Showing posts with label Comedy. Show all posts
Coffee Talk Series Reivew – Brewing Connections
Genre – Bartending, Fantasy, Cosy Play Time – About 8 hours Per Game Developer – Toge Productions Original Hibiscus & Butterfly Tokyo VNDB
On The House
Running
your own cafe and chatting with the customers as you serve them
drinks is a form of cosy fantasy focused around forming human
connections. The Coffee Talk games lean heavily into the potential of
this premise and sets about crafting a narrative space where sitting
and listening to the character’s worries is pleasant. These titles
take place in a modern day setting with fantasy races yet their
lives and troubles are surprisingly normal and their struggles form
the backbone of the story. Interacting and serving drinks is the
majority of what the player will be doing and Coffee Talk does
everything in its power to make this as engaging and impactful as
possible. Each of their life stories endears them to the player and
helps the games push its themes and ideas in an organic manner as they
come out over the course of multiple conversations. The cafe and the
people visiting are all rendered in a strong visual and auditory
style which quickly communicates who they are and makes them stick in
the memory. However, this is a series of titles which are plagued by a set
of recurring issues, from a struggle with subtly and conflict to
drink requests which can feel too vague, and its attempts to solve
these problems often end up shifting the issues to other parts of the
experience. Are these struggles between maintaining its cosy identity
and pushing the series forwards enough to weaken the fantasy? Let’s
fail to draw some latte art and find out.
Fantastical Mundanity – Narrative And Themes
Being
cosy sits at the heart of Coffee Talk’s identity and the inviting
atmosphere of the cafe and its customers do everything they can to
reinforce this tone. It plays off the inherently passive nature of
the premise, where the characters and events come to you rather than
you being the driving force, to create a slow pacing where the player
is encouraged to surrender themselves to the flow and appreciate the
interactions taking place in the current scene rather than looking to
future promises. This is supported by a web of characters and plot
threads which interact in surprising and satisfying ways as they meet
for the first time in the cafe. A lot of care has been taken to place
each character alongside others who will bring out the interesting
parts of their personalities and allows for them to grow in
meaningful ways. New relationships born from these chance encounters
form a key appeal of the narrative with the player getting to shape
their ultimate outcomes through correctly meeting their orders. By
offering the element of agency in the fundamental element, the game
can invest the player in the consequences they have helped to shape
while preventing them from become too complacent in the cosy tone.
 |
| One of the few looks at the outside work you get |
The social media app, where the player can look at what the cast have
been doing, adds another aspect of player interaction for them to
fiddle with outside of big narrative moments. It also serves the
purpose of making the cast feel like they exist beyond the confines of
the cafe so they come across as more believable individuals. All of
these elements are in service of some extremely powerful emotional
moment and pay offs in the finale which utilise the slower pacing to
get the space they need to breath and properly set the player up for
the gut punch. When the player puts down the game after the credits
roll it will be these scenes of catharsis that will stick with them
and each title in this series manges to capture its own version of
this impact.
Despite
there being some truly powerful narrative threads, there are just as
many others which meander or weakly splutter to their conclusion.
This unevenness consistently plagues the series and it is perhaps a
result of the large cast required for the amount of meshing
relationships Coffee Talk wants to engage with. A need to provide
arcs for each of these characters means some get left behind in
favour of the more interesting ones the developers clearly
put a lot of time and effort into. While the emotional impact of the
powerful moments is undeniable there exists a strange toothlessness
to them when it comes to actual conflict. There seems to be a fear
that if the cast are seen as being in conflict it will ruin the cosy
tone and on some level they are right. However, there is a different
being dramatic and destructive conflict and the weaker challenging of
beliefs style conflicts which make up most character centric
narratives. Shying way from any meaningful conflict creates a sense
of this world being a sanitised version of our own and lends it a
fake feeling.
 |
| This is just water with some mint on it... |
Then there is the series’ weird relationship with
subtly. There is a regular use of subtly through the dialogue and
character actions and it speaks to an understanding of how to sell a
theme or idea without saying it directly. Yet the developers constantly decide to have the
characters shout these ideas at the player in the most direct and unveiled
manner possible. This comes across as a lack of faith in the player’s
ability to pick up on clues and engage with the story while being
desperately afraid that its precious messages might be missed for
even a second. Ash is a good example of this trend, he is a stay
at home dad and through interacting with him the player is subtly
made to see his perspective on the role men can take in the family.
