Developer: Tomatoast
Platform: PC (Reviewed)
Genre: Action, Adventure, Simulation
Publisher: Tomatoast
Call of Boba is a relaxing adventure game. This game was developed and published by Tomatoast. The game is somewhat similar to Diner Dash but with more things to do. Call of Boba is currently available for Windows and is in Early Access. I am excited to see the future updates that come with the roadmap.
You play as Bobo, the bird, who has returned back to their hometown and is helping a childhood friend manage their late grandfather’s boba tea shop. It is up to you to help repair and restore the family’s shop. Boba can fish, farm, shop, run the store and interact with the townspeople. Whilst running the boba shop, it is extremely important to keep the customers satisfied to unlock new boba recipes and upgrades.
The controls and mechanics for Call of Boba are extremely simple. Whilst playing the game, you see the keybinds and their controls written on the bottom right of the screen, which makes it easier for the player and adds to the relaxing feel of the game. When you start the game, each of the mini-games is introduced and explained nicely so that the player is not left confused. Honestly, the mechanics themselves are extremely easy to pick up on.
The art style of this game is cute and vibrant! It has a 2D pixelated look to it, which is minimalistic for creating such a relaxing and calming environment. The classic pixel art style pays such great attention to different areas of Tapioca Town to the family store that you run. I extremely love how detailed everything is, which makes everything stand out; the same can be said for the UI. The designs for the animal villagers are adorable, but I do wish there were more interaction/dialogue options for building bonds with the villagers that I do wish to see in the future. I did, however, like that there is a bonding system where you can give gifts to villagers, so exploring the neighbourhood and interacting with others is always a good thing to do whilst going to places. I do love the little animation cutscenes that set the story of the game. Call of Boba has an endearing and adorable look to it, which is complemented by the soundtrack. The music consists of mellow instrumentals and quirky sound effects that sound like something out of Animal Crossing.
The game plays similarly to a farming/store simulator. You get to plant and grow ingredients and manage the tea shop with your daily shifts. The tea shop management is fun and relaxing, but I felt that, at times, it became a little too repetitive. The tea shop management mainly consists of you coming up with a secret recipe ‘menu’, and then you can open the tea shop. It works in a way where you pick the cup, pick the boba, pick the tea, pick the milk and topping through simple interactions that are mainly based on speed and satisfaction of the customer. I do wish that the mini-game that was shown at the beginning of the game for measuring each ingredient was incorporated into the boba tea making to make it more fun. The shifts do not take all day, which gives you a break and the opportunity to do other things throughout the day. The game itself allows the player to do several things like shop, farm, and fish, which is a nice way to keep players interactive.
A lot of the mechanics in the game are fairly straightforward; for instance, farming gets you to plant and water your crops according to the season that they grow in. Nothing too out of the ordinary. I felt that the fishing aspect of the game was a bit sparse as there were not many areas to fish in, and the mini-game also became repetitive after a while. I did like that the fishing mini-game was rhythm, where you had to play a song every time you caught a fish. I quite liked how the store has a lot of different things for players to unlock, such as recipes, interiors and ingredients.
I quite like the game in the sense that it has its-cosy relaxing elements, but some of the mechanics currently do not feel fully fleshed out. Now, obviously, Call of Boba is in Early Access, so the developers are constantly coming out with updates. There were some instances in the game that seemed to have been added just for players to do something else besides get bored from the constant tea shift runs.
We are very thankful to have been given two codes to review. One of the other players, Moody, had the following to say, “The main aspect of this game is running the boba shop and unlocking new recipes while fixing up the interior but also being able to explore the town to gather ingredients and unlock more of the shop’s history. An extremely unique and fresh aspect of this game is the dream mini-game, where you engage in a dungeon-crawling rouge-lite shooter adventure using a boba weapon to defeat bosses and enemies while collecting rare ingredients in the process. The shooter was a nice sequence from the main game, and its difficulty was fairly low. I do like the fact that you have the option to skip the dreams; otherwise, I would have grown bored by continuously doing the same sequence multiple times. Some parts of the game can be confusing in the sense of what should I be doing next, but overall, it’s an amazingly cute, wonderful, eccentric and whimsical game. I know the game is currently in Early Access, but once the game completely releases I do wish to see Steam achievements that will engage the player even more.”
Call of Boba is a relaxing game where you can explore Tapioca Town and carry out daily tasks while keeping customers happy at your childhood friends’ family boba tea shop. The game is perfect for keeping you calm and not stressed over meeting tasks but enjoying the tasks to unlock recipes and upgrades. If you wish to play something relaxing, then be sure to check out Call of Boba! The game has so much to come in the future to make it even more promising!
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!!!!
