Necrobarista will take you on a journey through an oddly-comforting caffeine-fueled purgatory, but its story stumbles in some vital places.
Death is a tender subject to most, but this visual novel does not shy away from it, embracing it by throwing jokes in its face.
The story focuses on an unconventional cafe, The Terminal, which allows the dead to spend 24 hours on Earth before passing on to the next stage of existence. You’d think there wouldn’t be much cheer in a place like this, but with the help of its quirky staff, there is a lighthearted air about the cafe.
One character that seems to draw the most attention is Maddy, the newly-appointed owner who still enjoys making coffee for her patrons. Especially one of her newest guests, Kishan, who is having trouble grappling with the concept of being dead and on a very specific timeline to make peace and move on.
The characters, although they exist in a very strange and supernatural environment, show a refreshing humanity as they try to comfort Kishan. No two characters have the same style of comforting, and it’s interesting to see how none of them, despite age and experience, know how to confront moving on and accepting death. It’s obvious they are trying their best, though, which makes them seem genuine.
That said, one of the main conflicts revolves around a massive time debt that the cafe has incurred by allowing patrons to stay longer than the allotted 24 hours. Now, upon learning this, it robs a sense of urgency from Kishan’s plight. He could just…stay? It’s quickly explained that it’s not comfortable to stay over your time, but you can easily try to overstay your welcome if you are persistent enough. While this is an interesting idea, it undermines the entire idea of ‘you only have 24 hours’.
If you’re into visual novels, especially those that lean more into the visual side, you’ll want to put this game on your to-read list. The carefully-framed animations and expressions make this game an absolute treat to take in. When compared to these outstanding visuals, though the story feels a bit pale in comparison, especially when the pacing hiccups. You’ll be uncovering a major plot point and chomping at the bit for the characters to elaborate, then slapped in the face with a scene with a completely different mood and tone.
Even with these slight derailments, you’ll still want to know how the story wraps up – a sense of closure in a game centralized around death seems appropriate. I enjoyed the main overarching story, but it unfortunately left me wanting due to the oddities around its 24 hour premise. I expected to have to say many goodbyes across many patrons and chapters, leading to one large one, but for a game about letting go, I sure didn’t have to let go of much.
Necrobarista‘s visuals set it above its genre and the price point is absolutely worth the journey. It has set up a perfect environment for multiple chapters that would allow for players to explore more characters and dilemmas as they face their final destination. Ultimately, it has nailed the visuals, main story, sound, and main cast development. If it had taken time to polish up some of the side characters (or remove them since they served no major purpose), clarified some of the lore, and had better pacing, it would’ve been a knockout the whole way through.
Necrobarista is available now on Steam.
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