The Archipelago

Very peaceful and easy to play through. The story was very interesting, and I will likely try playing a couple more times to see other pathways of the storyline. Despite it having a warning for Mac OS it was able to run just fine.

Eine etwas andere Visual Novel. Das gesamte Geschehen spielt sich in einem Tee-Stübchen ab. Der Spieler übernimmt die Rolle des Tee-Barista. Es kommen unterschiedliche Persönlichkeiten und Storylines zusammen, je nachdem, welche Text-Auswahl man wählt und welche Tees man zubereitet. Es gibt verschiedene Handlungsstränge, die man durch wiederholtes Spielen kennen lernt. Ein interessantes Spiel mit schönen Grafiken, gut geeignet um auszuspannen, und am Besten mit einer Kanne Tee zu genießen. Sehr empfehlenswert.

<3

This game is cute, relaxing and chill. I have a good experience with the guest's conversation and the storytelling. The art also shines, it really catches my eyes.

The best thing about this game is its big cast of intriguing characters. Each of their personalities are distinct and unique, making you want to learn more about them. The way the exposure is handled in this game is interesting - you catch a sense for what is happening through snippets of conversation, like pieces of a puzzle that you have to put together. The lore and worldbuilding is extremely rich for such a relatively short game. This also means that you can really only grasp the full extent of the story after at least a couple of playthroughs. Overall, this game is a cozy, delightful little gem.

Grafica molto intrigante, fin da subito mi ha ricordato Coffee Talk, ma molto meno interagibile. C'è la possibilità di scegliere alcuni avvenimenti nella storia, quindi non si può dire che non si tratta di una storia interattiva, ma a mio parere è un gioco molto passivo. La cosa più grave è che mancano del tutto le impostazioni: l'audio è troppo alto e non può essere abbassato, la grafica quella è e quella rimane, e, cosa peggiore, se clicchi Esc esci direttamente dal gioco, senza preavvisi di alcun tipo. Non l'ho finito perché l'ho trovato un po' troppo frustrante e ci sono rimasta male quando sono uscita per sbaglio la prima volta. Salva da solo ma non si sa bene quando. E' un peccato!

I am honestly not sure how I feel about this one. It seems like it WANTS to be up there with Coffee Talk, and has a lot of the same vibes. But it does not quite hit the mark. The tea feels more like an afterthought, shoe-horned in as a replacement for actual dialogue branches. And the ending is so painfully abrupt that the entire thing feels more like a demo than a full-fledged story. Which is really quite unfortunate, because the little I got to see of the characters WAS interesting. And I definitely wanted more. I admit, though, that the biggest reason I am not marking this as "not recommended" is the fact that it is free.