Then later on he explicitly vomits his beliefs out loud in a long
monologue despite the game having already demonstrating them and it
feels awkward while causing the scene to come to a screeching halt.
As a result it often feels like the games are preaching to the player
in a distracting and almost fourth wall breaking manner. On a higher
level, the overall structure and pacing of all three games is near
identical to the point of them somewhat blurring together. Rather
than being a strictly negative trait, this is more something a
prospective player should be aware of coming into the series. If they
like one of the games they will probably like the rest or vice verse,
but it is definitely not a series interesting in winning over new
audiences so much as sticking to what it want to be.
All Walks Of Life – Characters
As
you might imagine for a series so focused around interactions, the
characters of Coffee Talk are its strongest aspect and form much of
its appeal. They cover the full spectrum of what this fantasy society
has to offer from struggling journalists to blind musicians and it
comes together to create a patchwork picture of this diverse world.
Each one has an immediately recognisable core identity which helps
the player keep track of who they are in the sea of other characters
who enter the cafe. These are then expanded upon over the course of
their visits and as the player chats and serves drinks to them they
develop into well rounded and interesting individuals beyond their
initial archetypal introduction. Their colourful personalities mesh
together in pleasing ways where the unexpected can be born from a
chance meeting and helps push the sense of them as dynamic people who
have more going on than what the player gets to see. Only seeing a few
of the cast per day does a lot to keep them fresh, the games
regularly have characters be absent for one or two days in order to
make their presence not overstay its welcome and giving time for
developments between them to believably take place.
 |
| Even the smallest interactions are a joy |
One character who
sticks out for their weaker presentation is the protagonist who is
devoid of almost any interesting features and they are someone with
no investment or emotional connection to the world. They fit the
generic ‘nice guy’ mould and this basically removes them from
every conversation taking place as they only offer cookie cutter
reactions. There is the reveal in the first game about what they are
but this is hand waved away and never has any meaningful consequences
so feels like an excuse for their bland personality rather than
legitimate world building. What is worse about this is there are
characters in each game which are clearly the main recurring ones and
could have easily been slotted into the protagonist role, such as Vin
in Tokyo. This shows the developers are at least partly aware of this
issue and try to have another character fill this role of being the
core emotional anchor.
Coffee Shop Interiors – Visuals, Audio And Technical
The
pixel art visuals and their 90s anime inspirations craft what is the
series’ mostly consistently stunning feature. One look at a
screenshot invokes a powerful nostalgia in those who have played any
of the titles as its carefully designed characters and cafes are
laser focused on capturing the essence of the nostalgic comfort of a
good coffee. Just as the cast’s personalities are immediately
memorable so to do their visuals catch the player’s interest
through their mixture of familiar modern elements alongside the
fantasy features of their race. The cafes each present their own
vision of cosy mundanity through the assortment of decorations and
fixtures spread throughout which make it so there is always something
new to look at. Since this is the only location in each game, this
ability to continuously hold the player’s interest supports a
smooth visual experience where even in downtime it can work to
enhance the tone. Working alongside the pixel art is the lo-fi
soundtrack composed of relaxing and jazzy tunes and it is pitch perfect for
the narrative it accompanies. Each game in the series has its own
selection of new tracks to give them their own auditory identity
while still possessing the same cohesive feel across every entry. It
is difficult to overstate just how much these OSTs add to sense of
cosiness underpinning much of the series’ appeal and they are
wonderful to listen to outside of these games.
 |
| Mix and match your ingredients |
Preparing
and serving beverages offers the player their primary mechanical
means of interacting with the narrative and it characters. The act of
matching customers to their destined drink has a puzzle like
satisfaction to it and tests if the player has been keeping track of
the cast’s likes and dislikes. A small amount of artistic
personalisation is provided through the option to create latte art on
appropriate beverages and it connects the customer’s satisfaction to the player’s own work.
