An increasingly difficult dungeon awaits adventurers in Monster Menu: The Scavenger’s Cookbook, a turn-based RPG roguelike.
Once you pick your primary character, you have a lot of options to customize. You can choose from eight character designs as your starting point, along with which job class the character belongs to. In addition to changing hair, eye, and skin color, you can also customize characters and sprite illustrations. Playing around with different combinations in the customisation screens took more time than we wanted to admit.
A hungry adventurer must escape the dungeon while scavenging for food and sustenance. The dungeons are full of loot, including weapons, hay, and other combat items. If you take enemies’ bodies as ingredients, you can prepare a quick meal or a more elaborate meal at base camp. It’s best to use things while they’re fresh – unless you’re getting tactical and can use the negative effects to your advantage.
As you progress, the difficulty of each floor steadily increases, and enemies become stronger at night. If you move to the next floor through a portal, you can rest at your base camp, where you can cook and eat meals, craft objects, and sleep. The HP, calories and hydration will all need to be replenished. As you traverse the dungeons, your energy levels will deplete, and some battle moves will reduce your energy levels, both of which will negatively affect your adventurers.
You’ll have to start the dungeon from the first floor if your lead character’s HP reaches zero. All character levels are lost upon defeat, and your equipment and skills remain. It’s best to take your time and level up steadily to make progress as you prepare for the potential difficulty spike, otherwise you’ll pay a price. This can make the game feel a bit protracted, and you have to grind levels from the start.
Pros:
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Options for characterisation.
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Keep track of these stats.
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Food and cooking add unique strategy.
Cons:
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The same enemies and floors.
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The game elements are not very varied.
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It feels like a grind from the start.
This game gets a 6 out of 10.