Dive into dungeons for the proper dish

Cuisineer is an fascinating sport. On its floor, it’s an easy mash-up of two glorious issues: a store administration sim and a dungeon-crawling motion RPG. These two ideas are nice on their very own, and so they go nice collectively in Cuisineer too.

At PAX East 2023, I had an opportunity to go hands-on with BattleBrew Productions’ Cuisineer to see how far the venture has superior. This truly wasn’t my first time demoing the sport; I finished by the crew’s sales space at East in 2022 to get a sampler of their restaurant supervisor/dungeon crawler mash-up. This 12 months, they have been below the XSEED banner and appeared much more polished.

Only a small city lady

The overall idea is easy: you’re Pom, a tiny hero who inherits her household’s eatery that’s fallen into debt. Utilizing quite a lot of improvised weapons, you’ll want to go into harmful areas to regionally supply your delicacies elements, bringing them again to prepare dinner up and serve for paying clients.

On the town, you possibly can go to with locals who provide methods to improve your store or boons to carry into dungeons. A brand new desk might assist seat extra company in the course of the lunch rush, however boba tea could make a dungeon simpler. I solely obtained a small sense of how this could all interlink, however I just like the city and its quiet, cheerful vibes. I did really feel a bit misplaced at instances attempting to trace down the place to go subsequent for quests, however I’m hopeful that’s a demo subject and never a full sport wrinkle.

After selecting up some supplies, I had slightly little bit of time to arrange my restaurant. There have been some fundamentals to begin with, like a pot for cooking and a few seating for company. I talked with CEO Shawn Toh on the present, who mentioned there shall be extra choices within the full sport, together with some beauty selections for the eatery. For now, I used to be simply glad my clients had a spot to sit down.

Dungeon-to-table

After all, as soon as that was all taken care of, I wanted to go into the dungeon to get some elements. From right here, it took on a distinctly action-RPG set-up. I had a splash and two completely different assaults, relying on which weapons I had outfitted. My spatula and skillet have been go-to close-range weapons, however I might additionally toss plates for some ranged assaults if I didn’t need to get shut.

The degrees have been pretty simple at first. They supplied a smattering of spike traps and foes that have been simple to beat by themselves, however might change into an issue in the event that they stacked up. Steadily, they launched some harmful strikes, like charging or respiratory hearth. After all, slaying these harmful enemies is the way you get some good elements for cooking. It’s all a trade-off.

I want I made it to the boss, however I did get sufficient monster items to begin up my first shift. So I went again to the restaurant and opened up store for the day. Right here, Cuisineer turned a easy routine of taking an order, setting it to prepare dinner, serving, and getting money from the blissful clients. Within the demo, it was simple sufficient to deal with with the one-at-a-time set-up I had. From the screenshots on-line, it appears to be like like issues change into way more hectic.

The ultimate course

It’s simple sufficient to explain Cuisineer as a mash-up of video games like Hades and Recettear. Even simply imagining that, you’d get pretty near what BattleBrew has concocted right here. The dashing and slashing feels acquainted, however strong and fascinating. And I actually just like the town-and-restaurant integration, giving Cuisineer an additional layer to plan round and construct up alongside the motion.

Cuisineer additionally has some nice meals designs down, and the sheer selection they’re touting at over 100 completely different recipes makes me keen/hungry to see what’s in retailer. Cuisineer at present has a goal of summer time 2023.