Hey. It's been a while since I've done this, so I'm gonna ramble for a bit. Consider this a charming (if overly verbose and somewhat annoying) anecdote before the recipe and feel free to skim through until you start seeing some words that look vaguely like unbridled praise. The phrase you're looking for is "And then I played Chicory."

It's rare that a game comes along in someone's life that feels as if it was completely made for them. Three years ago, when I played Wandersong, I felt for the first time in my life that I had truly been seen. I felt as though the game itself had taken a peek inside of my soul and shown me parts even I had yet to discover. I felt a joy - a sheer, unadulterated, all-consuming happiness - that I truly believed could never be replicated or even approached.

Then the world kinda, sorta, maybe ended. Just a bit.

That's a bit dramatic considering I'm lucky enough to still be here, but 2019-2021 was nonetheless a pretty rough period for me (as I imagine it was for a lot of folks the world over). A lot has changed since then, both for me personally and for the world we all live in, and despite my generally optimistic outlook on life it's been admittedly difficult to resist growing just a little cynical and apathetic. Games became a passive hobby for me: more of a way to pass the time than a way to genuinely engage with art and entertainment media. I had begun to wonder if maybe games themselves had become jaded, an industry of profit rather than passion.

Of course, this was partially my fault. I'd devoted myself rather completely to live-service titles or otherwise endless games. Titles which could theoretically be played forever, but that you only really play until you realize it's more of a routine than a passtime. Whatever feelings of fun that once came with the game are long gone by the time you stop playing it. When you finally do close it for that last time, it's less of a fond farewell and more like dropping off a check to pay an overdue bill. I've been feeling this sort of way about games - a dispassionate melancholy, very rarely spiked with moments of long-gone wonder - for longer than I realized. I haven't even written (or even attempted to write) a review for anything in years now. The last time I did was for Wandersong, that joyful spark I was sure I would never feel again.

And then I played Chicory.

You know that scene in Ratatouille? THAT one? Of course you do. Chicory was my first bite of that humble, beautiful plate of ratatouille. Within minutes of beginning, I felt a rush of warmth and nostalgia like I had never thought existed. That feeling - that sheer, unadulterated, all-consuming happiness - did not fade for even one moment of my nearly forty hours with this game. Every single second of this game fills the very fibers of my being with the sense that I am home, where I truly belong.

The art direction is charming and endlessly inventive. The music is masterful, marvelous, and moving. The writing is clever, sincere, heart-warming, tragic, playful - fun. The gameplay constantly iterates on itself in ways which feel intuitive and ingenious at the same time. Chicory is exceptional in every sense of the word. There is not a single thing which it attempts that it does not earnestly succeed at with flying colors. I would say that the game's only flaw is that there isn't more of it for me to play, but that would be categorically untrue. There is precisely as much Chicory as is necessary and not a single ounce more. Chicory is a bolt of creative lightning that has rocked me to my very core.

I can think of no higher praise for the game than to say this: I followed this game religiously when it was first announced. I carefully monitored the Kickstarter, the Twitter pages of the game and the devs, and the Steam page waiting for any and all news I could get about Chicory. I bought the game as soon as I possibly could when it finally released, and then... life happened. I told myself time and time again I would find a chunk of open time to truly enjoy the game to its fullest, and then a year passed. During that span of time, I heard nothing but overwhelming praise for Chicory from every available source, and despite all of that... Chicory still OVERdelivered.

I don't know that a perfect game exists, but if it does, that game is Chicory: A Colorful Tale.