Others - Coffee Story [v20250325v1] [unnie]

Let me preface this by saying that I understand this game feels like a genuine passion project and unique in its style, topics and fetishes, which I all appreciate and believe they are all well executed.
So do note that the following negative points I will bring up are "nitpicks", the stuff I don't mention are defaulted as good or great, and that I understand that the changes I hope for are easier said than done.

With that said, I believe the main issue with this game is the lack streamlining and player feedback. Let me elaborate.

The progression in this game is difficult, even with a walkthrough, most actions cost you something, whether its time, energy, cognisiveness(?), items, and making you retry from the beginning after needing to fill back your "energy bars", and this applies to progressing with the story, getting some of the sexy scenes or getting to specific locations.
Example: "Nanami is tired, I should talk to her" this I first struggled to even learn that Nanami was in the School garden in the afternoon because the Cat Cat quest overrides the diary entry before that if you start it at the same time (which I accidentally did since I talked to Yuri and Kari about Nanami on the same day), so now I know where she is, but I find out I don't have enough green energy, and the only way I know how to fill it back up is by attending class or chucking some of the meds found in the store which you can only buy one per day, so I do that, go back next day only to find out there is another dialogue option after that which needs more green energy, and I do this 3 times and use 3/4 of my green energy to finally complete the dialog.

This game is labelled with 8h of playtime but even with Framerate x3, most of it is spend going in circles to try to progress or understand how to progress. Like I said before, the second issue is the lack of player feedback to the developper, after skimming through the comments, I learned that in earlier versions, interractible items weren't even hinted at, so no way to differenciate them from background decorations, and despite the addition of the glint, there is still some elements that are hard to notice or still hidden.
Example: The lockpick in the very bright right in the very light blue cushion, the key to the manor's basement behind the curtain, some computers being interactible while others are not, the arm of the frozen girl you're able to cut off with the saw...
The codes you have to take note off, locations of items, monsters, effects, paths, you all have to understand and figure out while also needing to avoid locking yourself out certains areas because of a monster or one of your energy bars... Which will make you need to loop again and again, open doors a thousand times just so they can close back on you, fit into a gap your character's hitbox can only got through riiight at the center... Until you understand and figure out how to get out of said situation, and go back to trying to progress the game. Without the comments here, I wouldn't have been able to figure out how to progress in any of the dreams.

Which makes me go back to the main issues I believe this game has player feedback and the lack of streamlining.
I kept having the feeling when playing that only the develloper understands the mechanics, knows the maps, item placements, etc. Making it easy for them, but not for us. The best example of that is the spinoff, 3 branches, one way to progress on each and nothing that makes you need to reload a save or do a whole other thing to "fix" you progression.
I kind of lost my train of thought but I hope anyone who reads this and the dev understand what I mean by that, but instead of continuing to list issues and examples, I'll try and make the following constructive by proposing some changes to make the game more accessible.

• Make the Diary also list how to progress in the dream areas, don't make it skip time or use "energy" to check it, and optionally add a way for quest clues to be pinned
• Keep doors open, including cards ones, despite the existing ways to keep doors unlocked (like admin mode in the lab computer or the one in the secret lab), it is too time and resource consuming to redo if you "fail" in the area.
• Nerf things that use too much of your "energies" like some special character dialogues and buff stuff that can restore said energies.
• Make the interactible stuff even more obvious (potentially switch from something that can glint through walls to a discreet outline, and or the name of the item showing up or a "?" appearing above the character. Give all items description/clues about what they can be used for.
• Make some of the text clues "unlock" ingame options directly (I said I was done with examples but bear with me) Suit teleport locations and corresponding sequences should just end up giving you the option to get to each location once the corresponding log is read, same for the forest pages, which should add some kind of glowing path to the corresponding buried chests and locations imo

In conclusion and tldr: I really want to love this game but currently ( v20250325) getting to the content it has to offer is extremely confusing and time consuming, making it hard to look past with the fetishes included, which I wasn't even able to reach half of after probably more than 5h in

There is a lot I like about this game as it hits a lot of what I am looking for in a game like this. The pixel art graphics are on point and the gameplay is really good especially when I actually know what to do.

My only real issue with the game is mostly my lack of time to dedicate to the game with its style getting in the way of enjoying a lot of it and progressing but I respect the fact it can be tedious to work with at times. Don't be afraid to write down notes for yourself.

Bugs that break your progression are especially annoying when some things in the game depend on RNG, an aspect of the game that I am definitely less of a fan of but I understand that its a part of the gameplay loop but can be annoying when its part of a puzzle. It can be frustrating and beating your head against the wall won't benefit you much but it can a great experience with some patience.

