A sign of strong world building is when it takes a while for certain elements to sink in, either due to a unique lexicon being used or elements working in an unconventional way that later makes sense. That’s certainly the case here. This side-scrolling action RPG, clearly inspired by the Paper Mario series, takes place in a fantasy world where pretty much everything goes, mixing human characters with talking animals, and magic with commonplace technology such as laptops and routers. There are regular animals too, all of which can be petted. We can only assume they’re yet to evolve, considering our dough-boy protagonist Loaf is soon joined by a harmonious bipedal goat.
Heroes exist in this world too, treated like celebrities with their faces plastered on posters and trading cards. They’re of the egotistical sort, looking down on Loaf and the other plucky adventurers joining his quest to locate mystical, powerful, shards – with the fire shard responsible for bringing him to life in the first place. Rather than being followed around by bards of yore, every hero in this world is joined by an apprentice blogger who livestreams their battles, with viewers chiming in with tips and words of encouragement. They record stories of your adventures too – aka save your progress – and in the absence of auto-saving, balloons connected to routers must be found. Forgetting to save can be costly, but with balloons commonplace, this isn’t something that should happen too often.
The livestreaming aspect doesn’t add a great deal to the combat, all told. Performing a fan requested attack may help restore a few Action Points, but that’s about it. I soon lost interest in watching viewing figures fall and rise and was more concerned about why some battles resulted in zero XP despite taking down strong enemies without receiving damage. The combat system itself is functional – robust, even – but at the same time lacks depth and nuance, making it far too easy to rely on the heaviest-hitting attacks in your arsenal and ignore everything else.
In keeping with its inspiration, attacking involves a well-timed button press or analogue stick jiggling. Blocking also requires careful timing. Even so, there’s not much to keep you on your toes outside of trying new attacks, as timing doesn’t alter – the ‘sweet spot’ for a perfect hit never changes. Loaf’s default ladle attack (also used to smash objects while adventuring) can be mastered very early on, and can be relied on for most of this 10-12 hour adventure. Also of note is how little battles evolve from the story’s start to finish – Loaf never deals more than 10 damage points, resulting in lots of battles that see you chipping away at the non-existent health bars.
There is some ingenuity within the combat system, at least. It ditches a lot of genre tropes, such as having a dedicated support character. Loaf can heal himself and others, while items (quirky foodstuffs) are bountiful, found within the environment, and purchasable from vendors. Skill Points are gained not through experience but by finding pairs of slug-like creatures and returning them to a shadowy figure, while all of Loaf’s attacks are linked to weapons acquired in different ways. Coming in different shapes, these then must be slotted into a grid, a la Resident Evil’s inventory system.
A castle-themed city acts as a hub world, featuring the castle itself, item vendors, the hero guild, and the bakery belonging to Loaf’s dotting father – with the storyline initially focused on freeing the kindhearted baker from prison. The city grows in size during later chapters, adding more areas, and also features customary branching paths that lead to new locations, with the story set over grasslands, mountain ranges, a spooky chateau, and a slippery ice world. Each location has a unique quest to focus on, usually involving scouring the environment fully, and with several optional sub-quests to complete. Handily, NCPs with quests have unique bubbles above their heads, and most of these are brief or can be completed while undertaking the main quest.
Although the menu screen tracks the main quest and sub-quests, the information provided can be vague in terms of guidance, and there’s no on-screen quest log or mini-map. Common sense can get you out of most predicaments when information is light, thankfully. On a related note, menus are quite text-heavy and would have benefitted from streamlining, even requiring a visit to swap party members while adventuring instead of a button press, and to check health stats outside of combat. The absence of stats on the items screen results in a lot of needless tab flicking.
Outside of combat, party members have a unique skill that opens paths, uncovers buried treasures, or is used to reach higher areas. They’re a likeable bunch, and it’s possible to forge stronger bonds with each. They’re introduced at a steady rate of one new member per chapter, culminating in later chapters that call for lots of party swapping to progress, although it never evolves into something puzzle orientated. It seems reasonable to suggest Adventure Time was a source of inspiration for Loaf and chums, as comparisons can be made not with just character design, but some facial expressions too. The humour, too, is delightfully irrelevant.
Aside minor problems navigating the world, with the centred camera leading to a few leaps of faith and obscured platforms, Born Of Bread offers a relatively smooth and easy going experience. Chapters last around two hours each, whisking you from one new location to the next, with just a brief pitstop at the castle town to regroup or mop-up sub quests. The spooky chateau suffers a bit from backtracking, with a focus on finding keys and heading up and down different floors – a problem made far worse by the battles eating into item stashes. After a lot of backtracking, I was left with no healing items whatsoever. Boss battles aren’t too tricky. Neither are they full of surprises, merely playing out like lengthier regular battles, but there are a couple of unexpected moments while adventuring to compensate.
Lighthearted and relatively straightforward, Born Of Bread isn’t quite a thoroughbred action RPG, with an underwhelming combat system mostly to blame, yet it still manages to entertain throughout its 10-12 hour duration thanks to a combination of likeable characters, vibrant visuals, and well-paced story. The lax difficulty and non-violent nature also make it easy to recommend to pre-teens. Those who stuck with the Paper Mario series through thick and thin may be able to poke a few more holes in it, but regardless, you can’t deny this wasn’t created out of passion.
WildArts Studio’s Born Of Bread is out now on PC and consoles. Published by Plug in Digital and Dear Villagers.