Mothergamer Plays Beastro

 Beastro is interesting from the start with a mix of cozy gardening, cooking, and card deck building. You play as a cute fox character named Panko who meets a flame spirit named Flambe that is taking refuge in the village of Palo Pori. Panko agrees to help Flambe and work with them to restore the lost flavors and run the village restaurant. The game is set into three phases. The morning phase which is laid back as Panko gathers ingredients from his garden, care for animals, go fishing, gather resources, and talk to the villagers. There's no time limit and you can leisurely mosey through your morning without having to rush. 

Panko does some gardening. 

Once you're ready, the second phase of Beastro is to open the restaurant. You get to decide the menu choosing what dishes you'll make. Cooking involves several small mini games for chopping, frying, baking, and roasting. They're pretty simple to follow giving prompts on the timing. Some I was better at than others, but the game doesn't punish you for failing which is nice. There's a purpose to cooking especially when you meet the Caretakers. They have specific flavor preferences and cravings and it's up to you to get it right. This is where I felt that the explanation was a bit confusing. I had to read it sevral times to understand it. Basically each ingredient has a flavor type, weight, and value to the card deck you build. Some flavors will boost each other while others will cancel each other out. It's a simple rock, paper, scissors, but their explanation made it more complicated than it needed to be. I did a lot of trial and error with this and eventually I did get the hang of it. Having a really good deck means more successful battles and rewards. 

Getting ready to cook. 

Once you have served everyone including the Caretakers, you can close the restaurant and enjoy the third phase which is the late evening. This is also relaxed as you can gather resources that are only available at night as well as do some night fishing for fish that only come out at night. You then go to the local tea house and you can talk to one of the Caretakers about their adventures out in the world. This is where you get treated to a cool puppet theater show about their excursion. This is where the card battle aspect of the game comes in. You have to match flavors, boost stats, and choose the best strategy to win. It's easy to follow and the game does give you indicators to help if you forget which flavors match. Boss battles are a different matter. Sometimes they could feel a little frustrating because sometimes it felt like the boss had better cards and I would get absolutely thrashed. The good news is that even when you lose, you still get to take resources you found back with you and it saves your progression so you can come back and try again. 

Fun puppet theater battle!

The presentation for Beastro itself is beautiful. There's cute creatures you can pet like stunning purple cows. Even with the fishing, the fish and aquatic creatures are colorful and interesting. The villagers stand out as well like a crow that's the village blacksmith decked out in all kinds of shiny baubles. You can even change Panko's apron and restaurant curtains via a villager who runs a weaver shop. Each design is gorgeous with vibrant colors and patterns. I found myself stopping just to admire all the pretty things throughout the game. 

Cute purple cow.

The story for Beastro is good and ties in well with the mechanics of the card deck building system while encouraging taking your time with everything. While I feel some things in the mini games and boss battles could be a little more accessible, I quite enjoyed Beastro. It gives you time to figure things out and lets you putter around as much as you want without pressuring you to hurry. It's a nice change of pace and very charming in the storytelling and the art style. There's plenty of things to appreciate overall in Beastro. 

A beautiful night sky. 

*Beastro is available on the following platforms: Steam, Xbox Series X/S, and Playstation 5