Preview: Tavern Talk Stories: Dreamwalker

Visual novels are a genre which can be pretty hit or miss. Luckily, in recent years, we’ve had a number of cosy ones that really showed us what the genre can be outside of the regular dating sims and whatnot. One of the more influential ones in recent years was Coffee Talk, a chill game that had you working in a coffee bar, making drinks for a cast of fantastical folks. A couple of years later, Gentle Troll Entertainment used that inspiration and mixed it with the world of Dungeons and Dragons to create Tavern Talk.

This full-on fantasy setting worked well, with you playing as the innkeeper, who creates magical drinks for customers and notes down rumours to create quests that adventurers could then take on. The game was widely praised for its excellent writing, gorgeous art and its fantastic representation. Now, a game like this is always pretty niche, so the calls for a sequel were tentative at first, but now we’re getting a full-blown prequel in Tavern Talk Stories: Dreamwalker.

Dreamwalker is set 36 years before the original game and sees you play as a completely different innkeeper, whose name you can choose, including their pronouns, which is a lovely addition. The current demo sees you meet two sets of adventurers, all with very different motives and goals. Something I do love is that these characters immediately have some links to the people and monsters you met in the original Tavern Talk, creating that feeling of a shared universe without being too obvious about it. It shouldn’t have been a total surprise to see Andu – your familiar from the first game – is front and centre of the title screen, but still, it felt a little like coming home.

The first thing I noticed is that the art is once again absolutely stunning. The new inn looks delightfully quirky, but it’s the character art that really shines, which will come as no surprise for players of the first game. The writing is wonderful again as well, allowing for exposition to flow naturally. Even the tutorials are introduced within the story, with you at first showing an old friend how your bar works and later on someone being interested in how the questing system functions.

The mixing area has a new look to it too, which took some getting used to, but once you get going, mixing drinks feels just as natural as in the first game. Potions’ effects can now have negative consequences, meaning that your stats will go below zero if you add a drip of them to the final drink, for example. I’m wondering if this will come into play storywise, or if that’s just a new artistic direction for the game.

You also have a new familiar alongside you, Captain Beebug, which is a valiant effort to replace the original game’s Andu, although so far they’re not a match just yet. Captain Beebug doesn’t drink your wrong beverages outright; rather, you pour them out in their bucket, which takes away a little of the charm.

But that’s the only critical thing I can say about this early demo. In a similar way as Hades II feels to Hades, this feels like both a continuation and an evolution. The base game of the original is still here to supply the foundations, but it’s not just more of the same. The quest screen has changed as well, for example, with quest sheets having been prepared, so you just need to add the rumours to them. Rumours that you can’t use (for now…?) can be added to a shell, so you don’t outright lose them.

It’s small changes like these that give me a lot of hope for the full game. Changes might not even be the right word; maybe tweaks would be better. You still know you’re playing Tavern Talk; you’re just not playing the original. Who knows how much the game will change, as Dreamwalker is still missing its release date after only recently being announced.

The demo is quite short, with you being able to complete it within half an hour to 45 minutes, but that’s totally fine. Fittingly, it gives you just enough of a taste to whet your appetite, and you’ll be longing for more to come when you finish. I had immense faith in Gentle Troll before going into the demo, and it feels nice to be able to say that they’ve delivered on all fronts. I’ve been careful not to spoil any of the game’s story so far in this preview because I do urge you to play the demo for yourself, as it’s that much fun.

If there was any doubt that Gentle Troll Entertainment would deliver again after the success of the first Tavern Talk, that doubt should have evaporated by the end of your half-hour run of the Tavern Talk Stories: Dreamwalker demo. It proves that their original game was anything but a one-hit wonder, and I’m excited to see where the game goes from here. Here’s hoping the release date isn’t too far off, so go wishlist the game on Steam to stay up to date.

You can wish list the game on Steam and play the demo for yourself right now!