I would definitely recommend trying the game out yourself if its tags are of any interest to you as it is at least worth your time to give it cursory look through.

I nearly didn't give this game a chance. I'm so glad I did. Often times the greatest stories are unassuming before you get into them. I can't stop thinking about this game, day, night, for days - coffee story on my mind. Imagining being the MC, imagining interacting with the characters, what I'd do if I were really in the game, thinking about where the story might go from here, I can't stop thinking about it, it left such an incredble impression on me. Give this a chance, it's really good.

What I like:
The characters are interesting, flawed, expressive. Especially the way their faces are all animated give them a lot of life.
The monsterfucking :3
Engaging story and dialogue that keeps me coming back for more.
It's a fantasy I can really put myself in, I love the forced transformation stuff a lot, but also the focus on living with the transformation after it happens, and the way the characters interact with it, and have different opinions on it.

Dislike:
Expansion that looks kinda ridiculous, a belly the size of the rest of the body, unrealistic expansion.
Middling art, I almost didn't give this a chance because I thought the art wasn't very good, though it grew on me the more I played, especially the expressiveness of the characters won me over on the art side eventually.
Bugs. Most games, especially single dev ones have bugs, I can forgive it.

I've been following this game for a long time, and I just got to the tea party with Alice. Can I just say—the story of this game is so endearing. Forget the Lovecraftian horror and terrifying transformation monster fuckery for a moment. Yuri, Kari, and Nanami are so adorable and watching their relationships with the MC bloom is honestly what I think this game needs more of—including a playthrough where you can avoid any lewd content and reach a good ending. Leave the bad ending nightmares in there for sure, but expand on the story of a boy trying to figure out what it means to be a girl and whether or not that's what they truly want in the end. Let this cast support the MC to the finish, sweeping my heart away just like they already have.

GOOD FUCKING JOB UNNIE! YOU ARE A GD GENIUS! 10/10 don't even give a shit about the bugs.

Some folks here are saying good things about the H-scenes of this game... I wouldn't know, I haven't managed to reach them, not even in free play.

And that's due to some major "technical" problems:

- The design and controls of this game are straight up garbage. Possibly the 2nd or 3rd worse I have seen here. So it's extremely hard to figure out what to do, how to do it, and which key is going to make your character do that. For instance: it took me three hard resets of the game after being stuck in a menu to figure out which key was mapped to "exit menu". No, it's not ESC, RMB, <-, or Q. It's... Left-Ctl. Yeah. Another example: doors. They are nearly invisible, and you need to be positioned just so to be able to open them. With Space, of course, not Enter, E, LMB, or any of the more logical and common options.

- This is a bug fest. Freezes, crashes, hard- and soft-locks, within minutes of starting the game. Sometimes, having to hard-terminate the process, because just killing the window wasn't enough.

Little buggy but very nice style. Overall this game artwrok is very interesting. The story is mysterious and unique giving it a good rating from me.
The progress is a little hard to follow. It's difficult to understand where I am during and what to do next. Some hints would go a long way. Overall good work and keep it up.

It looks good but it has some MAJOR problem.

Bit to much walking around gathering things with no context around them, "puzzles" I guess but not really.

I could live with this puzzles aren't hard, issue is I had to close the game a couple times because I got locked into events I strait up couldn't exit.

The Catgirl "minigame" also not only drained my 100k starting money it then drained my last 1k leaving me at 0 with no money to buy food and doing it again wouldn't give money from then on. So I had to give up.

I'd really like to try again and raise my rating but till the literal game breaking bugs are fixed I can't muster the energy to deal with the frustration.

{INTRODUCTION}
//For what looks like this person's first project, has a lot of promise, good ideas, imagination and a story. Everything, from art to code, has been developed throughout the years by the same one person and despite the setbacks, we still see updates for this game, which is simply admirable.//

{SOUND DESIGN}
[0/5]...[NO SOUND]

{STORY & LORE}
[3/5]...[UNFINISHED, BUT INTERESTING]
//Seems like the OC is forcibly and unknowingly taking a part in some sort of reality shifting experiment, that is hinted to be lead by the protagonist's dad. The dreams change the protagonist's body (and mind?) to be more feminine (and consequently, to get pregnant) while only his close friends notice this. Perhaps the goal of this operation is to increase the population (which is hinted to be decreasing).//

{SETTING AND AESTHETICS}
[4/5]...[PLEASANTLY QUIRKY]
//Lots of flesh monsters, tentacles, ghosts. The girls looks quite plump, with cute hips, butts and anime-ish faces. The game is set in the modern times, the protag goes to a typical anime/jap school. The dreams are a mix of Victorian era fantasy and lab/spaceship futurism. All animations, sprites and backgrounds are pixel art with a distinct style.//

