As the spooky season draws to a close, and we are getting used to our blankets and hot chocolate in the evening, we are well situated within cosy gaming season! Give me a cute little shop to run, some interesting things to do, and I am usually happy. I also occasionally love a bit of stress in my cosy game, but if you’re not looking for that, may we turn to The Witch’s Bakery. An adventure filled with baking, friendships, emotional baggage and a whole lot more story than I bargained for! Let’s get into it.
With a sprinkle of magic and the smell of baked goods, you step into the shoes of young witch ‘Lunne’. Rather than casting spells or turning men into frogs, she is a Heart Mage. Someone who can help people work through difficult emotions they’ve been carrying around. How does she do this and what has this got to do with baking? Well, through the power of baked goods, of course!! Apparently, a good pastry can fix just about anything, and as someone who lives minutes away from the Lidl Bakery, I completely concur.
A Little Heart to Heart
With Lunne being a heart mage, she is essentially in the business of sorting through people’s emotional baggage. Throughout Witch’s Bakery you’ll encounter characters and customers who are carrying around difficult feelings such as sadness, fear and anger. These manifest as what I can only describe as little balloon-animal/creatures that follow those characters around. The deeper rooted the emotion, the bigger the balloon. Rather than mindfulness, a hot chocolate, a walk or a bath as advice, Lunne takes a slightly different approach in the baked goods department.
Lunne will need to enter people’s ‘Heart Palaces’. These are essentially representations of their inner worlds, where you’ll work through whatever it is that is troubling them. Sometimes this takes the form of a little minigame, that is reminiscent of those little supermarket or cracker mini puzzles with the ball bearing. Except for anger, you will need to avoid the flames to get from one end of the maze to the other; for fear, you will need to find your way in the dark from one entrance to the exit, and with sadness you can make your way in the maze, but every few seconds a huge wave will wash you backwards, so timing is key. It’s a nice way to bring someone’s emotions to life without simply having every customer stand there and tell you what is wrong. If this happens during your working shift, then a customer will come in, and their order will be the corresponding colour to the emotion.
It won’t be every customer, (sometimes people just want a baked good, yano?). This is a great idea, but the game is surprisingly a lot longer than I anticipated (this is a positive), but these minigames do not increase in difficulty, and they can become very repetitive. So when you’re on your 40th-something day and you’re still doing the same easy-ish minigame, it can feel more chore than challenge. When there are more important characters to your story, Lunne is often drawn to them because of the size of the emotion they are carrying. When entering their heart palaces, this will be much more of a scene, filled with different puzzles that are creating blocks for the emotion to pass through that you have to resolve. At times Lunne realises she doesn’t know enough of the person to be able to help them, and then your role is to nurture that relationship in order to support Lunne to resolve the emotion.
There is a bit of freedom in how you approach nurturing these relationships. Characters can ask to meet up, or you can invite them to activities you want to do after your working day. The Witch’s Bakery does run on a sort of energy meter system, so activities will drain your energy, which you’ll need to use wisely. Alongside your evening activities, you may want to learn new recipes, practice and level up recipes or read – which also has a tax on your energy. There will also be things that can restore your energy like relaxing in the park or spending money to eat at a fancy restaurant – you can invite friends or just be you and your wonderful little morph sidekick, Orio.
Orio is possibly my favourite character in the whole game; they are a little morph that looks like a cross between a kitten and a fox. They’re witty, charming, and all around your best buddy. If there was literal merch of Orio, I would buy it. Think of them like a less sassy Tinkerbell who just loves a chocolate baked good. That’s it. That’s the review. No notes on Orio. I really actually appreciated just how inclusive the world feels. There are a variety of body types, differently abled characters, and LGBTQ+ romances, all existing very naturally within the game. It’s refreshing to see such a broad range of inclusion amongst a game so heavily focused on others and their experiences.
In the business of being transparent, I am usually a bit of a nightmare for skipping dialogue if it just doesn’t keep my interest. If there is a button to speed through, I find it. However, The Witch’s Bakery has somehow managed to keep my 5-second brain paying attention. I found myself interested in how the relationships developed, the awkward moments, the evolving emotions as they develop or become uncovered. Which, coming from someone who wants everyone to stop talking so I can get on with it, is quite the achievement. I really do feel this game is VERY suited to a console like the Switch, Portal, Steam Deck, etc. It really does sit firmly within the cosy genre. It touches on difficult feelings without being dragged through an endless therapy session. There is enough substance to make you care, but it’s not emotionally exhausting. Ultimately, it’s also up to you how much you want to invest in those around you.
