Coffee Talk Tokyo launches this week for PC and consoles including both Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2 following its reveal in a Nintendo Indie World Showcase back in 2024. Ahead of its launch, I had a chance to chat with lead writer and creative lead Anna Winterstein about the new game, how this project differs from Coffee Talk Episode 2, standalone narratives, working with indies compared to AAA teams, and much more.
Nintendo Insider: For those unaware, tell us a little bit about yourself.
Anna Winterstein: I’m Anna, a game designer, narrative designer, and writer who’s been fortunate to work on games like F1 Manager 2022 or Love Island the Game, and, relevantly, Coffee Talk: Hibiscus & Butterfly. I’m now the creative lead and lead writer on Coffee Talk Tokyo.
Nintendo Insider: You joined the Coffee Talk franchise with Coffee Talk Episode 2: Hibiscus & Butterfly. What learnings from that project did you bring to Coffee Talk Tokyo?
Anna Winterstein: Working with most of the original team on Episode 2 was an invaluable experience for me. On a practical level, I learned the tools used to build the game and got a feel for the pipeline and the production challenges. But more importantly, I saw first-hand the mindset the team brought to the game, the care they put into every facet of it, and how they tackled its nuanced narratives.
Coffee Talk is entirely based on small-stakes stories that work because they are written honestly and from the heart. Everyone at Toge is earnest, empathetic, and incredibly talented, and it was amazing to observe them at work. Lastly, Toge has a deep understanding and love of Fahmi’s legacy, and no Coffee Talk game could exist without taking into account its creator’s original vision.
Nintendo Insider: What did you want to do differently with Coffee Talk Tokyo’s narrative compared to Episode 2?
Anna Winterstein: We knew going into this that we wanted the game to be a spin-off, something that could sit alongside the existing stories while remaining true to the tenets of the original games. The latter meant focusing on relatable character arcs that would resonate with the players’ hopes and concerns, but beyond that, the sky was the limit!
To avoid repeating character beats, we felt it was important to move the story to a different setting with its own themes and lore. Once we had settled on Tokyo, the theme of sudden change naturally emerged as a core driver, with characters from Japanese mythology, and drawing from Japanese culture. But of course, in all of that, we still hope to tell stories with universal reach to all our players!
Nintendo Insider: Coffee Talk Episode 2 began as DLC before becoming a full game. Was Coffee Talk Tokyo always planned to be a full game?
Anna Winterstein: Absolutely! Especially starting with a whole new cast of characters, we really wanted the extra space to tell their stories.
Nintendo Insider: While Coffee Talk Tokyo can be played on its own, I’m already appreciating nods to prior games. How do you balance easter eggs and returning characters while still making the narrative feel approachable for complete newcomers?
Anna Winterstein: The key for us was making sure that the new cast could stand on its own. Their stories are very much the ones we’re focused on, and they start from scratch in Coffee Talk Tokyo. But, much like you can make new friends and still want to meet with old ones, we didn’t want returning players to feel like the original cast had been wiped out from the world! So we’ve tried to integrate them organically, in small touches, much the same way they might pop up in the real world if they lived an ocean away.
Nintendo Insider: I enjoyed Coffee Talk Episode 2 a lot, but I definitely had some friends who lamented it being “just more Coffee Talk”. Did you and the team think of doing something different with the gameplay or structure for Coffee Talk Tokyo?
Anna Winterstein: This is a tricky balance for any game that’s a sequel or a spin-off. The Coffee Talk games have a strong identity, and it would have felt wrong to make a game that fundamentally changes the premise and still calls itself Coffee Talk. Of course, that runs the risk of feeling like more of the same! But we hope that by offering a new environment, new characters and stories, tweaked brewing mechanics, and a tweaked Tomodachill, there’s enough there that players can feel like the experience has been renewed, without losing the Coffee Talk core.
Nintendo Insider: Based on what I’ve played so far of Coffee Talk Tokyo, it feels like talking to an old friend in a new city. Is that the vibe you were going for with the narrative?
