Intro

"The Golden Pan" was developed by JustAShyDoge and CrazyBabi using RPG Maker MV. This game is also another entry in the Swap in 3 Middle With You event that was held in 2022. An event where one developer would start a game and another developer would finish it. A practice that I would never be willing to take part in since I don't think I would be willing to hand one of my babies over to someone else. At least if I was someone that made RPG Maker games.

In the case of "The Golden Pan" it began life as a project by JustAShyDoge and was finished by CrazyBabi. Though it looks like this game has seen a few updates since it's original release. At least if the 1.2 in the downloads name is anything to go by. Though why that's set as the main update is a bit of a mystery to me considering a 1.3 version also exists. Oh well, I suppose this might give me a reason to replay the game later to see if the newest or oldest version is better, but that's something to work on in the future for now I'll work on reviewing the 1.2 build of the game.

Story

You play as color-blind chef whose suffering from one of the most infamous clichés in role-playing video game history. In fact, some would go so far as to call it the number 1 cliché, and that cliché is amnesia. So much so that our legendary battle chef has actually forgotten how to cook and has to be retaught the basics by his twin sister. Though the name of this legendary chef is at the discretion of the player which is a truly terrible idea in my opinion. Since it can lead to shenanigans.



At any rate in order to beat this game you'll need to win multiple chef battles where you'll need to both beat up monsters for ingredients and cook them within a strict time. If you win enough battles you'll learn about the location of the golden pan.

Gameplay

Combat wise the game is rather easy for the most part. The challenge is usually in figuring out the right combination of ingredients to make a dish meet the requirements specified for the contest. And this is usually the most challenging aspect of the game since you won't know how an ingredient will effect a dish your working on until after you've acquired it and looked at it's stats in the item menu. Though thankfully the timer for the contest does pause while your doing this since it does keep running during combat. So you'll want to finish off enemies as quickly and as efficiently as possible if you want to win.

In fact, it's arguably best to save before or at the very start of a contest in a new save slot and then hunt down every ingredient available to you in order to work out the best strategy for winning the challenge. After all, the time limit for most of the contests is rather tight so you really don't have time to waste on useless ingredients in this game.

Although the contest against Ryme is rather easy since you can easily farm dark mushrooms in order to give your meal the cool attribute. This is because the dark mushrooms actually give the player more points to cool than hearty. As a result if the player farms dozens of these mushrooms they can turn any dish cool in the long run. And farming these mushrooms is rather easy since you can find one as soon as you enter the area containing plants and monsters to harvest for ingredients in that match.

On the other hand the final match is a bit of a nightmare since you'll definitely need to spend time on mapping out the best recipe since the time limit on that match is so short you can readily get screwed over by the gods and goddesses of RNG. This is because the final match requires you to harvest a hero for their essence which is a lot easier said than done since the hero has access to powerful healing skills.



And these skills not only heal the hero they also give him stat buffs as well as regenerative healing. To make matters worse the hero hits super hard as well.



So if your not prepared with enough resources to quickly debuff him after he's healed himself your going to lose a character. And while the game does give your main character a skill to nerf all enemy damage for a turn. It also costs 45 TP to use. So your not going to be able to endlessly spam it throughout the fight. You'll need to save it for when you know a big attack is coming. And if you want to beat this game you'll need your match with this final boss to be around six minutes long. If you go too far past that mark you won't have enough time to gather the rest of the ingredients you'll need to win and will have to reset.

Graphics

Graphically the game is a mix of RTP and original assets. A decision that results in a slight stylistic clash in my opinion since the RTP assets don't always match up particularly well with the look of enemy sprites. Though I will say Miyu suffers the most from this style clash since her original character portrait sticks out like a sore thumb.


I can only imagine how many jokes you can make with this line using the simple formula of my <insert short word of choice here>.

On the plus side I do like the look of the original stuff, but I still feel it would be better if all of the graphical assets were done in the same style.

Sound

The game has background music. That's about all I have to say about it since none of the tracks really earned my attention. Though, I suppose part of the problem there might be I was too distracted by the game lighting a fire under my backside in the cooking contests to devote an effort to really paying attention to it.

Conclusion

I find myself feeling rather mixed about this project overall. On one hand the idea itself is definitely different. On the other hand I'm not a big fan of games forcing me to make quick decisions since it creates a lot more room for mistakes. Especially when your partaking in turn-based combat. And the tight time limits means this game is probably impossible for people with certain disabilities to beat since they won't be able to enter in the necessary inputs fast enough. That being said if your looking for a game to challenge you than this might just be the game for you. And always remember the most important lesson a sister can give you.