Affogato review

Like any entertainment medium, video games often evolve by building upon the games that came before them. As long as a developer is doing something a little different and adding its own twist to the proceedings, why would anyone complain about a game reminding them of something they love. Affogato for example has all the daily life elements of the Persona series that I can’t get enough of, but replaces the turn-based RPG combat with unique reverse tower defence segments.

The titular protagonist Affogato is a powerful witch who, alongside her demon partner Mephista, runs a coffee shop by day and fights demons by night. There are strange things going on in the busy city she lives in, from schoolchildren drifting into comas to lonely men deciding to drown themselves. Affogato knows that these tragic events are the work of some real bad otherworldly dudes, but with rent to pay still has to sell a whole lot of lattes to survive at the end of the month.

You’re introduced to the coffee making before the demon fighting, and it’s actually pretty in depth. You have a list of recipes to follow, which will help you make anything from espressos to cappuccinos. Usually you’ll need to start by grinding the beans, then putting them in the machine with some water and adding a variety of extras to make the customer’s drink of choice. Finally you get to add some flourishes to the cup for a bit of a flavour boost or decorative purposes, like a sprig of mint or a cinnamon stick. You’ll occasionally get hints which will enable you to make the perfect drink for one of your regulars, which although not crucial might help you get closer to them.

Each day is made up of a morning and an evening, with some activities you can do to pass the time. If you’re worried about money you can work part of the day at the coffee shop, if you want to build a relationship with someone you can spend time getting to know them, or if you want to raise one of your three personality stats (beauty, courage and intelligence) you can find an activity that’ll do that. If you’ve played a Persona game before you’ll feel right at home, although there’s admittedly a lot less activities to partake in here.

After a few days of getting to grips with that work life balance, a fellow witch arrives at the coffee shop with some demands. Apparently only one witch is allowed to live in a specific city, and this metropolis is taken. Affogato is given permission to stay though, if she helps with some issues about town. There’s some spooky stuff going on in this neighborhood, and it’ll take a witch to stop people from being possessed by demons and doing awful things.

This is where the combat comes in, which is best described as a tower defence game in which you play as the enemies. You have a selection of units you can place onto the paths that are surrounded by demons, and you need to defeat the boss demon to purge them from the poor mortals they inhabit. It’s easier said than done though, because choosing the wrong path will mean your witchy subordinates get a hell of a battering.

Choosing the right composition of tarot card based units will help you survive these encounters, especially with the variety you’ll have access to later in the game. Summoning a unit costs Penta, which can only be obtained by killing certain enemies or using specific units that grant you more as they fight. Once I’d obtained enough Penta my go to strategy was to summon my units that dealt the most damage first, then add a healer and a tanky unit that attracted attacks and granted shields to its weaker allies. There’s a huge variety of witch cards though, and you’ll likely find your own favourite combination.

Maybe the most interesting aspect of how the reverse tower defence gameplay works is how you control moving your units around. The floor has tiles that guide your little brigade in certain directions, and it’s your job to figure out which route will keep your units healthy. Sometimes this is easy and you’ll just dodge all the obvious laser beams coming from one direction, but later on you’ll also be able to switch into alternate dimensions which adds another layer of complexity.

You’ll often need to ensure you beat enough of these demon battles before a certain deadline to keep the other witch happy, and alongside the rent deadline this means you probably won’t want to mess around too much. Once a task is complete and a mystery is solved though you’ll usually have a nice chunk of free time (again, like in a Persona game) to chat with friends and go to the beauty parlour. It’s a shame that the down time is a little lacking in events and conversations in the run up to the next mission though, and often that week or so of waiting just gets a bit monotonous.

I didn’t really have any major issues in my time with Affogato, but there are just a few too many elements that are just…fine. The time management aspect of the game just feels a bit barren, with a lack of characters to interact with and no real party banter throughout the day. The combat is more interesting than it is fun, and the story is serviceable but didn’t really hook me. I was happy enough to play through Affogato, but it was just lacking that spark that would make me love it.

Affogato is an interesting mashup of Persona style time management and reverse tower defence demon battles, and I’m pretty confident that particular combination is a unique one. It’s a little lacking in things to do in your downtime, but coffee lovers and witches will unite in appreciating this intriguing game.