Caffeine: Victoria's Legacy

So i backed this game on kickstarter and got around to playing it. I have...mixed feelings on this visual novel, so let's see Pros Voice acting was okay at parts art was cute at parts some of the routes were okay Good music Lots of choices Cons Voice acting WASN'T okay in some parts. some of the routes were NOT okay some choices didn't matter "True" Ending wasn't very good okay so let me start off by saying, i don't like it when visual novels have "True" endings. every ending you get should be felt as a "True" ending. no matter which route you pick, that should be a "True" ending. by saying one is "True" that makes the rest of them feel less valid which is irritating. So in this game there are 4 routes. There's Eliza, Oceane, Alice, and Mel. And i can tell you right off the bat, the only really GOOD one is Oceane. Oceane's story was very sweet, had a lot of good moments and really felt like a good, slow build romance with a somewhat bittersweet, yet satisfying ending. The rest of the endings...unfortunately were not very good. Alice's ending is very quick and basic, Mel's i just found rather dull, and Eliza's was far too overblown and tried to do too much and didn't succeed in it. Considering her route leads to the "True" Route, i'll just say that the "True" Route just made me roll my eyes a lot as it forced me down a route i really didn't want to take. I felt like the "True" route should have been applicable for any girl you picked, just copy and paste their romance into the story. (it wouldn't have changed a whole lot to be honest) but they kinda railroaded you into the "True" ending by saddling you with the one the writer obviously liked the best. The game itself is also long. and by long, i don't mean like... GOOD long. There's a lot of parts that talk about coffee politics and i'm not gonna lie, i had to fast forward a bit during some of the parts when they were talking about that or doing some flashbacks. Especially when they would exposition dump in the middle of a dramatic scene. like HARD STOP ON THIS SCENE. here's 15 minutes of backstory. And you're like "oh god please no" I actually found yayoi to be an interesting character who was kind of the villain and actually thought she would have been a cool route to have in addition for romance sake. but then when you get to the "true ending" you just sigh and see the twist they went for. (which is very meh). I say the voicing is good AND bad, because there are some scenes where the voice acting is quite good and there are some times when it's obvious that the VA's didn't get the proper direction because they'd be putting the wrong emphasis on the wrong words, or having the wrong tone or emotion. and it was also a little offputting that it was only PARTIALLY voice acted. So one minute someone's saying something and then "boom. silence". the art...is inconsistent. Some of the artwork is really gorgeous while some is a little wonky. Eyes will be off or proportions, etc. i will say though, the music is sweet and i enjoyed it most of the time. The ending is VERY abrupt with the "Alternate ending" getting a big fat nothing and the true ending's ending isn't much better with the final choice. it kinda felt like a "well, we're done so um..let's wrap this up in 5 minutes" Overall, would i recommend this visual novel? I would say, play Oceane's Route and then just stop. It's the best route of the game (which i ended up getting first) and there's no need to play any others. i'll give it a thumbs up but like... a 6/10 thumbs up. Not bad for a first try and it's definitely interesting to learn about coffee mechanics, but there's such a thing as TOO MUCH.

Presentation: I like Victorian settings, and the warm color colors work well. The characters look good with a nice amount of animation. The voice acting is mostly good, but the audio quality is often lacking. The diverse soundtrack is good. There are some nice diagrams used when explaining brewery, and a lot of the dialogue focuses on the lore. There are interesting background characters, and I probably laughed a few times. Don't expect much actual romance outside of flirting. Gameplay: The flag system is difficult but engaging. Half of the choices are probably meaningless, to the point that the game sometimes insults you by denying what you try to do. The game shows progress on each route on some screens between chapters. I think the way routes diverge is handled well, but getting a good ending often relies on specific choices made during the entire playthrough more than the flags. Like I said, it's difficult (and not necessarily fair), but engaging. I recommend this game because it's unique enough to compensate for its flaws. It has a good length.

《咖啡因:维多利亚的遗产(Caffeine: Victoria's Legacy)》是一部有着多选项分支的幻想冒险视觉小说，游戏的故事背景设定在了一个蒸汽朋克&维多利亚时代的架空世界观。游戏主要讲述了主人公Taka为了寻找几年前意外离家出走的母亲而坐上前往日本江户的航班，但却没能料到由于一次奇怪的坠机事故而使得自己陷入了另一个世界线中...... [h1]游玩感受[/h1] 老实说，游戏的整体剧情设定有些让人匪夷所思，穿越世界线这一设定还能理解，但说什么只要会“品”咖啡并成为一名优秀的咖啡师就能会使用各种各样的超能力（魔法）......这种设定会不会有些牵强呢，这同时也使得全剧情上上下下都透露着一股浓浓的魔幻超现实主义气息，不过照史实来看维多利亚时代也被认为是英国工业革命的峰段，如果是“蒸汽朋克”的话倒也没有太多违和感，这点我还是比较认可的。 [h1]“咖啡因的力量”[/h1] 另外剧情中Taka在昏厥时只饮一杯咖啡也即刻头脑清醒、精神愉快，而实际上同样是消遣场所，咖啡馆与传统酒馆不同之处也在于喝咖啡的客人永远都呈现出一种容光焕发的姿态，因此，咖啡馆为吸引客源，逐渐将各种客户服务及文娱活动纳入其间：商谈、报刊阅读、政治辩论、珍奇收藏品展览、书籍和艺术品拍卖等。商业、政治、艺术、街谈巷议，社会各阶层及社会生活的方方面面聚集于咖啡馆，终使之成为一种极具社会影响力的公共机构，所以该作也正是想让玩家更多了解一番咖啡馆于历史长河中的深远影响。另外如果还有对[url=https://www.bilibili.com/read/cv3318374]咖啡师(Barista)[/url]、[url=https://www.bilibili.com/read/cv2871391]咖啡豆(Coffee beans)[/url]、[url=https://www.bilibili.com/read/cv5374478]咖啡因(Caffeine)[/url]感兴趣的玩家，可以也翻阅以上链接中的专栏知识。 [h1]总结[/h1] 总之，喜欢美式风格的galgmae的玩家可以试试本作。 [quote]用黑色译作背景，用文章谱写铭记 欢迎光临我们的网站 [url=https://www.blacklist.ink/]黑名鉴赏[/url] 点击关注我们发现更多好游戏 [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/9619592-Blacklist_//]黑名组[/url] 点击加入我们 [url=https://steamcommunity.com/groups/Blacklistgroup_/]黑名单[/url][/quote]

This is an underappreciated gem if I ever saw one. I've already written ~3800 words about it elsewhere, but to keep it brief, the game seems pretty silly at a glance. The premise is silly, the sprites look a bit off, homophones get mixed up semi-frequently, the voice acting is of mixed quality, and just play the opening sequence and try to make sense of what you're seeing, and more importantly, what you're *hearing*. And yet, the more I played, the more I was dragged along for the ride, and the more I realized that there was an immense amount of care and attention poured into not just the story and characters, but the setting and lore, too. I went into the game expecting silly mediocrity and instead found a diamond in the rough that will remain with me for many years to come. Good game, would fly to Japan with a coffee terrorist again.