Barista

Barista (マスター), also known as the Dog (犬), is a dog that works at the Café, and is always available for a chat with the player.

Story
Barista can be found in various places throughout the series. He is always wearing headphones and listening to music. He is older than he looks and has a deep sense of speaking. It seems that he is always watching over the player, wherever they are in the game.

The Dog's various appearances include the Menu and epilogues to Rhythm Datsumo, Rhythm Datsumo 2, Rhythm Datsumo and Live in Rhythm Tengoku and its arcade version, the epilogues to Remix 5, Remix 7 and Karate Man 2 in Rhythm Heaven, and somewhat more prominently appears in the credits games Airboarder and Night Walk, where he also provides feedback on the player's performance in the former.

The Dog writes a letter to the player, introducing himself as the manager of the Café. He mentions that many of his customers also like to listen to music, and have achieved many Perfects. He admits that running the Café is just a front, and that he spends most of his time playing with his headphones. He asks the player to pet him if they happen to run into each other. When visiting the Café, Barista himself is not seen. In Rhythm Heaven, Rhythm Heaven Fever and Rhythm Heaven Megamix, a speech bubble with the Barista appears over the Café icon whenever he wants to talk to the player. In Rhythm Heaven Fever, a "Good luck!" stamp with the Barista's face appears when selecting a Rhythm Game. The Barista is implied to be the narrator during key moments of the story of Rhythm Heaven Megamix. When visiting the Café in this game, he can be seen on the counter for the first time in the series. He is also the last opponent fought in Figure Fighter VS.

The Dog appears in Rhythm Tengoku Gold Comic 04 “ワン”ス アポン ア タイムの巻き ("On"ce Upon a Time by Maki), which shows his origins as a young puppy in the rain. One day, a human finds him and gives him his red headphones. The dog, despite being shocked by them at first, insists on keeping them. The two stay together for a while, but soon the dog grows up and is left all alone. The last panel shows the Barista sitting in the Café. He makes a brief appearance at the end of 08 DJ上京物語 その3：レッツ！スクラッチョの巻き (DJ Going to Tokyo Part 3: Let's! Scratch-o by Maki), running past DJ Yellow and Student, and the beginning of 09 にぎやかでおだやかな夜の巻き (A lively and peaceful night by Maki), where he is seen serving a customer, asking them how good their rhythm is today, before seeing them off as they leave.

The Barista also appears in several Rhythm Tengoku The Best Plus Comics. In 01 同窓会 (Reunion), he greets various characters to the Café, until the Martian appears, with Barista being confused who they are before they leave. In 02 火星人再襲来 (Martian Reinvasion), the Martian returns a few days after the reunion, and gets too close for comfort as Barista tries to welcome them to Rhythm Heaven. In 10ヤギとマスター (The Goat and Barista), Saffron sells The Goat to the Barista for real cheap, saying her milk is delicious. The goat begins to chow down on turnips, causing the Barista to worry, as she hasn't produced milk, and is only eating every day. He worries that the goat is only getting bigger, and might not fit in the Café soon. He thinks about changing the way he raises the goat as a customer comes in. In 12おかねもちになったら (When you get Rich), the Barista sees Saffron is sad, and asks him what's wrong. Saffron says he'd like to get money. After being asked what he would do if he got rich, Saffron starts thinking about things like buying Paprika new goggles, traveling, how he doesn't like Saltwater and other things, but refuses to actually say anything. In 17テビリとマスター (Tibby and Barista), as Tibby shares a peach with Barista, he asks him how old he is. The dog claims he is 100 years older than Tibby, then says he was just kidding. In 22ヤギとイエモン (Goat and Saffron) Saffron is struggling to take The Goat on a walk, as Barista is too small. As he's struggling, the goat ends up running away. The Barista watches the chase from afar and comments on their rhythm.

Conversations
Whenever the player visits the Café, they can talk to Barista, who talks about whatever is going on in the game. If the player visits the Café for the first time in the game, Barista greets them while setting up for the day, explaining what he can do to help the player, and in Rhythm Heaven Megamix, that they can view the Museum and change various settings, and more. Barista responds to the player replaying the same game over and over, depending on their Rank. Barista also offers to let the player skip a game if they're having trouble on it. In Rhythm Heaven Fever, he also offers to show a demonstration video of the game being played perfectly. In Rhythm Heaven Megamix, he no longer offers such services, as Rupert takes this role instead. The Barista sometimes gives the player advice to take breaks and often gives them coffee on the house. He ultimately congratulates the player when they achieve a Perfect in every single Rhythm Game, and opens the rest of the content in the reading and music corners to celebrate, and in Rhythm Heaven Fever's case, directs them to the Endless Games. He no longer does this in Rhythm Heaven Megamix however, and the acknowledgement and bonus content are unlocked through other means. Instead, he tells the player about new things being unlocked when they visit the Café, such as the Goat Stable, the Shop , the museum curator , Figure Fighter VS and Slide Shows. He also mentions his accidental discovery that The Goat can be fed with Coins, how to access the Endless Games , the secret drumming minigame when viewing the epilogue slide show or in Play Music and about Rhythm Help Display.

