Battle Chef Brigade developed by Trinklet Studios and published by Adult Swim Games is a strangely addictive game. The game at times feels like it wants to be an RPG,a second later it seems like it wants to be a hack and slash beat em up or a cooking puzzle game. Which at the end of the day, the game does all of these rather well.
The game's story is set up and leans upon its cooking element. It strangely reminds me of the anime called ''Food Wars''. This is big positive for the game of course as Food Wars is a really good anime!
In this game you play as a girl named Mina, who's dream is to join and compete in the Chef Brigade,but she was never allowed to in the past because her parents looked down upon it and had an overall negative view on it. But one day Mina decides enough is enough and that she's finally going to chase her dreams. Mina decides to run away from her home and her village to achieve her goal of being a chef brigade champion.
Gameplay:
In this game most of your objectives involve you to try to cook and make the best meal that you possibly can in order to out cook your rivals and fellow contestants. This is done by going out into the world and slaying monsters and each monster adding their own spice,flavor or taste to specific dishes you wish to make.
You learn majority of your basic cooking recipes about what works and what doesnt and overall controls such as stomping,uppercut,magic use via the games tutorial mode. The tutorial mode in this game is extremely well done and it helps you learn the ins and outs of the games functions and basics without feeling like its holding your hand or being too intrusive.
Monster Hunting(dont sue me capcom) and cooking are the main bread and butter of this game. For progression and quests in this game you're given objectives in the tutorial or by other fellow teachers/mentors/judges in the game that you must fulfill in order to make the best meal possible in order to pass their tests or please their tastes. How you mix each monster part and fry them with flavored gems will determine the overall quality of your dish and how it will be rated by your peers.
When you're cooking,this game acts like puzzle matching game like Tetris or similar puzzle games of that category. For example putting three red gems,three green gems,three blue gems and colored flavored gems that match, together, will cause what i call,''flavor meter'' to rise,giving you more stars to your overall dish rating. The higher your star rating is,the more delicious your meal was/is going to be.
Skills/Items:
As Mina you start off with a basic slash attack with your daggers,but the further you progress through the game,the more robust your arsenal of attack becomes. Such as using a wind tornado like magic spell to damage enemies,hitting enemies with a downward stomp or an uppercut. All used in conjunction with each other can be useful to juggle and keep the enemy monsters at a huge disadvantage during your fights and make it a lot easier to acquire ingredients that you need.
I mentioned RPG elements earlier and this game has them in a small variety,but they're still there at the very least and they are put to really good use. Starting from the early chapters and leading on all the way to the end of the game,you're able to buy and earn a variety of items that will not only increase your health or mana but they'll also increase the quality of your overall cooking depending on the item itself or the cooking pot you buy. These items are purchasable via shops in the main cities and can also increase the strength of flavored gems. Which will put you at an advantage and make cooking competitions easier for you as you progress.
Environment/Voice acting:
Battle Chef Brigade looks extremely polished and almost looks like its hand drawn artwork. Backgrounds and characters are well detailed and animations themselves are very fluid and it all meshes together extremely well. All colors in this game are vibrant and I loved the animation and glow each meal you prepared gives off,which differed depending on the quality of dish you made.
Voice acting in this game is superb. Everyone sounds so professional with just the right amount of emotion when saying their lines and each voice fits their respective character they're portraying.
Conclusion:
In this roughly 10 hour or so game you will find a ton of enjoyment. Whether you're out slaying monsters to find the next big ingredient for your next dish,enjoying the artwork,great voice acting or the puzzle solving for cooking,you will always find something very unique waiting for you around the corner during your time with this game. A take away though,I would've liked more characters to play as.
Battle Chef Brigade is out now on PC/Ninendo Switch
Pros:
-Gameplay variety
-Cooking/Puzzles
-Animation/Art
-Voice acting
Cons:
-Needs more playable characters
Or
9.0 / 10
*Review copy provided by AdultSwimGames
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