BattleCakes review for PC, Xbox One

As I know I’ve written before (but I can’t remember when), my problem with most “cozy” games is that if you look just a little below the surface, they often seem a little disturbing. There’s an air of “You’ll have fun, and you’ll like it!” around games like A Little to the Left or Bear & Breakfast that comes off as a little off-putting, and that consequently always has me a little wary of games that loudly proclaim how cute and cozy they are.

That wariness lasted a matter of seconds when I played BattleCakes. It quickly becomes apparent that it’s a cozy RPG where there’s nothing going on beneath the surface: it really is a game about cupcakes going off to stop a war from happening.

I mean, now that I write it out I see there might be something deeper to read into the game. But honestly, given all the baking-related puns that BattleCakes features – to say nothing of how thoroughly this game commits to its candy-coated theme – I think you read deeply into it at your peril. It’s just kawaii, all the way down.

That doesn’t mean it’s a bad game, mind you. BattleCakes balances its cuteness with enjoyable gameplay in a way that even the most curmudgeonly sorts should find it worthwhile, provided they like traditional RPGs.

Because really, beneath all the layers of frosting, that’s precisely what this game offers. You have a party (of other cupcakes, of course), you go off on a quest to stop the unthinkable from happening, and along the way you engage in lots of turn-based encounters (more on those in a second). BattleCakes’ gameplay isn’t all that far off from what you could’ve played 35+ years ago, provided you can look past the visuals.

The one place where BattleCakes differs from most of its predecessors is that it makes it clear that violence isn’t always the answer. Every time you encounter enemies, you have two ways to approach them: you can do the traditional thing and battle them, or you can try to befriend them using songs, magic tricks, and other such acts of friendliness. I was a little dubious at first, but there’s something about how cute and cuddly everything looks here that it didn’t take long before I was going straight to the “befriend” option in my battles.

And that, I think, speaks to how well BattleCakes works. It’s a cozy game that realizes a sickly sweet veneer isn’t enough to draw people in, you also need to provide solid gameplay – and that’s something this game delivers. You’ll have to have a high tolerance for cutesiness, to be sure, but in the end, it’s worth it.

Volcano Bean provided us with a BattleCakes PC code for review purposes.