Each title adds its own new layer to this process of drink creation in
order to prevent it from becoming too familiar and routine so the
player must actually engage their wits rather than relying on previous knowledge. The only issues with these systems is
how some orders can be vague to the point of confusing since the game
does not show what ingredients or drinks have more abstract qualities
which some characters can ask for. Since this could be solved by
adding some keywords to drinks it the compendium to make it clear if
they match the requirement, it is not a major enough flaw to be
anything more than a slight frustration.
Conclusion
Capturing
the appeal of cosy interactions with lovable characters is what
Coffee Talk does best and over the course of the series it has slowly
developed its approach. It encourages the player to surrender to the
relaxed flow and go along with the cast’s slow development while
still being able to pack an emotional punch when needed. The pixel
art aesthetic and lo-fi soundtrack reinforce this atmosphere as they
provide enjoyable stimulation to make each moment feel fresh and
soothing. Its characters are the main appeal, they cover a wide
spectrum of this mixture of modern and fantasy people and each brings
their uniquely interesting problems to the table. Backing this up is
a robust set of beverage making mechanics to give the player a means
of influencing the narrative. However, it is not without issues
stemming from the uneven quality of its character arcs, its struggles
with introducing meaningful conflict and a flat protagonist which all
muddy the experience. Despite these weaknesses there is little doubt
about the strength of Coffee Talk’s cosy appeal and it understands
how it get the most out of its vibes and put its positive qualities front
and centre.
Verdict –
A beautiful and cosy collection of games about a cafe which
plays host to the emotionally resonant tales of its customers that stay with you long after the credits roll. Although there are
some issues with the execution of their character arcs and conflicts.
Pros-
+
Has an immersive and cosy atmosphere which helps the player sink into
the task of serving drinks and listening to stories.
+
Some extremely potent emotional moments act as the capstone to each
title and leave a memorable mark.
+
The cast are a collection of colourful and human personalities who
engage with each other in endlessly entertaining ways.
+
Excellent pixel art graphics and lo-fi OST forge a distinct
audio-visual identity.
+
The mechanics of serving drinks provides agency to the player while
also acting as a test of their memory.
Cons -
-
Character arcs are of an uneven quality with some being flat and
dull.
-
The games can sometimes be unnecessarily direct with their
presentation of ideas to the point of coming across as preachy and
lacking it subtly.
-
A protagonist who is a bland and generic ‘good guy’ archetype and
feels odd when placed next to the rest of colourful cast.
-
There are moments when the instructions of what a customer wants from
their drink can be too unclear and this leads to frustration at the
vagueness.
Futamata Ren'ai: Two Times the Trouble Review – And Make It Double
Genre – Romantic Comedy, Slice of Life Play Time – 20 hours Developer - ASa Project Steam VNDB
Balancing Act Comedy
Becoming a two timer after being forced into a relationship with
a girl due to a misunderstanding and then being asked out by your
crush is suitably absurd premise perfect for a romcom. Pushing the
boundary of believability for comic effect is something Asa Project
have made their signature and Futamata Ren’ai continues this steady
output. It uses the drama generated by the two timing to create
entertaining situations for the player to laugh at while still
maintaining a sense of the stakes and providing meaningful
consequences. The characters and their banter are the heart and soul
of the game and they are its greatest strength as the majority of the
moment to moment comedy comes from their interactions and how the
play off each other. Fun and unusual character portraits, such as
those involving vomiting, give a life and humanity to its cast even
if the rest of the visuals and audio are fairly standard. If there is
one thing which brings the experience down it is way the routes feel
weak and devoid of the drama which defines the rest of the title.
