Pom, a young adventurer, returns to her hometown to take over her parents' restaurant (and debt) in this unique dungeon crawler/restaurant sim with absolutely stunning art. I found it entertaining and recommend it... with caveats.

Gameplay is simple and repetitive: you enter dungeons with your trusty spatula and thwack monsters for ingredients, then use those ingredients to stock the kitchen at Potato Palace.

The roguelite elements are better fleshed out than the restaurant aspects: the various monsters attack and behave differently, so you need to exercise some strategy rather than button-mash. Your weapons all operate the same way but at different speeds (a Hades successor, this is not), and you progress by upgrading your gear rather than by developing skills/abilities.

When the restaurant is open, you cook by activating the correct workstation and then you cash customers out; everything else is automated, and there's no real… sense of cooking or management. Honestly, it's mostly tedious, but it may be stressful if you don't like order management or the occasional upset customer.

So this isn't a great dungeon crawler or a great restaurant sim, but it is absolutely gorgeous. The anime characters are cute and colorful; the dungeon and town are beautiful; and then there's the food. You unlock noodles right off the bat; I took one look at the art and ate homemade ramen for the next week.

I'm ~10 hours into my current save, close to the next story act -- and am kind of bored. I do want to see more of this world and Pom's (admittedly minimal) story, and I genuinely think this is a fantastic game (especially on sale) but - as an avid fan of restaurant management - running the Potato Palace is so mundane that it feels like a chore.

I plan to come back to this someday and see it through to the end, but in the meantime:

I recommend this if you enjoy Cult of the Lamb or if you're a cozy gamer interested in dabbling in roguelites or restaurant sims. It's not particularly crunchy or deep, but I've had a lot of fun with it so far.

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Pom, a young adventurer, returns to her hometown to take over her parents' restaurant (and debt) in this unique dungeon crawler/restaurant sim with absolutely stunning art. I found it entertaining and recommend it... with caveats. [h3]Gameplay[/h3] Gameplay is simple and repetitive: you enter dungeons with your trusty spatula and thwack monsters for ingredients, then use those ingredients to stock the kitchen at Potato Palace. The roguelite elements are better fleshed out than the restaurant aspects: the various monsters attack and behave differently, so you need to exercise some strategy rather than button-mash. Your weapons all operate the same way but at different speeds (a [i]Hades[/i] successor, this is not), and you progress by upgrading your gear rather than by developing skills/abilities. When the restaurant is open, you cook by activating the correct workstation and then you cash customers out; everything else is automated, and there's no real… sense of cooking or management. Honestly, it's mostly tedious, but it may be stressful if you don't like order management or the occasional upset customer. [h3]Review[/h3] So this isn't a great dungeon crawler or a great restaurant sim, but it [i]is[/i] absolutely gorgeous. The anime characters are cute and colorful; the dungeon and town are beautiful; and then there's the [i]food[/i]. You unlock noodles right off the bat; I took one look at the art and ate homemade ramen for the next week. I'm ~10 hours into my current save, close to the next story act -- and am kind of bored. I do want to see more of this world and Pom's (admittedly minimal) story, and I genuinely think this is a fantastic game (especially on sale) but - as an avid fan of restaurant management - running the Potato Palace is so mundane that it feels like a chore. I plan to come back to this someday and see it through to the end, but in the meantime: [h3]Recommendation[/h3] I recommend this if you enjoy [i]Cult of the Lamb[/i] or if you're a cozy gamer interested in dabbling in roguelites or restaurant sims. It's not particularly crunchy or deep, but I've had a lot of fun with it so far. [quote][b]Follow [u][url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/45365863/]Eekz Today[/url][/u] for more crafting, life sim, management, puzzle, and story-rich recommendations.[/b][/quote]