Can we talk about Food mechanics in games?

Can we talk about Food mechanics in games?

What are your favorites, and why?

I personally like it when you can see consumption of the meal so a bit like muramasa but i think i would enjoy it if you can see the characters talk and interact while eating
along with buffs,side effects, etc
dragon's crown cooking monsters into meals was great

Legend of Legaia 2 isn't a great game, but it has what you ask for.
People talk while eating and stats change temporarily. I wrote a wall of text yesterday about it, but I don't think anyone cares about my thoughts on it.

care to share?
I am personally interested in more things about food in games
ever read dungeon meshi?

someone post the jiggly cakes already get it overwith

sure
I'm kinda bored, so I'm gonna ramble on for a bit longer.
On the matter of balance on stat based food-systems, Legend of Legaia 2 comes to mind. LoL2 has a cooking/eating system that isn't particularly deep or even mandatory, there is no hunger system. Food solely exists for temporary Stats buffs/debuffs. It's a dirt simple system that only requires you to have specific ingredients in your inventory and a cooking place (usually the camping ground in dungeons).
The problem with the system is that it is very easy to abuse. Ingredients cost basically nothing, and at around the 60% mark of the game you can buy the ingredients to make the second best food at any time you want. The cost of the ingredients is usually pretty cheap, so you always have access to very strong stat changes.
Of course there is bad food as well, but you actually don't have a reason to cook it, you're better off not eating anything.
I think LoL2 would be a case where a countdown would have helped the system, because it would force you to cook constantly. Additionaly, a penalty or at least diminishing effects by eating the same food again and again could've helper it.
But, is it really fair to punish the player? The strongest food can only be made with an ingredient dropped by monsters (and most of those are at the endgame dungeon). Is it really fair to punish the player that spend time collecting a lot of "Monster Meat"?
And even if you implement a system that punishes repeated use, you would also have to make sure that it is not easily circumvented by alternating two types of food, or simply eating something else before you eat the Atomic Meat (that's the best food I'm referring to, funny name imo).
In the end, the real strength of this system, other than abusing Atomic Meat, was something else entirely. They copied Grandias idea of character interaction between the party while eating. LoL2 is pretty generic jrpg shlock, but I really really liked that.

continued because I rambled too much:

Like I said, it's the interaction between the characters that really made that system more interesting. For every type of food, characters had different reactions. The cooking was done by all the characters, so when the Martial Arts Master was cooking, the party would react accordingly by commenting on his cooking skills. You would get more insight about the characters dislikes/likes, even if it is only about food. It's one thing to read a Character Bio page that says "doesn't like spicy food" and watching a scene where the party eats spicy food and the character complains about it.

It's a different kind of depth, I would say. Rather than depth of mechanics, it's a depth of writing.

LoL2 isn't regarded as a good game, and I would agree to that. But I do think the food system is something really special, and I wish more games would put this kind of effort and thought into the system.

Alright, I'm done. If you actually read through my ramblings, thank you for your time.

>dungeon meshi
And no, I haven't. Never heard of it, actually.

I've been trying to find this game for a couple of years now, but all I remembered was his tattoo and his stance. Played the shit out of it when I was little

still reading your text
but DM is a manga that centers on a group of adventures that befriend a dwarf who is knowledgeable about monster cuisine and he imparts his enlightenment during the travels
the food is nicely drawn, and it has the ingredients and the stats

Dungeon Meshi vidya when?

Ah, I think I saw some pages posted here and there. Gonna look that up.

Sup Forums seem to really like that manga, it's mentioned whenever cooking mechanics in games are on subject and a few times in threads about elves.

from what i've gathered, most of Sup Forums tends to hate hunger systems as in the in game days where a full day is like 10 min the hunger system requires you to eat way more often but at the same time, I think that party interaction is way more valuable than simple buffs
Maybe there could be something like "Hey guys aren't you getting a bit tired of eating Atomic Meat for like 6 days straight?" "Yeah...." "Ugh...so sick of this now..." and then something like morale drop buffs being nerfed etc.
at the same time, you know how you can ONLY make food if you have the recipe? i would also like to see a system that rewards experimentation.

it is very creative
I especially like the interaction between them
what other roles does food have in a videogame?