However, is this undermining of one of the visual novel pillars
enough to stifle the laughter? Let’s juggle relationships and find
out.
Two Times The Drama – Narrative And Themes
The
core of Futamata’s appeal lies in the way it plays up the drama of
its core premise to tread a line between comedy, sincerity and
satisfying resolutions. It leans into all the expected beats of this
kind of narrative from the accidental double dates to the discovery
of the infidelity and amps them up to their extremes. The use of
drama here is craft a wild ride for the protagonist, Koga Nao, as they fumble their way through their relationships with the heroines while
the player gets watches this slow motion car crash. By putting the
player in the passenger seat Futamata is free to leverage Nao’s
self inflicted suffering as an avenue for comedy within the framework
of its over the top events and allows the player to not feel
responsible for his actions. These various pathways for the delivery
of its comedy are all brought together with the character banter
which operates as the main means of communicating and playing off the
comic situations. From the moment it starts the game is clear how the
Nao’s two timing will end so the focus shifts onto how it will all come
crashing down and what this will mean for those involved. As such
the moments of sincerity on the part of the cast where they are frank
with their emotions and the comedy is allowed to take a backseat have a powerful impact and bring them closer to the player
as they move beyond being simple vessels for humour. There is also a
forward momentum provided by this drama via the developing web of
lies and the way relationships based on this lie start to bloom into
something meaningful. This does a lot to help connect what might
otherwise come across as series of unconnected comedy sketches and
keep the player invested for the long term. When it comes to the
resolution of the car crash, Futamata makes
sure to offer a satisfying conclusion to the conflict for both the
route heroine and the rest of the cast. It is shown how what has
happened resulted in growth for their character where the become more
assertive, reconcile with those they were in conflict with or find
love. Doing this helps ease the sting of the wrong done to the heroines
through the two timing and keeps the tone light rather than having
the consequences being completely negative. The game gets to end on a
satisfying note where the characters the player has grown the care
about get the conclusions they deserve to round out the experience.
 |
| Not sleeping is bad for you kids |
Marks
against the game come from elements of somewhat messy execution which
are peppered throughout. Broadly these come in the form of weak
routes stemming from the drama stopping the moment one starts and
the uneven treatment of its characters. The overall structure of
Futamata places all of the drama in the common route and almost all
of it is resolved before the game enters its routes. Since the
mixture of drama and comedy is one of the game’s strongest points
its absence in character routes is keenly felt because its ends up
being a series of romantic and comedy scenes with very little
connective tissue. They feel more like long epilogues than
substantial additions or explorations of their respective characters.
Due to how suddenly the drama disappears it feels as if there is a
hole in the narrative which is never filled even if the quality of
the banter and character moments remains the same throughout to help
mitigate the void. It is a strange choice since it would have been
easy to mix in a few moments of drama to spice things up without it
weakening the romantic atmosphere since they manage to keep the
character banter comedy in without any issues of clashing tones.
