While I’ve struggled to find my happy place when it comes to outright visual novels and the like, I have been trying to pause my ADHD-addled mind to relax and enjoy some quality writing in games more often. One series which has typically been reliable for great characters, clever humor, and making an occasional drink to break things up has been the Coffee Talk games. Now having left the somewhat unusual array of characters in that world, the developers have moved into a more fantastic realm reminiscent of many classic RPGs for Tavern Talk.

Unsurprisingly, much of what’s here will be familiar for people who’ve indulged in the previous series. Your job will be to talk up your patrons, get to know them, maybe help them out with some direction periodically, and then sling them a drink or two. This time around your concoctions will involve different amounts of classic RPG traits in place of traditional ingredients, and to go with this change your patrons are a variety of fantasy creatures with different class affinities and preferences as well. The other difference is that by collecting bits and pieces of conversations and rumors you’ll also be able to combine them into quests which you’ll then be able to encourage patrons to go on, even if you may need to load them up with a fitting favorite form of liquid courage to give them some extra oomph. 

What you’ll find though is that your degree of interactivity in the game is really the undercard, with the writing and quite witty fantasy world commentaries being the main event. That’s a double-edged sword though, since the stretches of walls of text to read through (even if entertaining) before having something more to do can get pretty long at times, which can be discouraging depending on what you’re looking for. You will have opportunities to help influence some things, but more often than not this game is ready to run on autopilot, so you’ll just need to be mindful of that fact if you’re looking to pick it up. If you’re a big fantasy and RPG fan who’d love to see some sacred cows get skewered, or at least analyzed a bit in a sometimes modern fashion, this can absolutely be a good time. If, however, you were looking for more of a simulator of some kind, or at least have regular opportunities to stretch your gaming legs, you may want to get your fix elsewhere.