⏱️ Length
◎ (0) No story
◎ For a Sunday afternoon
◎ Short
► Average
◎ Long
◎ Very long
◎ To infinity and beyond

📖 Story
◎ There's no story
► Basic context to set the world/universe/goal
◎ It's there for people who want it
◎ Well written
◎ Leading to more in-depth researches/thoughts
◎ A model to get inspired by

🎵 Music
◎ Transcending whispers of a forgotten world
◎ Memorable
► Good and/or fitting the game's artistic ambiance/style
◎ OK
◎ Just filling noises/no music

🏞️ Graphics/Art Direction
◎ MS Paint
◎ Bad
◎ Meh
► Normal
◎ Very Good
► Original artistic direction
◎ Beautiful
◎ Masterpiece

🤯 Difficulty
◎ My grandma could play it
► Easy
► Normal
◎ Hard
◎ Difficulty spike out of nowhere
◎ A challenge to be reckoned


💭 Expectations
◎ Masterpiece, no patch or feature has to be added
◎ Better than expected
► Matches the steam page description
► Not entirely what I expected from promotional contents
◎ A scam, it's a completely different game

🤩 Enjoyment
◎ You will remember it long after
◎ Sticking out of the pack
◎ A good moment
► Repetitive and/or uninspired
◎ Hard to enjoy
◎ I would rather watch paint dry

🦫 Grind/Repetitiveness
◎ (Almost) No grind
◎ (Almost) No repetitiveness
◎ Well to perfectly balanced
◎ It's part of the charm of the game
► Watch YouTube on the side
► Groundhog day

🔄 Replayability
◎ A one-time experience
◎ For achievements
► Limited
◎ Definitely
◎ Infinitely replayable


🎮 Steam Deck
◎ Runs perfectly right off the bat, no tinkering
► Just some annoying stuff, maybe some tinkering
◎ OK-ish experience, average tinkering
◎ Lots of tinkering for not much results
◎ Spent more time trying and make it work than playing with it
◎ Valve logo on a black screen

🐞 Bugs
► Never heard of
◎ Minor bugs
◎ Can get annoying
◎ Impacts the player's experience badly
◎ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs

⚙️ Requirements
◎ You can run it on a microwave
► Low
► Steam Deck
◎ Average
◎ High
◎ NASA computer


💶 MSRP
◎ Free
◎ Underpriced
◎ Perfect Price
► Could be cheaper
◎ Overpriced
◎ Complete waste of money

🛒 Worth Buying?
◎ Yes
◎ Wait for a sale
► Wait for the lowest price
◎ If you have nothing else to play
◎ No


5/10 ★★★★★☆☆☆☆☆

review

The core gameplay loop is fun and varied enough with different weapon and element builds. Hunt monster, serve monster, make money, upgrade restaurant, sleep, repeat. The art and characters are adorable. There are some funny moments, but overall the dialogue itself is generic and forgettable. The dungeons and bosses can be pretty difficult until you craft a synergistic weapon and armor set, particularly regarding attacks that feel impossible to dodge at times, but there are multiple easy mode options for reducing damage that don't affect achievements if you have trouble with the default. My main annoyance or dislike is how long it takes to craft/upgrade gear. You're only able to mod and upgrade one item per day and have to leave them with the crafter for the rest of the day, combined with them not working 1/5th of the days. Granted, there is no downside to skipping days, so when I finally decided to put up with the tedium to grind out a set with perfect skills for the final bosses, I just had to sleep for a few weeks and save scum when I didn't get the mods I wanted. Overall I'd give Cuisineer a 7 out of 10.