Introduction
Necrobarista calls itself a unique take on the visual novel medium. Having played visual novels for more than a decade, I’d certainly agree. In fact, some may not even agree that it is a visual novel at all.
This is closer to a game than a visual novel in some ways. There are first-person sections where you move around. There are collectibles of a sort that let you unlock more content. It’s certainly not just a story. With that said, whether you feel that Necrobarista counts as a visual novel or not, it’s certainly an interesting narrative experience and primarily about telling the story.
Story and Characters
The story starts in one of the few stops on the journey between life and death – a rather special coffee shop in Australia called the Terminal. While some patrons are normal living beings, many are the recently departed who have only twenty-four hours before they need to move on to whatever lies beyond.
Remaining time can be given or taken. Those who come through the coffee shop become its responsibility. This has caused issues – overstayers in the coffee shop are its responsibility, so they have to pay any time debt for those remaining longer than twenty-four hours.
Many people do not want to move on. Sometimes the dead don’t even understand that they are dead at first. This happens with the patron we meet at the start – a man named Kishan. He wanders into the store and the owner Maddy has to explain the situation to him. One of the storylines is following Kishan and how he reacts to his ever-approaching deadline.
Maddy is no normal coffee shop owner either. We see her performing a necromancy ritual. This is not a common skill – necromancy is not only banned, but it is implied that people often don’t get the chance to survive a mistake more than once. Maddy is very much a risk-taker and is more than willing to skirt or outright break the rules though. She’s not one to listen to silly things like authority. She does seem to respect Chay, the former owner of the cafe, mentor, and maker of terrible puns though.
Another risk-taker is Ashley. She’s a slightly unbalanced thirteen-year-old girl with a robotic arm. She also happens to be a genius with robotics and slightly manic. She abducts Kishan to help whenever convenient, throws knives at people, and generally causes mayhem. She adds a lot of humor to the story but has her serious moments too.
Former criminal and folk hero Ned Kelly makes an appearance too. Oddly enough on the side of authority. He is a friend of Chay’s, but has a duty to reign in Maddy and ensure the rules are followed on behalf of the Council of Death, despite any feelings on the matter.
As we play NecroBarista, we follow these characters and occasional others who come into the coffee shop. One thing it does particularly well is how it makes the characters relatable. This is through great use of dialogue which felt like it was really friends talking to each other rather than a script. I also appreciated that it fleshed out the character’s motivations and did not overly rely on stereotypes.
One particular moment I liked was when a character was assumed to be straight, mentioned that he wasn’t and it was all treated as normal and only occasionally came up. Some writers would have not treated it as well, instead making it his primary character trait or playing into stereotypes.
While I’m hesitant to give too many details on the story itself as it is quite short, I can say it’s serious at times and covers topics such as what it means to die and various ethical problems. I felt like it was very well written and although it took me less than four hours to complete, the length felt like it fit the story well. It never began to drag or felt like there should have been more.
Gameplay and Systems
As mentioned before, NecroBarista is not a normal visual novel. Not only does it make use of 3D models and environments to tell its story, but it has some additional features too.
The biggest shock to me was that I found myself in a first-person mode moving around with the keyboard. I could explore the coffee shop and the surrounding area between chapters. As I made my way through the game, I found myself appearing in new parts of it.
Exploring the coffee shop was a nice touch and fit well considering the way the story is told. It also allowed me to find many short stories. These were just in text and had to be unlocked, but they were spread all over the coffee shop.
The other unusual feature was how to unlock these short stories. During each chapter of the story, certain words were highlighted. Clicking on them provided a bit of commentary on the situation or character. Often this was something with some dry sarcasm or humor. At the end of the chapter, seven of these words could be chosen, and depending on which were chosen, different types of points were awards. For example, the word ‘ritual’ might give a ‘magic’ point. Using three points of the right types could unlock these little side stories.
It’s worth noting that despite the freedom to move around and choose which extra stories you unlock, NecroBarista’s main story still has no choices. It’s a single story – no real replayability or diverging paths.
Graphics, Sound, and Options
Graphics are certainly one of the unique points. It’s all an anime-inspired cell-shaded style with 3D models. Models make use of a short movement along with many of their lines and often use of slow camera movement and change of angle. In some ways, it feels almost like an indie movie. It could be described as artistic in that way.
I did experience some technical issues. Transitions sometimes did not appear to be smooth. I noticed backgrounds partially disappear briefly a few times. Frame rates were not always consistent. It does not play well with multiple displays too. These did not impact the overall experience much but are still worth noting.
The background music was a highlight. It always seemed to fit the scene well. It was energetic when it needed to be and it was sad and serious when it needed to be. It really helped to add to the emotional impact intended. There was no voicing, but I personally feel like it did not need it.
Options were fairly basic, except for one stand out. You can play NecroBarista in fourteen different languages. The entire story can be played through this way too – this is not just a translated interface.
Verdict
Necrobarista is certainly an interesting take on the visual novel genre. The dialogue is amazing and the story is certainly worth experiencing. It could perhaps be priced a bit lower considering how short it is and it does have some minor technical issues. Still, overall I enjoyed it.
NECROBARISTA IS RECOMMENDED
If you would like to see more standard visual novels, you may be interested in our review of Utawarerumono: Prelude to the Fallen.
Many thanks go to Stride PR and Route 59 for a PC review code for this title.
A gamer since the days of Amstrad and DOS and someone who has dabbled in a variety of professions. He enjoys a wide variety of genres, but has been focusing on visual novels and virtual reality in recent years. Head Editor of NookGaming. Follow him and the website on @NookSite.