Star Baker Or Half Baked?
Now, you can not exactly call a game ‘The Witch’s Bakery’ without expecting to spend a fair bit of time in the kitchen. Alongside the emotional healing, relationship building and taking Orio out to eat his favourite dessert, you do have a bakery to run! This means keeping on top of your stock, choosing your daily menu, and gradually prepping and levelling up your bakes. However, if you are expecting to come into this like it’s Cooking Mama, where your skill in the kitchen actually matters, you might be a little disappointed.
Making your baked goods involves selecting individual ingredients and working through various little interactions, including measurements that make it feel like your precision should count for something. Except, it… doesn’t really seem to? No, for real, I purposely tried to burn my biccies to see what would happen, and the bake was still just as good! Whether you’re good or not does not have an impact on the quality or final product. This, I found, is a bit of a shame because to me, if you’re going to have me measure ingredients and go through the motions of making something, I would quite like my efforts to mean something. Your stock on the day is baked by Orio, so as long as you have the right dough, you won’t come into any backlogs or mishaps. There is a sort of automatic skill tree, which allows you to collect experience from each emotion you manage to resolve. This will allow you to have a bit of an advantage in minigames, although I do feel the minigames are very easy and therefore I never found myself reaching for them.
This is where I found the levelling system a little underwhelming. You can spend time practicing your baking, which allows you to prepare certain items a little faster, but I never really felt that I needed that advantage. There are different customer types to consider, such as indecisive ones who’ll change their mind, ones that are slightly less patient, and others who require their order in one go, but I rarely found myself struggling to keep up with the demand. Most of the time, I was getting through the orders quickly enough anyway. So while there is technically a reason to improve your bakes (more money, less time for Orio to make), I didn’t feel particularly motivated to do so, outside of being a bit of a completionist.
Lunne In Paris
Outside of the bakery, you’ll spend some time travelling between locations, meeting people, and doing fun activities. From going to the cinema, to eating good food and to a bit of shopping in Paris! Exploration takes a side-scrolling approach, with more areas gradually opening up as you progress through the story. It isn’t necessarily a world that encourages aimless wandering, but I did quite like how it unfolds as you progress through each chapter. There is always something to do, and the steady introduction of new locations keeps things fresh. You are able to buy small enhancements that will bring in a certain customer or emotion, or books to read; the books are named after popular games and reads as well as the movies you go and see.
I was also genuinely surprised by how much game there is. Whilst there are only five chapters, there are plenty of side chapters along the way. At one point I queried whether the trophies were bugged because I was convinced the chapter should have ended by now. Haha. With your money you can also decorate your bakery as you please with many different designs from your till, the flooring, the clock face, and even the plant that sits by the door.
The main problem for me, I guess, is that despite having plenty to do, the overall gameplay loop can be quite repetitive. You’ll choose the menu, do your working day, go to an activity, choose an evening activity, and repeat the process. Now there is absolutely nothing wrong with a repetitive gameplay loop in a cosy game where the point is to relax and switch off. I just personally found myself going through the motions rather than feeling challenged or rewarded. A little more emphasis on skill-based baking could have made a bit of a difference her giving me something to improve upon beyond simply making the pastries a bit faster.
Ultimately, The Witch’s Bakery is a lovely little game that does exactly what it sets out to do. It’s charming, surprisingly substantial, and has a story that keeps interest. However, I do think the gameplay itself could have done with a little more time in the oven. The repetitive nature of the baking alongside a lack of any real consequence to how well you perform means it’s not necessarily a game I’m desperate to get back to. That being said, if you are looking for something to switch off with after a long day, it’s a rather sweet way to spend your time. It might not have completely blown me away, but there is enough here to leave a pleasant taste in my mouth.
The Witch’s Bakery is out now on PlayStation 5 (review platform), Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, and PC via Steam.
Developers: Sunny Lab
Publisher: Silver Lining Interactive
Disclaimer: In order to complete this review, we were provided with a promotional copy of the game. For our full review policy, please go here.
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