As someone who works at a pub to fund his studies so that he eventually doesn’t need to work at a pub, I do love the idea of roguelikes and shop sims a whole lot. Something something capitalism, something something escapism, you know? I’m a huge fan of games like Moonlighter, Recettear, Dave the Diver, and Goblin Vyke because of the variety and replayability they offer on top of being charming games that let me be the capitalist I’ll never be in real life. Get items for free, sell them at outrageous prices, and somehow make ends meet without any effort at all. Who doesn’t dream of winning in life, right? In a way, shop sims are not just a means to escape the dreary reality of late-stage capitalism but also a venture into a whimsical world where you can just start up a business and succeed at what you’re doing the way you want to… and I love that. Today, I wanted to talk about Cuisineer, a charming little Action-RPG where you hunt monsters for ingredients to then cook up a storm and serve customers in your restaurant so that you can pay off your deadbeat parents’ debt. It’s whimsical, adorable, and a lot of fun in ways that really scratch a lot of itches for me. Developer: BattleBrew Productions Publisher: Marvelous Europe, XSEED Games Genre: Indie, Action RPG, Shop Sim, Dungeon Crawler Release Date: November 9th, 2023 Reviewed on: PC Available on: PC, Switch, XBS, PS5 Copy was purchased. Introducing Pom, an independent little adventurer who finally returned home to Paell after a few long years of dungeon-diving. Instead of a heartwarming reunion with her family and friends, though, Pom finds herself faced with a huge outstanding debt while her parents are out on a cruise around the world. The town’s in dire need of some good food. The restaurant is supposed to be repossessed. Things are certainly not looking great for her, so she decides to take up the apron and spatula, taking things over and restoring their family restaurant to its former glory. The core gameplay loop consists of Pom diving into different dungeons to gather ingredients, cooking up food orders for guests stopping by the restaurant, raising your reputation in the process, before taking your well-earned coins to either upgrade the shop or perhaps invest in better gear. Since this is a fantasy game, the government officials are super chill about the debt, and you can just repay them at any given time you want, making the game a lot more laidback and cosy compared to titles like the aforementioned Goblin Vyke and Recettear, where not meeting deadlines results in a game over. Still, you do want to pay back those officials over time. Doing so unlocks new dungeons, furniture, upgrades, materials and ingredients, after all. From dilapidated forest ruins to fiery lava caverns and frozen lakes, the game offers a whole slew of biomes to explore, each with its own flavour of traps, enemies, bosses and loot. Combat is a big part of the equation here as you head into the dungeons to hunt for ingredients, equipment, and materials, of course. It’s relatively simple mechanically, feeling more like a button-mashy hack-and-slash title rather than a tactical action-RPG, and while it can get fairly simplistic over time, there are a lot of interesting enemies to give you a good time in the dungeon. Beyond that, though, variety is the spice of life, and the wide selection of different weapons really adds a ton to the game. From the varied kebab skewer spear to the slow but powerful meat tenderiser to the fast and agile salt and pepper shaker-themed boxing gloves, there are many weapons to explore that may fit your playstyle really well. There are ranged options, too, and each weapon also comes with a handy ability to use for big damage or extra effects. My personal highlight, however, wasn’t necessarily the dungeon-diving itself but rather the build-crafting potential the game has. You can equip two weapons on top of a pair of boots and gloves, giving you four pieces of equipment that each can have up to two modifiers on them that enhance your build in one of many different ways. From weakening enemies on-hit to leaving a fire trail when you dash to shooting out lightning or poisoning enemies to generating shields when you strike, there are a ton of fun and cool things you can do, and the randomised nature of loot you find in the dungeon adds a lot of fun for enjoyers of theory-crafting and min-maxers like me. The other part of the core gameplay loop is cooking, obviously, although it’s equally simple. Ingredients are used at different cooking stations to serve different dishes. You can boil, fry, cut or bake stuff, and as you upgrade said stations, you also unlock higher-tiered recipes that may have extra steps in them but also bring in more profits. Dishes are important because they’re not only your source of income but also a means to progress most quests, research new healing potions (well, boba), re-customise perks on your gear, and even grant you buffs before you head into the dungeon. I love how cooking is tied into the game’s narrative and progression systems, but what’s even more amazing about it, in my opinion, is how each dish features a detailed restaurant critic-level description of the dish in question on top of great visual depictions that genuinely have made me hungry while playing the game. If it wasn’t for Cuisineer, I wouldn’t have recently tried out Popiah (very yummy!) at a place nearby, I reckon. Food is culture, after all, and through Cuisineer, I got to experience a lot of other cultures myself. I’m excited to try a lot of them out eventually, either at nearby restaurants or by cooking them myself. Beyond that, the game is also just charming with pretty visuals, a lovely soundtrack, and a lot of thought put into the world itself. I love the different anthropomorphic characters the game features and absolutely adore the fact that they introduced dimorphism into the game. It’s a nice touch that adds depth and gives the designers a ton of potential and freedom. That is not to say, however, that the game is perfect. I think my biggest gripe with the game is that food service and dungeon diving can get repetitive over time. Food service literally has you wait for people to order certain dishes, you go up to the stations and press a button prompt, and then people go and grab their food themselves before eventually paying up. There’s practically nothing you can do wrong here, and it features a lot of waiting. It does get quite busy later on but the difficulty of the cooking cook definitely be much higher, in my opinion. Meanwhile, the dungeon-diving has a lot of potential due to the loot you find, different bosses and mini-bosses, a lot of traps, and other challenges… but due to the simplistic combat, it gets relatively same-y. I’ve seen people call Cuisineer a “roguelike”, but while it does take inspiration from modern titles of that genre, it’s not actually rogue-ish whatsoever besides the fact that you lose most of your stuff when you “die”. Beyond that, though, communication is a bit unpolished in the game. Cuisineer mentions “nobles” as a customer type that wants to be served by you rather than pick up their own food relatively early on… but personally, I didn’t encounter any until maybe 20 hours into the game. A lot of equipment will also say that a certain effect doesn’t stack when it, in reality, does actually stack really well. Similarly, there are some other parts of the mechanics that either don’t get explained enough or are not explained at all. It’s a bit clunky. That being the case, Cuisineer definitely is among the most charming shop sims I’ve played in recent years. As BattleBrew Productions’ first game, I was genuinely impressed by the amount of thought and polish put into the game, how well a lot of its systems are designed, and I just had a blast with it all in all. The characters are lovely, the game’s pretty, and the quest lines got quite a few laughs out of me. It’s an accessible action dungeon crawler with a charming world, very pretty anime-inspired aesthetics, a ton of charm, and it just made me very excited for what the developers have in store for us in the future. It may not have the deepest combat or restaurant management systems, but it captures the fantasy that makes shop sims so compelling pretty darn well: You build something of your own, one dungeon run and one satisfied customer at a time. Verdict: If you're into a laid-back and cozy experience with some action to mix things, then look no further than Cuisineer. It's a cute game with a variety of weapons to discover, a ton of dishes to cook, and a nice restaurant to not just restore but fully make your own. It's not the most in-depth, featuring very simplistic combat and shopkeeping mechanics, though, so just don't expect the deepest gameplay experience, and I'd really recommend this to anyone willing to get their heart melted by the charm this game has in store for you. This post was originally published on Indiecator. If you wanna get in touch with me, feel free to stop by for one of my Twitch streams. For business inquiries, please reach out via email.