I have a problem that I really get into a game, and then I kind of flounder around looking for a new one once I’m done. I finished Night in the Woods a few weeks ago, and I hadn’t found a game to replace it. I went back to Cook Serve Delicious! 2!! because there is going to be a big free expansion in a few months that include something called The Barista Update. It’s going to focus on drinks, which is exciting because the drinks are pretty easy right now. I don’t mind because pop was a bitch in the first game, but I’m all for more Cook Serve Delicious!2!! I’m trying not to be as much of a perfectionist this time, but it’s hard. I still automatically restart when I make a mistake (it’s ingrained after two games), and I can’t seem to stop myself from doing it. I did it on my first playthrough because there’s an achievement for 200 gold medals (getting a perfect day in one of the Chef for Hire restaurants).
Anyway, Ian told me about a game called Battle Chef Brigade, and I was immediately intrigued. It’s a cross between Iron Chef and Monster Hunter (lite), and the main character is named Mina. I mean, how could I not get it, right? Since I’m cheap, however, I waited for it to go on sale, and now it’s sitting pretty in my Steam account. It’s labeled a brawler and a puzzle game, and I have it in my indie eclectic category. It’s made by Trinket Studios after a successful Kickstarter than netted them nearly triple the amount they asked for, and it was published by Adult Swim.
I only watched the trailer before I bought it, and I started it with trepidation. Why? Because it’s hard to tell what I will and won’t like. Things that should be right up my alley aren’t, and things that I’m skeptical of sometimes hit the spot. An example of the former–Overcooked. I had heard glowing praise of it, and it looked like something I would adore. I hated it. Straight up hated it. Maybe it’s better with local co-op, but I can’t be stuffed to find out. I uninstalled rather quickly and never looked back.
I started Battle Chef Brigade with some trepidation, and I was immediately charmed by it. Not only is the character’s name Mina, her last name is Han. She’s a simple country gal working in her parents’ small restaurant, but dreaming of being a Battle Chef Brigade competitor. Through some machinations, she makes it to the competition (of course! Otherwise, there wouldn’t be a game) and registers. One of the amusing conceits is that she oversleeps all the time, which is something I cannot relate to. Anyway, the tutorials are brief, and I think the game would benefit from expanding them a bit. Look, yes, I play Souls games in which the tutorials are, “Here. Play the game. Go away”, but that doesn’t mean I’m against tutorials in general. During the combat parts of the game, there are certain moves you can do, and they are not as intuitive at all.
At least they weren’t for me when I was trying keyboard/mouse. I prefer k/m to controller, but I’ve used controller much more for the past several games I’ve played. Anyway, k/m is not intuitive at all for this game. The first problem is because I use Dvorak instead of Qwerty. This game does not support Dvorak, so I had to switch my keyboard back to Qwerty before playing. That’s not the problem. The problem is that when the prompts came up in the tutorial, it’s in Qwerty, and it doesn’t register with my brain. It doesn’t help if it’s in Dvorak, though, because I touch-type, so I don’t necessarily know where the letters are on the keyboard. There are two kinds of attacks–physical and magical. And there are combos. I don’t play fighting games, and I hate combo-based combat, so it’s basically comes down to button-mashing for me. There’s no place to check what the combos actually are (at least not that I can find. Maybe in the practice kitchen? I can’t remember), and I usually just hit the animal/plant until it dies.