As gamers get older, games themselves are increasingly starting to tackle more diverse and nuanced subject matters. As a medium matures, and its audience does too, that means we get stories from different generations and perspectives. 30 years ago, I don’t think we’d get a visual novel about an elderly lady making tea and chatting to customers, but I’m glad we get these stories now. Sips and Sonnets is one of those games that takes the softer, softest approach to storytelling, and it quietly leaves its mark long after playing.
In Sips and Sonnets, you’ll be playing as Matilda Meadows, an elderly tea shop owner in the quaint English countryside. She used to be a journalist and is well-travelled and still dabbles in poetry, which will become a choose-the-words narrative minigame throughout the story. Matilda’s shop seems to get about 3 customers a day, and whilst I’m not sure how she stays open in this economy, it means we get to chat to the customers at length, make them a tailored brew, and share life lessons and thoughts as the game progresses. Each chapter usually opens with a reminiscence, has a customer conversation with various dialogue choices to make, a tea brewing minigame, and closes with Matilda’s nurse visiting for a night visit to administer some medicine.
Storywise, each customer is reaching a bit of a crossroads in their life and is figuring out their life’s purpose. Where Sips and Sonnets shines best is when Matilda offers reflections on her life experience to help frame options and choices that the customer could take. The player can choose advice, which leads customers down specific paths to their own personal ending, whilst Matilda herself will have her own unique endings decided by how well you remember and recall specific characters and their stories, as well as how you answer certain questions. You see, whilst the excellently written and voice-acted main story is unfolding, the game is performing a quiet memory test in the background. Matilda is having memory loss as a result of brain change, and that means elements of the game start to become more obscure depending on how accurate your answers are when recalling information. It’s a very subtle change that telegraphs some of the larger narrative beats, but by sensitively touching on things like brain change, old age, and mobility challenges, Sips and Sonnets stays sweet and cosy whilst acknowledging that growing old and dealing with limitations is a challenge. Whilst this could be incredibly bleak, Sips and Sonnets reframes it as a positive rallying cry to make each life decision count. When customers are worried about which decision to make, Matilda has a story from her collection of treasures to regale, and the player can choose which story and how she feels about her own decisions. My first playthrough had Matilda feel strongly that she made the right decisions for herself and worked hard to find her calling. It’s a powerful message that resonates with me deeply at 41 years old.
None of this would be as impactful if it weren’t for some excellent writing and some superb voice acting. Matilda is such a well-rounded character, and as a Brit myself, I was reminded of my nan and the random stories she’d pluck from obscurity that would entertain me. Her motherly love towards each customer is adorable, but she’s not afraid to make difficult decisions either, and voice actor Bethan Dixon Bate shines in the role. Aside from that, the warm, rich, hand-drawn graphics and light, easy-listening music add to the rustic and gentile atmosphere perfectly. The minigames are extremely simple and have very little depth to them. Making tea is as simple as choosing which type of tea and steeping it to a certain strength with a couple of mouse clicks. Administering medicine is a simple mouse click. Creating your own poem is the most successful minigame as it provides multiple options, depending on which storyline resonates with you most. Even then, you are partly guardrailed to make similar choices so that the poem reads coherently. Don’t come for the minigames, come for the story.
Thankfully, the story in Sips and Sonnets is excellent and will easily hold up over its 3.5 – 4-hour run time. There are multiple endings and subendings to find, and you can intentionally ruin everyone’s coffee order if you fancy it! For me, Sips and Sonnets is a wholesome and thoughtful visual novel that made me think about the current crossroads I’m at in my life right now. Being stuck and indecisive is a choice in itself, and Sips and Sonnets wants you to live your life whilst you can. More power to us then, with this quietly optimistic, warm hug of a story.
Review copy provided by the developer. Sips and Sonnets is out on PC.
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