Magical Delicacy Review – It’s Magically Delicious!

Introduction:

The clumsily named “Metroidvania” (a word I hate more every time I have to type and then read it aloud) genre is, frankly, one of the most saturated grounds in the indie game space. It can be challenging for new titles from unknown developers to properly establish themselves, so you should spend your time and money on the m instead of one of the others. Sometimes, though, all it takes to grab attention is the elevator pitch. What if the game was different every time you play? What if it was made by the guy who originally created the entire format? Or, in this case…what if Metroid was Atelier?

Enter Magical Delicacy, the newest title from cozy-game publisher Whitethorn Games (who also recently published the excellent Botany Manor, check out our review here) and solo developer Skaule. The basic premise of the game is that protagonist Flora is a young adult witch setting out on her own and arriving in the cliffside harbor city of Grat, looking to open a shop and establish herself. The town is filled with a huge cast of both humans and beastfolk of all shapes and sizes, and they’ll place orders for Flora to fulfill with her magical cooking.

Exploration and Platforming:

The game is effectively split into two parts: what happens inside Flora’s shop and exploring the town to meet new folks and gather more ingredients. We’ll start with the exploration.

Magical Delicacy is indeed a “Metroidvania” in the truest sense of the word, as Flora will need to platform her way all over town (helped by a map you get shortly into the game) and make progress by meeting the townspeople and bringing them their orders. As you progress through the game’s story, you unlock additional movement capabilities that will allow you much more freedom in navigating the game’s expansive world.

Notably, there is no combat to be found in the game, with platforming failures generally punished by a minor setback to where you were before the ill-fated jump or fall. The double-jump upgrade is a fairly standard one for the format, but I thought that the witch-flavored versions of other common exploration abilities were a nice touch toward making the game feel unique here.

The town is full of gathering spots that will sprout specific plants every few days, but many food materials can either also be bought from shops or will only be found in shops. These shops are kept by memorable characters that feel like they have relationship dynamics both with each other and Flora, and they sell daily restocking ingredients, recipes, and kitchen upgrades to continually expand your createable menu.

Cooking Mechanics:

The game world is also notable in that it is gorgeous. Magical Delicacy utilizes a heavily-detailed pixel art style that immediately makes it stand out from most other similar titles because most of it takes place outside, and the rotating day/night cycle creates different vibes for the world. In the day, Grat feels like a cozy coastal town full of friendly folks, and at night, the candles are lit, and the witchy vibe the game cultivates really comes to life, in addition to there being several platforming sections and recipes that can only be used at night.

Once you find the ingredients you need, it then comes time to hit the kitchen, where the game hones in on the cooking and economic aspects. You’ll have to use various stations to cook either specific items for the townsfolk or food to be sold at your quickly-unlocked walk-up window for extra funds. Similarly to Atelier, your creations are given ratings that depend on the final flavor of the food, the rarity of the ingredients, and the complexity of the cooking process.

Each station does something different, and several are multifunctional – the oven can be used to bake, but it can also roast specific ingredients for you to use in another dish. Helpfully, every ingredient is accompanied by a small icon tooltip that tells you what ways you can process it. The ingredient management system is a little bit cumbersome, as items in storage must be manually removed for use. There is no way to automate ingredient prep; this seems to me like a deliberate choice to make the cooking process feel less like the player is meant to maximize their efficiency and more like they’re meant to engage with every step of their process.

The story of the game unfolds rather slowly, but this also seems to me like the intention was not to center the game’s main plot but to give it equal footing by letting Flora and the player explore the town and form friendships and rivalries with its citizens. There’s a girl with a secret past squatting in Flora’s shop and seemingly no witches besides Flora in Grat, with a different answer to the question of their presence, depending on whom you ask. The mysteries of the town seem low-stakes, but it’s clear that they matter to the people of the town and Flora’s future in it.

Magical Delicacy utilizes a heavily-detailed pixel art style that immediately makes it stand out from most other similar titles.

I do have one rather significant issue with Magical Delicacy, and really, it was the only thing that marred an excellent experience. Still, it’s something that goes somewhat against the laid-back and cozy nature of the rest of it. With most “Metroidvania” titles, if one cannot figure out where else they’re able to explore and make progress, generally, there’s probably a big boss fight somewhere that can be overcome by sheer effort. Without this aspect, progression is gated by several different gameplay systems, all of which only become more complicated over time. You’ll frequently pick up orders without a clear, immediate way to fulfill them or even know if you have the ability to at the present time, and the massive number of ingredients can be daunting as your inventory and storage units fill up with still no clear path towards your quest list. Additionally, in the early game, there were several moments where I simply had no idea what I was able to do next, causing me to do several full laps around the accessible map in the hopes that I’d just missed a jumpable platform somewhere.

Basically, I think that an emergency hint system would be the last thing that Magical Delicacy truly needs to achieve instant-classic status, and its omission, given the myriad of accessibility options that are present, seems odd to the point where I almost expect one to be added in the future. If I could, in times of desperation, talk to a specific NPC or use an item that would point me toward the right zone or tell me I’ve got everything I need to fulfill one of the many orders that have built up on my list, the complex ingredient system would feel less daunting, because I would know that I was figuring something out that I could achieve quickly and have a breakthrough.

Conclusion:

Magical Delicacy is a unique game that easily succeeds at carving out its own niche in a competitive battleground of indie titles. It’s breathtakingly beautiful, and its Ghibli-esque cast and setting feel real, tangible, and plausible in a way that makes you excited to bring each new friend or acquaintance exactly the dish they’ve been craving. I’m hoping that it gets patched with a hint system, but even without one, the game is stuffed to the brim with charm, and it fully lives up to its name…magical.