izigame.me

I wish steam had a neutral review, because on the one hand I want to recommend this but there's also some major issues going into it that I feel need to be warned beforehand. I won't bore you with too many details because quite frankly everyone else has reviewed the game far better than i'm, capable of... Instead, I will outline my issues with the game and why i've left this review, and I hope that you take it into consideration before buying it.
This game oozes charm, style and it's generally written nicely to present a fun experience. The soundtrack is outstanding, artstyle clean and interesting. And the gameplay honestly starts extremely strong too, the whole reverse tower defence system and coffee minigame are great and I was looking forward to seeing how the game would build on these.
...Sadly, it's these two mechanics in question that are why i'm leaving a negative review. Not because I don't recommend, I really do, but because I cannot recommend the game outside of some very specific caveats and conditions.
First let's talk about the game's core gameplay system, its reverse tower defence mode. Because quite frankly, even on normal it quickly becomes punishingly hard. The developers clearly have specific builds and card combinations in mind and if you have not discovered them or do not want to use them then you're really, really not going to have a good time. By the time you've reached the second story boss, unless you're running one of these combinations then these fights are going to grind down into an unbearable, unenjoyable slog at best and an impossible fight at worst.
Coupled with limited time windows to complete stories and character interactions or personal stat boosts taking up potential currency grind time I could genuinely see instances where people effectively lock themselves out and are required to reload earlier saves or drop the difficulty.
I inherently disagree with this design, if you're like me and enjoy finding a team that works and then comfortably sitting on it for a while? You're in for a bad time. If you just want to experiment and not be beholden to the very obvious combos and teams the developers had in mind? You're in for a bad time. These encounters are designed in a manner that stifle expression and freedom, players should be free to explore their own creative deck builds or express their teams in any manner they desires and still be able to scrape through on the standard difficulty.
So, why not just drop the difficulty (which you can do freely)? Well, because easy is effectively "story mode" and sucks almost all interaction from this game mode. It's too easy, you're either forced to adopt teams the developers had in mind and struggle through some extreme difficulty spikes on normal or bore yourself to death with being unkillable on easy. There's no inbetween, and that's just poor balancing that needs to be addressed through the inclusion of more difficulty options. A fight should feel fair and engaging, and you're either forced with boring or bullshit (god forbid knowing what hard is like).
So that's my first major warning, is that if you're looking at this game and just want a comfy time without the game being trivially easy? Look elsewhere, because a game that has an achievement for resetting a stage at least 10 times before completing it, that over 30% of players own is indicative that the developers really need to learn how to balance their difficulty appropriately.
The second issue I have is in regards to the coffee making aspect. After all, you run a coffee shop, and you make friends and will often be required to make brews for them. However this aspect of the game feels extremely neglected, and the writers really fumbled on this one.
You are heavily encouraged by the game to go off order, make alterations to the drinks, season them differently to suit your friends tastes. This will likely then come with a healthy friendship boost that allows you to skip some gift giving or timewasting with them in order to continue their side stories.
The issue with this, is that the game never actually even hints to what these characters actually like. It's never sewn into the dialogue naturally, or at all for that matter, and the amount your can customise your beverages is pretty extensive.
So what it feels like is that you're fumbling around in the dark, and making a choice to just ignore what the game is encouraging you to do and make their drink normal for a standard friendship boost, or randomly guess what you think they might like at which point you're probably going to get it wrong and miss that friendship boost. And in a time management game, that feels like you're being punished because the game isn't rewarding you for reading what the character is saying and using intuition to customise their drink.
If anything, the game punishes this. And this is where I have to give my second major warning and complaint about the game.
See, one of the characters you can befriend mentions that people gift her cakes and snacks (in a positive tone) and this is before you ever make her a drink. Then when she does order a drink, she orders a pretty sweet one.
Me, thinking that the game had finally dropped a hint about what the character liked, I seasoned it with chocolate to make it a bit sweeter. Nope, wrong answer, no friendship gain for you.
Frustrated I reloaded a save to experiment and made her the drink normally. At this point she is happy with what you've provided and mentions lemons with her drink and how she loves it.
Okay that's great, because you actually have two different options for lemon when seasoning. So I reload and try again, putting a lemon slice with her drink. Wrong answer, no friendship gain for you.
Reload, and then try lemon juice instead? Wrong answer, no friendship gain for you.
This entire coffee making system feels extremely half baked and poorly done, and the writing team really fumbled when it comes to things like this. If you wanted to pick up a game so you can pay attention to what people are saying, then try and make a coffee with alterations based on what you picked up? Wrong game, because the game will never say what they like and if they do then I guarantee it'll be the wrong choice because the writers didn't stop and think "hey we said this character likes lemons and there's multiple lemon customisation options, should we maybe reward players for serving that?". They won't, and it's extremely frustrating that they don't.
Overall I still recommend the game... ish. I'm still going through it and if more complaints like these continue to crop up this could quickly go from a maybe to a no. But right now, these two are something you should really be cautious of before picking it up.
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EDIT: Further thoughts down in the comments.