{"id":18260,"date":"2018-09-14T00:01:35","date_gmt":"2018-09-14T00:01:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/?p=18260"},"modified":"2018-09-11T02:00:38","modified_gmt":"2018-09-11T02:00:38","slug":"battle-chef-brigade-deluxe-ps4-switch-pc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/2018\/09\/14\/battle-chef-brigade-deluxe-ps4-switch-pc\/","title":{"rendered":"Battle Chef Brigade Deluxe (PS4, Switch, PC)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Mina Han is a young woman who lives in a fantasy world full of orcs, dwarves, and monsters.\u00a0 She also works at her parents\u2019 restaurant, but desires to enlist in the Battle Chef Brigade: an army of chefs who fight monsters and then cook them.\u00a0 So she runs away from home to participate in a big cooking competition so she can join the brigade.\u00a0 In this game you play as Mina in a unique mix of 2-D hack and slash and match three puzzle solving.\u00a0 It\u2019s available for PS4, Switch, and PC, but reviewed on Switch here.\u00a0 Since I didn\u2019t review the original release of the game, I\u2019m also not sure what was added for this Deluxe version.<\/p>\n

The main mode of the game has two parts.\u00a0 The first is the 2-D hack and slash areas.\u00a0 Here you fight monsters with gameplay that reminds me of titles like Odin Sphere.\u00a0 Once you defeat a monster, they\u2019ll drop an ingredient that you can use to cook with.\u00a0 Once you have enough ingredients, you can run back to the kitchen for the second part of the game: puzzles!<\/p>\n

In the kitchen, the ingredients are represented by colored gems arranged in different patterns.\u00a0 Drop them into the pot, and \u2018stir\u2019 them by rotating them with the right stick.\u00a0 When three match up, they\u2019ll merge into one more powerful gem that\u2019ll earn you more points.\u00a0 Once you\u2019ve matched up all you can, you go back outside to fight more monsters, get more ingredients, and repeat the process.<\/p>\n

These hack and slash\/puzzle challenges are wrapped up in an Iron Chef style competition.\u00a0 You have to make a dish for one or several judges, and are competing with another character.\u00a0 Whoever makes dishes with the highest score wins.\u00a0 Some judges like it if you prepare food using certain colored gems, and just like many Food Network shows, there is always a certain ingredient that you have to work with.\u00a0 Every battle introduces something new, like more challenging monsters to fight, bones that get in the way of puzzles, poison gems, sauces that change the gems\u2019 colors, and much more!\u00a0 You have a time limit to fight monsters and prepare food, and must serve your dishes before the clock runs out to qualify.\u00a0 Whoever has the highest score, wins.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

All this is wrapped around a story mode where you can walk around a small town between battles.\u00a0 You can talk to other people, and play mini games that can hone your puzzle and hunting skills as well as earn some extra coin.\u00a0 Spend your money at the shop where you buy new fighting skills, pots that give certain gems bonuses when you cook in them, and much more.\u00a0 Once you beat the game, you can even play it again as another character!\u00a0 Aside from the story, you can also try daily competitions and challenges with special rules.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the game has a few problems.\u00a0 There is no way to know what ingredients you\u2019ll need to focus on in the next battle, so it\u2019s nearly impossible to strategize what items you need to bring.\u00a0 It\u2019s all trial and error.\u00a0 And the time limits seems a bit too short.\u00a0 I know they were trying to maintain the frantic feel of the Iron Chef shows, but it gets in the way of the fun.\u00a0 Plus the game gets a bit repetitive, too.\u00a0 It\u2019s a shame because the rest of the experience is top notch, with likable characters, graphics that look like a manga comic book come to life, amazing voice acting, and unique gameplay ideas.\u00a0 It\u2019s worth checking out, but don\u2019t be surprised if you don\u2019t want to come back for seconds.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Kid Factor:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Battle Chef Brigade Deluxe is rated E-10 with ESRB descriptors of Alcohol & Tobacco Reference, and Fantasy Violence.\u00a0 Some of the characters do drink and smoke, and you can hit monsters with weapons and magic, but they just disappear and turn into food ingredients when you defeat them.\u00a0 I\u2019d say the game is best enjoyed by older kids since reading skill is required and there is a bit of a challenge to be had here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mina Han is a young woman who lives in a fantasy world full of orcs, dwarves, and monsters.\u00a0 She also works at her parents\u2019 restaurant, but desires to enlist in the Battle Chef Brigade: an army of chefs who fight monsters and then cook them.\u00a0 So she runs away from home to participate in a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":18248,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-game-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18260"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18260\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18262,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18260\/revisions\/18262"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}