Aeruta by FromDawn Games
Aeruta is the latest addition to the niche subgenre of dungeon-crawling/cooking hybrids like Cuisineer and Delicious Dungeon. The core concept: half the game is action-packed combat runs for ingredients, the other half cooking them up and serving them to the hungry but fickle patrons of your bakery.
Where Is Fancy Bread
While it doesn’t do anything particularly new with either the action Rogue-like or the shop simulation aspects, Aeruta’s presentation of each is fun enough to be engaging while lighthearted enough not to overwhelm.
Colorful 16-bit backgrounds, character models, and monster designs – although what starfish and crabs are doing in the middle of a forest is never quite explained – and a perky chiptune score that reminds me a bit of the first couple of Sonic the Hedgehog games give Aeruta a classic feel.
Humor adds to the charm and derives mostly from the banter between mismatched main characters Chaya, the headstrong but hapless would-be adventurer (and our player character), and anxious Effie, a high-strung aspiring pastry chef.
While our characters, and the inhabitants of the town hub – Bakersfield, which, as a California native, gave me quite the smirk – are all anime animal girls, the comedy and presentation are an entirely G-rated affair, more akin to similar action adventure The Ramsey than something like salacious like Moero Crystal H.
Let’s Get Baked
Both sets of game mechanics are similarly accessible and all-ages appropriate without being overly simple or easy.
Combat, driven by cracks of a whip or whacks with a rolling pin (in keeping with the baking motif), is punchy and bouncy and enhanced by special attacks that you can upgrade through research. Boss fights take a few tries to master but never seem unfair, and both garden-variety and boss enemies telegraph their attacks well enough to be countered with Chaya’s dash-parry.
Bakery management, on the other hand, feels nicely frantic but isn’t nearly as punishing as something like the Cook, Serve, Delicious! series, though trying to replenish stock, ring up purchases – using a simplified, less beat-driven version of typical rhythm game mechanics requiring controller presses in a specified order – and clean up litter definitely gave me the same sense of mild panic.
That said, failure during the bakery segments – or for that matter, the combat segments – doesn’t come with consequences more significant than slightly slowing down the grind of discovering new ingredients and improving the bakery itself.
The Verdict:
And speaking of grind, both the shop management and combat loops can both start to feel a bit repetitive, but Aeruta is currently in Early Access, and developers FromDawn Games are diligently making improvements and adding content.
While the finished pastry hasn’t yet been frosted and decorated, this game is already more than half-baked and already a tasty snack for ambitious bread-makers and monster-bashers alike.
Aeruta is available via Steam Early Access.
Watch the trailer for Aeruta below:
