writing/dialogue is very funny and engaging. the movement and gameplay is pretty alright, and i appreciate the ability to put different weapons in each hand which allows for some experimentation in how you play. however, the one thing really holding this game back for me is the inability to change the difficulty after you start playing. i picked hard at the start because im generally competent with these kinds of games, and the game started off easy but progressively got harder until the enemies and bosses were getting frustrating. i wanted to switch to a lower difficulty but couldnt without starting a new game and didnt feel like replaying the several hours i had already put in. a good game but with one fatal flaw... i dont think it warns you about it when you pick a difficulty but hopefully they will change that. will pick up again at a later point to replay on normal.

Playing this game made me feel like a fucking crazy person. Zombie working as a Chef Spirit's apprentice? That premise is right up my alley, but all the positive praise I've seen makes me feel like I played a completely different title.

LIGHT Spoilers

I am genuinely struggling how to properly convey my feelings on this title as I just finished earning the platinum and I just feel off about the whole thing. My brain wants me to rate it even lower but I have to give credit to a stellar idea and some impressive sprite work from many of the enemies. I would say most of the enemies are excellent from a visual design perspective. Because of all of this I did start the opening section pretty positive. It really wasn't until I made it through the games first chapter that everything started to fall apart.

I just hated everything else about this game. I hate its characters and boring presentation. I found its story muddled like a coffee shop script writer struggling to cut any bad ideas from the final product. It feels like they had three ideas for different games but since they only could make the one title they put their favorite ideas from all three. The tones don't match and it all feels like it would be a contender on a "worst of the year" anime top 10.

I found its combat and builds under baked as the screen filling attacks from most enemies push you into a box of just making a screen clear build to progress. The controls and player movement just don't feel right with a controller. I never was pushed to be creative with my meal combos. I found one thing that worked and it got me all the way to the end on the hardest difficulty. When I switched things up it just didn't feel effective. Some of these issues may be mute if playing on keyboard and mouse, but that doesn't stop the game from feeling too limited while trying to simultaneously offer so many choices.

I found the music range from decent to pretty forgettable. I actually can't speak on most of the OST as after the first chapter ended I put on my own playlist of fitting anime music.

That is kind of it. It's level design is mostly linear. It's ending kind of just happens and its over. Got my platinum trophy and everything. This game is at its best when it is doing the cooking thing and its enemies encouraged experimentation. The moment it switches lanes to its hi-sci-fi screen filling attacks I was out.

Honestly, take my words with a bit of salt as I am 100% an outlier here. At the time of writing I am the only person on this site to rate it a 1.5 and the game currently has 5,662 reviews Overwhelmingly positive on Steam. Trust me I wish I was one of those people.

You know how even at the best restaurant sometimes a bad meal sneaks by and gives a patron food poisoning? I'm that patron, and after this experience I won't be returning for seconds.

"Anyone can cook" may be the big line from Ratatouille, but it fits just as well here. Even though she and everyone she knows is too dead to taste food, necromancer/chef Simmer still holds on to her passion thanks to the sheer intrinsic joy of expression and experimentation. What Dungeon Munchies does best is allow the player to share in that joy - although what you'll be cooking up is character builds.

Dungeon Munchies doesn't have stats or simple vertical progression. Instead, your build is determined entirely by your gear: two weapons, and seven dishes that grant unique buffs. This makes trying out new playstyles dead easy: have you been using spears but want to try out that new recipe that buffs magic? Just regurgitate your current build at the next checkpoint and have a new one ready in seconds! It's a great system that cuts a lot of the fat from RPGs while maintaining the fun factor. I was pleasantly surprised to find almost no grind in the game at all - you don't even spend ingredients to craft things! This does change later, when you gain the ability to upgrade dish effects, but even then I never felt like I needed to grind to keep up.

I was also pleasantly surprised by the narrative. The game keeps a tight focus on a small set of characters, and what seem at first like bit-parts will stick around and justify doing so. The cast members have clear history and relationships with each other that elevate them beyond the game's surreal and shitposty tone.

The pacing does fall off in the last act, as you're yanked away from the final boss to rehash some themes and wrap up a silly side-plot. By that point I had already found a build that trivialized most of the game, so there weren't many places to go mechanically either. Still, though, I'm quite glad I played this, and it's an easy recommendation to anyone interested.

A weird ass game with SOUL.

Terraria-ish combat with a lot of build variety by equipping food items. Mostly linear with a little bit of side paths for extra recipes. The story is... much more than you expect from the game, and from the first few hours.

What starts as a truly bizarre game about celebrating cooking and eating things that were all alive, including plants, quickly becomes an existential dread simulator featuring body horror. To say the game undergoes a tone shift isn't quite accurate. It's more like a tone catapult.

The writing can sometimes be a bit too corny as characters will talk at length about >THEMES OF THE GAME<, but it's heartfelt and the characters have great chemistry with each other. The comedy has a lot of good usage of art assets, too. It's a fun, rather breezy ride.

I do think there's more design than what meets the eye in the bosses and platforming, but the player becomes so horrifyingly strong, and easily, that even on master chef it feels like the game falls over without too much issue, the bosses largely because of one food item that lets you delete projectiles via dashing, and the platforming because the obstacles simply aren't threatening enough.

Either way, a fun romp with fun characters and it has Simmer, so 10/10.