With the metaphorical dragon slain and the heroes taking their well-deserved break, what is one lonely Innkeeper to do? Wait for the next adventure, of course. When I finished playing Tavern Talk, a D&D-inspired visual novel, I often found myself staring longingly at the game and wondering, what are my babies doing now? Now, with its new DLC, I get to find out.
In this beautifully named Tavern Talk DLC, Tempest Tantrum, developed and published by Gentle Troll Entertainment, we get a new adventure, a new drink, and a new friend. The Innkeeper will already know Oleander, Fable’s older brother, but it’s still fun for us as players to see what he’s like. Side note that this DLC is meant to be played after Tavern Talk, as there will be spoilers in it.
About a year and a half after everything went down in the main game, our now almost twelve-year-old little detective, Melli, has stumbled across a new case. There’s a mysterious, ancient mechanism in the forest, (or half of one, at least), that she may or may not have released an angry fire spirit from. Now, alongside friends new and old, Melli is off to find this other mechanism to figure out what she’s gotten herself into. And you’re there to provide the drinks, of course.
You have some dialogue options at the beginning of Tempest Tantrum to determine how your last playthrough of the main game went. I admittedly chose some at random since I couldn’t remember who gave me what when returning from adventures, or even some of the outcomes. While it was partly overwhelming to have so many options back-to-back, it also brought back fond memories of the main story. On the other hand, if things didn’t go quite the way you’d hoped, you can play God for a bit and change destiny.
While Melli’s little adventure is going on, yet another weather-related disaster is brewing at the same time. Whether or not it’s related to Melli’s adventure is up to your adventuring patrons to decide, but it was nice having something going on outside the tavern while waiting for Melli and Co to get back.
All of the mechanics from the base game stay the same in Tempest Tantrum. Talking to your patrons will reveal rumors, and once you have three, you’re able to turn that into a full quest. To mix your drinks, you still pick a recipe and pour the corresponding ingredients. A couple of times, some patrons have asked for any drink with a specific infusion rather than a skill booster, but that’s a minuscule change.
One of my complaints about base game Tavern Talk was how easy it was to put the rumors together. While the designs on the notes were cute, they matched with each other, taking away the tiny bit of challenge we could have had. I believe they also patched this in the base game, but now, at least in the DLC, the designs on the rumors don’t match, forcing you to think about which pieces make a puzzle—or, which rumors make a quest. It still isn’t terribly difficult, but it gets the brain churning. I’m glad they updated this!
There weren’t many problems with Tempest Tantrum, apart from the one time Andu didn’t hold his sign up when I finished my drink. I thought I had made it wrong, but I was still able to serve it, so it wasn’t a big deal.
This DLC is fairly short. Maybe it’s because I’m a fast reader, but it was over a lot faster than I thought it would be. It’s just another quick adventure with only two quests to put together, but that didn’t necessarily make it any less enjoyable. I will say that it was a little disappointing not seeing too many old characters. I love them all, so I was happy to get back together with the ones who did show up, but a lot of my favorites were MIA. They were all mentioned, though, and not forgotten, which is good enough for me.
Tempest Tantrum is a fun, cute, and quick adventure. If you enjoyed what Tavern Talk had to offer, and want the tiniest peek into what everyone’s been up to, then I suggest the DLC.
Inanna played Tavern Talk: Tempest Tantrum on PC with a review code.
