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Cooking combined with battling has become something of a staple in our gaming kitchens. Battle Chef Brigade involved battles and matching games. Cuisineer is a roguelike with a restaurant attached. Magical Delicacy pairs platforming with cooking. FromDawn Games’ Aeruta is the latest to attempt the pairing, putting together a 2D platformer with some RPG elements with a bakery management sim. While there are some pacing and balancing issues, it’s a cute addition to this growing group.
Chaya didn’t intend to become a baker. She wanted to be an adventurer. But when she accidentally destroyed Effie’s bakery when on a mission, the consequences involved her working there alongside her typical outings for the guild. Fortunately, fighting foes in different fields yields ingredients that can be used to make daily bread, so doing one job will help her succeed at the other.
Both elements of Aeruta feed into one another. The game, and in general things, seem to start with the 2D adventuring. Chaya will run through platformer-style stages, dealing with enemies. We can use her rolling pin, sword, or whip to attack. Investing in each one makes them better, and building up the town also increases her stats to make her a stronger fighter. Since the actual combat involves relying on combos, dodging, parrying, and precision strikes, it can feel a little like games such as Ender Lilies entries.
Likewise, there are some roguelike mechanics in there in addition to the RPG crafting and building nods, due to you being sent back to the start if you die with only some of your haul. That’s also where it gets repetitive, however. The different locations feel a lot alike, as do some opponents, so it can feel a bit taxing and frustrating if you keep falling to a suddenly stronger than expected boss a few times. Because then you do restart from the beginning of the area. After a few hours, it gets tedious in a way I didn’t always appreciate.
Fortunately, the bakery element of Aeruta felt much better paced. You’ll take ingredients you collected to make and find recipes for bed. You start with very few slots for available product options and recipes, but these gradually grow larger and allow you to select from an array of novel ideas that can bring in money. The little button prompt for the actual sale is a little annoying, seeing how often we will do it, and I felt like it could have been omitted as a quality of life and accessibility option. But since we eventually can also find and tame Patti enemies on runs that can help, with ones with skills like Checkout Expert, Cleaning Expert, and Price+ increases, it never got to be too much of an issue when I played. And they can also be used to gather ingredients, which is handy.
The way the two elements feed into each other does seem well-balanced, which is good considering the situation. The rewards from going into each run feel tangible once you get back to town to start helping with a bakery shift or the rebuilding effort. Then the bonus stats and increases to Chaya and weapons can be helpful when back on assignment to fight foes.
I enjoyed Aeruta quite a bit, with both the battling and bakery management often feeling equally satisfying. Somehow, I feel the repetition that stemmed from handling the shop became less of an issue than facing the similar sorts of hordes over and over again when heading out to fight for ingredients. The difficulty spikes for a few bosses is also frustrating. But each part of the experience is generally solid, and the charming premise and cute characters add to its appeal.
Aeruta is available for PCs via Steam.
Aeruta
I enjoyed Aeruta quite a bit, with both the battling and bakery management feeling equally satisfying.