 |
| Hmmm I wonder why |
The
uneven treatment of characters is something born out of a
collection of small oddities when they compound together and it may
be something you never notice during your own play time. Let’s go
over a few example to showcase what type of oddities there are in the
text. Perhaps the most immediately noticeable is the presentation of
the male cast as “assholes”. Nao is an interesting case for this
since he is not exactly the best person, hence the two timing, so him
being labelled as an “asshole” is somewhat his own fault. The
issue arises when comparing his treatment to that of the female cast
who are not all that much better than he is. At one point Nao and a
heroine are found to be equally guilty but their punishments are not
equivalent, he gets tossed into the sea and while she just gets a
light slap. Then there is a moment where the player is offered a
choice whether to sleep with a character or not and regardless of
what they choose Nao is always treated as being in the wrong. If he
does sleep with her then he is irresponsible despite the other party
consenting and if he turns her down than he was not man enough to do
the deed. There is a running undertone in Futamata of men having all
the responsibility and women being less culpable for their actions,
despite the majority of the major characters in the game being woman
and each one having an important role in how events conclude. Then
there is the strange case of Oikawa You who the player is told is an
“asshole” but during the game he is nothing more than a bit
grumpy and his pursuit of a stable job and thoughts towards the
future seem to suggest the opposite. Beyond the strange male
presentation, the women also suffer for similar issues. For example
Rui is a supportive person who tries her best to be their for her
friends, even for Nao in this two timing, but this is contaminated by
the later revelation that she is a masochist and the game drawing a
direct line between it and the help she offered. Thus the conclusion
to be draw for this connection is that the only reason she was
supportive is she enjoyed the suffering due to her masochism rather than her being
a good person. Obvious Futamata intends this as a joke rather than a
serious comment on her character, but things like this happen often
enough to be distracting and it feels like the game is beating these
characters over the head with a club and asking you to laugh. It
spends most of its time asking the player to laugh with the
characters so swapping to asking them to laugh at the cast is more
than a bit jarring since they are people you will have grown attached
to.
Two Times The Banter – Characters
Fun
characters and their banter are the life blood of Futamata without
which the drama and comedy would not function and they underlie much
of the developer’s design choices. Having a protagonist like Nao
who is not the normal good guy archetype opens the door for a lot
more engaging interactions and satisfying arcs since he has room to
grow and can surprise the player in fun ways. It is from his
character that much of the game’s drama stems with his two timing
and the comedy loves to play with his less desirable traits to create
banter specific to the character he is interacting with. As the main
POV character, this variety is especially important since most jokes
and emotional moments will in some way relate to him so he needs to
keep the player on their toes lest he become dry and familiar, the
death nails of comedy. The heroines all have their own memorable
quirks from the biting wit of “final boss” Nobuta Yua to the laid
back cat-like Umino Miyako. Each one interacts with Nao’s two
timing in their own way as they dance around the problem lending the
comdey a good variety of situations where Nao has to deal with their
antics. There is a concerted effort to make the heroines exist
independent of Nao as they form their own friendships and have their
own lives unknown to him. By doing this the game establishes their
ability to act in surprising ways so when those actions are suddenly
sprung on Nao they do not come across as unnatural and instead help
make the heroines endearing for how they push back against him. Banter is how
much of the narrative is delivered outside of climatic moments and
Futamata is notable for how consistent the quality of it is and how
it ties nicely into the cast. Their conversations always find a new
way to take their established traits and shine new comedy lights on
them throughout the entire play time which is no small feat given how
much of the game is banter.
 |
| Even the minor character get their own distinctive traits |
Two Times The Spectacle – Visual, Audio And Technical
Presentation
is one of the game’s few mediocre elements. There is nothing
particularly wrong with it rather it is a standard visual identity
common to titles in the slice of life/ romance genre making it blend
into the memory alongside all the other similar looking visual
novels. The one exception to this is the fun unique character
portraits used for more over the top comedy moments. From vomiting
rainbows to shooting lasers out their eyes, these extra portraits are
used when to indicate a character’s drunken state and the wild
behaviour they engage in. Since this cast get drunk a lot over the
course of the story, the portraits see a good deal of use as a means of
selling just how out of control the alcohol has made them and results
in some truly outstanding comedy moments. Outside of this one
exception, the visuals and audio are the cookie cutter bright colours
and upbeat tunes where the aim was clearly to craft something
familiar to the player’s sensibilities. In this they succeeded as
it does feel like slipping into a kind of game the player is
comfortable with just with a greater leaning into comedy than normal. However,
in a world with so many titles of this genre competing for the
player’s attention is being so hard to recognise at a glance truly
a good thing? Ultimately it is inoffensive enough that it is not
really a strike against the game in a way which would undermine what
it has set out to do, make people laugh.
