Heartwarming
HIGH A well-done story with a lot of heart.
LOW Characters feel like items instead of allies.
WTF Smacking lizards to gain new abilities.
The people of Royal Town live a charmed life — birds are singing, the world is at peace, and the Queen is just and fair. When the royal research guild looks into some old ruins, they accidentally release a gang of purple troublemakers that plan to take over Royal Town and bring their own empire back to glory. At the same time back at the castle, Papa Baker finds an ancient recipe that turns a loaf of bread into a living being! Both this sentient bread, named Loaf, and the purple strangers, are linked in an ancient drama that will change Royal Town forever.
Born of Bread is a turn-based RPG with active elements similar to something like Paper Mario, both in style and execution. Players will control Loaf while trying to find out more about the purple misfits. Along the way, they’ll meet other allies who will help Loaf on his quest. Players explore the world and fight enemies and bosses in a story filled with heartwarming moments of friendship, drama, and plenty of food puns. As they defeat enemies, Loaf will gain experience that will raise not only their stats, but also increase backpack size which determines what weapons Loaf can use in combat, and Boon badges which give bonuses like extra health or damage.
Each of the buddies players will meet have their own unique abilities outside of combat to help find secrets in the world. The lost writer Lint is a raccoon who’s great at digging up mounds of debris, while mental master Yagi is able to meditate to reveal hidden platforms. There are also objects around the world that can be used to travel. In some areas, there’s a press that will flatten Loaf, allowing him to glide during a jump, or a tree with butterflies that can be hit. Doing so causes the insects to pick up Loaf and carry him higher than they can jump. These buddy points signpost where players need to go next to progress the story on some occasions, but also serve double duty as cues for secrets throughout the game like additional items or weapons.
In combat, Bread asks players to be a little more active than in standard turn-based combat. When in a fight, Loaf and pals will have to perform a minigame for each attack. Most are timing-based, like pressing a button when a dial reaches a green section, or holding a button until a dial fills. Others ask a little more, like pressing a combination of buttons in order, or using the control stick to keep a reticle centered on a green target. The same goes for defending as players, as hitting the marks will reduce incoming damage. They’re all fairly innocuous, but it did get to a point where I felt like I was choosing the attacks that had the fastest minigame to speed up combat, rather than ones which might be better strategically.
One strange twist to these systems is that players can miss additional skills for buddy characters. Born of Bread hides buddy upgrades in the form of lizards that can be attacked to collect a resource. Take the resource to an NPC in town, who will then grant ability points for buddies. Is it hard to find these sprites? Not really, but it feels bizarre to lock abilities behind a missable collectible though, which brings me to me other gripe about the buddies — they feel more like items than actual characters.
There were small bits of story here and there for each character and they all have their own questlines, but they didn’t stick with me as much as I would expect a party member to. I would mostly use them to defend or heal Loaf, so between a script that didn’t sell them to me and limited functions in battle (before I found their upgrades, anyway) they felt more like items than friends.
Another issue I had with the combat is that overall, it’s too easy. Enemies have weaknesses in combat for players to exploit, but for the most part that aspect could be ignored. I was frequently able to get by just fine with smacking the enemies with the biggest weapon I had available. Bread also showers players in items to restore health and abilities, so there never felt like there was much resistance and resulted in fights that were unfulfilling.
Even still, the story and writing of Bread kept my interest until the end. While the partner characters fell flat, other NPCs fared better — interesting faces like a grouchy old apple who makes food puns, Romeo and Juliet personified, or the leader of the Heroes guild with a superiority complex. The strongest members of the cast are the villains, though — each one has motivations and connections that made them likable and relatable, and they have the best intentions. I won’t say the story itself was groundbreaking, but getting through until the payoff for these characters was worth it.
All in all, I loved my time with Born of Bread. It’s cute and has a heart, and that kept me playing despite combat that didn’t hit the mark and party members that were a bit hollow. However, it’s a shorter RPG with speedy progression, and the main quest was one I enjoyed seeing through to the end. Sometimes a cozy fairy tale with simple mechanics and good humor is enough to satisfy, and that’s certainly what was delivered here.
For me: Born of Bread gets 7.5 home cooked meals out of 10.
Disclosures: This game is developed by WildArts Studio Inc and published by Dear Villagers. It is currently available on PC, Switch, Xbox and PS5. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PC. Approximately 10 hours of play were spent playing the game, and the game was completed. There are no multiplayer modes.
Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated E 10+ and contains Mild Language and Fantasy Violence. Players will use weapons to hit enemies (flaming swords, icy hammers, etc) which will cause them to explode into orbs of experience. There is a “D***” here or there, but not often.
Colorblind Modes: There are colorblind modes.
Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: There is text in-game, and text is not resizable. Audio mostly serves aesthetic purposes and is not needed for gameplay. The game is fully accessible.
Controls: Controls are not remappable, and there is no control diagram. A will be to confirm choices in combat and interacting with items. B will cancel choices, and holding will cause Loaf to run in the overworld. X will have Loaf hit items in the environment or enemies for preemptive strikes. Y will activate buddy abilities in the overworld. Control stick will move Loaf.
While Sonic and Street Fighter were great places to start, his first love was Final Fantasy X when his dad bought a PS2. Ever since, that love for gaming has evolved -- there are a number of game worlds out there, and he intends to explore them all. RPG to horror, platformers to casual and everything in between -- if it’s available, he’ll play it.
While his time is short between writing reviews, tabletop gaming, and attempting to start a cheesecake business, he has caught all 806 pokemon and can speedrun Star Fox 64 in less than 40 minutes. He’s always looking for new things to try and new challenges to conquer. You can find him on Twitter -- @eugene_sax.
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