Fun quick gameplay cycle. Combat is simple, but does have nuance and the challenge level is just right. The story is corny, but pacing is good. It's a forgiving game.
Well worth it. Fun game.

Just saying, but I do have a curator page. If like my remarks about games, you can find more of them here: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/44130985-TDP%27s-Gaming-Escapades

You know, when we talk about games that focus on cooking as the main part of their gameplay, we are usually reminded of games with a more casual gameplay. I mean stuff like Diner Dash, Hell's Kitchen or Overcooked. And then we have stuff like Battle Chef Brigade that try to go over just being a casual cooking experience and offer a blend of multiple genres or game modes. This game tries to mix what you've seen in cooking competitions with a semi-hack & slash gameplay and an actually good storytelling, to offer a unique blend of gameplay. And honestly, it succeeds in doing so.
But unfortunately, I had to quit the game after a mere 3 and a half hours spent on it, due to something that affects me personally but others might not have an issue with. Do read on or skip to the TL;DR to know more.

The very first thing that catches your eye in this game, is the presentation.
On the graphical side, we got some of the most gorgeous hand-drawn illustrations bringing the world and the characters to life, and that is without mentioning the detailed drawing of the dishes you can prepare. And on the other side, we have the writing and the serviceable voice acting making the characters each unique and likeable, with specific personalities of their own. The music also fits really well and is generally pleasant to listen to, fittin well with the rest of the game.
The only glaring problem I have with the game in this department is a random stuttering issue. Or maybe I shouldn't say stutter as the framerate remains stable, but the game feels like it's skipping frames. It happens at specific sections in the game and makes the experience quite jarring. From what I have gathered, this issue has been present in the game for quite some time as a couple people have reported it, yet the cause and the possible fixes are unknown.

The gameplay consists of two parts, the free roaming section which acts as the preparation phase, and the cooking challenges which are the actual competition takes place.
The free roaming part happens in a small, limited area where you can talk to other characters, shop for equipment, access the practice area and do part-time jobs. Jobs act as critical minigames for newcomers to the game, as they actually serve as tutorials for what you will face in later cooking challenges. The puzzles introduce new ingredients ahead of time, tell you how to deal with them and train you to mix ingredients more efficiently. The hunts introduce new combat mechanics and specific strategies to obtain ingredients. And finally, restaurant activity trains you to be much faster in the stirring phase. Not only that, they also reward you with coins which you'll need to purchase new equipment and skills with.
When you are ready for the real deal, you can challenge another character to a cooking duel. Doing this prompts you to review your equipment one last time before proceeding to the duel, and you need to pick the ones that you think will be of great help in the next match. Upon entering the match, you will be given a main ingredient and each of the present judges will mention their elemental preference (water, earth, fire). Then, you need to head out to hunt monsters and gather ingredients. After exiting the main arena, you will enter the wilds and have to kill the monsters you see to pick up their body parts as ingredients. Then you need to gather them in your satchel and head back to drop them off if you run out of storage space. You will need to do this a couple times to ensure victory.
After gathering the ingredients, then comes the cooking part. Every ingredient has a specific set of jewels representing the elements (or other items based on how far you are in he game), and you have to carefully drop them in a 4x4 box for your dish. After dropping the ingredients, comes the stirring part. At this point the game just becomes Bejeweled Twist. You will be given the task to match three of the same elemental jewels by rotating them in a 2x2 field using the right controller stick, with each upgraded jewel created after doing so increasing the rating of your dish. You will do all of the steps above multiple times, perfecting your creation and then handing it over to the judges before time runs out.
Whether you win or not, depends on the judges' ruling. The judges can add to the overall rating of your dish by having the main ingredient and their preferences in it. On the other hand, failure to meet their preferences by mistake or by serving the wrong dish, missing the main ingredient or failure to remove unwanted parts (like poison) will result in point deduction. The result of such system is a frankly very fun gameplay. But there's one issue...

I've done nothing but praising the game so far, so you might wonder why I have not finished it and quit it after three hours. The reason is the stress.
This game is probably one of the most unexpectedly stressful games I have ever played in my life. In true cooking competition fashion, nearly everything you do in this game is on a strict timer. At first, hunting down the monsters and then returning to the main arena to cook is manageable. But over time, the game changes the arenas and monsters, adds new mechanics, and also adds additional judges to the cooking challenges by increasing the number of them up to three. This means you have to go out to hunt monsters and return as fast as you can, create multiple dishes for multiple judges, don't ♥♥♥♥ up the ingredient mixing, and finally deliver all of them to the proper judges before running out of time. And all of this is while you have no idea how the other cook is doing and how much the difficulty (which is dynamic on normal mode) is going to screw you over until the judgement part of the cooking challenges.
But that's when you get to the challenges themselves. Before the challenges, you need to choose what cookware to use, what special items you want to bring with yourself and what perks you want to activate during battle from your huge list of equipment. All of this can make for a pretty tense time and frankly, tension and stress is the last thing I currently need while playing a video game.


Really fun to play with beautiful illustrations and great characters, but also pretty stress-inducing because of the gameplay always being on a timer in true cooking competition fashion.