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During our visit to Japan recently, we got the opportunity to visit the pop-up café based on Coffee Talk, a visual novel game by Indonesian indie studio Toge Productions, in Shibuya, Tokyo. Titled “COFFEE TALK Episode 1.5～SHIBUYA PARCO”, this pop-up café runs from 11 am to 11 pm throughout the entirety of June 2024 and is a collaboration between Toge Productions, PARCO, and Chorus Worldwide, the publisher of Coffee Talk.
We got to experience a truly cozy atmosphere at the café that matched the mood of the game, with its theme song soothingly playing in the background. While at the café, we also got an opportunity to speak with Taketo Ishii, a Parco representative from the New Business Development Department, Game Business Team, about how the Coffee Talk café came to be and how has the reception been thus far. Joining him is Fuzuki Ninomiya, COO of Chorus Worldwide.
Reception
It has been about 2 weeks since the pop-up café began and in regard to reception, Ishii said that it has been doing extremely well.
“Thanks to everyone’s support, the food and beverage tickets have sold out for most of the time slots, and the merchandise, which has been rarely available in Japan until now, has been eagerly picked up by many customers,” said Ishii.
“On social media, we’ve seen a lot of positive feedback, such as how wonderful the atmosphere was and how it was great to have drinks featured from the game itself rather than just character-themed ones. We’re really pleased with how well it’s been received, and we feel it was definitely worth doing.”
Origin Story
This event is certainly a huge surprise to many fans of the game, including those from Indonesia as rarely do we get to see indie companies holding collaborative events with big brands.
When asked about the story behind how this collaboration between Parco, Chorus Worldwide, and Coffee Talk came to be, Ishii replied, “We approached Chorus during Tokyo Game Show 2023, and from there, the collaboration became a reality.”
“We were already very intrigued by the content of ‘Coffee Talk’ and had been discussing internally whether we could come up with a project related to it. So, the fact that this collaboration has come to fruition is something we are genuinely happy about as a company.”
As mentioned, it’s definitely a rare sight to see an indie game, especially one that comes from outside of Japan receive such a spotlight. This is especially true when many other collaboration cafés in Japan mostly revolve around popular series.
Hearing that, Ishii responded by saying, “Parco, as a company, places great importance on promoting things and people that are likely to become the next trend or that are still undiscovered but attractive to many. We don’t filter based on whether something is an indie game or from overseas, rather, we believe that if we can promote something good, it will ultimately contribute to the value of our company, Parco.”
“Particularly with ‘Coffee Talk,’ despite its popularity worldwide, the limited number of events and merchandise in Japan was a factor that contributed to the positive response to this collaboration.”
Ninomiya then added, “Yes, Parco is always looking for interesting titles, not just Japanese-only titles. If you find any good title, any suitable title that represents a culture, you can suggest it to Parco.”
Most Popular Drink
As a pop-up café based on a game with a varied selection of drinks, we were wondering what has been the most popular beverage or food served in the café so far. Hearing that, Ishii quickly pointed out that “Gala Had” is overwhelmingly popular here.
“Due to the popularity of ‘Gala Had’ within the game, many customers are also taking photos with the Gala Had trading card, which is included as an entry bonus,” added Ishii. For those unfamiliar, “Gala Had” is one of the many drinks in the game, and it is a ginger chai latte.
In addition to “Gala Had”, Ishii also mentioned that drinks such as “Ginger Latte” and “Hibiscus Tea”, which are unusual in regular cafés, are also quite popular.
The Experience
Overall, the café did a great job capturing the game’s atmosphere and created an extremely relaxing environment for you to chill out with aromatic coffees and chit-chat with friends. If you are a fan of the game, it is worth visiting and experiencing a “Coffee Talk” environment with a vast assortment of official merchandise for purchase. Not only that, there is also a mobile app that allows you to take AR photos with the characters from Coffee Talk, as though you are chatting with them.
Apart from all that, it is important point that the café has a dedicated place to pay tribute to Mohammad Fahmi, the director and designer of Coffee Talk who passed away 2 years ago.
Mohammad Fahmi is an absolute stalwart of the game industry, having gone from writing for websites like Asumsi and Tech In Asia to making the critically acclaimed Coffee Talk, as well as What Comes After and Afterlove EP.
We would like to thank Taketo Ishii and Fuzuki Ninomiya for taking the time to let us experience the café.
Coffee Talk and Coffee Talk Episode 2: Hibiscus and Butterfly is available on the PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC via Windows.
Source: GamerWK