Barista enjoys playing Rhythm Games, and is shown to improve as the series goes on. He mentions how his highest score on the Rhythm-kan Check machine is only 65 points during Rhythm Tengoku due to him having trouble with the rests on the second test, while in Rhythm Heaven Megamix, his Flow is shown to have gone up to 95. He tells the player to not worry about the Flow score, however. He mentions the three Ranks the player can achieve and about Medals and Perfect Campaigns. He loves the extra tension when going for a Perfect. He likes to mess around with Rhythm Toys and often loses track of time because of it, and has played one of the Two Player games with an unknown second player, though it may be implied he played with two controllers by himself. He took a ride on the Challenge Train with a group of friends.

When not talking about the player's progress or upcoming Perfect Campaigns, the Barista makes small talk with the player, relaying things he's heard from other customers, or from his own past, mostly about music. He talks about how a conversation can be made through musical instruments, about offbeats and the sense of rhythm in general. He has tried playing many instruments: he took piano lessons at a young age, before realizing he only likes the sound of it rather than playing it. He has taken Drum Lessons once a week, but never improved, and seems to find the drums to be difficult. He bought a guitar from a friend and practiced all the time, but had trouble playing the F chord due to a lack of thumbs. He also considers picking up many other instruments every now and then, though most of the time he never gets around to actually doing it.

Unsurprisingly, the Barista loves coffee. He can tell the name of any kind of coffee just from the smell. He used to drink it mild with milk and cream, but eventually started to prefer the bitter taste of black coffee. The Barista sees the world as getting "crazier and crazier", and invites the player to rest at the Café. He enjoys listening to all kinds of music, live music whenever he gets the chance, slow music , and anything from classical to heavy metal on his own time. He listens to music when he feels sad or sleepy. He is also known to feel sleepy after playing all night and reflexively start screaming when he gets excited, which has startled many customers over the years. Sometimes, he appears to mix up orders. When he was in his prime, customers used to bring all the latest games to the Café, and the Barista would always be the first in line to play them. He remembers these days fondly while talking about Extra Games. The Barista sometimes thinks about the phylosophy behind music, outer space and atoms , the effects of music on plants , the origins of the names of musical notes , music as whole , and even how sound itself is produced. He likes to go to the movies whenever possible, and enjoys eating popcorn while waiting the most. He is known to go jogging to get in shape, and finds it to be more enjoyable while listening to music alongside the ocean. He goes to the beach annually in the fall to listen to the relaxing sound of the waves.

Appearances

 * Game GBA 1-2.png Rhythm Datsumo (cameo)
 * Game GBA 7-2.png Rhythm Datsumo 2 (cameo)
 * Game GBA EX-2.png Rhythm Datsumo TempoUpExtra2.png (cameo)
 * Game GBA B-6.png Live (cameo)
 * Game DS 5-5.png Remix 5 (cameo)
 * Game DS B-Credit.png Airboarder (cameo)
 * Game DS 7-5.png Remix 7 (cameo)
 * Game DS 9-2.png Karate Man 2 (cameo)
 * Game DS T-3.gif Slot Monster (cameo)
 * Game Wii 6-4.png Love Rap (cameo)
 * Game Wii B-5.png Night Walk (cameo)
 * Game Wii 9-1.png Love Rap 2 (cameo)
 * Game Wii T-2.gif Police Call (unused mention)

Trivia

 * A similar looking dog appears as Shison-tachi's family pet in the Superb epilogue to Remix 5 in Rhythm Tengoku.
 * In Rhythm Tengoku, the Dog appears to have a girl employed as a waitress, with two customers also visible at the Café. This girl does a gesture when the player chooses to skip a game. These people are not seen at the Café in Rhythm Heaven and Rhythm Heaven Fever, though the Barista's dialogue implies there are still customers coming in. In Rhythm Heaven Megamix, completing a land allows the character that the player and Tibby met there to occasionally appear as a customer, meanwhile Saffron and Saltwater of the Gatekeeper Trio end up working at the Café as the Shopkeeper and museum curator, respectively.
 * In the Café in Rhythm Heaven, there is a framed photo of what looks like the Dog with glasses.
 * During Rhythm Tengoku, the Dog states that he is 9 years old, while in Rhythm Heaven, he states that the Café has been open for three years.
 * In Rhythm Heaven, The Dog claims that he has owned a dog for 11 years . Despite this, he claims to be a cat person.
 * While no concrete time frame is given for Rhythm Heaven Fever and Rhythm Heaven Megamix, the Barista talks about his experience with a guitar in both games, which is described as having happened "recently" in relation to the former, and "a long time ago" in relation to the latter.
 * The Barista gets mentioned in an unused conversation meant for Police Call, where the station gives intel that the Barista isn't human.