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Zelda meets colouring books - What's not to love? Well, a few things, but it's still a darn good experience!
Starting with the obvious, Chicory is a beautifully illustrated game where you as the player have the privilege of adding dashes of colour. At first, the limited colour palette felt like a bit of a limiting factor, but upon realising that different zones used a different 4 colour palette, it just made so much sense: In a similar fashion to how old school RPGs have zones with different palettes, so does Chicory, which leaves each area you colour in its own unique vibe - Fantastic! Add to that collectable brush patterns, shapes, and a custom brush colour generator later in the game, the potential to put together something unique is near limitless. Add to that collectible cosmetics, trash, & furniture, & you have yourself a game you can get lost in for hours.
From a gameplay POV, the story does a great job of developing your toolbox naturally, without giving you too much to worry about in terms of getting lost. The puzzles are engaging without being over the top, & if you do ever find yourself struggling, this game has perhaps the best tips/guide function built in! Feeling lost? Just call mom for advice, who'll then offer to put dad on the phone if you're really stuck. It's charming interactions like that which further elevate Chicory, & you can find them all over the game.
However, the gameplay isn't always perfect. Clicking on the right thing to colour it is surprisingly clunky at times, & after a few hours or so of playing, I came to the conclusion that the best way to play the game was with a mouse & an Xbox controller... Maybe a Steam Controller/Deck if you have one? Either way, I found myself frustrated at several points throughout due to my inability to get a hover over a tree trunk I was trying to paint, which led to me just giving up on certain screens.
The characters are... It's a mixed bag. There's plenty of fun interactions to be had, & the game has some genuinely funny moments, but it also goes heavier at times with rather mixed success. The "depressive artist" feels a perhaps a tad overplayed at this point, & I can't help but feel that other games have done it better, or maybe it just hits too close to home - It's probably a case of all three. So while I can definitely appreciate what it's trying to achieve, I'm certainly not able to give it full marks for its portrayal, though part of that is surely down to me.
Lena Raine is a genius, & her musical contribution to Chicory definitely kept me playing a little bit longer than I'd planned to on a few occasions. Taking a few moments away from the story to just relax & colour in some trees with her work in the background justifies the price of the game alone, & part of me thinks they only added boss battles so they could get her to write boss music for them!
Oh, right, there's boss battles... They're fine, I suppose. The gameplay isn't all that interesting during them, & I believe there's an accessibility option to disable them entirely (as well as ones to give you extra health, damage, etc), but they're worth experiencing for the music & visual spectacle alone.
Overall, it's a charming game which misses the mark on a few things, but absolutely nails the bullseye with pretty much everything else it's going for. A fun world to colour & explore, a beautiful OST to keep you going, and very natural character growth throughout make Chicory a very good game for folks of all ages. It took me around 12 hours to finish the story & get to 85% completion, & I'm definitely going to double that going back to paint & collect to the chill vibes on offer.