{LEWD STUFF}
[4/5]...[SEXY AND KINKY]
//In the real world, forced feminization by the protag's school friend. In the dreams, transformation into other girls or a "bunny" flesh monster. Forced sex by other monsters, pregnancy (that you can inspect with X-ray view) that actually makes you slower and makes you have a big lewd belly. There's also nudity and masturbation. //

{GAMEPLAY LOOP AND MECHANICS}
[4/5]...[SIMPLE, BUT ENGAGING]
//Mostly walking, avoiding monsters, collecting stuff to solve puzzles, speaking to NPCs (limited intro sequences). In the real world, you need to manage fatigue, hunger and thirst, otherwise you'll end up in a nightmare. You can also change your clothing in your wardrobe. //

{CONCLUSION}
[4/5]...[PRETTY GOOD]
//Although the content is not abundant for such a demo, there's a lot of interesting things going on. The closest comparison that comes to mind is Yume Nikki, but lewd. Can't wait to see more.//

Coffee (or Coffee Story, as the file is called) is a rather impressive concept of a game, with a ton of potential for future updates. Though, there are some issues that are holding me back from a 4 or 5 star.


PROS:

Art style: The pixel art is rather unique and easy to read. So many go for an 8-bit or 16 bit which makes them hard to stand out. Characters are easy to pick up from their background as well, even the ghosts, which is very important.
The animations are great as well. With the non-sexual animations having a ton of character. Most importantly, the sex animations are just as good. The human/human-like characters are done well, and the less human-like animations (from what I've seen) are defiantly very unique. My only complaint is with one animation, being the one that plays when the ghosts in the first floor of the manor come at you from the south and the animation only shows their back with your character's limbs wrapped around, I wish that was from a side angle instead.

Story: A lot of erotica games miss the mark when comes to story. So many I've seen have a half-baked (at best) story just so it's doesn't seem like a porn game but rather an erotic game, or have a story that's entirely just about sex. A few just put too much story with little actual sexual content. I feel like this hits the sweet spot in the middle. An interesting story that makes me want to learn more with sexual content being a core part of the game.

Gameplay: I am mixed on this, but I'll only explain the good parts here and then get into the bad parts later. Having to budget your actions in order to push through each step, with trial and error being important in order to figure out how to solve the puzzles, makes it feel like a rather interesting roguelite.

Helpful dev: It's great to see them interact with their community such as what I've seen here. Defiantly helpful when issues arise.


CONS:

I want to say the biggest issues are with the game play itself.

No guide: There isn't much of a guide when it comes to this game, be it in-game hints/a tutorial or an out-of-game walkthrough. This makes it extremely difficult to figure out what to do and very easy to miss stuff, like what I feel like happened with me in the lab section of the dream. While the intro where you save Yuri does teach you how to interact with objects that show interactivity, it doesn't tell you how to interact with stuff that doesn't give you an interaction prompt (i.e. the pictures). An easy fix for this without requiring a tutorial would be hints baked into the map itself. Like paintings showing different objects interacting, or design queues like lights and/ot colors to guide the player both on the path they should follow as well as side content. This alone has made me get stuck in the manor for over an hour not knowing what to do.

Days/real world: When not in the dream world, you're in the real world. There isn't much to do here outside of story beats. It's a real chore managing your character's health and it brings the rest of the game down. This needs the most redesigning to make it less like repetitive busywork between gameplay sections, and more like a continuation of gameplay or removed completely in favor of a menu system. I'd much rather the first. One idea would be to make the real world a puzzle too, with completing the puzzle helping you in the dream world. But at the very least add something to this so it's less easy to get stuck in a cycle of eat, pop in and out of school, then do what else is needed to be healthy without knowing that the store does have items you can bring into the dream.

Cutscenes issues: Cutscenes where the character would be eating/drinking don't reset those counters and thus make it harder to manage health on days those happen.

I remember playing this game first few demo, when it just appeared on site. That time I liked the setting, and thought it had good potential. But now I am a little dissapointed in curent state of the game.
I see that author tries to make a complex story, and I see this as nice idea. But:

1)There is no saves. No autosave during the day, no manual save. If your game crushed or something not working and you 'load', you start the whole day from the beggining! What's the point in not making at least 2-3 save slots? It was really annoing to start over and over a few times in my play.

2)No skipping in dialogues, and when you start the day over, just imagine how it feels!

