Moving to a small town to start a new life, you might think you’ll end up farming. However, in Pekoe, you will find yourself opening up a small tea shop and learning about the local cats who might visit your house for a cup of tea!
Pekoe is a game rich in story, with lots of different characters to meet and learn about. They all have very different personalities and will react differently to what you say to them, which is all a part of being a newcomer in this small town. The little tea shop that you both live and work in, actually belonged to a member of this community who passed a while back, so you being there brings a lot of memories and emotions back to the townspeople.
The previous owner did leave a book and a letter for the next resident of the house, and there is a little green puff spirit to help you out as well, so it does feel like parts of the previous owner still are here, despite the abandoned feeling of the tea shop. When it comes to fixing up your tea house, you will need to earn the local currency; beans.
Beans can be earned through serving tea. Everyone has their own preferences and will order specific teas to their liking. It’s then your job to gather your tea ingredients as well as pots, before creating the perfect cup of tea. This feels really tactile in Pekoe, where you will find yourself filling the kettle with water, watching it reach temperature, opening small containers to put your tea bag into your mug, adding in the perfect amount of water, then adding things like milk and sugar. There are different recipes that you can learn over time, creating different types of teas.
Making a tea that your customer likes will result in more beans, whereas making one that isn’t to their tasting, will result in not getting paid and still losing your ingredients. As you gain more beans, you can fix up your tea house, repainting it, adding in furniture, and making the place a bit more homely for you and the cats who are looking for tea.
Pekoe feels like a wonderful, cozy game with so many stories, cats, and different cups of tea. It’s a relaxing story to play through, as you discover the secrets behind this small town.
You can purchase Pekoe on Steam.
