Ever wanted to run a tavern in a cosy yet chaotic environment?! A variety of significant themes to explore through a laid-back fantasy setting.
Game’s details:
Genre: Fantasy
Classification: Visual Novel, Dating Sim
Supported System: Windows 7 or higher
Developer: Starbeast Inferno Productions
Platform: Itch.io
Price: Free to Play
Gameplay: 1.5h
A comfortable setting; well-coordinated with the pacing of recounted story:
Welcome to Chilverre – a modest city located at the root of mountains where many different species reside.
This is a story about a human barkeeper running a tavern of their own together with their nowadays trustful helper Sonya – a Dusk Elf.
Past difficulties and everyday struggles:
Nonetheless being a relatively small and peaceful city, there still happen to be squabbles among citizens caused by prejudices coming to determined species, such was the case of Sonya the Dusk Elf; no one really recommended hiring her at the tavern, but our main character decided to not waste time on rumours and evaluate themselves whether she is a hard worker or not.
The reason that may have pushed the tavern owner to not trust the townsfolk word is Vivi – a dear friend from far childhood who happened to have difficult times due to being a Half-Elf. The harsh words and glares from other Elves caused a tad of commotion in her life, to the point she had to leave the city in order to have a break from such a routine.
After many years… To find each other:
After closing up the tavern in the wee hours of the morning, the barkeeper gets to suddenly face their childhood friend Vivi, after no less than 15 whole years.
She just happened to come back to Chilverre, hence you arrange a meeting place for a friendly reunion to catch up with each other’s whereabouts.
Once at the set location (you did pick a comfortable local Cafe for the meeting) Vivi recounts of being here in hometown purely for work-related reasons. She is now working at Elven Revenue Service and is here to conduct audits at a certain tavern.
After naming none less but the tavern of yours, you decide to keep that tiny detail to yourself for the time being and rush to your lawyer’s office in order to sort the situation and get a clue towards what may have happened to your precise tax calculations that not so recently happened to be in order.
What else could be going wrong at your tavern aside from a tiny miscalculation? Some law infringement occurred due to incautiousness now putting your tavern’s future at risk?!
Personal considerations:
Appreciated how the storytelling is presented with a solid base, so that we can appreciate the game fully even within the short length that the Demo is offering.
The presented art template is also interesting, in particular the sprites that do feature a ’90s RPG-like stylization.
Aside from offering to us LGBTQ+ personages this game does present common struggles among society such as bullying and prejudices, as well as their consequences – the altogether is well-thought and can bring us dark topics while still not breaking the light-paced atmosphere.
Featurings:
Elven Revenue Service does feature a laid-back storytelling with relaxing atmosphere in a fantasy setting.
Original designs are displayed and the characters are pleasant to meet. Each of the personages will have something to uncover, that will be revealed by getting closer to them – typical of Visual Novels featuring routes.
Here however, we will have a bit of everything; a possible dateable character, the development of main story based on the picked choices, eventual tavern management feature and an interesting setting to explore.
The game starts in a simple yet engaging manner, describing and displaying well the city of Chilverre that I personally adored from the little section I did manage to explore in this Demo!
There is also possibility of choosing main character’s name, as well as their tavern’s label.
The world building is well thought and interesting to explore. With the offered sprites and art the Demo is offering a heavily engaging experience.
The game overall brings good vibes seized well with offered BGM, for example like the jazz music played at lawyer’s studio portraying to the public the kind of ambience she works at, as well as the feel she would bring to the folk.
Overall:
A promising upcoming title to support! The game does offer detailed setting and descriptions, you will love this little Demo if you are into fantasy locations and relatable themes. A Kickstarter is planned to be launched in April in order to upgrade some of the assets and perhaps offer additions to the game, consider supporting Starbeast Inferno Productions.
Thank you to Starbeast Inferno Productions for reaching out.
I hope you enjoyed my review! If you want to see more follow my Curator Page!
Gyepi Types 