3) There are bugs. For example, at the start after the scene in the park script with delivery, when you need to open the door to get it was not working! I had to restart a few times for this to work(open the door just as level loaded in the house, or got stuck with message "not now'')

4) When you use needle, you lose all the inventory you got last dream, so it was a "pleasant'' surprise when in mansion I wasn't able to see anything in dark corridor because the flashlight you need was on previous level and you can't get there! You are here already and just what to do?

So in my opinion if dev at least give us saves or savepoints not only at the start of the day and skip it could be playable at least. Two starts just for attempt in story mode.

The concept is really good and the design is decent, however there are definitely problems with the game. I'll list the four mains ones I've found.

1) Not being able to skip cutscenes/dialogue
This problem wouldn't be so bad if it didn't take the MC like 20-30 seconds just to look in the fkin mirror. The cutscenes and dialogue just take ages to get through, which sucks if you're trying to replay the game.

2) Progress resetting on waking up
I assume this is an intended feature, but it's really damn annoying. Spending like 20-30 minutes inside a dream world figuring out what to do only to wake up and have to do it all again is so annoying. Some people might like the challenge, which is why I'd recommend adding a difficulty setting or gameplay options like time not passing in the dreamworld?

3) Not knowing what to do
This one is most likely a skill issue on my end, but it's hard to know what items do what, go where and what's needed. Also having to interact with an item in your inventory while standing in a specific place can be confusing because there's no real indicator as to what is usable and what's just decoration. Though this wouldn't be too bad if it wasn't for issue number 4.

4) Limited inventory space
Just like issue 3, it's not bad on its own, but together it sucks. I might drop an important item somewhere and forget where I put it because I didn't need it in that exact moment and needed to make room for a different item.

Overall, it's a good game but I just don't think it's that playable atm. It's still only a demo, so hopefully some of these issues are fixed when the full game launches, but we'll see.

Brilliant ideas. The puzzle structure, while controversial, makes finding content rewarding. The kinks synergise well with each other. The pixel artstyle is not something very common, and it works very nicely for this game. The characters have the potential to have entertaining dynamics, and I wish we saw more of them past the first few days. Yes, it does require polishing, but I believe that someday this can become a well beloved game. Or at the very least, it will be a good stepping stone for Unnie's future games. I look forward to seeing their work.

I would give 5 stars for the old demo but as the game currently stands it would be way too much. I love the graphics, I love the particular set of fetishes here, but the problem with this game is it's almost impossible to get to the good part. I literally had to skip intro because I couldn't progress even after i groped every part of the map.

The short description: Progression in this game is EXTREMELY ANNOYING.
Even after I got to a seemingly good part, where I somehow managed to spawn in a lab where I got the flashlight and then proceeded to the mansion where I used it to get through a corridor where I SAW FIRST ACTUAL PORN CONENT, with the preggo ghost possesing the mc, when I reached the end of that corridor, THE GAME CRASHED. I only managed to get to this part once again, but my char woke up mid corridor

After that I couldn't progress anymore, there were no items that could get me further, most of the dreams landed in what I can only call "a punishment area" with an extremely annoying maze, even though i kept my health full.

If the progress in this game becomes actually possible without getting stuck FOR IRL HOURS on a single part, then it would easily get more than a five stars from me

It's completely impossible! I don't understand people who can play this. The game does not explain anything, completely unfriendly interface and input. There are no passages, no understanding, no fun, only suffering...

Petition to have the "gender specific protagonist" tag only if you can have a play through where you at least start and finish as that gender.
If you start as a given gender, but then have to change it permanently, what's the point of denominating that section, anyway?

The 2021 Demos: 5 stars

These demos are nothing short of incredible. Sure, you'll be able to run through everything in under an hour with ease, but the graphics are unique enough and transformations and other fetishes depicted rare enough to warrant regular returns to reexperience them.

The 2022 Demos: 3 Stars

The game still looks damn good and almost everything has improved, but there's quite a few elements and areas where it is generally impossible to tell if what is stopping your progress is a bug, RNG, or a moment of genuine ineptitude. These things turn what should be a masterpiece on this site into an incredibly frustrating and downright antagonizing experience. It's never a good sign when you can't tell what is screwing you over when each possible culprit is easily resolved. Bugs can be fixed, RNG can be dealt with... eventually, and moments of stupidity never last forever for most people. The absolute bafflement of not knowing what is and isn't a feature, areas that requires a specific item that are NOT tied to a set list of specific spawn locations, no clear indicators if something can or cannot be interacted with or items involved, and the always infuriating moments where careful exploration and experimentation is rewarded with locking yourself out of several areas of the map makes what should be a fun experience about as fun as bashing your head into a wall.

