My Playtime: 14.1h (finished the game)

Dragon Caffi is a quest-based adventure game where you take on quests and bake the quest givers their favorite dessert. It offers 112 quests that are spread across 12 areas.

Pros:
- 12 areas to explore with 112 quests to finish
- Simple minigames to play
- Relaxing music to help to relax

Cons:
- The game needs a lot of QoL fixes
- It can be hard to figure out what the quest giver wants after you talk to them for the first time
- The game can be a bit grindy and repetitive

Specs
Intel Core i5-9300H 2.40GHz, 8GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650

Yes.
The game is best enjoyed by casual players that just want to have something relaxing and repetitive to play.

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Dragon Caffi's visuals look colorful and cute with their cartoonish look. Characters' expressions are easy to distinguish because of the simplistic style, and the great-looking backgrounds also help to set up the cheerful atmosphere. Despite having 12 areas, all areas look different from each other, to the point that I could distinguish which is which from a single glance.

There is almost no story to the game. The most that you will get is the cutscene that is played out at the beginning of the game. The rest of the dialogues that you get will only contribute to your quests, which are personalized for each quest giver. The ending that is shown without a proper conclusion feels like a waste though, especially since the prologue looks good with all the animations and voice dub. The only complaint that I got from there is the lack of subtitles, which can be ignored since you will be able to read the whole dialogue by other means after the cutscene ends.

Gameplay
The gameplay is revolved around taking quests that will reward you with a recipe. You'll get a secondary quest this way, allowing you to bake the dessert from the recipe and trade the 3-star dessert for a token. The token will then be used to unlock new areas and reach the ending. Since there are 112 quests in total, you will need a lot of tokens to unlock everything.

Despite being tagged as an open-world game, the game isn't as open-world as you think. Most areas are locked behind tokens, and you need to traverse most areas in a certain order to unlock the new ones. You are still free to finish the quests in any order that you want though.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2803127684

Quests are varied but repetitive. Some quests might have a lot of effort put into them: you'll play a minigame, look for items scattered across the map, clear a puzzle, and many more. However, most of them will be reused in different areas, and some even go as simple as talking to the quest giver to get a recipe. This can feel repetitive and slow after a while, especially since you need to grind money to buy some ingredients and play the same minigame over and over to bake all 112 desserts from the quests.

Since there are 112 quests to be found, it can be hard to keep track of each quest. Sadly, the quest log is fairly limited - it doesn't show what you need to do for quests that require several steps in their process. Talking to the quest giver again won't help since most of them won't give any quest-related dialogue after you talk to them for the first time. Moreover, there are a lot of NPCs in the game, and since each talkable NPC will contribute to at least one quest somehow, you need to remember them if you don't want to end up talking to everyone in every area to find the one that you need. Those who played the game in short bursts will also have difficulties finishing the game because of the same reason.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2803126400

Minigames
There are three types of minigames in this game. One is in the form of Whac-A-Mole, and two is in the form of a rhythm game. Baking a dessert will require you to play one of the rhythm minigames, and since the music that is played is always the same, this might bore some people, even if the game tries to pick up the speed near the end of the game. Moreover, the rhythm minigame's beat never goes in sync with the button that you have to press, which beats the purpose of a rhythm minigame.

Length and Difficulty
I finished the game in 14.1h. The game isn't difficult to finish - some puzzles might take a while to solve, but you can always use brute force to solve them.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2803127262

Problems
The game lacks a lot of QoL features. First, minigames can be bugged if you press the wrong button in the controller. Second, the game doesn't show controller controls. Third, there is no keybinding - it is hard to attack, run, and walk at the same time with the keyboard. Fourth, it takes time to traverse through the recipe or town page from the menu. There might be a lot more that needs to be addressed, but they are mostly minor issues.

Dragon Caffi is a relaxing game for casual people. Its repetitive content might irk some people, but I somehow enjoyed it due to the quest-based nature of the game. Completing quests after quests, areas after areas, make me feel as if I'm achieving something, and the relaxing music helps me to enjoy the slow-paced gameplay. However, since half of the gameplay is about baking dessert, some of my playtime ends up being spent outside the game, listing all ingredients that I need to buy from the stores to bake everything that I could at once. I feel that some QoL fixes will make the game more enjoyable, although it is good enough at its current state as long as you don't buy it at full price.

This game was reviewed with a key provided by the developer for free through Curator Connect.

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This is a really cute, casual and relaxing game where the aim of the game is to explore the world, completing quests as you go, collecting recipes and then giving recipes to collect tokens. The baking game reminds me of neopets games from the 2000's, as well as some of the art with the dishes which is a huge nostalgia bonus for me.

