Australian visual novel Necrobarista announced for Switch

Melbourne developers Route 59 have confirmed via social media that their upcoming visual novel, Necrobarista, will be releasing on the Nintendo Switch sometime next year.

Details are scant on the specifics of the game, other than it invites players to “come visit a supernatural cafe where the living come to mingle with the dead”. Set in a fictionalised version of Melbourne, Necrobarista appears to be Australia’s answer to last year’s very good Steam visual novel, VA-11 HALL-A. It will be interesting to see Route 59’s take on Melbourne’s coffee culture – will everyone in the game be drinking avocado lattes?

An announcement trailer was released in January this year, showcasing the stunning 3D visuals, described by Kotaku‘s Nathan Grayson as looking like “what would happen if Persona took over a coffee shop, which is to say, stylish as heck.” Although Persona: Q2 was announced for 3DS, Necrobarista may be the closest we will get to a Switch game featuring the striking sense of style usually reserved for the Persona series.

Hopefully this ushers in more high quality visual novels for the Switch, arguably a platform better suited to the genre than any other console on the market.

Expect to see Necrobarista in 2018, most likely after its launch on PC.