It's an honest-to-Gygax RPG with classes, stats, XP, levels, skill points, and of course exploration and quests! a life sim with some RPG elements. And you don't have to fight any monsters! I'm I was SO excited I already had a bunch of new character concepts before finishing chapter 1. I'm not super into cooking games, but the story is surprisingly fleshed out and I wanted to develop my down to earth forager and gardener with a simple but cozy restaurant, then a botanist-turned-chef with maxed out research facilities, a hipster who wants to become famous with their teahouse...

*UPDATE: I found out that lots of people are very unhappy with having to do several playthroughs to experience all the skills and mechanics the game has, and I am certified "not normal" for liking the concept (which for me is essential to RPGs).
So FYI, I expect the devs the devs have started to cave in and make the game more like yet another regular life sim instead of creating more distinct classes etc. that I would have loved to see. So my excitement for the future of this game is crushed, but I guess for 99% of you reading this it's a plus.

You'd never guess it from the store page, but hunting and fishing are absolutely optional. The devs said you can keep your restaurant completely vegan, and so far that's been a viable option although your recipe selection is obviously more limited.

It's EA for a reason - there are still lots of issues. I honestly don't believe they did a playtest at all, beyond maybe two of their friends or something. A lot of features are difficult to figure out, the cooking minigames are pretty challenging and annoying and the auto-cook option requires you to have mastered them first, and obviously there are bugs. Looks like they are working on things at lightning speed now at least.
The one thing that bothered me and is not so likely to get fixed is that a lot of NPCs are really rude, at least in the beginning. That's very common in "cozy" games though for some reason. You also see flashbacks of verbal abuse by a former boss.

Generally though, I've been having a blast already. I'll probably update this review when I've played more.

UPDATE: Finished Act 3 (which is as far as the main story goes right now), was going to grind to the current max level of 40 but gave up at 38 to start a new character which I'd been looking forward to.
I love the idea that you can customise your playthrough and play a distinct character with the skill "tree", and I hope they're going to lean more into that. The game does expect you to go for large restaurants, which wasn't what I felt like, but it shouldn't have surprised me as the store description says "grow your culinary empire" XD
They doubled down on the non-cozy dialogues. Act 3 involves multiple threats of physical violence and a rather clumsy and cliché gangster story.
I loved the concept enough to put up with those things and mostly enjoyed the game already. Let's see where it goes after some more... time in the oven (:

* * *

If you like chill and story-driven games, check out my curator Peaceful Adventures and Stories. You're also welcome to join the group.

It's [strike]an honest-to-Gygax RPG with classes, stats, XP, levels, skill points, and of course exploration and quests![/strike] a life sim with some RPG elements. And you don't have to fight any monsters! [strike]I'm[/strike] I was SO excited I already had a bunch of new character concepts before finishing chapter 1. I'm not super into cooking games, but the story is surprisingly fleshed out and I wanted to develop my down to earth forager and gardener with a simple but cozy restaurant, then a botanist-turned-chef with maxed out research facilities, a hipster who wants to become famous with their teahouse... [i][b]*UPDATE:[/b] I found out that lots of people are very unhappy with having to do several playthroughs to experience all the skills and mechanics the game has, and I am certified "not normal" for liking the concept (which for me is essential to RPGs). So FYI, [strike]I expect the devs[/strike] the devs have started to cave in and make the game more like yet another regular life sim instead of creating more distinct classes etc. that I would have loved to see. So my excitement for the future of this game is crushed, but I guess for 99% of you reading this it's a plus. [/i] You'd never guess it from the store page, but hunting and fishing are absolutely optional. The devs said you can keep your restaurant completely vegan, and so far that's been a viable option although your recipe selection is obviously more limited. It's EA for a reason - there are still lots of issues. I honestly don't believe they did a playtest at all, beyond maybe two of their friends or something. A lot of features are difficult to figure out, the cooking minigames are pretty challenging and annoying and the auto-cook option requires you to have mastered them first, and obviously there are bugs. Looks like they are working on things at lightning speed now at least. The one thing that bothered me and is not so likely to get fixed is that a lot of NPCs are really rude, at least in the beginning. That's very common in "cozy" games though for some reason. You also see flashbacks of [spoiler]verbal abuse by a former boss[/spoiler]. Generally though, I've been having a blast already. I'll probably update this review when I've played more. UPDATE: Finished Act 3 (which is as far as the main story goes right now), was going to grind to the current max level of 40 but gave up at 38 to start a new character which I'd been looking forward to. I love the idea that you can customise your playthrough and play a distinct character with the skill "tree", [strike]and I hope they're going to lean more into that[/strike]. The game does expect you to go for large restaurants, which wasn't what I felt like, but it shouldn't have surprised me as the store description says "grow your culinary empire" XD They doubled down on the non-cozy dialogues. Act 3 involves multiple threats of physical violence and [spoiler]a rather clumsy and cliché gangster story[/spoiler]. I loved the concept enough to put up with those things and mostly enjoyed the game already. [strike]Let's see where it goes after some more... time in the oven (: [/strike] * * * If you like chill and story-driven games, check out my curator [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/35872486]Peaceful Adventures and Stories[/url]. You're also welcome to join the [url=https://steamcommunity.com/groups/chilladventures]group[/url].