There are some frustrating things to note:
- You cannot use a mouse with PC, it is keyboard only
- You cannot reconfigure the keys. For example if you're using WASD to move, your pinky will get sore quickly to run with ctrl, as you are pretty much always holding it down.
- Once you've activated a quest, sometimes you need to remember yourself how to complete the quest. This can add up with 20+ quests.
- No minimap/maps. I often find myself wasting time, getting bored or frustrated just trying to find the different towns and how to get there over and over again. The only map I have found in 9 hours of gameplay is the 1st town. Another example is I know I have unlocked enough tokens to get to a new area, but I have forgotten how to even find it. This is the biggest reason I would save and quit the game.
- The baking game is repetitive and doesn't seem to vary in difficulty. It is always the same for the 5+ pages of dishes I have found
- No incentive to re-bake items once you've made them, as the profit vs effort for coins isn't worth it
- When you run out of coins, expect to be grinding for a while hitting bushes over a over again
- No quick start guide, you'll need to figure most of it out yourself. For example, as my point above you will be whacking a lot of bushes for coins, sometimes stars will appear. Is this a coin boost to sell at a store, or do I need to hoard these for future use? This could be a positive or negative depending on the type of player you are.
- The music is really annoying if you spend too much time (5-10 mins) in one area. I suggest lowering the music far down
- Game bugs. To be expected as it is a brand-new indie game. I have not found any game-breaking bugs yet except once I saw the edge of the map, which ruined the immersive experience a little bit for me.

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I will continue to play the game as despite my notes it is really enjoyable! This is just my personal experience and the dev(s) should be proud of the game that has been created. I look forward to seeing more updates and progression :)

I'll update as I progress, but thus far I am super happy with this game.

It's so incredibly charming, from the music, to the beautiful hand drawn art. The desserts in particular are gorgeous, and I cannot stress how much this game has made me crave sweets so far lol It's exactly the relaxing kind of game I was looking for and I'm very happy I took a chance and purchased it. I can very easily see myself sinking long hours into it, which makes it a winner.

A cute little game, the only complaint I have for now is even though the game has controller support, the game doesn't show a controller scheme in-game.

Absolutely worth checking out if you want to do quests for people, make foods, and just relax.

For the creators:
The main music, while nice, does get tiring after a bit. Maybe some smaller sounds like the character's footsteps, characters nearby noises, and/ or random rustles would help break up the main music.

I want the food irl. Please. I kinda want to recreate them in 3D..... wonder how hard that would be....

I would like to make it non full screen and have a full controller option. Right now, the making food minigame is keyboard only. Also, please have a way to set your own keybinding (with a reset button back to default) that is also reflected in menus. I like having my inventory on E and map on X instead of inventory on I and map hidden in the main menu. Please allow for more utilizing of buttons than 1 button doing most of the work. It took me a bit before I realized the recipes were just page 1 of the book.

Everyone who worked on this has done an AMAZING job so far. Keep up the great work and I can't wait to see any updates or possible DLC in the future.

Wonderful game, getting it on switch because the controls on PC are awful but I really love the game. Has a wonderful Moomin vibe with the little creatures and absolutly charming visuals.

The gameplay with the keyboard has its flaws, but overall I enjoy playing. Baking with the little game is quite fun and I like the graphics very much, as well as the different citizens of the town - the challenges themself go from not so thrilling to quite funny.
I recommend playing the game mainly on the PC with a controller and less with the keyboard, as it is relatively stressful here.

You and the whole family will have hours of fun playing as Margo and experiencing her journey to be a world-class baker in this cute and fun baking game. A truly fun and enjoyable game.

Greetings and salutations, ladies and gentlemen! I’m your host for this read, TheLostChevalier, and I welcome you to my little review about Dragon Caffi, a game so beautiful it will make you feel sweet and happy!
First, let’s get a question out of the way: does this game deserves a spot in your library, that one you love and take care of? The answer is YES, yes it does! Buy it, it is wholesome, it is entertaining and, most importantly, the animation and art department blow it out of the park!
Now onto the review of the first hour of the game: you will follow our protagonist, Margo, an inhabitant of Aethwy, a fantastic world full of magic and beautiful creatures, on the first day of her career as a professional baker of treats and desserts, you might have seen what is obvious by now, the animation and the characters are something out of this world, but if you think this is everything you are wrong, you haven’t seen the art they used for the ingredients and the deserts you cook. They look delicious, they grab your eyes and make you feel hungry, I’m constantly reminding myself to not jump to eat my monitor every time I see one of the desserts or the ingredients. For example, the triple chocolate cookies, OMG, they look delicious, I want them! If in the future there is a function to make screens lickable then I would totally run this game to taste the food Margo cooks.
The story is sweet, you are on your way, as I said before, to become a master baker, and you will travel the world looking for new recipes, and trust me, there are a lot of quests and recipes to find! Like a ton! You will not find yourself stuck or looking for something to do, you will have fun, and that’s what matters. If you are crazy for food just like I am, then this game is right up your alley; if you like hand drawn animation and stellar character design, this is a good subject for your studies and a source for inspiration; if you like to be a completionist, this game is for you too, there are a lot of things to complete and hunt down; if you like indie games and want something relaxing, then what are you waiting for!
In short, don’t miss out on this one! Buy it! It deserves a spot in your library, in fact, you want this game in your library, is like a good book you want in your book collection!
I was TheLostChevalier, and this was my written review, thanks for reading.

Recommend on discount

Dragon Caffi was a cute game to play through. The gameplay loop itself is repetitive, but if you enjoy the art style and want to relax while completing quests, this might be a game for you. It also has a collecting aspect, where you want to collect all the recipes.

I played mostly with controller. I had to bind a button for sprinting. The only thing I couldn't do with controller were the mini games that involved the arrows. Those required the keyboard.

The user interface isn't always intuitive, but once you figure out its quirks, it gets the job done.