 |
| Vomit is a strangely consistent part of the story... |
Conclusion
Making
the most out of an outlandish core premise is what Futamata excels at
and it knows exactly how to push all the right emotional buttons
while doing it. The drama is played up to a deliberately comic
extreme to facilitate this brand of comedy yet still being capable of
using it for genuine moments of sincerity. Character sprite are
expressive in fun ways and make it easier to form a connection with
the cast even if the rest of the visuals and audio are fairly
standard. Interactions between the cast form the backbone of the
comedy and their banter is of exceptionally high quality with a large
variety on offer depending on who is talking to whom. The game does
stumble a bit when it comes to the weak heroine routes and uneven
presentation of its cast, but these are not major enough issues to
undermine its strong core foundation.
Verdict –
Two timing leads to double the fun in this dramatic romcom which
knows how to balance laughter and a loveable cast. It achieves this
despite its weak heroine routes and some odd choice in character
presentation.
Pros -
+
Good mix of comedy, drama and sincere moments which mesh together to
create a roller-coaster of laughter.
+
Fun characters with good banter who bounce off each other in exciting
and hilarious ways.
+
A variety of unique portraits for each character sell their
personalities in their wilder comedy moments.
Cons -
-
Heroine routes feel weak due to the lack of the drama present
everywhere else.
-
Uneven treatment of characters can make it feel like the game wants
the player to laugh at, rather than with, the characters they have
grown to care out.
-
Visuals and audio are mostly uninspired and standard for the genre so
it blends into the soap of other similar titles.
NEKOPARA Series Review – A Slice Of Life Paradise?
Genre – Slice of Life, Comedy Play Time – 6 hours per game Developer – NEKO WORKS Steam VNDB
The New Patisserie In Town
For
a series of short visual novels with the fairly simple concept of
running a patisserie assisted by cat girls, Neko Para has left a
surprisingly lasting impression on the medium and remains a talking
point to this day. There is an undeniable appeal in the brightly
coloured fantasy of this light hearted world where cat girls and
humans live side by side. It feeds into a certain brand wish of fulfilment focused around unconditional and mutual affection where
conflicts are never anything more than hiccups for these bonds.
This is hardly unique to Neko Para as there are plenty of other slice
of life visual novels doing exactly the same thing, but here there is
a refined and keen understanding what its audience wants and how playing into it can capture their hearts. However, behind all of this
are some of the strangest world building choices which
undermine the atmosphere in a seemingly unintentional manner. Is this
strange combination really enough to explain Neko Para’s success?
Let’s bake some cakes and find out.
Cat Girl Paradise? - Narrative And Themes
Knowing
the limits of a game’s narrative and shaping the play time and
content around this pillar helps ensure it will not outlive its
welcome. The episodic structure of Neko Para allows them to
make this concise format its biggest strength through their
relatively self contained nature. Each visual novel has little
connection to the others outside of a vague sense of our protagonist,
Kashou, building up his cat girl harem. A common framework is shared
between them with each focusing on a different pair of cat girls and
their relationships and conflicts as their core narrative which
provides recognisable points of reference between titles. These
elements mean that it is easy to pick up any of the Neko Para games
and be able to understand what is going on while having a good time,
since no individual part of the series influences any other. At first
this might seem to be a double edged sword as without any sort of
overarching hook why would a player complete more than one game?
However, it is very clear that Neko Para is fine with people playing
as much or as little of the titles as they like due to its commitment
to this structure and it being more interested in creating a consistent
tone and flow of content for the niche it has found. This choice does
make it a polarising game series since it does nothing to invite in new players and those who bounced off
it will continue to do so. Such
a deliberate design speaks to a vision about what the titles should
be and gives them the strength to communicate it clearly.
