LifeisXbox’s Teacup review | Earlier this year, a game called Teacup was featured during the digital game festival LudoNarraCon. I got a chance to try out the demo for this adorable-looking narrative adventure game and ended up quite enjoying it. A few months have passed and last week, Teacup saw the light and released in full on Steam. Of course, I had to see for myself if the full release was as wholesome as the demo presented the game to be!
Teacup was developed by Smarto Club and published by the people over at Whitethorn Digital. Are you ready to go on an adventure? Me too!
ā¹ļø | Maui played Teacup for 2 hours on PC. This game is exclusively available on PC.
What we liked!
- Children’s book art style | One of the first things that will immediately notice about Teacup is its art style. The whole game looks like it was taken straight out of a children’s book and I absolutely adored it. These are definitely not my usual go-to graphics but it was really nice to enjoy a game that brightened up my screen so much in the best way possible. Like many other elements in this game, the art style is so very charming and it’s a pleasure to explore the exciting world of Little Pond. Not only are the surroundings utterly beautiful, so are the many characters that you’ll meet on your journey. Definitely an art style (and overall game for that matter) that both kids and adults can enjoy.
- Soothing soundtrack | Background music that is there but not overwhelming in any way, that’s what we’re going for here. And that’s exactly what we got in Teacup as well. Alongside the beautiful graphics, you get a soothing soundtrack that compliments not only the graphics, but the gameplay and story in an amazing way. The music is so very calming and relaxing, they couldn’t have made it more perfect for Teacup!
- Wholesome story | The team behind this game must really love tea like no one before, that’s for sure. You take on the role of Teacup, an introverted and shy frog that has a tea party planned for a few of her friends. The party takes place on Saturday, but just the day before, little Teacup discoveres that she’s all out of ingredients. So that’s about the worst thing that could happen, am I right?! It’s time to say goodbye to tea and books, leave her cosy home, and set out on an adventure into the real world. While playing as Teacup, it’s up to you to find the herbs she needs to restock her pantry in time for the tea party.
- Non-linear gameplay | In order for the tea party to be a success, our little frog has to gather a bunch of ingredients for her guests. Getting these requires her to travel all over Little Pond. Thanks to your tea encyclopidia, you can keep track of what ingredients you have to gather, and which ones you’ve found already. There’s a total of 12 ‘tea party essentials’ to find so you set out on your quests to retrieve them all. The gameplay is non-linear, so you can do and go as you wish and there is no strict order in which you have to get the ingredients. You will, however, have to talk to a lot of the inhabitants, and of course, nothing comes for free. Often, you’ll be tasked with little puzzles and solving them gets you what you need. Not to worry here, the puzzles never take long to finish, but are still quite enjoyable nonetheless. There is a market stall to organize (as shown in the last screenshot), items to look for in a complete mess, form images in stamps, and much more. For most players, these puzzles won’t take more than one or two minutes, but children might need some extra help, still.
- Tea encyclopedia | So, a little more about this tea encylopedia. It’s so very simple, yet so interesting. The encyclopedia lists the tea party essentials and dedicates one or two pages to each ingredient. There’s a ton of information on each ingredient and it was really fun to read through this little book. Of course, it was also rather educational, which could be interesting for children! On top of that, all ingredient pages had little doodles on them to really give off cooking vibes.
Somewhere between
- No in-game options menu | The simplicity that charms Teacup so much, has maybe gone a bit too far. The game is so very simplistic, that it doesn’t even have an options menu where you can adjust the volume of the sound, the screen, quality, or anything. I do have to admit that I didn’t really miss it in this particular game, but still, I think being able to at least alter the volume in-game itself is a must for every game.
What we disliked
- I got nothing!
How long to beat the story | 1 to 2 hours
How long to achieve 1000G | 1 to 2 hours
Similar with |
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Head of PC team. PC, Switch, and Xbox game reviewer. Also a marketeer, concert and animal lover, and photographer in training š
Steam: Mauitje
Xbox: Mauitjexo
