Tavern Talk is a visual novel in which you play the Innkeeper role. Adventurers come into the tavern, and you serve the drinks while they tell you about themselves. It is an interesting idea for a game.
Tavern Talk reminds me of other games and mini-games, where you play a role typically reserved for a non-player-controlled character (NPC). It is a very cool idea for a game! While it might be nice to go on quests, there is something compelling about listening to rumors, forming quests, and serving drinks.
This story goes on for a long time. I like most of the characters and side stories. The gameplay mechanics are fun and different from the other games I’ve played. There is something off about all of this. It is like I’m trying to force myself to enjoy this.
TLDR: A great story with wonderful graphics and a very fun idea for a game.
Narrative
Tavern Talk has to deal with an Innkeeper talking with a series of adventurers that come into their tavern. You gather rumors and send them on quests. That isn’t all there is to the game, though.
The game has an overarching story dealing with stars falling from the sky, a flood, and someone trying to end the world. This plays out across the acts of the game. There is also someone who sent a letter to your character. It made me want to leave the tavern and figure this out for myself.
There are a lot of quests in this game. These form side stories told to you by the characters that come to the tavern. It is a fun way to tell a story, but the explanations go on for a while.
The dialogue can be funny at times. I definitely ended up with a few characters I liked more than others. Each has a story to tell, and their characters change as the game goes on. I like that part a lot, even if it takes a long time to get through all of it.
Tavern Talk has several lines of dialogue that break the fourth wall. All of the characters know that they’re in a video game. This makes for several funny moments where they will say something, question censored curse words, or wonder why they can’t buy alcohol, and the Innkeeper will say the “rating system” won’t allow it.
Watching how each character changes during the game is awesome! It is most apparent with Fable. She starts off lacking confidence, and at the end of the game, she is very outgoing. It is part of the game’s story that I very much enjoy.
I do like the story, but there is so much of it. It felt like there were times when the game could have reached a narrative conclusion, but it kept going. This is a personal preference, but I think a visual novel shouldn’t be longer than ten hours.
Gameplay
This is a visual novel, so the gameplay is very simple. You have dialogue options, make drinks, and assemble quests. It works well for a game that focuses on what would normally be a Non-Player Controlled character like the Innkeeper.
Tavern Talk has a ton of characters in it. I get that this is a tavern, and there would be a lot of people going there, but they might’ve overdone it here. These are the characters I’ve encountered during the game:
- Fable
- Caerlin
- Kyle
- Rhea
- Zephir (He changes his name all the time!)
- Chrissy
- Minthie
- Gustav
- Baya
- Una
- Clay
- Grace
- Voyage
- Quincy
- Polly
- Scott
- Quasar
I definitely had my favorite characters in this game. I wish there were more Baya. She is a cool character, and I loved it when she showed up. Some of my other favorites were Caerlin and Kyle. They were just fun.
Most of the game is listening to what these characters have to say. As an Innkeeper, you have to mix drinks for them. There are five potions you can use to make these drinks:
- Speed
- Defense
- Charisma
- Dexterity
- Offense
On top of these five, you can use infusions as well. These give different buffs to the adventures. The game will tell you what you need to use. Here are the infusions I got during this playthrough:
- Citrin
- Honey Flower
- Phoenix Chili
- Fae Crystal
- Frozen Pinecone
- Golden Feather
- Thunder Sage
Those ingredients can be used to make 18 drinks. You don’t need to make all of them, and you’re given a lot of leeway in what drink you want to make. I didn’t find all the drinks. Here are the 15 I got during this playthrough:
- Silent Owl
- Steel Tonic
- Peak’s Sunrise
- First Snow
- Thousand Winds
- Sparkling Nebula
- Southern Brawler
- Sailor’s Courage
- Swift Wind
- Sunny Breeze
- Frosted Lagoon
- Spoken Heart
- Cursed Coffee
- Last Whisper
- Hot Chocolate
You’ll gather rumors and other information by listening to what the characters say. These are used to assemble quests for the characters to go on. It is fairly easy to put these quests together.
The quests need three pieces of information. If you run into problems, you can click the help button, and the game will let you know which three to use. This was very helpful later in the game.
I like the gameplay quite a bit. I wish it wasn’t such a long time between doing these things. Once I found the auto-play functionality on the dialogue, the game went by much better than it was when I needed to click all the time.
Visuals
I love how this game looks. The characters look great, the animations in the background are fun, and the tavern looks good. Everything in this game looks fun.
Each character looks very cool. Baya is my favorite of all of them. Her look is unique to the point that I wasn’t sure what she was. It made a nice contrast to how her character acts in the game.
Seeing each character reacting to the dialogue and other characters in the game is great. It added a lot of personality to the game. It felt like they were all friends by the end of the game, and seeing their reactions to good and bad things was great.
The tavern looks awesome! I got the impression that it has been there a while, and it is filled with trophies and trinkets from the character’s journeys. I also like how the drink mixing station looks.
The screen where you mix drinks is fun. It is easy to tell what things are, how the drinks need to be made, and how each ingredient changes them. The little familiar is awesome! When you make a mistake, you pour the drink into his mouth. He is simply an adorable addition to the game.
I love everything about the way Tavern Talk looks. The graphics are fun and make the game stand out. Each character looks cool, and a few of them would be fun to have a drink with. I could see someone cosplaying as one of these characters.
8/10. I like the game, but I wish it were a little shorter. It has a cool idea, the gameplay is fun, and the story is great. Tavern Talk was a little too long for my taste.
Pros
- Good Story
- Great Graphics
- Fun Gameplay
Cons
- Too Long (15-20 hours)
- Limited by the Story
- Anti-Climatic Ending
Conclusion
Tavern Talk is a long visual novel. I feel the same way about it as I did with The Letter. It is a fun game, but it goes on way too long for a visual novel.
The way this game is set up, you don’t see the ending. It is understandable, as you don’t leave the tavern, but I really wanted to see how they would win. The story is described to you, but something is missing.
This is a fun game. I enjoyed the story, but it took a while for the whole story to play out. It would’ve been nice if I had been able to see how the final fight went.
If you liked this post, please check out my other reviews of visual novels, such as Urban Myth Dissolution Center or Stories from Sol: Gundog.