Beastro

The deckbuilding was confusing at first but I’ve come around and learned to love it, plus the aesthetic is gorgeous and the characters are awesome. The cooking mini games are so fun, I wish there were more! I wish the frog guy was also playable lol.

Such a cute game, oh my gosh. The creature and character designs were absolutely stellar and I got a good 18 hours of play time out of it while taking my time and enjoying the gameplay. Definitely recommend, super fun!

Excellent flavor, but the texture leaves a bit to be desired, and I came out hungry for more. I love a lot about this game. I love the vibes. I love the character designs. I love the concept. I think this game has an absolute ton of room to grow and, if a sequel or expansion was announced, I would watch it with great interest. I found the gameplay loop pretty compelling, but with a few pain points. The town of Palo Pori is beautiful to look at and the many winding, interconnected pathways and verticality of the design make it feel satisfyingly spacious to explore. Unfortunately, the daily harvests will take you all throughout the town in a way that was *just* rewarding enough to keep me doing it every day, but also *just* annoying enough that by the end of the game I was sick of peeking into every corner to see if a Hammerbug or Grub spawned there, today. Eventually you can encounter a denizen in the wilds who will move into town and harvest everything for you for what will be, at that point, a small fee... but I did not manage to get him into town until literally the day before I went after the final boss, so I was quite gassed by the end of things. If the game had gone on even just a bit longer than it did, this complaint would have honestly disappeared for me. Alas, both the town's mine and the denizen in question became available just a *bit* too late to soften things, in my opinion. The denizens themselves all have very striking designs, and I enjoyed the personalities of everyone I got to talk to. (Sorry Salty and Sour dudes, you just arrived too late into the game for me to really get to know you.) If I had anything I wish were different it would be that the background NPCs were a bit more interesting. Palo Pori is supposed to be a town of master crafters, and I wish there were more unique NPCs with names, personalities and jobs, to come into my restaurant and enjoy the food. I don't need them to operate shops that offer services to the player, I just really like recognizing customers. I wanna make it clear, though, that this is a small quibble. In the end, I greatly enjoyed all the named characters in the game, and the overall writing was pretty good. The various minigames were all at least serviceable. Clammers was a fun little distraction; not particularly compelling but I enjoyed its inclusion. The fishing system is a bit simplistic, but I think if it was made any more complex, it would probably drag things out a bit so I am fine with it being what it is. The various harvesting minigames during the ventures have wonderful, flavorful art and, I think, are the perfect pace for the flow of the ventures. The core cooking minigames are, at their base, all very solid and fairly fun. As you upgrade your various cooking stations, however, you will sometimes find more complex variants of the minigames presented to you. When these variants happen seemed mostly random to me, and they could be *much* more difficult than the core minigames, without any obvious way to either avoid or practice them. I really woulda loved the option to practice these minigames on-demand! Progression within the town and restaurant side of the game I found to be very solid. You will be getting money in at a decent rate, and I found the rate at which your income increased to be very satisfyingly paced. I do wish the town mine opened up a bit sooner, as I found myself a bit starved for Iron, and eventually wrote off upgrading the 5th cooking station entirely. I loved bringing in new critters and new people into the town, and seeing new shops opening up was always a visual delight. I also wanna emphasize the animal designs! Every single animal design in this game is wonderful. I love the doofy-looking Delishkens, the Kaoos are cute (and I love the silly lore that they canonically do all the work of bottling their own milk :p), the marshland critters are lovely, the desert critters are just... ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ adorable (the way they sleep!!!) and the salty critters are both very cute and were a well-timed upgrade for me. This, I think, brings us to the final third of the game. The ventures. I have only a singular complaint about the ventures, and it is that if you get unlucky with encounters or don't go out of your way to track down every ingredient in an area, it can be a bit annoying to assemble some of the ingredients you need to progress. If there were a hint system in place of where to look on the ventures to find any missing ingredients, all of my complaints here would disappear. I find the assembling of meals for the Caretakers to be an *extremely* satisfying puzzle, and I loved trying to assemble highly efficient decks for them. I think the core gameplay of the ventures is extremely solid. In particular, I really like how the stamina system interacts with the discard/fill hand system, the risk-reward interplay there, and just... man. It's so good. I love it. The puppet-show aesthetic has such wonderful vibes, and it adds so much ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ charm to everything. Calling back to what I said about the critters in town, earlier, I do not think there is a single enemy design in the game that was a miss. They all have very cool designs, with fun little animations and details that just show so much love was put into them. I especially enjoy, when they are defeated, having unique cute little cartoon ghost versions of themselves to show they've been beaten. Absolutely no notes on the core design of the ventures. I just wish we got a couple more of them, and a couple more playable characters to go on them with! Overall, I am happy to have played this game. It hit a lot of very specific niches that I enjoyed, but has some pain points that would make me hesitate to recommend it to everyone. If you saw the game and loved the art style and the vibe, I would say to go for it, but maybe wait for a sale. I paid $15 for this game and I do not regret the purchase. I think the game aimed to combine two fun gameplay systems, only really nailed one, and yet... I just want more. I saw the answers to many of my biggest pain points materialize just minutes before I fought the final boss. I was happy with my meal at the Beastro, but one more course would have really made it one to savor.

