With a format as established as the visual novel, games now often try to break out of text-heavy storytelling by using snippets from other game genres that help break up the monotony of endless typing through often unvoiced dialogue. Some of my favorite games of this style, VA-11 HALL-A and Coffee Talk, let you mix and make drinks between conversations, and this mix of interaction creates such a unique connection with the game and its characters. Tavern Talk takes that formula and immerses it in high fantasy, but with a uniquely modern and tabletop-inspired voice that makes it one of the most unique takes on a Dungeons & Dragons setting I’ve seen in games.
In Tavern Talk, your humble inn and tavern serves as a gathering place for adventurers, warriors, and pretty much everyone else. Some are looking for rest after a tough battle, others are sharing quests that require party members, and a few just need a refreshing drink and someone to talk to.
On the surface, many of these characters are pretty standard fantasy stereotypes – your pale blonde elves, your burly dwarven warriors, your aloof assassins, and so on – but what makes them all so interesting is that they’re not characterized and written like typical stoic fantasy heroes. Instead, their casual tone and fairly literal adherence to things like the D&D alignment table makes them seem more like real tabletop characters mid-session. It helps them come to life in a much more interesting way, and leads to fun moments where you might see two characters with very different personalities instantly connect on a theme based on their placements on the alignment table – you can even check this in-game in your journal.
When one of these characters visits your shop, they’ll ask you to make them a drink. In addition to general preferences in terms of taste or style, your customers also have stat-related needs that your brew must fulfill, so you’ll need to brew something that increases Strength, Charisma, Dexterity, Intelligence, or Defense.
Brewing a drink isn’t very complicated, and I have mixed feelings about it. On one hand, the simple nature of the gameplay when mixing drinks makes it easier to get into the story and follow it without interruption, but on the other hand, it gets so repetitive so quickly. Although you unlock new recipes and drink modifiers as you progress through the game, your guests will almost always stick with their usual favorites. A more sophisticated version of mixing drinks would make your bond with guests, and the information and rumors they share with you, feel much more earned and meaningful.
Once you’ve gotten enough intel or rumors from various patrons, you can piece them together and post an open quest on your tavern’s quest board for any of your patrons to tackle the adventure. This isn’t as difficult or open as I would have liked, either. There’s not a lot of variety or meaningful experimentation in putting together these quests or the drinks your patrons need before tackling them. The idea of your interactions with your shop patrons culminating in these big quests is interesting, but it already lacks some momentum since you don’t get to experience the quests at all—the lack of challenge in putting these quests together makes the game’s most impactful moments feel a bit dull.
Still, Tavern Talk has plenty of charm and a wonderful world that makes it a worthwhile experience despite its lack of depth. The game is full of diverse, interesting, and engaging characters, and even the patrons I despised for their obnoxious charisma or twisted personalities made for genuinely interesting interactions. The world needs more drink-mixing visual novels, and Tavern Talk is a welcome, if somewhat flawed, addition to this niche subgenre.
