Disney Villains Cursed Cafe Review ( PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, Switch, and PC)

Visual novels have been around for a while. However, Coffee Talk is the first to popularize the cozy cafe brewing and heart-to-heart talking simulator. It’s an indie visual novel game whose stories were a lot more than surface-level chit-chat. They go deep, revealing hidden mysteries and a lot of heart. Every customer brought their own personality and storyline that felt like curling up with a good book. And whether your choices while serving them coffee led to bad or good outcomes, you’d always feel the nudge to return for a refill. 

Perhaps owing to Coffee Talk’s rampant success, Disney has jumped in line with their very own visual novel. Just like Coffee Talk, you’re given your very own potion cafe to serve a bunch of Disney villains. And in turn, for your service, they entertain you with their stories and modern ambitions. Some gamers, though, are already calling it a rip-off of a truly unforgettable indie game that was able to break the mould in visual novel history. Others are head over heels for the chance to, once again, meet and interact with their favorite Disney villains. 

In any case, at $14.99, you likely are curious to know what’s on offer and whether it’s all worth your time and money. So, come along while we comb down everything you can expect in our Disney Villains Cursed Cafe review below.

Duty Calls

Disney Villains Cursed Cafe wastes no time jumping into its story. It’s, after all, a visual novel whose main focus is unraveling a presumably compelling story. You’re apparently looking for a job, a bit desperate, too, that when the first opportunity falls on your lap, you take it without question. Said opportunity has you working as a barista. Well, a “Potionista,” to be precise, brewing potions rather than coffee. 

Your boss, Mr. Magus, is missing upon arrival at your place of work, revealing the first mystery you’ll be trying to figure out. He’s left you a magical book, though, that you’ll be using to find your way around the cafe. Also, taking you through the orientation as a Potionista is none other than Ursula, the Sea Witch. A little preamble here and there, like what your day-to-day entails, your customers’ needs, and so on, and you’re good to go. 

Never Too Serious

Disney Villains Cursed Cafe’s UI is very intuitive. You should easily find the menus to click and the next breadcrumb to follow. Throughout, you’ll unravel the story via dialogue between the game, yourself, and your customers. I would have loved the setting to enlarge text as you can sometimes squeeze your eyes to read through them. Given how much reading there’ll be, it’s a shame you cannot tweak the settings to your preferences. To soothe this, though, is the loveliest background music that shifts based on the story moments and explorative bits. 

The dialogue prompts themselves funnel most choices down to the nonchalant, the curious mind, or the funny option. Often, the prompts surprise you with their witty vibe, charm, and creativity. So, despite the predictable choices, you still enjoy reading through them to pick the best fit. Also, Ursula, the Sea Witch, and more villains to come have witty dialogue, too. Theirs is the most entertaining given the background we already know of these villains. They often sneak in their infamous personalities with their snarky comments and overall aura. It’s a whole load of fun chatting up these flamboyant greatest villains in Disney history. 

Brave, New World

The moment you start brewing potions for the villains is when the story truly takes off. There’s, of course, the mystery behind the disappearance of Mr. Magus. However, the mystery unravels halfway through the story. Upon discovering the mystery, there’s not much you can do about it. It then takes a backseat to the villains’ trajectories. Sometime in the end, Mr. Magus’ mystery returns, but by then, even your character is annoyed at the lengthy time it takes to build up. 

Fortunately, the villains themselves make up for any lags in the story. Each villain has their own storylines geared toward conquering the modern world. And no, not in the sense of launching nuclear weapons and orchestrating apocalyptic devious plans. These villains chase after goals much like our own like becoming popular influencers, rich, etc. Gaston from Beauty and the Beast wants to impress his golf bros. Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty wants to dominate social media. Ursula from The Mermaid just can’t wait to become a reality TV star. 

Every villain has reassessed their priorities in the modern world and wants to be the best at whatever they are most interested in or their personalities attract them to. 

Chime in, Lad

It all comes with a twist. Said villains, however powerful and feared, ultimately need your help navigating the modern world. And not just navigating but brewing them potions that give them an extra edge. You do so via chatting them up at the cafe bar as they make their orders. Based on the secrets they reveal about themselves, you choose the right potion that would help them find their true path. But you can always brew them an alternative potion. This would be based on your own assessment of what the villain might need but can’t see yet. 

Ultimately, you have two types of potions that you can make for a villain at a time. Depending on your decision, it’ll alter the villain’s storyline for the better or worse. The impact is progressive, though. So, choosing an alternative potion may not yield the results you’re looking for until you’ve trudged deeper into the story. And this is where Disney Villains Cursed Cafe’s faults begin to show. 

Back-Up

You only have one “Save” slot that backs up your progress automatically. So, you cannot create your own Save files to revert to at will. Having “Save” files helps to experiment with alternate story paths. Without them, you’re forced to sit through the game to the end and restart to discover the alternate story paths you might have missed. Given you cannot skip dialogue, it takes away the interest to want to experiment broadly. 

And Disney Villains Cursed Cafe does have lots of ways you can experiment. When you’re careful to achieve a “good” ending, that’s it. It’s, “Good job, you successfully helped Ursula achieve her desire.” With a bad outcome, though, it means sitting through stories you’ve already seen just so you can discover a different ending. I get it. Disney Villains Cursed Cafe is structured this way to encourage replayability. But without a “Skip dialogue” feature, a fast-forward, or other time-saving way to experiment, you’re left with little incentive to replay.

You can, however, undo/redo your potion choices. But that’s limited to undoing/redoing an in-game day.

A Part of the Story

This is Disney. So, of course, their artwork and styling are pitch-perfect. Villains have different clothes, fittingly so. The new attire suits every villain, with such stylish and fantastic designs. You occasionally get grunts and snarky one-liners that add more spice to the story. Though with a big-budget company like Disney, full voice acting will have been grand. Still, both the visuals and audio work are perfectly executed. 

A special mention goes to the writing, which is simply spectacular. It’s engaging, witty, out-of-the-box, and charming through and through. It’s surprising even that Disney allowed the writers to fully express these villains’ characters and personalities. Disney Villains Cursed Cafe isn’t afraid to make them childish or jealous. It all feels genuine and makes for some great fanservice for Disney fans.  

Verdict

So, out of the blue, Disney Villains Cursed Cafe has arrived. In no world was I expecting Disney to make a potion-brewing talking simulator. But they’ve done so too quickly and quite perfectly at that. Choosing some of the greatest Disney villains to spearhead the funny stories at the Cafe was a wise decision. You’re often intrigued to find out the motivations and ambitions of folks like Ursula, Maleficent, Yzma, and more. 

Sadly, some villains’ storylines have been given more attention than others. Disney Villains Cursed Cafe definitely does Genie Jafar dirty. If your favorite villain’s storyline doesn’t scratch the itch for you, I can see how the entire game’s worth can go down. After all, most players will likely pick Disney Villains Cursed Cafe off the shelf for the opportunity to discover new lore and storylines about their favorite characters. Still, Disney has done a great job of crafting a mostly entertaining gaming experience.  

Given the game is a visual novel, only 10% of the game is actual gameplay. But the stories more than make up for any deficits, including sparse features. The idea behind developing a villainous friendship is exciting. The villains fight amongst themselves, too. They can switch bodies, among other shenanigans. It’s always exciting at the Cafe, even when the potion brewing mechanic itself is rather simple.

Given the lovely music and charming artwork, you can easily enjoy Disney Villains Cursed Cafe on a slow afternoon and come out of it feeling like your time has been well worth spent.