not to mention some drinks are just colored water adding nothing to inebriation.....
That's super funny, hadn't even noticed that. In some ways the design and implementation of the conversation mini-game is surprisingly sophisticated, but this is then completely undercut by a total lack of explanation. The whole game feels like it's really just testing out a mini-game design for some other game...
Edit: Hadn't seen the above post where someone checked the code and found some un-implemented dialogue, my conjecture might be more accurate than I realized.