Write a comment
Sitting down and deciding what to do with your precious free time can be hard. There’s a wealth of options, with experiences ranging from the most competitive face-offs with other gamers hell-bent on ruining your day, to the easiest gaming tasks accomplished whilst bundled up and sipping on a delicious coffee. All of these games have their place, just like the one I had the pleasure of moseying cozily through recently for this review. Tailside: Cozy Cafe Sim is exactly that; a simple yet satisfying coffee shop simulator where you’re the owner, decorator, janitor, and barista, all at once. What makes the experience special though is not just the addictive gameplay loop, but the lovely cast of characters that make their way through your doors and into your hearth.
Tailside is a coffee shop sim at heart, and so your main “job” during operating hours each day is to prepare whatever cafe beverages your continuously arriving customers desire. This includes preparing the beans, choosing the right cup, heating up the correct liquids, and then applying whatever additional ingredients are necessary for the order. You’ll be slinging out espressos, lattes, macchiatos and more in no time. Time and resource management games are at their best when you reach a “zen mode” where you’re clicking around the screen in the most efficient manner possible, always trying to figure out how to save a second here or skip a step there. Tailside knows this and builds upon its opening brewing process methodology in a very satisfying manner, without desiring to be too complex and add a wealth of options. What you end up having to manage is not only the brewing of the drinks, but the cleanliness of the cafe (inside and outside on the patio which is unlocked later on) which makes the days fly by when things really start going. You must stop your constant coffee making to pick up used cups, or else the customers will start being disappointed in you and slow their attendance. All the while you’re getting to enjoy seeing the characters you meet throughout the little story beats that happen at the beginning of each day come and go from your cafe, with little snippets of conversation to fill the world with kind & interesting context. It’s just hectic enough to still be cozy and fun simultaneously. Plus, there’s really no “penalty” for doing “bad.” Progress is made with the passing of each day, and you can unlock new skills and drinks just by playing the game at your speed. Customers you don’t serve won’t write bad reviews or cause you to lose the game.
Money you earn during your business hours can be used to purchase decorations, which you can place and organize however you’d like to make the cafe your own. I do wish there were perhaps more options for things you could arrange around the inside and outside, but one area of decor that I was overwhelmingly pleased with was the amount of unlockable plushies. You earn a coin every day that can be used to grab a random adorable plush of a character. These can be put anywhere you desire, and you can even get multiples of them. I’ve got a plethora of plushies everywhere, and definitely have my favorites. No doubt some of these were supporters of the game’s successful crowdfunding campaign, and having so many options to win as prizes made each day have that extra sprinkle of joy. You also earn skill points and other purchasable upgrades and enhancements to your coffee-dealing venture when you level up. These allow you to increase things like how efficiently you brew your liquid ingredients, if you have to perform minigames for drinks like latte art, and unlocking new recipes. I haven’t fully unlocked everything yet, but it’s a nice, not too intimidating list of items, skills, and cafe upgrades to work towards with each passing day.
Visually, Tailside is a quaint and cozy palette of pastels and creams that hugs your cafe and customers. Etched into every pixel is a simple yet defined style that feels like it has just the right amount of detail. I was delighted every time I was introduced to a new special visitor, and the cafe started to feel like a real part of the town you’re operating within. The daily newspaper keeps your goings-on current and refreshing, reminding you that even though sometimes the days may feel similar, it’s a brand new day for everyone popping in for their daily joe. The outside area, once unlocked, also brings a refreshing chance to bring your designing expertise outside of the cafe, and it appears there are even more little areas to work with just beyond a river behind your cafe. I’m excited to see what that future holds. Oh! You can also customize your barista however you’d like outside of the game with custom texture files, making it easy to bring your animal character into the cafe. A big plus for those who are artistically inclined and want to make the cafe truly your own.
Similar to every other sense you get to have satisfied within Tailside, the soundtrack and sound effects are bathed in pleasant, snuggly vibes. It doesn’t just go simply lo-fi, and has more of a playful, light instrumentalist feel. You’re also able to open your windows upstairs to add a peaceful bird chirping background noise (or crickets at night) if you so desire, though I do wish that this sound effect wasn’t linked to the possibility of earning an extra token for plushie pulls, as I didn’t always want to listen to the birds for that chance. Either way, the music wasn’t distracting and added to the coziness, which isn’t always the case for these types of cafe/cozy simulation games.
After spending 20+ game days inside my cafe, I could confidently say I felt addicted and enveloped by Tailside’s satisfying gameplay mechanics and soft visual motifs. I especially enjoyed the daily schedule of it all, and the metered, easy to understand progression of unlockable drinks, enhancements, and decorations. While I don’t always want to have to fret over timelines and tasks, I do want some sort of guidance and story to go along with it, and Tailside: Cozy Cafe Sim did a wonderful job of letting the player enjoy the game how they wanted to while still adding fun elements throughout. If this sounds like the kind of game you’d be interested in, you’ll find something to enjoy inside its warm walls.
Thanks to the Tailside dev for a key in exchange for an unbiased review! Tailside: Cozy Cafe Sim is available on Steam
