I really like this game! the mood is great the writing is great and fully recommend it after playing a little over 15 hours so far. The game's art is beautiful (especially the food) and I found many of the townsfolk to very interesting.

The flashback elements were also very compelling, it was a strong idea to allow game play in them to make the moment feel more important very very entertaining decision please give more of that!

However, I think I will stop playing and wait for some updates to come out before really diving into it. There is 5 things so far that I am really hoping will be implemented. (Yes, I know it's early access there will be much more to come in terms of deeper content these are simply mechanical and aesthetic changes I hope and wish for.)

1. Night music and placement change of the date and time tracker and item bar.

- I genuinely would get confused what in game time it is when I came back after a break at what time it was because my discord overlay was on top of the clock in the top right. Now, I know that I could have just edited my settings whenever I played this game, but I think that allowing players to have more editing freedom will be more enjoyable in the long run. This would also be helpful to apply to the item and tool bar, let the player choose if they want to have it on the bottom, top, or side.


2. Please let me cook faster as I increase my cooking skill, put ingredients back in the fridge.

- I really do love cooking in video games, and I was looking forward to how the cooking mini games would change or the food itself would evolve (I was expecting something akin to Dave the Diver or the renowned classic Cooking mama) but after tripping my cooking stat, but I couldn't tell the difference. Then I got stuck multiple times waiting to cook while my 2 other chefs where working. It would be nice to either place the ingredients back in the fridge


3. Let me make food for my quests, for eating, and to give as a gift for other people.

-I was really surprised when the only time I was able to cook in the game was only to make a profit (Bulletin quest or just opening the restaurant). I felt like for a game that is celebrating being a chef should allow much more of the spotlight to be on creating the food and the joy of that process personally or sharing with others. I would love a difficult mini game to make the perfect dish for a picky eater. I would love it even more to give that special meal to a person who would really love it. In fact, I think it would be more meaningful to make friendships, story lines, or quests harder to achieve in the game in tandem to how your cooking skill/abilities are.
IE:
"you can only meet the cyborg mermaid when you make the sweetest fish meal possible"
"make a meal to help Hasel remember her past"
etc


4. Give me more Android lore, and SCI-FY food please.

- I was instantly hooked when I saw there was the ability to be an android in the game and for high tech to be a part of the games concept. But when I wanted to learn more there wasn't much content to explore. (In fairness this very well could be from how much I had not yet played the game.) I wanted to read about the history inventors or legendary breakthroughs, find blueprints for possible high tech cooking appliances, or at the very least know why Androids exist in this world and can eat normal food. Just like we have two characters who represent drastic differences in eating (Nabitha and Pomarine) I think there could be representation of the "New" vs "Natural" even incorporating LELSH who is the biggest proponent of advanced tech can be more involved in the story.

and last but not least,


5. Please, please, please... let my hired chefs and waiters have a personality and let me manually upgrade them.

-If I am spending a lot of time in the kitchen, I want whoever is in the kitchen with me to be interesting. Even if its small details it really builds into the role playing of the world and game which is again, a Chef RPG. Hunting, gathering and socializing is fun, but I want cooking and being a chef to be why I continue to play the game. Please, as you continue to develop the cooking process, consider the people who would be apart of that and why hiring them becomes more than just a production boost. let them be gross-cranky-strange or serious, just something that builds into the role play.

Again, I really enjoy this game so far and I sincerely believe that this game's concept is unique and fun. I am very excited to see how it is going to evolve and would recommend it right now, and for the potential game that it will become. Good job to all the programmers, developers, and artists it really is a great game.

p.s. I noticed that the feminine body type has a butt animation, I think you should include this option for the masculine one and alternatively add a no booty option for the fem one.

addicted. bought at discount. would love co-op / split screen. would pay full price, please take my money.

tl,dr: Pretty good at the moment (16/05/2025). Review written at the end of Act II. Encountered roughly ~10 bugs in my time, none game breaking. Definitely worth a look if you've enjoyed Traveller's Rest, Kynseed or Dave the Diver.


First and foremost, the restaurant and cooking is the focus. Although you can hunt/gather/farm/fish, there is a very strong element of going to the markets, forging friendships with the retailers, putting together a menu with what is available, and prepping and selling the food. I felt the restaurant skill challenges are fine/good and can be automated once you succeeded once. I've seen games like Traveller's Rest take a different route where the cooking aspect gets pushed to the back seat so glad to see Chef RPG stick the landing.

Other notes are: a good pace for progress and story elements; unlocking recipes feels special and central to improving; perks have noticeable impact on gameplay; surprised they introduced the sci-fi tech aspect with androids and flying cars, but don't do that much with it; some things are easy to miss if you aren't looking for them such as wild rice and tea leaves; some story notes happen organically, which leaves me wondering if I've missed something because I haven't walked to the right spot yet; a few frustrations with picking things up or interacting.