This game is a perfect blend of chilling during the day and battle by night where you do get to use your brain. it has lovely graphics and i love that the battles are displayed as a puppet show. I wish there was less variety in one pond/circle when fishing but my only complaint really is i wish it is longer!

The routine of this game's 3 phases of gameplay is a great way to reach a bit of a zen state after a long day. I think each phase is full of just enough mechanics to make them all interesting to go through, but if you play too long of a session the ingredient-gathering can get a little repetitive. I usually only play for an in-game day or two at a time to avoid any of that though. As a tip for some of the mini-games, make sure to check if it has both a timer and a maximum number of attempts; I've had a few times where I've focused so much on the timer that I didn't realize I was wasting all of my shots on misses. Story-wise, there are great hooks for both the ongoing story, and the setting's history. The fact that one of the first lines of dialogue implied that someone's actions lead to the loss of a whole flavor got me invested in figuring out what was up with that, and the character as well. The majority of plot progressions comes out at well-paced times across the progression through the combat parts of the game, though that can cause an issue if you get a bit stuck on a boss for a while due to your meal prep not covering everything you'd need for them. All-in-all a fun experience, especially for those that enjoy cooking games and bringing people together through meals.

Beastro is a delightful genre fusion of cozy games, card games, roguelights and some light sim game elements. The world of Beastro has a magic system derived from the 6 flavors: Sweet, Spicy, Salty, Sour, Bitter, and Umami. Long ago a remnant gate was opened and ravenous monsters poured into the realm. The guardian Flambe fought valiantly to close it but at a great cost. Recently another portal has opened and while Flambe tried to close it they found themselves to weak and decided to retreat to far away village of Palo Pori. As the game opens you assume the role of Panko, a sous chef in Palo Pori, who is thrust into a greater world after the guardian Flambe collapses near their garden; recently the head chef at Panko's restaurant goes missing and she must carry on running the business with help from Flambe. As you tend your garden, fish and gather ingredients to prepare at your restaurant Panko discovers that food she prepares with assistance of Flambe's flames imparts magic to the caretakers that are trying to close the remnants. The gameplay of Beastro involves three phases: Prep time, Reservations & Restaurant, and Ventures. Prep time is where Panko gets to engage in many of the cozy game elements like gardening, fishing, foraging and shopping for ingredients. These ingredients will later be used in the Reservations & Restaurant's phase to set a menu for your patrons. After engaging in some light cooking mini games and serving your patrons you will prepare a special meal for the caretake who has tonight's reservation. Each ingredient you place into their meal will become a card in their deck for the Venture phase of the game. The Venture phase takes place later at night after the restaurant has been cleaned and closed. You will go the community center and have the caretaker from tonight's reservation recant the story of their outing earlier that day. This is where the deck you crafted earlier will come into play as their is a perspective shift for the player that sees them guiding the caretaker through an overworld map. As you venture across the map you'll encounter ravenous monsters from other worlds. Combat is resolved through a trick taking game utilizing palette based magic system. Higher cards will when the trick and defeating these monsters let you harvest their parts for new ingredients. The better the ingredient the higher number that is associated with it for combat. The combat has nice nuances where players need to match or balance the monsters card that is played. Balancing cuts the monsters number value in two. Lastly, right before the combat resolves the player can discard complimentary flavors to boost the power of the number on the flavor card they played. It's not the deepest cards-as-combat system but it's little nuances give it enough staying power to carry you through this short games story. I found Beastro's story writing to be earnest and adequately entertaining and it's delightful blend of game mechanics carried me through the game's short run time.

