Cooking Companions Review (Coco Banana 0 Sugar)
I WANT The CABBAGE Plushie!
The game ingredients are mystery, cute horror, psychological, comedy and a hint of RPG and hidden object. My prepping time for the game (including) achievements is 8 hours. Disclaimer for gamers who does not like disturbing content like cannibalism, child abuse and horror. This game can be very creepy and unsettling.
Story: Toasty and Yummy
The story is very mysterious and I feel like I still don't understand much in the game storyline. it requires a lot of symbolism analysis and thinking to understand it. I think the story could be inspired by the Butcher of Niebuszewo, Poland, who was a serial killer active in the 1800's. The game starts with no major introduction on what's happening and you were just thrown to the pan to be burned ravenously with the presented handful of characters. You are in a group gang with some interesting characters who are trying to survive a flood. Your role is to be the chef and do food inventory management, but what happens when you become unsucessful in the task? The story is presented with a handful of food jokes and puns with an unsettling recollection of accounts into human psyche as well. The story also has many different sectioned playthroughs which are enjoyable.
Characters: Cuties
The dev tells in a titbit that the chompettes become more famous than the human characters in the game. I loved them honestly, and I have a personal favorite. There are secret characters who are food items and human characters with different personalities: Karin the sadistic, a harry potter inspired nerdy character, a strong sweet Ukranian woman who does not like meat and the big guy who is probably a soft lumber jack. The characterization is epic and you do realize that you yourself is the biggest mystery. You also look into all of the characters development and their trauma,psyche.
Gameplay: UNIQUE
As a hardcore VN player I feel like the gameplay is interesting. I liked that choosing options multiple times gave different dialogues. Devs went all out here and I appreciate that. There were several small hidden object scenes and a final RPG boss battle with an interesting twist. There was a nice CG gallery section and i do wish that there were more extras to explore. Gameplay was overall smooth and fast, bugs free and easy to navigate.
Art and Music
I loved the character designs and art, so polished and defnitely the music made you look away from the screen. The chompette designs were so adorable and cute, the voice overs were so very well done for them and super cutie. If you stay long at the title screen you can get another small easter egg :)
Achievements
Achievements are well, there are 80 achievements but don't worry they are not hard, some were difficult but it was not impossible. Did have trouble getting to the very secret routes but there are nice steam guides available just for this purpose.
Overall
A definite must play for horror gamers who like reading and who like anime. It's a well developed mystery and it deserves the reputation it has already accumulated to be honest. Looking forward to the sequel "Dread Weight" by the devs coming somewhere in July if i am correct. To the devs: please make a merch store so I can buy my plushies.