Review: KuloNiku Bowl Up!
- Guilherme Ribeiro
- 5 hours ago
- 3 min read
Manage your own restaurant and strive to relive its former glory.
THE GAME
KuloNiku: Bowl Up! is a cooking game developed by Gambir Studio and published by Raw Fury. After a long time, our protagonist returns to his hometown and takes over the restaurant that was once managed by his grandmother. What was once a renowned establishment is now abandoned, and it's up to our protagonist to embark on this adventure of managing his own business and trying to reach the level that his grandmother built and maintained in the minds of the townspeople. Cook customer orders, interact with characters, and battle in culinary competitions to increase your restaurant's reputation.
MY IMPRESSIONS
The simplicity of KuloNiku: Bowl Up! is delightful. Cooking customers' dishes is fun and satisfying, with easy-to-understand mechanics. Besides pre-made recipes, some customers will request alterations to their dishes, such as removing an ingredient, accentuating a particular flavor, or even specifying whether they prefer to eat with a fork and spoon or chopsticks. There are even those who order something off the menu, with unconventional combinations. Deliver the order perfectly to earn reputation and a tip. Using the money received, you can buy new ingredients to create new recipes or purchase upgrades for the restaurant, which directly affect your profit or kitchen efficiency. Reputation is important for advancing the story, as reaching new reputation levels unlocks culinary battles. These are part of the game's progression, where other characters challenge you to culinary battles that use the same conventional cooking system as the game, but with a point and turn system, as well as some simple minigames for certain culinary processes. Please the audience and the judges by using their favorite ingredients and flavors to earn more points and emerge victorious. So, this is the basic loop of the game: cook at the restaurant until you have enough reputation to battle against other characters. It's important to remember that the game allows you to play in two modes: a more casual one, where you have no time limit to prepare the recipes, and another where speed of preparation is important. Thus, it caters to both casual players and those looking for a challenge.
Although simple, the game has a story, as well as relationships between the characters, which advance as you interact with them, creating bonds and moments with visual novel elements. The game is in Brazilian Portuguese, making it easy to follow the story and correctly understand customer orders. The game's art is very colorful and vivid, especially with the food, which gives it a lot of charm and even makes you want to eat the food because it looks so appetizing.
Despite seeming repetitive, KuloNiku: Bowl Up! has a very good pace for introducing new mechanics, as well as for acquiring new ingredients and creating new recipes. Progressing through the story doesn't take long either, with your reputation increasing at a good enough pace that you don't have to repeat the same process multiple times. So, if you don't become obsessed with acquiring everything possible before even advancing, the game's pace will be well-balanced. It's a great game for those looking for culinary-themed games with a lighthearted vibe.
ACHIEVEMENTS
Given its simplicity, the achievements in KuloNiku: Bowl Up! won't be difficult if you enjoy the game and make the most of every aspect of it. Most achievements are related to the game's story progression, such as defeating opponents in culinary battles or unlocking new kitchen mechanics. Perhaps the only achievements that will require a little more attention are those related to relationships with other characters, where you need to maximize all of them. Since this aspect of the game can be ignored at times, it's safe to say it's the only point of focus needed to achieve 100% of the achievements.
CONCLUSION
I chose to play KuloNiku: Bowl Up! in the most casual mode and I didn't regret it. I played to relax and listen to podcasts at the same time. The gameplay loop will only be repetitive if you're crazy like me and want to unlock more things instead of progressing through the game, which clearly makes things easier. The character relationships in the game were the only part I didn't like so much, because it took me away from what was good and introduced something that, in my opinion, didn't add much to the whole experience. KuloNiku: Bowl Up! is the kind of game you play to relax and unwind.
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