Coffee Please Review (PC)

The aroma of scented candles and a warm frothy cup of coffee is thick enough to slice butter, and I, too caught up in the notion that a high turnaround is paramount to the success of the business, am neglecting the bitter truth that, money forgiving, joy and a wholesome ambiance are the two primary ingredients that make this shop turn on its axis. I have goals, sure — but that isn’t a thing that I simply must capitalize upon; it’s the spiritual journey that comes with the job. And boy, if I had to choose between a frantic headache of a corporate lifestyle and a soothing, somewhat barebones career as a fledgling barista, I’d probably opt for the latter any day of the week. Why? Well, as it turns out, operating a cozy coffee shop is far more rewarding, and Coffee Please has managed to remind me of that, tenfold.

Truthfully, I never had high expectations for Coffee Please — not because it was all rather wishy-washy on the surface and, dare I say, conventionally predictable, but rather, because it found itself in a melting pot that also happened to brew countless other aroma-type simulation games of a similar design. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the concept, but I knew that, given the lack of originality in its chosen genre, I would have to unravel more to keep myself from saddling it with the vast majority of its peers. I wanted it to stand out, but for that to happen, I needed a secret ingredient—an extra pinch of sugar, perhaps, that would elevate its presence ever so slightly. Was it capable of providing an added delicacy? Absolutely. Naturally, I just had to find it.

Midnight Aromas

If you were to strip back the outer layers of Coffee Please and analyze it from a top-down perspective, you would essentially find something of a textbook business simulation model. And not just any run-of-the-mill grind fest sort of ordeal, but rather, a gentle, slightly more forgiving venture with less emphasis on the business side of things, and more on the social aspects, and not to mention the pockets of pride that come from fulfilling small milestones. That, really, is more or less what Coffee Please aims to capture: a relaxing and almost “cozy” experience that, while still relatively tricky in certain areas, can be approached by almost anyone with a passion for filling orders and making small but surprisingly satisfying steps.

Coffee Please isn’t a difficult game by any stretch; in fact, it’s as simple as allowing the player—an aspiring barista with a knack for brewing quality coffee—the chance to develop their own shop, and essentially reap the benefits of their labor in order to—you guessed it—acquire better ingredients and other decorative goods. Is there a storyline? Eh — not really; it’s more the case of, say, if you build it, then they will come. You have a reputation to uphold, for sure, but for the most part, the game itself doesn’t stray all that far from the conventional rags-to-riches format. Simply put, if you’re brewing coffee and unlocking the odd upgrade, then you’re doing the right thing and, in some ways, working towards some form of endgame. Fair enough.

Baby Steps

There are two difficulty modes to choose from here: Relaxing, and Challenging. Regardless of which mode you opt to sift through, the game itself pretty much rolls out in an almost identical fashion: you lay the groundwork for a vacant coffee shop, and complete small orders in exchange for various cosmetics, accessories, and other decorative nicknacks and doodads. As you progress through the initial portions of the journey, you soon begin to gain reputation and additional revenue—two things that ultimately lead to a successful business and, of course, a bustling social hub that spews out more patrons than your average Starbucks. So, like I said, it’s an easy formula that, despite being laden with the usual trappings of a shop simulation game, has the potential to generate a good amount of in-game hours.

Suffice it to say, the gameplay in Coffee Please isn’t too much of a pain in the backside to come to grips with. Naturally, you have the tea-making process—a task that requires you to handpick the corresponding components and brews; and you have the financing aspects—a task that involves returning the correct amount of change to customers, as well as using said financial incentives to further improve the quarters of your business. Sadly, that’s about as complex as it gets — which is something of a double-edged sword, really; it’s easy to digest, but equally as predictable all the same. No major loss, mind you, as the process itself is surprisingly enjoyable, even if, say, you are doing almost the same thing with each passing shift. Even still, it would seem that even the most repetitive tasks aren’t destined to be mundane

It’s Certainly Cozy

In spite of Coffee Please being something of an unapologetic copy-and-paste IP with one too many tropes, there are, thankfully, many, many things that help to provide it with its own unique branding. Visually, the game has all of the appropriate hallmark qualities of a—yes, we’re going to say it—“cozy” sim: warm textures, candlelit spaces, and subtle hints of a welcoming lo-fi ambiance, to round off just a few of its complimentary elements. And that’s great, truly, as it doesn’t pretend to be something it’s not—a perplexing vessel of sorts that favors convoluted ideas and brash mechanics. This isn’t that; Coffee Please is a novel reminder that even the simplest ideas can often be enjoyed without having to compromise the principles of a basic simulation game. I can’t fault that, to be fair.

If you can manifest a solid relationship between your customers and your worth ethic, then there’s a good chance that you’ll find a handful of quality hours in Coffee Please. Mind you, like other coffee-based elixirs that orbit the same genre, the game itself isn’t in receipt of a lengthy campaign, or anything of that sort, for that matter. Alas, if you’re something of an advocate for simplistic thinking and making gradual improvements to your establishment, then you’re far more likely to find yourself absorbed in the process a lot longer than the average RPG-obsessed gamer. Swings and roundabouts, you know how it is.

Verdict

Coffee Please doesn’t exactly reinvent the wheel in the same way that several other simulation games have done in recent years, I’ll say that much. Nevertheless, where it lacks in depth and innovation, it certainly makes up for in countless other areas—its ability to maintain its core functionality without having to resort to cheap tactics or pay-to-win schemes, being the most important part, for sure. Sure, it’s a novel concept that has been squeezed into more melting pots than we would like to admit, but that isn’t to say that it’s undeserving of its potential as a standalone expansion. Yes, it’s one of thousands, but its heart beats the same as its award-winning adversaries, which is enough of a reason to give it the tender love and care that it so rightfully deserves.

To cut a long story short, Coffee Please is, in spite of its frequent flaws, a worthy link for the ever-evolving daisy chain of business simulation games out there. And, for that reason alone, I’m more than willing to give it the marks it deserves. Scratch that, I’m willing to shed a few additional bonus points here, simply due to the fact that you can (and I feel as if you’re putting us in a tight spot with this one, folks) pet the cat. Well played, team. It turns out that cats and coffee combined equate to the best form of warm beverages. Who’d have thought?