The children of a café owner discover through an old wizard that their comatose mother is part dragon. To revive her, the kids will need to raise a baby dragon to help stabilize their monther's conflicting human/dragon blood types(?) while also managing the café. The old wizard then spends each day standing at the foot of the mother's bed, leaving the unsupervised children to their own devices.
There are 12 chapters in total, each one featuring a mini-story with a new patron that gives the game an episodic feel. The core story loop revolves around the arrival of a new quirky character with a problem they can't solve. Over the next few days the gang gets to the root of the problem and then solves the issue with food. There are a host of human and non-human visitors to the Little Dragons Café; anything from a goblin thief afraid to visit his disapproving mother, to a rowdy ghost noticed by everyone except his still living girlfriend, to a kitty pop-star struggling with her decision to go solo.
The plot progresses at your own pace. Most of the time you just need to stop by the café in the morning or after lunch to progress the character story arcs. Eventually you'll be asked to collect recipe fragments for a specific dish. You'll then need to make and serve that dish during work hours to wrap up the current character arc and start the next one. A reputation goal for the café will also need to have been met before the next chapter can begin.
Your job is simply to collect ingredients from the surrounding area, build relationships, and run a café at your own pace. There are no crops to plant, tools to upgrade, or festivals to attend. There is also no money, just your reputation and better ingredients. Your dragon companion can help with travel and resource gathering. Early exploration of the island is limited to where the dragon can go. The larger he becomes, the more he can do to help in the field: enter caves, clear blocked paths, and give you rides. Every action the dragon performs depletes his stamina bar a little, but it can be replenished with cuddles and meals prepared in advance. What Draco eats may also affect his color. There is no combat to worry about, but one type of beast can steal food from your inventory if you get too close. Once Draco is big enough he can take out these beasts, providing the café with meat. By far the biggest threat to exploration is the café staff slacking off.
Once you find an ingredient in the wild it'll be added to the garden plot or fishing spot near the café, which can be harvested every few days. As ingredients run out and new ones are discovered, the the café's menu will need to be improved and rotated. New recipes are discovered through straightforward exploration of wilderness areas or from talking to the employees. It doesn't matter what ingredients you use in a recipe, as it will only effect the overall flavor of the dish (sweet, salty, spicy, sour, bitter) which isn't important. I made a frappé with unprepared eel, gouda cheese, and rock tripe and every customer gushed about how great the end result was. My cook botching a dish because of a bad day did more to upset customers and harm the café's reputation than any wonky food combination I managed to throw together.
Resource gathering.
Left: New recipes are pieced together from fragments. Right: The menu will need to be rotated as ingredients run-out and new recipes are found.
Using the best ingredients and nailing the timing on the rhythm-based, cooking mini-game will yield better quality dishes. Food quality, coupled with the staff's performance will raise your bed-and-breakfast's reputation, bringing in more guests. Your employees each have a primary (but not exclusive) task: cooking food (Luccola), taking orders (Ipanema), delivering food (Billy), and cleaning up the tables (Rin/Ren). Occasionally they will slack off to the point customers get up and leave. You can usually leave the staff unattended and still finish up the day with a passable reputation until your customer base grows and it becomes harder to leave them alone.
The chef does all the cooking for the patrons. You only have to cook for Draco and to come up with new menu items.
Left: The staff will slack off, losing you patrons. Right: You can lend the staff a hand.
Little Dragons Café is an anxiety-free, low risk, low reward title. The dish combinations and flavors didn't matter much and most of the guests had problems that were overly exaggerated and a bit petty. Without interesting side-quests or important decisions to make, it didn't always manage to hold my attention. The nonsensical but lighthearted story, whimsical storybook aesthetic, and simple but charming gameplay was what kept me coming back. It has heart and an uplifting positivity that leaves you feeling good.
No comments:
Post a Comment