I really liked this game! Beat it in about 18 hours and kinda wished it kept going with new regions to explore and new restaurants, but I also very much appreciate it for what it is and how much work went into creating it. It did get repetitive towards the end, but I actually quite enjoyed the day being broken up into 3 parts where you first forage/harvest, then you run the restaurant, and then deck-builder adventure at night. Putting together the meals for the denizens was one of my favorite parts - playing with the flavors to build a good card deck was fun! I also like how the game got easier on "the grind" parts as you went along...I'm guessing that was created so we could just enjoy the play elements of the game and not have to work so hard, haha! If you like light farming sims with harvesting and foraging, cooking games, deck builders, animals, and cute story lines - you'll likely enjoy this game.

I cannot overstate how much i loved this game, i put 20 hours into this game on stream from start to finish, every second of the journey i wanted more, the lore, the characters, the enemies, the cooking, the card combat... This game is an absolute masterpiece. I want more of it, i want to explore the other five realms, i want DLC, or a new game + The ending of this game made me genuinely cry happy tears.

Beastro is, overall, a short but fun game. Generally lasting somewhere between 8 to 24 hours (depending on how many sidequests you're doing, whether you're trying to 100%, and how good you are at deckbuilders), but having thought and love put into every detail, it is an enjoyable experience. The style is lovely, cooking and gathering are satisfying to do, and the combat is simple but unique. People who are experienced with deckbuilders may find the combat easy, but I find that the unique puppet visuals and combat method make it satisfying nonetheless. I should mention for everyone's sake that you cannot continue a save file after defeating the final boss. Similarly to some Zelda titles, once you win against the final boss, you can't play the game on that file anymore. I haven't reached this point yet myself, but I have seen other reviews that report this, and wanted to make sure I warned of this too. Back to the positives now. The characters are fleshed out, and the designs are fitting and fluid. Nothing feels forced, and the world feels alive. I like the story and the messages present throughout it. It is a game that makes you think about the importance of both caution and open-mindedness, as well as the topic of how and when one must atone for misdeeds. It's well made and makes you think about these nuanced topics that don't have one clear answer (among other topics, of course). I would 100% recommend this game to all those who love cozy titles, as it is ~10 hours of relaxing, cozy bliss. In short: Pros: - Aesthetically pleasing and soft style, easy on the eyes and yet filled with detail - Satisfying cooking, gathering, and fighting minigames/mechanics - Good story that runs deeper than anticipated and has a lot of substance - Love and thought put into the detail in every second - Achievements and sidequests that can give you a bit more playtime should you choose to complete them - No rush, time passes only when you decide it should (for example, by opening the restaurant or going to bed) - Little to no mandatory filler - Unique card battle method Cons: - Quite short, especially for a cozy game - Battles can be quite easy for experienced deckbuilders - Gaining money or resources can feel repetitive at times - Map layouts are not randomized, so going through previous areas can get old quickly

I enjoyed this game, it is nice introduction into this genre of game, i liked the story, the main casts and the village there are few things which i hope creators will see Kalan (the bitter one) ability is OP - allowing nearly infinite redraw until needed combination, so it is a bit cheesy having only Kalan during last episode is a bit.. weird, i would think we could pick anyone we enjoyed last zone was a bit unenjoyable - it was directly boss, would think there would be big gauntlet before that with more lore atleast some stuff didnt pop up nearly at all - for example Hoop fish or that lasture thingie - never used them, because there were way better stuff to use stackshrooms - i met poison ability only like three times through the whole game burning - changing of sweet ingredients to more powerful - it is interesting ability, but it never popped up - i think it is supposed to help with last fight, but kalan infinite redraw just solved that