Battle Chef Brigade is a beat ‘em up puzzle game set in the fantasy world of Victusia. Battle monsters, collect ingredients and bring them back to cook up a storm in order to best your opponents.

The Good

First off, the visuals in this game are absolutely fantastic! Featuring hand drawn characters and monsters with stunning backdrops, the game simply pops with style and personality.

The characterization is well done and the voice acting is fluent and rarely feels awkward, with well-timed jokes and a nice flow.

The plot is incredibly imaginative, with a variety of different characters all coming together to solve an overarching evil that affects Victusia, a nation that takes its food very seriously.

The gameplay is unique in its presentation, as you need to hunt monsters for their ingredients and use them in combo, grid-based puzzles. It can get very challenging at times, whether you’re taking down a big dragon or solving a puzzle that requires you to think three moves ahead. Face off in one-on-one duels against other competitors in Iron Chef like battles. Battle Chef Brigade certainly has its own unique ‘flavor’ to it… sorry, I couldn’t resist.

More and more monsters are available for you to hunt as you progress through the game. These monsters all have their own element orbs, requiring you to strategically plan ahead when hunting for specific elements in order to please the judges’ individual tastes.

There are many side jobs to complete that pays gold for you to buy upgrades for hunting and cooking. The side jobs also do well to further develop characters and Trinket Studios certainly wanted to put the same amount of effort into them in terms of voice acting.

Battle Chef Brigade also features HD Rumble exclusive to the Nintendo Switch version, allowing you to feel your food while it’s cooking.

Once you are done with the main story, there are daily cook-off leaderboards that allow you to compete online. There are also other modes such as Puzzle Rush and Break the Dishes, which both add more content to an already complete gaming experience.

The monster variety grows deeper as the plot continues, each with their own attributes. Every battle will require you to theme your dish around a specific ingredient, and each judge will require certain flavors, as well as needing to feature key ingredients, making each battle a different experience.

The Bad

Despite Battle Chef Brigade many positives, the game is not without its negatives. Combat can feel a little stale and stiff at times and can sometimes feel as though your blows aren’t connecting. It serves its purpose, but any fan of 2D action brawlers will instantly notice. Also when collecting ingredients, some branching paths and secret areas to find whilst hunting would’ve added some much appreciated variety.

Whilst puzzles can be a great challenge and very rewarding upon completion, initial tutorials can often be poorly worded, requiring you to figure things out through trial and error and a quick Google search.

In the latter portion of the story, the plot feels disjointed and oddly paced. In our opinion, chapters 4 and 5 should have been swapped around, but we won’t spoil why. Lastly, story progression can feel repetitive and can certainly overstay its welcome at times.

Final Score 88%

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Battle Chef Brigade is truly a unique gaming experience that (to my knowledge) has never been created before. It perfectly blends various genres together to create a game that stands out amongst the crowd. If you’ve ever flipped through the eShop thinking that everything looks generic and alike, then this game is one to change your mind.

Has Battle Chef Brigade been on your radar? Or have you already played it? Let us know your thoughts in the Comment section below.

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