I am starting to feel like a Square Enix spokesman but they have been shotgunning the mobile market and since I work a 9-5 that is becoming half of where I do my gaming.(Of course only when I am on breaks.) Last night I got an advertisement email about a cooking game they had just released. This game is called Meshi Quest: Five-Star Kitchen and it is brought to us by SQUARE ENIX Co. I shrugged my shoulders and gave it a shot. The plan was to be asleep by 11 but after about 3 hours of playing the game that was shattered. It's so far ruined my morning plans as well and is seeping into the evening. That being said I think I know enough about this game to give it a decent review.
The Game:
Meshi Quest is a cooking game in where you are the chef of your own restaurant. Your job is to prepare the requested dish of your customers in the way they want it and serve it to them as quickly as possible. To make the dish you will be swiping ingredients to a location where they are prepped and then once they are complete you swipe to where the plates are, then finally to your customer. So in the case of the sushi restaurant, after the rice is cooked, you put that in your hand, add the requested fish, then put on the plate with whatever soy sauce and other requested side. Good times.Your restaurant has different levels each with a set pattern of customers. Your object is to chain together preparation and food delivery in a short enough time to create combos. If you get enough combos you can get up to 3 stars which go into the value of your restaurant. Restaurants gain money over time, which you use to buy further upgrades. Money also can be gained from leveling up and achievements. Along with money, you can earn gems, which are the real money currency.
There is a lot to level up in your restaurant from the type of food you are using, to extra plating areas, to the aesthetics of the restaurant. Each upgrade can help improve the money you get from customers or the amount of time they are willing to wait. This becomes super important the further you get.
You can also build more restaurants with gold and gems once you are high enough level. These are all different and will require you to learn new recipes to cook for your customers.
There are also leaderboards for days. The game asks you some slightly more intrusive questions than I am used to being asked by a game when creating my player tag but it is used to put you in unique scoreboards. You can literally rank yourself with people of the same zodiac sign.
My Thoughts:
I thought I was played out of cooking games but its been so long since I have had a Cooking Mama this game quenched a thirst I didn't know I had. The game and graphics definitely have the anime vibe along with the cute Japanese voices saying words I don't know. They seem happy though.While the earlier levels had me worrying about the pace of the game the later levels leave no question this game gets hard. When everyone is requesting several items and you made something ahead of time that nobody wanted, you start to feel the heat. The upgrades help a little but this game is a demand on your reflexes and your ability to juggle several tasks at once. The worst is when you have a counter full of customers and you forgot to start cooking the god damn rice again. I swear I tapped the fucking rice cooker but whatever phone.
The gems start to become super important super early and from what I can tell if you are going to buy them you get a fair amount for what you pay. You do get a steady stream of them for free if you don't want to pay for the app. It just means you will have to be a bit more patient. There is a mechanic I think is a bit sketch which is what is called a "special recipe". These are kept in stock on your table somewhere and cost gems to refill. They add a bonus to your order but I am not sure they affect your combo. I think if anything it resets the clock on the customer.
I will give the game the benefit of the doubt here with the bugs I experienced. There isn't a lot but sometimes it will lag for a second and sometimes you will not be able to load the game until you fully restart the app. Other than that it plays pretty well. It's free so it's definitely worth pulling to your phone and giving a shot.
Comments
Post a Comment