If you're looking to get your rocks off quick and the tags were what drew you here, definitely go download the 2021 versions. If you like games where the first challenge you face is figuring out what the controls are as well as what your character can and cannot do before it is possible to leave the first room, you will love the 2022 version.

I still have high hopes for this game, but there are a lot of tweaks and other basic features that need to be implemented for it to be as enjoyable as it was a year ago.

Ok, the fetishes here is amazing, but the gameplay is straight ass.

Let me break it down for you. To get to the lab from the mansion you must get 2 batteries which, in the mansion, only spawn in chest. There are 5 total chests and 1 is fake and another is in an area that's hard to reach without the batteries. That leaves 3 chests most of the time. you have a 1 in about fucking 10 chance of getting a battery and like I said you need fucking 2. You also have a 50/50 chance of spawning in either the lab or the mansion which further pushes the issue because you need to reset once you open all the chests and dont get 2 batteries.

The system is straight trash too. Things that should be permanent, like changing into the red hair chick, are not. I've had numerous crashes. Banshy inflation overrides pregnancy and completely breaks the game when you fall back asleep. So even if you do everything right the game could just straight break. I stopped after the game removed my red head transformation after i got it.

I recommend waiting for the dev to make the game less annoying or for the system to be fixed so it doesn't break after you put a shit ton of work in. Honestly the demo was a better version of the game.

Alright, here's a review of Coffee Demon version 20210712v4
I'd probably rate this game 3.5 if I could.

I think it's a quite interesting game. It is primarily the art and animations that makes it interesting. It has some quite unique art, and many of the monsters has the ability to get you pregnant.

The game is a type of labyrinth game where you are knocked back to base every time you make progress. It isn't a complete back to square one, but you still have to pick up the same things again and again. That part is really annoying.

If I may suggest to the developer; once you've picked something up - like the key card or hair brush, allow the player to re-pick them up at the spawn location every time you enter your dreams. That would save us the hazzle of having to all the time go that route.

There are also some of the animations which are reaaaaally slow and very long. Luckily you can press 'f' to have it sped up to your liking. I found that speed 2 was pretty neat for that.

Anyways, here's the short version:

The Good:

• The art is unique
• The monsters are unique and all have animations.

The In-between

• The encounters are a bit too slow.
• It can be a struggle to get things to work - like cutting some of Rin's hair was not easy, even though I had the scissors.
• I don't know if I'm supposed to take food from the fridge, but it isn't working.

The Bad:

• You are forced to start over in picking up items if you are captured by a major monster.
  • This takes a lot of time, and is not very interesting.

Anyways, if you can look past the game being somewhat repetitive in the tasks, then this is a really good game with a different type of setting, unique art and all encounters are animated.

great customazation and pregnancy. Alien stuff, shame that its just the beginning. Oh and can't save as of now. Oh and a bit more hint to progress would be good. Hoping you guys work hard to make more nasty stuff keep happening to her

Pretty cool stuff, not much bad to say about it, I guess, and the pregnancy focus is a big plus. The atmosphere is great, the art is solid, the content is good, and the game will keep you busy a while as long as you're running it blind.

Since this is a review, not a brownnose contest, I'll nitpick:
1. A lot of the scenes run for way too long. Example: I still can't really figure out what's going on with the ghosts, but you spend nearly a full minute just watching your character fumble around.
2. There's so much of a focus on "figure it out yourself" that the game just kinda boils down to opening every door, trying every item, getting caught on purpose by everything like you're just running down a checklist, etc., and there's a few things in the game where I did something, but have no clue how or why because of it. Heck, I've got two weird flesh canisters, I think they make that flesh puddle activate, but having a second one doesn't seem to do anything...?
3. No save feature yet, I think, and nothing in the house actually seems to accomplish anything? Does showering do something? Is the stock in the fridge used for something?
4. Most of the things that give you a big belly stick around for a bit too long, IMO. It's a bit more fun when someone flat gets bloated, but 99% of the time you're already huge so getting fucked doesn't actually make you any bigger and you end up watching the lengthy sex scene for nothing.
5. I'm a bit iffy about the infinite centaur hallway exit. I play at night a lot so I have my screen turned down and I couldn't see it at all.
6. The "wait in place so interactables start to sparkle" function takes too long, I feel like it should be a button press or that it should just trigger faster.
7. Thanks to the fact it's a demo, I'm not entirely sure which doors are bugged, which ones are unimplemented and which ones require me to solve a puzzle or something, and juggling all those items on each door I run into gets tedious, namely that room door in the house, it opens the wrong door when you try to open it.