[i]Caffeine: Victoria's Legacy[/i] is a bishojo, fantasy, steampunk visual novel developed and published by Kikai Digital. You take on the role of Taka Knight, a young man around university age who is on a plane to find clues about his mom, who disappeared when he was around six years old. On that plane, he meets a mysterious female figure who offers him a canister of cold brew coffee. Taka drinks the coffee and then shortly after, he's flown off the airplane (which is in mid-air). Before he knows it, upon waking up, he finds himself in the city of Victoria, but it happens to be in an alternate universe where industrialization has made slower progress and where coffee has caffeine powers that when used on the right person with the right temperament, can unleash powers, like fire, teleportation, etc. Taka finds himself in Taka Coffee House, which is - weirdly enough - named after him and is under the ownership of Alice, a young lady who dreams of baking the best pastries ever. Despite all these crazy events, Taka seems to remember this coffee house from his childhood, and that's where I'll end my story synopsis to avoid going into spoiler territory. ^^
As for the gameplay, [i]Caffeine: Victoria's Legacy[/i] has multiple choices presented. There's a common route, of course, and then depending on the choices made, you'll get on one of four ladies' routes: Alice, Mel (the bubbly, energetic barista who works at Sparkwood), Oceane (the tsundere barista who works at Moriya), or Eliza (the beautiful, friendly noble who spends her time studying at the Coffee Academia). The number of endings for each option varies, but there's always a true ending for each option as well as (mostly) one alternate ending. In addition, after completing Eliza's, Oceane's, and Mel's true endings, then you'll get access to the Knights' route, which is the true route and leads to the true ending (as well as one alternate ending and a dead ending). There are lots of CGs presented throughout the story as well as a varied soundtrack. In addition, lots of Steam achievements are present although they won't count towards a user's global total until the game is out of "profile features limited".
Now that I've gone over the story and gameplay, I'll move onto my critique. It's been a long while since I last touched on this story (having been a part of the team that helped with its development - thought I should put that disclaimer out there XD), but I remember how much I fondly enjoyed this story, especially the true route. However, I'm getting a bit ahead of myself. First, with regards to the story itself, I like how it starts off. It is a bit slow when Taka first talks to the mysterious figure on the plane, but after he's quickly flown away, things pick up. Taka is aware that he's in a world that's vastly different from the world he grew up in. However, he's pretty slow in that he assumes that things in this alternate universe should work the same way as back home. I admit that this annoyed me a bit since if I were the MC, I would have quickly realized not to make such assumptions and to keep my mouth shut. lol Taka can be clueless about things like this at times and he's kind of clumsy and such, but he has a good heart, overall. In regards to the other characters, there are a lot of them besides Taka and the four romance interests, but it would take me way too long to go over my thoughts on them. Needless to say, though, that there's such a variety of personalities that they add to the story and that they have depths to their respective characters. Touching on the four romance options, I enjoyed all of their stories and how each lady would open up to Taka. There's Alice, who just wants to make people smile with her pastries but is bad with finances. Then, there's Mel, who dreams of becoming a successful entrepreneur like her idol, Nakamoto, the founder of Sparkwood. Oceane is the standout barista of Moriya and is known as the best barista in the city. She dreams of becoming a barista champion for her own reasons. Finally, Eliza is the friendly but shy cupper (basically, a noble who can use caffeine powers) who spends her days at the Coffee Academia but dreams of making friends and seeing more of the outside. I enjoyed playing through all these routes. Especially upon unlocking and then playing through the true route, I couldn't help but enjoy this story that ultimately focuses on [spoiler]love. Yes, I know it's cheesy, but the way it's revealed is truly beautiful[/spoiler].
As for the writing, I'd say that the pacing is fine. There are definitely areas where it reads more roughly than others. Alice's route is on the short side compared to the other routes. My favorite route would have to be Oceane's because of [spoiler]the revealer of Oceane and Taka having been childhood friends[/spoiler]. Eliza's route is intended to be a segway to the true route, so if I had to give a recommended route order, I'd say Alice - Mel - Oceane - Eliza. If I had to point out any negatives, I'd say that at times, there's a bit too much focus on coffee lore and the process of brewing coffee. Personally, it didn't bother me since I'm a huge coffee fan (I can't go through a day without two mugs of coffee, at least. lol), but this might annoy those who don't want to get bogged down by such info. Also, for those who don't have the patience to unlock various endings to get to the true route, that might be annoying, but again, this didn't bother me. I felt like it was worth getting to those other endings to get to the true ending.
In regards to the art, it is absolutely gorgeous. I love how the sprites are animated. The animations fit well, especially considering that there is English voice acting (albeit, partial voice acting). The backgrounds are beautiful, and the CGs especially are lovely to gaze at (and there are plenty to view). With the music, there's such a variety of tracks and even a couple of tracks have lovely vocals. They convey that beautiful emotion that this story is trying to convey to its readers. As I mentioned, there's partial English voice acting. It appears in important scenes/events. Although I enjoyed listening to the voices (no complaints in that department), I wish that more of the scenes had voices in them. However, since there's a lot of text overall, I can see why that isn't possible.
Overall, would I recommend [i]Caffeine: Victoria's Legacy[/i]? If you enjoy bishojo romance with a story that takes place in an alternate steampunk universe and don't mind the occasional fourth wall breaking, then I think you should give this visual novel a try. It's certainly not perfect, and as I mentioned, it could use some polishing. However, for the developer's first visual novel, I think this is well done, and it's a shame that it hasn't been getting as much attention as it deserves. Sure, it can take time and patience to get through the necessary routes to get to the true route, and if you're not into getting all of the Steam achievements, then this visual novel can feel a bit tiring to get through. However, the journey is well worth it, and I love how the story teaches the reader about [spoiler]the power and beauty of love, no matter how corny that sounds[/spoiler]. For the asking price, I'd say it's worth getting, as it took me around 34.5 hours to complete all of the routes and get all of the achievements. However, you can choose to wait for a sale. Nevertheless, I think it's truly worth getting and a journey to experience and enjoy. ^^
[quote]Flying free and writing reviews solely for [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/44702020/]The Introverted Gamer[/url].[/quote]
