Developer: WildArts Studio Inc.
Publisher: Dear Villagers
Platform: PC, PS5, Switch, Xbox Series X/S
Tested on: PS5
Born of Bread – Review
With the recent release of the Super Mario RPG remake, we thought we had seen our share of Paper Mario-like content for a while, but we were proven wrong. Born of Bread is a title that treats players to the classic Paper Mario type of gameplay, albeit with its own twists and turns. In this title, you’ll be playing as a sentient bread boy that’s aptly named Loaf, who goes on an adventure to save his surrogate father and possibly even the world. While there were a few rough edges here and there, we were pleasantly surprised by this cute RPG title.
Story
Born of Bread is a somewhat typical adventure story where an ancient evil is looking to overthrow the kingdom and an unsuspecting young boy has to go out on an adventure to save the world. In this case, Loaf is the hero of the story, and he just happens to be a young boy who is made out of bread. Papa Baker had to bake a new type of bread for the ill-tempered queen, and he ended up with a young and healthy bread boy in the process. Sadly, things went awry at the castle quickly after that when a bunch of demon-like critters caused mayhem looking for the fabled Sunstone Shards. While completely innocent, Papa Baker and Loaf were deemed guilty of aiding the demons in their attack, and now Loaf has to set things right and clear Papa Baker’s name.
All in all, the game has a fairly cute and interesting story. The game doesn’t take itself too seriously, and even when inspecting items in houses Born of Bread does break the 4th wall from time to time. We liked the presentation, and the story progressed at a steady pace.
Graphics
Graphically, Born of Bread is a very pretty game. The 2D character sprites look great in the 3D environments, and while the areas themselves are a bit rough around the edges, the cute style of everything blends well together. There is a lot of attention to detail, and we love the small hidden easter eggs that are present in the game. The animations are fluid, and the game does have a varied cast of characters. Of course, enemies tend to repeat in specific zones and there are also a lot of generic NPCs to be found as well.
Sound
The sound design is on point. You’ll be treated to a fairly upbeat soundtrack when exploring the world and proper adrenaline-infused battle music during combat. The soundtrack remains varied enough throughout the experience, and the SFX provide proper feedback for whatever is going on in the game. Sadly, the game lacks any voice acting, which we find a missed opportunity. This cute Paper Mario-like adventure would have been amazing with a great voice cast bringing all the original characters to life.
Gameplay
Born of Bread is a fairly straightforward 2D RPG with a few platforming elements thrown in the mix. You’ll be playing as Loaf, who is on a quest to stop a great evil, while also building up his career as a superhero, making friends along the way. This means you’ll go from one area to the next to solve puzzles and battle monsters you come across. Everything is quite simple, but it does take you a while to get used to the flow of combat.
The game follows a Paper Mario-like format, in which you’ll roam around a world that slowly opens up as you progress through the story. There are a few platforming segments here and there, and these often lead to hidden objects or other collectibles. We sometimes struggled a bit with depth perception when making trickier jumps, which sometimes resulted in a bit of trial and error. Outside of that, you’ll find a traditional leveling system, a small inventory to manage, and some companion skills that can be leveled up as well. There’s nothing overly complex to be found here, and this makes the game accessible for young and old.
As stated above, it took a few moments to get used to the overall combat pacing. Much like Paper Mario, combat in Born of Bread has a timing-based system that allows you to dish out extra damage or block incoming damage. When opponents attack you, you’ll have to press a button right before the attack happens to prevent or reduce incoming damage. When attacking, you’ll get different button prompts depending on what attack you decide to choose. This can be a prompt where you have to press a button at exactly the right time, but it can also involve wiggling the left stick or pressing and holding a button. Unlocking new skills is done by adding items to your inventory. These items need to be slotted in a Tetris-like puzzle in order to use them.
All in all, Born of Bread isn’t a complex game, and outside of having to wander around a bit to solve puzzles, you’ll breeze through the game in roughly 10 to 15 hours, depending on how much you explore. This means that for an RPG, this isn’t the meatiest experience, but the story remains engaging, and the gameplay mechanics don’t overstay their welcome. Throughout the adventure, different party members join Loaf and these all have different skills at their disposal, including overworld skills. Some may be able to dig up valuables, while others can take aim and shoot items. One thing we did find a bit sad was that there is no big power increase the further you progress. Your damage will remain pretty much the same throughout the experience, safe for the damage of some of your special skills. We also would have preferred a proper autosave system instead of the manual save.
One unique twist that did put a smile on our faces was the addition of the superhero chat during battles. As Loaf becomes a proper superhero in the game, he’ll have to do some PR as well. This means that all his battles are being broadcast and a Twitch-like chat will be visible during these battles. You’ll read funny comments and remarks from your viewers, but you can also get bonuses for completing requests done by viewers. While you can ignore these requests without receiving actual penalties, it does add another layer of strategy to some battles.
Conclusion
Born of Bread is a short but cute Paper Mario-like RPG that entertained us from start to finish. While we did regret there was no real power increase and the lack of a proper autosave function also made us lose progress a few times, we still had a blast with Loaf and the friends he made along the way. The superhero twist and the addition of the chat during combat made for an original experience. If you’re into Nintendo’s 2D Paper Mario adventures, and you’re looking for a fun bite-sized RPG experience, then we suggest checking this one out.
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