Anna Winterstein: Absolutely, and that’s a great compliment! We definitely hope that players can build, or indeed rebuild, the familiarity and sense of friendship from the original games in Coffee Talk Tokyo.
Nintendo Insider: Did you have any input in the soundtrack and art of the game or were you working on the narrative independently for Coffee Talk Tokyo?
Anna Winterstein: The art and the narrative evolved completely hand in hand for this game. Given how tightly these aspects work together, it would have been impossible to do otherwise. We had creative brainstorming meetings early on with writers, producers, and artists, during which we developed the characters, themes, and overall arcs of the game, and took it from there. The same is true of code and design topics; we worked as a close-knit team on all of them.
For the soundtrack, we were lucky to continue working with AJ, who is a brilliant composer and knows Coffee Talk inside and out. Because of that, it felt more natural to just trust him and his team and let them come up with what they felt worked best, which turned out to be the right approach.
However, we have a bit of a special song in this game that has music and lyrics, and we got to collaborate on that one, which was a nice change of pace and a lot of fun!
Nintendo Insider: I know the Coffee Talk games are quite popular in Japan. That’s how I got physical copies of the games and soundtracks before the English releases happened. Did that influence the setting for Coffee Talk Tokyo before you started development on the project?
Anna Winterstein: It definitely feels good to give something back to our Japanese fan base! With that said, we had several ideas in the mix when deciding on a spin-off, and Tokyo ended up the clear winner for multiple reasons, including its liveliness and diversity, the inexhaustible reserves of fascinating yokai in Japanese lore, and our team’s ability to do the setting justice.
Nintendo Insider: Was the prologue done before or after the main narrative for Coffee Talk Tokyo was completed? I haven’t played it yet, but I’m curious.
Anna Winterstein: It was actually written alongside the main narrative. As we were progressing through the story, we started to feel that it would be nice for returning players to have an extra transition from the original games, and for new players, a bit of context on where the game comes from. And that’s how the prologue was born!
Nintendo Insider: VA-11 Hall-A is one of my favorite games of all time. We’ve had many try and copy the formula, but few managed to do anything interesting with it like Coffee Talk. It also helps that I love coffee. Does the Coffee Talk Tokyo story have more branching paths than Episode 2?
Anna Winterstein: I completely relate to the love of both VA-11 Hall-A and hot drinks! As regards branching paths, I’d say that Coffee Talk Tokyo has roughly the same number as Episode 2. There are still meaningful differences in the characters’ fates based on the player’s brewing skills (and now their Tomodachill sleuthing skill, to an extent), but we also wanted the story arcs to remain cohesive and earned, so we didn’t mess with the original balance too much.
Nintendo Insider: Are there any plans to do more DLC beyond the Deluxe Pack story content?
Anna Winterstein: Honestly, we haven’t spent much time discussing that yet; we are all still focused on getting the main game out there!
Nintendo Insider: Who is your favorite character from the Coffee Talk universe?
Anna Winterstein: That’s probably the hardest question of all for me. I discovered Coffee Talk as a player, and even then, I would have found it hard to pick a favourite. But having now worked on the characters, I have developed a fondness for all of them!
From the original cast, I will say that I have a soft spot for Silver and Hyde; as opposite as they are, courageous sweethearts and cranky immortals are personal weaknesses of mine.
As for the Coffee Talk Tokyo bunch, I’d be really hard-pressed to narrow them down, but I will say that I’m especially excited for players to discover Ayame, Kenji, and Vin: all three of them undergo a lot of character growth during the course of the game.
Nintendo Insider: When you joined the Coffee Talk project for Episode 2, I believe it was to let Junkipatchi focus on the main story while you expanded on parts of it. For Coffee Talk Tokyo, you are the lead writer. How different has it been approaching this project?
Anna Winterstein: Yes, that’s absolutely correct! In Episode 2, Junki had a set of characters she wanted to focus on for the core story, but she couldn’t use everyone. So I had the brilliant experience of picking up some of the characters I adored in Episode 1. Because our respective characters were split up across different in-game days, and Junki is a benevolent ruler, I had a lot of freedom when it came to writing those arcs.
