When there’s as big a brand as Disney, that has enough money to just kind of throw whatever at the wall and see what sticks, eventually you wind up with something that might make you scratch your head a bit. Today, that thing is Disney Villains Cursed Café, a visual novel where you serve a bevy of potions to various Disney baddies, announced earlier today as part of the final Nintendo Direct for the OG Switch (but yes, it is on PC too – in fact it’s already out on Steam).
The concept is pretty simple: you are a Potionista, someone that, uh, brews potions, and you run a café frequented by Disney villains from a range of its films. That includes folks like Jafar from Aladdin, Ursula from The Little Mermaid, Gaston from Beauty and the Beast, all of them wearing not exactly casual outfits, but clothing you could see them wearing on the weekend at the very least.
Watch on YouTube
For the most part gameplay looks simple. Brew a potion, serve them to the villain, listen to their stories. As mentioned it’s a visual novel, and the emphasis more seems to be about chatting with Disney villains than anything particularly more complex (not to say that visual novel can’t be complex, it’s just this one doesn’t seem to be).
There’s just one thing I find a bit icky about it, as has been pointed out by several other people across social media, that being that it kind of seems to be ripping off Coffee Talk. I don’t exactly love a giant like the House of Mouse trying to corporate-wash a beloved indie game like that in all honesty. Anyway, Maleficent getting an iPhone is kind of funny I guess.
