After establishing a new eatery in town, Flora is out to make a name for herself. In addition to being creative when it comes to cuisine, she’s also a fledgling witch keen to learn the ways of brewing magical elixirs. Fortunately, an opportunity to become an understudy soon arises, with Flora’s arrival piquing the interest of two neighbourhood witches, both well-versed in witchcraft. Not everyone is delighted with the presence of another witch in town, however. As the old saying goes “two’s company, three’s a crowd.” Or perhaps, in this case, a potential coven.
While cooking up tasty treats for the humble townsfolk, it isn’t long until trouble starts brewing too. That’s the set-up for this cooking based, combat-free, Metroidvania. During the tutorial, you’re presented with a ramshackle shop located in the heart of the town; set to become both your workplace and home. The idea is to mingle with the townsfolk and take on orders (read: quests) – all of the cooking variety – while foraging for wild herbs, fruits, crops, and vegetables to use as ingredients. A day-to-night cycle is in place, with the store only open during the day, and a different variety of flora and fauna found at night. At nighttime glowing platforms are revealed too, allowing access to new areas. This is in addition to gaining a double-jump and other Metroidvania tropes, allowing you to scout the map further, finding new items and take on platforming-based challenge rooms.
At certain points in the storyline, you’ll be asked to meet returning characters in new locations, and in place of combat, much of the challenge lies in working out how to reach these areas.
The cooking aspect is incredibly intricate, with a wide range of foodstuff to create. Sandwiches, desserts, stews, soups, stir-fries, magical potions, and a lot more. Often ingredients must be chopped, ground, roasted, and juiced before use – requiring the correct equipment, which must be purchased first using currency gained by selling goods via a serving hatch. It’s possible to rearrange the kitchen, eventually expanding it in size, and additional storage can be purchased too. There’s even a small garden to grow produce – vital for expanding the supply of rarer items. Every ingredient falls into a few different categories, varying from taste to exoticness. Often, you’ll need to seek unique items to fulfil an order, such as creating a stew from rare ingredients or making something bitter or spicy to please a seasoned palate.
While it’s possible to acquire recipe cards, you can still go freeform while making educated guesses. It takes around 20 seconds for a dish to cook fully, giving a little bit of time to prepare another. Mostly though, I found myself standing around, not wanting anything to accidentally burn. Some ingredients can be very hard to acquire, making mistakes costly. There is at least some guidance provided as it’s possible to pin recipes and orders to the HUD, even showing how many ingredients are in your procession – and whether they’re in your inventory or the storeroom. That’s handy.
Aside from this though, there’s little in the way of additional guidance, especially when it comes to exploration. This is where Magical Delicacy struggles the most. It has a map with placeable markers, but not every key location is shown, and neither are NPC locations. If you take on an order, it’s up to you to remember where the quest giver resides. This issue extends to foraging as you’ll also need to remember where certain items grow to establish a steady supply. It pays to make a mental note of every merchant’s wares or you may also find yourself wandering around to find a specific ingredient. At one point, a regal NPC goes missing and you’re tasked with discovering their whereabouts – with no hints whatsoever. Quests such as this can slow progression to a crawl, a fact not helped by this being quite a slow burner to begin with.
My experience with Magical Delicacy boiled down to not knowing where my time should be spent, resulting in long spells foraging and cooking just to complete a sub-quest with a small amount of currency as the reward. I somehow managed to get ahead of myself, taking on quests with items yet to unlock, such as a cauldron. Then after getting back on track with the storyline, I spent almost an hour foraging for specific items and trying to brew a potion that withers roots, thinking this was required to progress, only to discover that it was to merely reveal a chest. And then I had to create another, to actually progress the story this time, resulting in backtracking across most of the map. This whole ordeal took close to two hours.
On one hand, it’s quite refreshing to play something with no handholding. You’re free to explore and progress at your own pace, experimenting in the kitchen and selling goods, completing sub-quests, or trying to discover the means of progressing the storyline. On the other hand, this is meant to be a cosy, relaxed, experience yet every time an order with a new ingredient type appeared I knew I’d be spending a chunk of time looking for it. It’s very much a case of heading out and checking every merchant and location, both during day and night, while crossing your fingers. To clarify, I’m talking about items sold at a single vendor, which you may not have even discovered yet.
Magical Delicacy is supposed to present a world to become lost in – which it does partly achieve with its impressively drawn pixel art backdrops with numerous tiny details and tranquil music – but it also isn’t very respectful to your time. If you expect to speedily progress here, greatly dial back those expectations. I put in 12 hours before writing this review, completing only a dozen quests, gaining just two traversal upgrades, and expanding the kitchen just once. A lot of that time was wasted on fruitless pursuits. A clearly defined main quest to follow would have helped massively, especially if the map was updated at the same time too.
It isn’t a failure – the fundamentals of a typical Metroidvania are more or less in place, and the cooking aspect is remarkably in-depth – but it’s still a pretty niche experience that takes time to become accustomed to, preferring to let you wallow in its world rather than guide you through it. For something intended to be cosy, there are too many irregular design choices that can potentially lead to frustration if you aren’t patient. In short, it’s an acquired taste.
Skaule’s Magical Delicacy is out now on PC and Xbox One/Xbox Series. Published by Whitehorn Games.