In that sense, the writing experience wasn’t fundamentally different between Episode 2 and Coffee Talk Tokyo. Once we had established the gist of the story, we split the days among the three writers, and most core characters ended up with one writer owning the bulk of their arc.
The difference was in the preparation phase and in everything surrounding the narrative. It was a huge pleasure on Coffee Talk Tokyo to be part of the process from the get-go and to drive the interactions that led to the current world and cast of characters. Because we were working together from the start, we went through the whole creative process as a team. Seeing several creative brains come together and generate ideas that are larger than the sum of their parts is one of the best aspects of being a lead!
Nintendo Insider: You’ve worked on the narrative in many AAA, indie, and mobile titles like F1 Manager and also done your own solo projects. Do you still plan on working on your own solo projects?
Anna Winterstein: I absolutely intend to do that. Personal projects allow me to experiment with narrative form and with game design, and to flex my programming and illustration muscles. They’re a lot of fun! And because there’s only one of me, they’re a great exercise in limiting scope…
Nintendo Insider: What does a day in your life look like with your own projects and also working on titles like Coffee Talk Tokyo?
Anna Winterstein: When I work full-time at a studio, as I’ve done in mobile, my job tends to be more strictly defined. The larger the studio, the more processes are in place: meetings, which grow more numerous as you move towards being a lead, consume a significant portion of time. The rest is spent ticking off tasks. In my case, I’ve always worked within agile production pipelines, which means every week or fortnight, the whole team meets up and, led by the producer, comes up with a to-do list for each team member, which you then get to whittle down.
Solo projects are at the opposite end of that: they tend to be short, and the processes surrounding them are minimal, ranging from a simple to-do list to a “game jam” mentality, where I sit down and get a game done in a day or two.
Indie games sit somewhere in the middle! Because they’re usually made by small teams, communication is very fluid, and there’s an all-hands-on-deck approach. There’s also quite a lot of scope to tailor processes to what the game and the stage of development require. On Coffee Talk Tokyo, the entire team started with many meetings, then shifted mostly to written exchanges when concrete, solo tasks were defined, and then we had a few more ad-hoc meetings as the game came together. But there is no size-fits-all; each team would bring its own challenges and solutions.
Nintendo Insider: What recent games have you enjoyed playing?
Anna Winterstein: Not so recent anymore, but I had an incredible time when Expedition 33 was released, and I still think about that game often. The worldbuilding, the narrative, and the mechanics were all phenomenal, and it also helps that I’m French, so it struck a chord with me!
In the indie games category, I took my time to play through Wanderstop and really loved it. It is, in some ways, also a brewing simulator, but done very differently from Coffee Talk, and quite successful in what it set out to achieve. It moved me.
Since its early access release, though, Slay the Spire 2 has taken over my entire life! And when I step back from playing the Necrobinder for a minute, I like to dive into Final Fantasy XIV.
Nintendo Insider: How do you like your coffee? Go into as much detail as possible. I always end my interviews with this question, but it is funny doing it now for obvious reasons.
Anna Winterstein: Here’s where I must make my biggest confession: I don’t really drink coffee! I’m surrounded by coffee drinkers who know their stuff and grind their own beans, and I do occasionally try it and find the taste amazing, but an entire cup makes me jittery. However, I really like a decaf, which I usually have as an iced latte in the summer or a cappuccino in the winter.
But my poison of choice is tea. I’m very serious about tea brewing; I have a collection of tea implements ranging from iron pots to clay pots to gaiwan, and a collection of teas, including some choice Japanese sencha and gyokuro. When I have time, I love to put a vinyl on and steep oolong half a dozen times in a zisha teapot, experiencing how the taste changes.
My next frontier is to learn how to make proper matcha!
Coffee Talk Tokyo will be released digitally on the Nintendo eShop for Nintendo Switch 2 and Nintendo Switch worldwide on 21 May 2026.
