Badb's Tea House

Originality is a concept that’s much more valuable in any kind of creative work than anything else, especially in movies, books and video games. People lose interest if the story they are about to hear is just a retelling of an older one, which is only normal. On the other hand, their interest levels peak whenever a brand new idea is presented, because it’s always fun to listen to a tale that you don’t know how it ends.

Badb's Tea House is a unique adventure game in which your task is to observe a story and participate in it every now and again to make sure it goes according to plan. However, the way you interact with the environment and the characters is unique, and the plot itself is clever enough to captivate your attention from the first few moments of gameplay, despite the rudimentary technical presentation.

As such, it all starts when Badb opens up a new tea house in a town called Pipsville. Everyone rushes to buy from her, which causes quite the commotion. Not only that, but the tea house in question disturbs a monster of the underworld at the same time, which is how the whole kerfuffle starts. You play the role of an outside observer that can also influence the characters and the environment every now and again.

You can scour the whole scene by dragging the landscape using your mouse, which is a very effective way to travel. You can interact with characters and objects by simply clicking on them, at least when you are not engaged in order activities, such as dialog. Speaking of which, you can sometimes choose between multiple possible answers.

As far as the graphics are concerned, the game features a colorful retro style, and you can tell that the artists really put some work into the game world and the landscapes you get to admire along the way. The sound effects are well-chosen as well, and the soundtrack goes pretty nice with the action on the screen.

When it’s all said and done, Badb's Tea House is quite the experience, especially if you are open to new things. Hence, if humor and crazy characters sound like fun, then this is definitely a good choice for you.