In games like Baldur’s Gate 3 or even just when adventuring within pen and paper Dungeons and Dragons, one of the hidden joys is finding a great tavern to just hang out in for a while with your party or the other eclectic folks who often dwell there. And if a dungeon master really leans into that, they can create entire scenarios and mini-adventures that take place right there in the tavern, which can be fun and a nice change from all that serious dungeon delving. But for much of that to happen, there needs to be a pretty great bar and a memorable tavernkeeper.
Tavern Talk takes that concept and flips things around, putting the players on the other side of the bar as the tavernkeeper tasked with keeping all the adventurers happy and making sure that they have everything they need at the tavern. Presented as a visual novel, players as the tavernkeeper will spend much of their time chatting and bantering with a group of about 16 regulars who visit the combination tavern and inn, and then has players going into the kitchen laboratory in the back room to mix up whatever specialty drinks the regulars want or need.
As you play, you will quickly realize that you are not a normal tavernkeeper. For one, you have a dragon familiar named Andu who helps you out in the kitchen, happily guzzling down and disposing of whatever drinks or potions that you mix incorrectly. For another, you brew or mix up the drinks your customers want in the backroom of your bar, and then teleport them out front so that they can be consumed and enjoyed. Each drink you mix has magical properties too, which provide buffs, protections or enhancements that your customers will need in order to survive their upcoming adventures.
You even sometimes have a choice about how to best help those adventurers, normally boosting either their intelligence and cunning for more subtle and less violent solutions, or their magical protection and strength or dexterity for more combat-oriented encounters. You don’t actually get to see what happens, but they often return to the tavern a few days later to let you know how things went, and how well your suggested approach and magical support worked out for them.
There are two main gameplay elements in Tavern Talk. The main one is, as the name suggests, talking with customers who come into your tavern and inn. In true visual novel style, you mostly just click through those conversations with little interactivity in terms of gameplay other than occasionally getting a choice about what you want to say. Picking one dialogue option over another does not seem to change too much, although you can strengthen the tavernkeeper’s relationship with other characters by always selecting supportive or complimentary responses whenever you can.
The second major part of the gameplay consists of mixing magical drinks in the back room based on what your customers need, and then teleporting those concoctions out to their barstools. This is another rather easy process because the customer’s order magically arrives in the backroom, and you can have the recipe for that drink automatically diagramed on a chalkboard. Then all you need to do as the tavernkeeper is follow the recipe by pouring the right amount of liquids into their glass. If you mess up, Andu will help you clean up mistakes until you get it right.
There are a few other minor elements, like collecting rumors which you turn into quests that your customers can take on. Your customers will accept quests or jobs for a variety of different reasons, but you never seem to pay them for these efforts. Then again, you never charge them for the drinks either, although you do sometimes ask for stories or secrets, so this free questing just seems to flow with the theme of your tavern. Finally, every time you learn more about one of your regular customers, their journal entry will be updated, which is kind of like a minigame, but the two main gameplay elements are going to be talking with customers and mixing their drinks.
Now, even though the interactivity in Tavern Talk is kind of low, the story that is presented is really well done. Almost every adventurer who visits your tavern will initially be low-level, inexperienced or otherwise flawed in some way, and as the story progresses, they become more powerful, but also nicer and less-flawed overall – which can be attributed at least somewhat because of your interactions with them.
As the main character, you as the tavernkeeper come off as a kind of wise and powerful figure in that world, always delving into your customers’ secrets, histories and motivations, but refusing to offer almost anything about yourself in return, even when directly asked about it. Nobody even calls you by your real name, just Tavernkeeper. Even so, your customers come to trust and rely on you, even to the point where they seek out your advice (and your magical drink buffs) before heading out on any major quest.
The characters who come into your tavern are a big part of what makes Tavern Talk so enjoyable. They are a varied group of characters from different fantasy classes, races, alignments and personalities. And yet, as the story progresses many of them form adventuring parties, friendships and even relationships, all of which makes progressing the story and watching events unfold from behind the bar really enjoyable, just like a great fantasy novel. There are also copious inside jokes and funny observations role-players will enjoy that spice things up even more.
In addition to just interacting with the characters who visit your inn, there are also grand, world-changing events happening outside your tavern, and players will likely feel heavily invested in them as they watch everything unfold through the windows of the cozy tavern or as they listen to the stories of the adventurers when they return from dangerous missions. It’s an odd feeling to not be one of those heroes directly saving the world, but even so, players will become heavily invested in what is happening regarding the fate of that world as well as the characters they befriend.
Tavern Talk may not be a typical adventure title, but it tells an interesting story in a very unique way that I think most people who play fantasy RPGs will enjoy. And being priced at under $20 on Steam (it’s also available for the Nintendo Switch), Tavern Talk is a really great value too. There isn’t much replay value, but that first ride through the amazing story and the way everything is presented makes Tavern Talk more than worth the price of admission.