Born of Bread

Review game Born of Bread, Manages to entertain and amuse you from start to finish

WilfArts Studios Inc. and Dear Villagers released Born of Bread, a 2.5D party game. In it, you take on the role of a small flour-based golem named Loaf, who came to life when the Queen’s baker—a lovable old man—inadvertently followed a spell’s instructions! Now that he has to go out and hunt the Sunstones before the Ember Empire—a bunch of out-of-time hooligans—does, the future of the kingdom might rest in his bready hands!

To be completely honest, I don’t really enjoy turn-based role-playing games. I have played some games in the genre that I have enjoyed, like Monster Hunter Stories, but overall, I get really bored, especially when there are a lot of battles to go through. Luckily, Born of Bread did a great job of keeping me interested. The fights are brief and interesting; there aren’t many battles (and even fewer that require much maneuvering around enemies), and each ability has a mini-game attached to it. Having said that, one of the main reasons I found it so enjoyable is that it doesn’t require a lot of tactics; if you follow the prompt precisely and attempt to match the strengths of your abilities with the weaknesses of the opposition, you should be able to avoid most obstacles. As long as I didn’t take any chances or ignore cues, I discovered that I didn’t really need to take turns when eating! For those of us who are new to party-based role-playing games, this may seem uninteresting, but it was perfect!

Beyond its entertaining combat, Born of Bread has a lot to offer. I could not help but laugh at the areas and the dialogue, which had me completely enthralled. Though I had high expectations for the game, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I loved the cast! Every step of the way, including the achievements you can earn, is filled with humor.

You’ll spend a good deal of time exploring the areas and using your party’s overworld abilities to find new secrets and items, such as treasure chests and collectibles, in addition to fighting a variety of enemies. I think my favorite part of the game was simply exploring and gathering items while completing side missions. Its progression system is almost metroidvania-like, with areas you can’t access or quests you can’t finish until you’ve got the right party for them. This gives you even more incentive to revisit the earlier zones, which is exactly why I was all for it. This was particularly true because of the various gimmicks that Loaf could use to help him navigate—like butterflies that could lift him to higher places!

The fact that the majority of the side missions awarded something somewhat significant, like a boon that gives you additional advantages in combat or an especially delicious meal to save for a rainy day, was another feature I found enjoyable. And even though none of them are especially difficult, I liked how informal the requests were! Additionally, there are a ton of them, which broadens your options for what to do when you don’t want to progress the main plot just yet.

The only minor criticism I have is that there isn’t much focus on the tutorials, so there were moments when I had to solve problems on my own. For instance, Loaf streams to his followers during battle (don’t ask, this game is crazy!), and if you can keep them engaged, you can earn bonuses during combat. The issue is that I followed them for hours without really understanding why they were getting bored! There are a lot of features that are simply available through the menu that you can open. If it weren’t for my extensive experience as a videogame addict, I would have been confused by many of them, including the boons; if I got lost for an extended period of time while attempting to figure something out, I would undoubtedly become bored. Something I’ve seen developers do recently—adding a section to the pause menu where you can access a list of features and mini-tutorials—might be a good way to address this. That strikes me as the ideal compromise—not overwhelming people with explanations, but also not abandoning us dumdums to fend for ourselves.

Everything you see on Born of Bread’s store page is exactly what you get, including humorous dialogue, a lighthearted story, enjoyable combat, and silly features like petting animals (because who wouldn’t want to pet anything from mice and squirrels to pandas?). I heartily recommend it if that’s the kind of title you’re looking for! I had a great time using it, and I’m excited for the upcoming release from WildArts Studio!