With every month that passes, we're exposed to more and more incredible upcoming titles. Games are evolving and with their evolution, new sub-genres and genre mash-ups are emerging, taking old concepts and putting their own new spin on them. This has been an especially prevalent theme in the comfy-cozy world as you can only redo Stardew Valley, Animal Crossing & Harvest Moon so many times and ways before it's beaten to death like me after a full day with our 3 boys. With every new game that comes out that succeeds at delivering something incredible, the rest of the development world then has to push their creativity to the max yet again to give us something "new". It becomes a vicious cycle and as someone who sees hundreds of new games a month, it becomes harder for a game to catch my attention.
Now, I will say that as a gamer, I don't mind "redos" so long as they're either graphically beautiful, give us a new story, or take elements from other games and combine them to truly offer a new experience altogether. I will also state though, that a few games that attempt what I like to call "genre-mash-up" have failed horribly and left me appreciating their effort, but not enjoying the game due to concepts feeling unfinished or half-delivered. That, however, is not the case for Cuisineer. In fact, it should be used as an example of how to perform a genre mash-up the correct way.
For those who haven't heard of Cuisineer, it's an Action-Roguelike, Dungeon-Crawler, and Restaurant Simulator. It fits well into the Comfy-Cozy genre with its adorable graphics and fun characters, but absolutely delivered on the promise of a Roguelike Dungeon-Crawler. You follow the story of Pom, a cute cat-girl whose parents have sold everything but the walls themselves to go traveling, leaving you to restore the family restaurant and rebuild your reputation as a quality place to eat. The story is delivered through text conversations with your friends and fellow townsfolk and it's done well. It feels like your typical quest-driven storyline, overloading you with things to do right from the start yet allowing you the creative freedom to do what you want, when you want. I prefer this style as games that are too linear leave me craving freedom, and games that offer little to no direction or things to do, leave me craving purpose. Cuisineer found a beautiful balance of the two and I can genuinely say I loved the experience.
It's no secret that I'm a lover of comfy-cozy, but Cuisineer took my love for action and combat and baked it beautifully into their game in a way that even those that don't prefer combat can appreciate. Yes, you'll get to run a restaurant and play decoration simulator to upgrade it and beautify it however you want, but if you want to open your doors, you're going to have to step into the dungeons and take on everything from flour-puffballs, red-hot chili-dogs, all the way to coconut trees determined to blow you up. You'll take your trusty spatula, which you can eventually upgrade to a real kitchen-grade greatknife (like a greatsword only kitchen worthy), and your backpack, and venture through the dungeons to collect ingredients to serve your guests, and resources to upgrade your restaurant. Should you fail for whatever reason and pass out, you'll lose a good portion of the spoils, so make sure you're equipped for the trip and ready to dodge, bob, and weave around traps and the various creatures that decorate the floors. You might not think that adorably-tiny wheat creatures could be killers, but I promise you, they'll beat you with their stalks of grain until you never come back, so make sure you take your spatula to them first.
I deeply appreciate the fact that Cuisineer allows you to return back to your village at any time. There's no need to complete a floor or advance to the next level to get back. If your backpack is full or your health is low, you can safely head back and get ready to open up your restaurant doors.
To touch on the restaurant aspect of things, I want to state that I enjoyed this aspect of the game far more than most cooking simulators. No more losing stars for pissed-off customers, now, you can serve only who you can seat and even if you can't serve them what they want, your restaurant doesn't suffer. I adore the fact that Cuisineer decided to go this route and focuses on awarding you with reputation for the people that you do serve, rather than penalizing you for those you can't even seat in the first place. You'll start out with one table and one chair and you can upgrade to plenty more over time with the proper resources, but you'll have a consistent flow of customers and I promise on your first day, 3/4 of them will leave with a little angry face. Don't worry though, you don't get in trouble for this (as far as we could tell) and once you do have enough room to consistently seat the constant flow of people, your restaurant will quickly reap the rewards of an increasing reputation and a steady flow of income.
The best part of the restaurant was that you can open and close it whenever you want. There's no set time you have to and in fact, the clock on your map will tell you when the biggest rushes of customers happen so you can plan your day around whether you want to serve the lunch rush, tea time, or dinner rush. Of course, you can leave your store open all day if you want and in many instances, I spent a full day adventuring for resources, then a full day running the restaurant to pad my income and upgrade it accordingly, or fulfill some of the many quests we were given.
Quests are the next topic we'll approach as Cuisineer opted in for the "don't let them get bored" path. I was a tad overwhelmed by how many requests for items we had right from Day 1, and Day 2 only flooded our quest list further, but ultimately they were just side-quests with no real necessity to get them done immediately and I certainly hadn't finished them by the end of the Demo, but it was nice knowing that if you're the type that prefers to spend all day beating up chickens and puff-balls in the dungeons, there are plenty of quests that will require you to do so.
If you're the type that enjoys putting on your favorite soundtrack and going hardcore in a dungeon-crawler, well then fear not because Cuisineer had a wonderful soundtrack that did not earn a mute from me. Pair that with the hilariously cute noises all the creatures in the Dungeons made, or the peaceful ambiance of the restaurant, and you won't be disappointed in the Audio department.
The last thing we'll touch on is the NPCs, which all had unique personalities and beautiful character art. There were a few placeholder pieces of art for the lesser characters, however, judging them based on the ones we see already, they won't fail to deliver in this department. It's clear that the Cuisineer team is working hard to provide beautiful graphics and plenty of personality in their game. The story is cute, the characters are unique and quirky, and the dungeons are fantastic, presenting more of a challenge the deeper you go, but allowing you peaceful breaks for after you've just gotten your face smashed into by a pig. There are no time limits or requirements you must reach to complete the dungeons, simply come and go as you please.
I will say that I was confident going into Cuisineer that I would enjoy it just by the trailer and gameplay we'd seen so far, but I was prepared for just how much I did. If you're looking for a fantastic blend of Action Roguelike, Dungeon-Crawler & Comfy-Cozy Cooking Simulator, then yeah, this is one that deserves to be on your list for sure. I've played cooking simulators all the way back to the original Diner Dash games from 20 years ago, so I'm no newbie to the genre, but this one is top-tier fun and filled with personality. We look forward to watching how it progresses and will keep you updated on it for sure!
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Disclaimer:
Please note that we have not been paid or promoted for this review, and are not affiliated with Cuisineer or its developers officially in any way. All thoughts are based on our own genuine experience of the game. All footage is based on the Game's Demo in its current state as of 06/25/2023 and is subject to change or be completely omitted in the full release at the developer's discretion.
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