Developer: Coffee Beans Dev
Platform: PC (Reviewed)
Genre: Adventure, RPG, Simulation
Publisher: Coffee Beans Dev
Tailside: Cozy Cafe Sim is a game where you can run your own cozy cafe! Brew coffee, decorate your café, and progress through days to unlock new items. This game is developed and published by Coffee Beans Dev. Tailside plays similarly to games such as Travellers Rest and Discounty.
Tailside: Cozy Cafe Sim is a charming Early Access cozy game that drops you into the role of a small-town barista serving coffee to adorable creatures. The game opens with a welcoming introduction led by Toffee, who guides you through the basics of running your cafe. This includes brewing espresso and macchiatos to decorating your space and levelling up. From there, the game shifts into a chapter-based structure, following your day-to-day life as a cafe owner working a customisable 9-5 shift.
As you progress, more creatures are introduced, each bringing their own personality and small-town charm. You slowly learn more about them through interactions and the daily newspaper, making the world feel connected and alive. Tailside is a game that focuses on the atmosphere and comfort rather than dramatic plot twists. It does not heavily lean towards a narrative plot.
One of Tailside’s strongest features is how intuitive and interactive its controls feel. The game does a great job easing players into its mechanics, which are fairly simple but engaging. Tasks are presented as small, mini-game-style interactions. Making coffee involves multiple steps depending on the order: grinding beans, heating them, steaming milk, creating latte art, and finally serving the drink. Latte art, in particular, is handled by tracing an art stamp, which is easy to learn and rewarding when done well, earning bonus coins. Additionally, you will need to sort good from bad beans by selecting the correct beans, which adds another engaging mechanic to the game.
The HUD is thoughtfully designed and very interactive. For example, cups left on the floor are tracked via a bar in the top right, similar to how bean freshness is monitored. This makes cleanup and cafe management feel clear rather than overwhelming. If cups need to be cleared, you will also receive a pop-up message notifying you. If you ever forget how to complete a task, the in-game recipe book is always available, which is a really convenient quality-of-life feature.
The game also includes a skill tree, which is one of the most interesting systems in Tailside. Skill points can be spent to reduce grinding time, decrease heating duration, and generally streamline tasks. This makes the gameplay faster and more efficient over time, while still maintaining a calm and cozy atmosphere.
The art style of Tailside is absolutely adorable. It leans into a retro aesthetic with little pixelation. The colour palette is earthy and warm and features forest greens, creamy off-whites and rich browns. The game has a cosy aesthetic without being too overwhelming. The characters are all animal villagers with bright personalities, and there are so many small details that make them memorable. Little animation details in the customers as they enter your cafe and wait for their order make them so much more wholesome. Watching customers peek their heads over the cafe counter as you prepare their drinks will never get old, especially when it’s the little creatures peeking over. When it comes to the audio of the game, it was nothing out of the ordinary. It features a cute, upbeat soundtrack that consistently plays in the background, which matches the atmosphere of your cafe. The sound design, in terms of sound effects from brewing coffee to the birds singing outside, and the bubbling steam sounds, made a huge difference in creating a strong ambience. The speech of the animals reminded me of the gibberish noises of the characters from Animal Crossing, which emphasised their personalities.
Tailside is about running a cafe; however, it does more than just having you serve endless amounts of coffee. As the days go by, new mechanics are gradually introduced, such as stock management. At first, it’s easy to assume you will just be making drinks nonstop, but Toffee soon explains the importance of ordering refills and failing to manage the stock will result in you closing your cafe early. This comes with additional upgrades that can help with buying a bigger bulk of stock at once rather than little bits at a time. That said, stock management is far more forgiving than in many other sim games. You can instantly restock items on the spot as long as you have enough money, removing a lot of stress. As you level up, you unlock new coffee types, decorations, pastries (the perfect cafe combo) and even more customisation options for your cafe, bedroom and terrace.
There are also daily goals and timed tip bars that encourage faster service for bonus rewards. You can play the game however you want, slowly and casually or with a focus on speed and efficiency. Mod support is another standout feature. You can import customer characters and turn them into cafe visitors, even adding yourself or furry friends into the game, which is a fun and surprisingly personal touch.
Overall, I genuinely loved playing Tailside. The characters are charming, the gameplay loop is relaxing yet engaging, and the skill system keeps things from feeling stale for quite a while. It reminds me a bit of Diner Dash mixed with the character ambience from Stardew Valley, but much more cosy. I will say that after a few hours of gameplay, I do wish there were bigger drawbacks to the game in the sense of a lack of pressure. It is quite nice that making a mistake with an order does not give you any sort of punishment (as it is a cosy game), though it would be nice if something were introduced later on. Once my equipment was upgraded, slowly the days started to play out very similarly. For instance, after the latte art upgrade, I did not have to worry about the latte art, which took away some of the fun. After all, Tailside is currently in Early Access, and the developers have already released a roadmap that looks promising. With future updates, I can easily see this becoming an even more engaging and polished experience.
Tailside: Cozy Cafe Sim is the definition of cute and cozy. It’s warm and full of charm, with enough content in its Early Access version to keep you entertained for hours without feeling bored. Whether you want to relax and take things slow or optimise every upgrade for optimal cafe efficiency, the game 100% supports your playstyle. If you are looking for a game to unwind, enjoy lovable characters and live out your cafe management dream,s then Tailside is absolutely worth checking out!
Overall: 8/10
This is S & S. We are world game explorers. We play games. We have played over 10,000+ games! We travel, we write reviews AND we play more games!!!!
