- Game: Call of Boba
- Developer/Publisher: Tomatoast
- Review Platform: Steam
- Release Date: Out Now
Author’s Note: A Game Key for Call of Boba was kindly provided by Future Friends Games
Call of Boba is the recently released cosy adventure game where you are tasked with saving a Boba Tea shop that has seen much better days. During your time helping out the shop, you’ll find yourself managing the day-to-day activities of the shop, brew multiple jugs of tea, discover new recipes, as well as growing and harvesting ingredients.
That’s not all, though! Players can also befriend (or fall in love) with customers, fight enemies with Boba powered weapons, go exploring, fishing and much more.
Call of Boba Features
Call of Boba is a game that combines elements of life simulation games along with farming games. However, it also adds in more features from restaurant management and cooking simulation games, as well as rougelike games. That’s not to mention multiple minigames, too!
- Run your very own Boba shop in a cosy pixel town
- Farm, fight and collect a range of ingredients
- Explore the town and take part in multiple mini-games
- Make friends or, fall in love
- Make Tea!
Early Access Roadmap
Since the game was released, the Tomatoast Studio Team have shared their very first roadmap for Call of Boba. The roadmap itself details information on upcoming updates starting in April, followed by another larger update in July. It also details some of the expected features to come in a third update later in the year.
It is lovely to see such an in-depth roadmap for the game. Not only does it allow us to see upcoming game fixes and new additions, but it also lets you get excited for what’s to come!
Exploring the world of Boba
Returning to my childhood home town in Call of Boba left me with mixed emotions. Was I about to reveal the truth to my parents, or would I embark on some kind of new adventure? If you thought it was talking to my parents, then you would be wrong, as I was about to embark on a brand-new adventure with a dear old friend.
Getting acquainted to new surroundings is always difficult, however learning a new skill can feel just as terrifying. Yet, making various variations of tea in a struggling boba store came relatively naturally to me after a little bit of trial and error. Despite this, I made it work in the end and had many customers leaving happy, most of the time.
As you continue to progress through the game, you begin to explore more of the surrounding town, learn more about each character, the backstory of your childhood friend and more. However, you also begin to learn more about your Grandpa. The secrets of the secret room. The very room where he created so many of the boba tea concoctions.
Yet, when you aren’t managing your boba tea store, growing and harvesting, exploring and getting to know people, I found my spare time was spent in the dream-world. In fact, I had a lot of fun here because of how unexpected it was, and it was actually something I had forgotten about from the demo. It was just completely random. Rolling around, using the boba gun to defeat enemies, unlock power-ups and find ingredients wasn’t on my radar for when I was going to sleep.
Overall First Impressions
Call of Boba, despite being in early access, has a lot of promise. I love the cosy pixel art style as well as the game’s accompanying soundtrack. The first few days in game were spent getting used to control, concepts and making boba and fighting evil at night. From there, I started to make my way through various quests and exploring.
One aspect I did find a little confusing was farming. While it is mentioned, there wasn’t much clarity as to what you needed to do or how to go about it. I guess in time, farming will become more fleshed out through future updates. There is a lot of potential there for the farming side of the game.
I’ve had fun with the game so far, there’s definitely room for improvement and future features, like with any game, but many of the concerns and thoughts I’ve had in this area have been addressed by the roadmap and future updates. Especially when it comes to optimizing the user interface and controls, but for the mean time it works well enough.
As I mentioned earlier, Call of Boba has a lot of potential. The game has only just recently launched into Early Access, and already the team have plenty planned for the game going forward. I am excited to see the future updates, alongside seeing how I’m going to continue transforming my boba shop.
Call of Boba is out right now on Steam and has a limited time release discount. You can find out more about the game here.
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