 |
| So many cat girls! |
When
it comes down to it the Neko Para games can easily be summed up as a
slice of life set in a patisserie with cat girls and it keeps to this
core identity at all times. Knowing what they wants to be while
maintaining its simplicity gives these titles the means to refine
their atmosphere into the comfortable and fluffy one the genre
thrives on. Take how the games deal with the cat girls Chocola and
Vanilla as an example, they are the focus characters of the first
volume and in here they are involved a selection of daily life events
before leading into a minor conflict at the climax which is quickly
resolved by the protagonist. Throughout there is a prevailing sense of
an everyday world without any of the real world worries associated
with it and instead only the good times. After their volume Chocola
and Vanilla are reduced to a supporting role, but future games are
still keen to reinforce the bond between them and the player so they
pop up from time to time so as to remind the player of the good times
they have had together. Blending the stories' themes into a continuous
whole is one of the key impacts of this style of intermingled
characters and tone as it paints a picture of nothing having lasting
consequences and instead has the player live in the moment. ‘The
good times will go on forever’ is the alluring promise of Neko Para
and it makes this a powerful motivator for the players continued
progress through these bright games. There is a level of polish to the
atmosphere with its carefully crafted laid back nature which speaks
to a strong understanding of the genre and what people want from it.
 |
| It is strange to think these two are only one year old. |
It
is strange then that Neko Para seems to be obsessed with accidentally
undermining its carefully crafted tone and atmosphere at almost every
turn. These issues all stem from the world building introduced over
the course of the series where the new revelations have
uncomfortable or bizarre implications. Let us look at a few examples
to see how exactly they damage the overall experience of playing Neko
Para. Perhaps chief among the odd choices made is the status of cat
girls as pets. In this one important detail the developers have
dehumanised the majority of their cast especially as it becomes clear
how few rights cat girls actually have in this world. This is made
worse due to high level of mental capabilities demonstrated by cat
girls, they are not animals so it feels uncomfortable to treat them
as such. Then there is specified age of each of the cat girls which
is an issue both in terms of how young they are and how short this
implies cat girls’ lives to be. Having an age range from one to
three years old creates an uncomfortable dissonance between their
apparent age and the relative maturity they act with. It also
showcases how rapidly cat girls age with Chocola and Vanilla being
mature enough to mate when they are one year old which implies a
short life expectancy and how the happy times on display will be brief. All this must lead one to ask the simple question, why
were these elements included at all? Does the audience for a slice of
life tale about cat girls really care about the specifics of their
social status or life cycle? The answer is obviously no and if Neko
Para had realised this it could have avoided these strange issues.
The cat girls could simply be another species of human and their
equals instead of pets and the story would not need to change much
and the games could just have omitted the characters’ age as most
other titles do rather than make a point of highlighting it. These
choices are perhaps the single oddest design decision a slice of life
visual novel has made and displays a tone deafness in conflict with the
rest of the well tuned experience.
Pets And Their Humans – Characters
At
the centre of the stage are the cat girls and their antics. Each one
of them follows a general archetype that many players will be
familiar with, but pushed through a cat shaped filter. What this
means is a lot of meowing and cat related traits sitting alongside
their expected ones. They stick closely to their templates and
present an immediately recognisable version of these simple character
traits which is designed to be pleasing to witness. For example,
Vanilla is a standard Kuudere with her reserved emotions and
seemingly distant disposition hiding a side of her that genuinely cares
about Chocola, the other cat girls and Kashou. At no point does she
every deviate from this core identity and her every action is what is
expected of someone with her personality. That is not to say she
lacks any traits of her own as her close bond with Chocola
demonstrates, but instead that this never treads on the toes of her
archetype. All this is in service of the slice of life fantasy and
assists in wrapping the player in the warm blanket of ideas they are
already familiar with. The standard nature of these focus heroines
reassures the player of the kind of story they are in for and
promises them an experience which will stay firmly within their
expectations. For Neko Para’s audience, this is exactly what they
want and the games play into this desire for predictable
characters.
 |
| Oh no run! Her brain is overheating! |
There
are two notable humans in these games, Kashou and his little sister Shigure, and
they could not be more different from each other. Shigure is close
to the cat girls in terms of role and falls into the archetype of the
sister with a brother complex, but, unlike the other heroines, is
never a romance option so instead acts as the wingman supporting them.
