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Cuisineer (Switch) – Review

If you’re looking for a cozy game in which you get to run your own restaurant on one side and explore dungeons to collect ingredients on the other side then Cuisineer is the perfect choice for you. Cuisineer combines two genres that contradict each other. First of all, it’s a cozy game in which you manage the Potato Palace, a family restaurant. However, to cook meals to serve in your restaurant you need to collect ingredients and those can be found while exploring certain dungeons. This is where the second aspect of Cuisineer comes in. It’s also a dungeon crawler. Story The story of Cuisineer is quite simple and straightforward. You play as Pom and Pom returns to her hometown, Paell, after a long time of adventuring. In Paell, Pom finds out her parents have left to travel the world. They left Pom not only the family restaurant but also an enormous debt to pay off. Now it’s up to Pom to bring the Potato Palace back to its former glory and pay off that debt. Fortunately, she doesn’t have to do this all by herself. She gets help from her friends and fellow Paell residents. Yet, she ends up being the only staff working in the restaurant which means Pom needs to balance managing the place, gathering ingredients outside of Paell, and helping out citizens all by herself. The setting of this story is charming, but there’s little depth to it as no real storyline develops. Yet, Cuisineer might feel a bit overwhelming at first as you get thrown into the game with little to no explanation about the story and about which controls to use.   Graphics There are two keywords to describe the visuals of Cuisineer: colorful and magical. The town of Paell alone is a great example here: it’s a vibrant town full of unique residents. This brings us to the game’s greatest charm – the citizens of Paell. The characters’ designs are amazing and they look like they’ve been taken straight out of a manga or anime. Each resident personifies an animal. For instance, Pom personifies a cat as she has a tail and cat ears. Paell’s residents are so diverse and that’s what makes the game so magical. Even when you’re talking to the residents of Paell, you get a sense of comfort and it’s a pleasure to help them with their tasks. After a while, these side quests become repetitive but the feeling the characters radiate makes up for it. Sound The music of Cuisineer is another of its charms. The soundtracks make you feel like you’re sipping a drink in some kind of fantasy-like tavern or like you’re wandering through a magical forest. From the moment the title screen appears with its accompanying tunes, it’s hard not to start humming along. This really adds to the magical atmosphere of Cuisineer.  Gameplay In Cuisineer you need to manage the Potato Palace as Pom and gather ingredients while exploring dungeons. The gameplay for both parts of the game runs really well. Let’s get into the restaurant part first. When you open your restaurant for the day, you have to cook the food, sometimes serve your customers if they don’t pick their order up at the counter, and collect the money afterward. At the start of the game, you can only seat one or two guests as your restaurant isn’t big enough to receive more customers. The more guests you can receive, the more hectic this part of the game becomes which provides quite the challenge, especially during rush hour. However, it can become quite stressful. Yet, this is the way to make money in the game and you need that money to improve your restaurant to earn even more money.  You start off with basic equipment but everything can be upgraded. Additionally, you can also buy furniture to brighten up your restaurant. Here comes another fun feature of the game: you can decorate the restaurant as you please. However, both furniture and upgrades will cost you money and materials which you can gather in the dungeons. The only con here is that the guests who visit your restaurants aren’t the actual residents of Paell which makes serving customers quite impersonal. Cuisineer includes certain side quests as well. These are tasks given by Paell’s residents and most of them are fetch quests. In return for giving the residents what they need, you mostly unlock a new recipe. These side quests get repetitive after a while but obtaining those new recipes makes it totally worth your time.  The dungeon-crawling part of the game will see Pom venture outside of Paell to a variety of dungeons, each with a different set of enemies. Those enemies all drop different ingredients that can be used in your restaurant. The combat is straightforward and fast-paced which makes exploring the dungeons very enjoyable.  The biggest issue in Cuisineer is the load time between screens which is way too long. This problem mainly occurs when you move your character from outside to inside the restaurant and then into her room or the other way around. Every time you travel to another room or location, the load screen pops up and takes quite a while which might get frustrating.  Conclusion Despite its flaws, Cuisineer is a great game to play after a long day. It has a magical vibe to it and is both calming and exciting. Managing the restaurant and exploring the dungeons will have you hooked for hours. Being the only staff member in the restaurant can be stressful, and loading screens take a bit long, but Cuisineer makes up for this with its stunning visuals, magical atmosphere, colorful environments, and good soundtrack. It might just be the ideal mix of cozy gaming and action-packed dungeon-crawling.