Cooking In Video Games Should You Need To Know The Recipe First

Cooking In Video Games: Should You Need To Know The Recipe First?

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There are a lot of games out there that are adding cooking as a mini-game or buff option, but should players have to hunt down recipes?

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Cooking In Video Games Should You Need To Know The Recipe First

Cooking has always been a mainstay in adventure and farming games, and titles like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Stardew Valley demonstrate this mechanic in very different ways. Whether it’s done through mini-games or from menus, throwing ingredients together to make a meal is a common option during a lot of on-screen adventures.

That said, there is a rather large divide within the games themselves. Some of the video games with cooking mechanics demand that the player scour the world for a recipe, while others let the player make whatever they want from the get-go. This results in an extremely different experience when it comes to cooking: one has the players following the recipe, and the other lets the player experiment (or look up a Breath of the Wild guide).

Food in different games can have different effects on the gameplay, but this separation can lead to serious frustration for players, as some may be hunting for recipes that don’t exist, while others might try experimenting only to find out that they can’t cook anything without a sheet of paper tucked in a chest on the other side of the world. Games need to agree, and one way is better than the arguments, but there are arguments for both.

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Breath of the Wild & Spiritfarer Lets Players Cook

The disadvantage of letting players make whatever they want are clear. Some foods in games like Breath of the Wild offer powerful buffs that make early game progression simple, and some of the powers players can gain from food, like overshields, are almost game-breaking against lower-level enemies that deal small amounts of damage. Notably, Breath of the Wild doesn’t follow a recipe system, players are allowed to cook whatever they want, even if it’s ‘broken.’

Game-breaking buffs are one of the main arguments against cooking whenever the player wants, but there are ways to limit the player from making certain recipes that are ‘game breaking’ without punishing them for trying or locking it away in a chest. Firstly, games can make powerful recipes need hard-to-find ingredients, or ingredients that are abundant, but only in end-game locations. Another balance example can be seen in Harvest Moon, where players can always experiment, but recipes aren’t successful until the player has the correct utensils to make them. That second example does come with the risk of alienating players who fail too many times during the experimentation process, though.

The issue behind locking recipes away is that it can punish players who already have knowledge about the game, whether it’s from friends or having played before, and prevents the player from playing their way. Games like Stardew Valley that block the player from cooking can end up frustrating. If a player is starting a new file, do they really want to wait 20 hours to make the crab cakes they stocked up on before? Maybe that recipe breaks the intended game balance, but players who look up recipes are using a guide for a reason, and players who have played before have a skill level that breaks game balance either way.

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Overall, cooking in games should be more like cooking in real life: experimental, and searchable on the internet. Asking the player to go and collect recipes is adding a collectable at the expense of another mechanic that a lot of players have fun experimenting with. There are, of course, players who love finding a new recipe in games like Stardew Valley and chowing down for the first time, but they can have that experience without locking the other players out of experimenting in the kitchen.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/zelda-breath-wild-stardew-valley-cooking-recipes-crafting/

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