Her over the top actions make for some entertaining scenarios as she
lives vicariously through the cat girls and is not above messing with
Kashou for her own amusement. This added bit of chaos helps alleviate
the potential issue of the character interactions becoming stale due
to their static natures by throwing in curve balls to
spice things up with new situations for them to react to. On the
opposite end of the scale sits Kashou who is the expected self insert
of the slice of life genre. Aside from this love of western
confectioneries and minor disputes with his family, he is entirely
bland and works perfectly as a suitable vessel for the player to
place themselves into. In that regard he is hardly anything special
with many similar protagonists existing in the medium, but here he
works to fulfil the expectation of familiarity established through
every other aspect of games. He is in many ways the perfect
embodiment of what it is like to experience Neko Para.
Every Twitch Of Their Ears – Visuals, Audio And Technical
Atmosphere
is the connective tissue joining all the elements surrounding the
narrative together. They reflect the light and breezy tone of the
story and turn it into a pervasive sense of place for the games to
relax the player in. The high quality and expressive live 2D supports
this pillar visually through the way it lends life to what would
otherwise be static artwork and sells the idea of the characters as living
people. From the way they bounce around in excitement to the many
expressions they can dynamically adopt to the over the top nature of
these movements, it all invokes the energetic feeling of an anime and matches the narrative tone. The existence of a patting mode where
the player can stop the game at any point and touch the on screen
characters to see their reaction further reinforces the reactivity
and energy of the games. Neko Para’s soundtrack is nothing special
from the stand point of a slice of life visual novel, all the classic
tracks are here from the peaceful everyday to the exaggerated joke
and each offers nothing memorable. However, they do work in this
context due to their role in adhering to the exceptions players have for
this series. The sound scape of a work does a lot to place the player
in the right frame of mind to accept the narrative on an emotional
level. By meeting the genre expectations it wordlessly communicates
what is to come without having to spend valuable play time explaining
it.
 |
| Movement adds a lot to how alive something feels. |
Conclusion
Neko
Para is a slice of life visual novel with cat girls. On the surface
that statement might seem obvious, but there is a surprising amount of
effort which goes into ensuring the player does not think twice about
it. Everything about these games focuses on this core identity. The
episodic and separate structure of each title allows players to
experience as much or as little of the series as they want without
missing anything. Couple this with its polished and focused narrative that
places a sense of great importance on a light tone and the result
is form of pleasant entertainment which can be enjoyed at leisure. This
is further reinforced through the use of live 2D and a familiar style
of slice of life soundtrack which all push the games in the same
direction. Characters also fall into the expected archetypes of the
genre and exist as refined versions of the player’s expectations
for the cast. It is only in the unnecessary world building that Neko
Para stumbles from its all consuming tone and introduces some
uncomfortable and strange elements. Is this enough to ruin the
experience? That will depend on how much the specific genre it is
peddling appeals to you.
Verdict –
Neko Para knows exactly what its audience wants and never
deviates from the path of appealing to them. If that audience includes
you then you are in for a good time. Otherwise expect to be
disappointed by something shallow and standard.
Pros -
+
A series of short and focused titles which know exactly what they
want to be and who they are appealing to.
+
The commitment to the fantasy of this everyday world allows the games
to have a level of narrative polish only possible due to their keen
understanding of the genre.
+
Each character falls into a clear role and they interact with each
other in heart-warming and funny ways.
+
Strong visual design and familiar music direction do a lot to help sell the
comfortable feeling of this patisserie.
Cons -
-
Never evolves beyond being a simple slice of life tale so may
disappoint those looking for something more substantial.
-
Strange world building choices distract from the core fantasy and can
make the player feel uncomfortable.
-
Characters are static and there is little in the way of meaningful
development for them.
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