Today, we’d like to tell you a little bit about the themes in Coffee Talk Tokyo’s story.
We came up with these themes at the same time as we were coming up with characters: as much as our characters are all individuals with many different backgrounds and issues to sort through, we also wanted them to be united by some shared worries and desires.
Our themes have evolved quite a lot over time, and the various ideas we considered are still reflected in some of the game’s arcs: the meaning of a soul, the search for a home, remembering and forgetting.
But as we went back and forth between characters and plot, we realized there was one overarching idea that kept coming up: the theme of change.
In 2026, the changes wrought by the pandemic are still close behind us. At the same time, the planet is changing in ways that we as a species are struggling to control; the political and technological systems are changing in unpredictable, sometimes scary ways; and of all countries, Japan is no stranger to fast-paced change, some of it accepted, some of it actively resisted to this day.
Of course, as much as large society themes are touched upon in the Coffee Talk series, small-scale human stakes remain its bread and butter. But there too, we found that the idea fit.
Change, at the end of the day, is at the heart of every story, both fictional and real. The stories we remember about ourselves, the stories we tell our friends and loved ones, are all about moments of change, big and small, transformations that renew us somewhat and add another layer to who we are.
In that sense, Coffee Talk games have always dealt with change: moments of crisis, moments of hope, difficult decisions to be made. In Coffee Talk Tokyo, we decided to take it one step further.
All of our characters are facing, in some way, a critical moment. Some of them are dramatic, such as the edge between life and death, or between childhood and the teenage years. Others are more mundane: entering retirement, taking a step back from overwork, reconsidering a dysfunctional flat share. In all cases, though, the characters are faced with a change they cannot entirely control, and they have a choice: to find their courage and accept it, along with its hardships, or to refuse it, at the risk of stunted growth.
As before, it is the player’s responsibility, through comforting brews and insightful conversations, to soften the transition and ease the characters into taking that next step.
We hope you enjoy assuming, for some of you once again, the role of their friend and guide!
And in our next devlog, we’ll introduce you to the phenomenal group of people who took these themes and gave them visual life: our artists!
Coffee Talk Tokyo Team 💛