Yay or nay: cooking and eating mechanics in games

BOTW has the worst cooking implementation I have ever played. With that said, when done well; like almost anything, it's a good mechanic

No strong feelings about it either way.

I did like mix n matching for buffs in BotW, especially in Master Mode early game when that shit matters. A lot of the survival elements of MGS3 felt tacked on with clunky menus, but what you could do with captured food was interesting at least.

Generally don't care though. Was on some Bayo 2 replays this past week, remembered you could mix for healing/buff items, and just... meh. Really wouldn't matter if it wasn't there.

I'm sure there's games where that stuff is interesting, but can't remember playing any.

what's next? pee and pooping mechanics?

Can literally piss off ghosts in Death Stranding lol.

Having to drink, cook and eat is a waste of time. It doesn't make the game any more immersive and at the end of the day, its just an annoyance.

Found it pretty tedious in BOTW after a while.

Stuff like Stalker, eating out of date sausage and a can of beans from some dude you murdered, good shit. Never annoying.

lol oh yea, I forgot about that lol.

btw, what did you think of the mixing mechanics in Wonderful 101?!

More play throughs than I can remember, and don't think I've ever mixed anything lol. Pretty sure it's like other Platinum games, where item use is just a crutch that lowers your ranking. Could be wrong tho.

Even in Bayo 2, only mixed for Midas Testament to farm Halos.

Damn, you're that good you don't need items 😮

Botw cooking is overrated, its not even good.

😂

Nah, I still get rekt on higher difficulties. I just prefer to push through it rather than cheesing my way to a win is all.

That said, I am a bit curious, will probably look into TW101 items next time. Game has a ton of layers, still discovering crazy shit with each play. Could be more to the items than I'm assuming.

Yea, I didn't know about the item mixing until I read up about it randomly 😄 It was one of those unexplained things lmao.

I enjoyed it in Breath of the Wild and Final Fantasy XV so it gets a “Yay” from me.

Dragon’s Crown cooking mini-game makes me hungry.

Overcooked is badass.

Only if they add poop mechanics too. Middle of a boss fight and need to go? You better figure it out.

Yeah, it can be fun. Liked it a lot in BotW.

I agree, BotW was a fun cooking mechanic. Trying to think if there have been any others I enjoyed... but it's rare they BOTHER me so I gave it a yay

its all about dem pooping mechanics.

I enjoy them for survival and RPGs as long as I don't have to go rummaging through the inventory every couple of minutes.

Not something I'm really a fan of but I do have to say it was pretty cool in BoTW.

I mainly used the cooking mechanics in BOTW for rupee farming. Literally never used the mixing mechanics in Bayonetta.

All in all, it's usually either exploited or ignored. I think most can agree.

tertiary Japanese game mechanic/10

Yea, think that was the main problem with BOTW.

Just too much fucking about where, it doesn't feel like depth as it is just time consuming.

Something like Skyrims alchemy, but in this case, a recipe learned, and then from then on afterwords it's basically a 1-and-done button push would have helped perhaps.

Yeah, BotW didn't bother me at all, but it wasn't something I actively looked forward to either.

Was more like ok, I just finished up a nice segment. Time to re-up and cook 20 meals for the next stretch.

The initial experimenting was kinda fun, but once you know exactly what you need for maximum buffs, just going through the motions.

Nay, I hate that mechanic unless it's a survival specific game (The Long Dark for example).

Can’t believe San Andreas hasn’t been mentioned yet. That game did eating really well because you got a result. If I remember correctly you could also get fat in Fable.

It’s a yay for me because I usually like games that have a lot of options.

Although I wouldn’t like to see it in every action game. I think the video game industry has a good balance.

Lol San Andreas.. wow, what a throwback.

I used to be a cook, so I like it when it is in games, though honestly it is often fluff.

Monster Hunter World seems to do food well, and watching those cute little cat-things prepare your meal is fun, but it doesn't really do cooking.

Lord of the Rings Online was all right, you had to grow food then harvest it and cook it. It wasn't exactly involved, like no mini-games or anything iirc, but it was thorough.

Yeah, haven't really seen any great examples of cooking. If you do, let me know!

I find it tedious and annoying, does not add value to the game or add any more depth/immersiveness.

Experimenting with BotW meals was fun, but it was a bit time consuming. Would love a way to store recipes for future use. Then it would be perfect.

Like with any mechanic, it depends on how its implemented. Eating a black dragon in Nethack to gain resistance against disentigration is fun, as is dying due to eating a cockatrice and turning into stone.

No. it make game dragged, furthermore tedious. RDR2 has this and its one of the most tedious game.

If the game makes it enjoyable to do cooking it’s really just another tab of crafting. In FFXIV cooking is probably the most tedious of the crafting jobs because it usually requires quite a few random items and monster drops that aren’t easily obtainable in one place but it has its uses and since it’s performed in the same way as the other crafting jobs I wouldn’t get rid of it or simplify it. In Genshin Impact I rarely cook because it’s just not needed but even if it was its hard to enjoy farming consumables.

All in all I think cooking has the most room to improve, there are a lot of possibilities but since in most games it’s just collect this and press ”cook” its pretty bland.

@xantufrog: That’s awesome! 🤣🤣🤣

RDR2's is pretty simple, you cook for health and really maybe the big game meat is only one to worry about mixing herbs with to fortify health, stamina or dead eye. Getting snake oil is easy too, in crafting at fire and only need the indian tobacco. The one dumb thing here though is for crafting that requires recipes, even after acquiring it you can't craft it until you actually read the recipe document.

I always think I like this, but in reality is only feels really good in survival games. (Starbound/Conan Exiles type games)

Yay for me.

yay if its done to heal/potions/buffs

nay if its hunger/thirst replenishment...if you want to put that amount of realism in a game then where is the taking a piss and a dump mechanic

hah

It's fun in Stardew Valley

Hated it in Botw.

It's ok in monster hunter world....

mgs3 bit ridiculous how fast snake gets hungry... but i guess they couldn't have called it snake eater w/o it.

it was awesome in breath of the wild and star ocean 2 and earthbound

I love it.

I just don't want my character having to cook to eat any more than go the shitter. It just feels like a mundane thing to make me do.

Breath of the Wild, it was okay, but not for the cooking itself, it was not like you got hungry, it just allowed you to concoct energy healing with perks. I'm alright with that. But Shenmue 3, JESUS. You run out so quick, it's just tedious.