Review: Techno Banter (Nintendo Switch)

Despite opening on the minimalist interior of a high end party, Techno Banter swiftly plunges you into the gritty, neon-drenched streets of an underground techno scene. Inspired by the nightlife of Berlin, the game blends a thumping soundtrack with twilit roads, smoky clubs and jarringly inhuman characters that evoke the swirling, heady sensation of a midnight acid trip.

You play as Nil, a bouncer who loses his job in the glossy penthouse of the elite and returns to work at the considerably less glamorous Green Door club in the mean streets. The gameplay mainly takes the form of conversations, in which you have to select the appropriate dialogue choice to get your own way. In your role as bouncer, this means observing people wanting to get into the club, assessing whether or not they’re the right kind of person for the venue, and either admitting them or successfully rejecting them without triggering a potentially catastrophic negative reaction.

Your boss provides you with a list of red flags to look out for in the potential club attendees. The better quality guests you allow in, the better rating your evening will get, and the more points you’ll earn to upgrade the club to secure future success. People you reject will argue with you. You are given the option of different comebacks with which you can hit them to use your biting wit to cut down their confidence and convince them to leave. The opponents you encounter have a variety of personality types that match with skills you can level up that deliver particularly vicious remarks tailored to hit them where it hurts.

There is one correct comeback for each argument. It’s not terribly difficult to figure out which of the available options you need—there’s usually only one with a direct callback to something your opponent has said, in amongst a number of generic insults. Some characters will offer minigames in which you need to avoid their glares or blows to avoid damage to your health. This varies the game in a way that breaks up the amount of reading you have to do and keeps it interesting. You have to keep an eye on your energy, and maybe top it up with energy drinks, to ensure you have the strength to fend off undesirable punters. If your energy levels reach zero, you won’t be able to stop them getting in and they’ll ruin the night.

Some of these unsavoury characters are more dangerous than others. Many are your common creeps who make others uncomfortable in the club. They’ll bring your reputation down, which you ideally want to avoid, but can only do so much lasting damage. As the story progresses, you are put to the test by having to convince a suicidal writer not to jump off a building near your club, prevent an escaped arsonist from burning it to the ground, and ultimately talk a terrorist cult leader out of destroying the entire town.

You can hone your skills by undertaking side quests you’re offered by side characters. You help your local muscle bro beat his lifting record, your creative bartender friend to write a song, and your secretive friend escape a mysterious cult. These characters are well written and, despite the fact that the entire game takes place along a single street, successfully create the sense of a full community with interesting and diverse characters that well match the trippy setting. Their different plot threads have different endings that aren’t always happy if you don’t manage to make the best use of your conversational skills. It’s easy to feel invested in the characters, to want to help them all find peace in their difficult world.

Techno Banter is not a particularly long game. The whole story takes place over the course of just four days, and it’s very possible to speedrun it by skipping all the optional side quests. In that time, though, it manages to absorb you completely into its intoxicating world.