will be [i]despite[/i] the game's clunky mechanics and confusing order ticket UI, not because of it. [h2]d) The game has nothing new to offer compared to previous Deluxe entries[/h2] One of the worst parts about all this is that the majority of your time in this game will be spent serving customers drinks and cannoli with these in-game mechanics and confusing order ticket UI. Outside of that, the game has little to nothing new to offer for those familiar with the previous Papa's games (especially the Deluxe versions of Freezeria and Pizzeria). That's not necessarily a bad thing; I loved being able to replicate the custom characters I had for both Deluxe games, and Papa's games in general are polished to the degree that there are hardly any missing links in the reused assets. But [b]a game that reuses assets also carries the risk of replicating not just their successes, but their flaws[/b]—this is especially true of the Papa's Raceway minigame, where if you fall behind at the start, you are almost guaranteed to lose; and [b]if the new assets are flawed, then the older assets have little else to offer for the more experienced fan[/b]. ————— That pretty much sums up my critique of this game. Will I still get all 90 achievements on it? Probably. [b]But it will probably be to the detriment of my time and energy.[/b] Thanks for reading!

another banger papa game brought to steam. pls flipline release more forever and ever and ever and ever.

I'm an autistic person with adhd and this game is actually such an relaxing game and also helps me work on my memory with the special orders while there is such a fun aspect in making orders and other stuff, i would highly recommend this to people on the spectrum an i hope that more games come out in the future :)

I love this franchise. I sincerely hope Flipline creates more of these games, like the Sushiria or the Burgeria or any of them, frankly! The game is fun, visually appealing, well paced and formatted, and really relaxing.

A new Papa's game??? SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!!! No but seriously, I've loved these games since Adobe flash game days playing on my browser, I wish all the old games were available as well. As for this one, it's interesting and something new as I've never been a barista (no idea how accurate this actually is). I will need a bit to really get into the flow here, but I like the mechanics so far, they fit smoothly together imo.

Interesting choice to give Mocharia a deluxe before Taco-mia or Burgeria considering they're the most outdated but I love Mocharia so I'm not complaining

hoping for cupcakeria or burgeria deluxe next, or another game this year!

Instantly to the cart, love these classic games since I was a kid messing around in computer tech class <3

The first one to be released on Android and Apple Mobile Devices exclusively, its nice we have this Deluxe version, really hopeful for more games to be released every year Just maybe, i know its selfish, can we get two games at release in a year ?