There's not much to hate about it, since its a nice read with comedy, presentation and format similar to classic 90s fantasy, also Marcille is the best elf in any japanese media i ever saw.

The food/camping systems in the FFXV demo are extremely promising.

I want a cooking system that does more for the completionism in a game. Maybe something like the atelier games, but with focus in cooking instead of alchemy.

It's true, hunger systems are not very satisfactory and more often than not they equate to busywork and meter-management.
And yep, you're right, you can only make food if you know the recipe to it, but acquiring those is pretty natural when you talk to NPCs. Some towns have restaurants and when you order food you automatically get the recipe for it.

Experimentation is hard to pull off I think, because I personally can't think of a way to make the recipes easy to deduce. The further you get in the game, the more potential it gains for obtuse recipes. Why do I need 4 chicken legs and 2 potatos to make Chicken-Potato-Stew, and not simply 1 of each? It's hard to make experimentation rewarding for the player I feel, at least when the mechanic concerns cooking.

I feel like I didn't see Marcille on Sup Forums for a long time.

anybody here read Shoukugeki no souma?
how the fuck do you render food like that?

Tales of Symphonias food system after battles was alright. Gave you a sidequest to find more recipes and max out everyones cooking skills for titles

...

now twewy on the other hand,
had food that gave buffs, you heard what the characters actually said about it, although they had no real interaction with each other while consuming food. But you could also raise your affection with the shopkeepers and you got more dialogue and items out of it

MODS!

"Food system" without a proper graphical representation of the specific food is pointless. Might as well just have normal healing and buff items.

We need more stuff like in Muramasa.

I don't get Japan. Why does pastries need to be cute?

I disagree, it depends on where you want to put the focus. There is nothing wrong with not showing the food if the focus is either completely mechanical (i.e. replacement healing items), or character interaction.

ive never liked any food systems in any game, and I think its a waste of programmers and artist's time.

its only a waste if its half-assed

All of Vanillaware's recent games have food as a mechanic and it always looks great, even if sometimes the implementation is a little grindy (hi Odin Sphere).

I'd kill for Dragon's Crown on PC.

I have a vita and i wish it was on pc too.
ded online

RIP Mareg.

I remember a sidescroller game about hunting and cooking on kickstarter a long time ago.

I wonder if it died without delivering like most crowdfunded games.

Then I'm sure these 2 fucks are giving you a PTSD, seeing them after all these years.
I have never hated fictional characters so much.
It doesn't make it any better that the party feels all bad about it when you kill them. I wish I could've put their corpses on fire, especially the fat one.

ded thread?
what a shame it was a nice thread
thanks for the thoughts OP

Not just food, but is there any game out there with a nice fantasy Tavern system, with food, drinking and maybe some random brawling?

>beat-em-up with a Tavern system
THANKS FOR THE SHEKELS

The pleasure is all mine.
Never Winter Nights has some taverns, and I'm pretty sure you can beat people up there. Although the food and drink is just healing items I think.

Last bump for the thread before i get to work

I wonder if Persona 5 will have some nice food systems. Persona 4 had a little bit of it, but nothing particularly deep or engaging. It was mainly an easy way to gain Courage/Knowledge/whatever on rainy days on your first playthrough, which is a shame. It would've been nice to have a bigger incentive to go eating with your friends. Although some Social Links do make you go out and eat with your friends, which I liked a lot.

I need to play Legend of Legaia, it was the first jrpg I played and the first "serious" game I played and beat when I was 7.

Personally I have never beaten the first one, I always stop at the tower with the casino stuff for some reason.
I think I'm gonna give it another go because I really like the combat system.

I always liked this aspect of Grandia II. Something great about gameplanning or playing catch up while eating with friends.

If there's a Dungeon Meshi game, I wonder if it'd work like Toriko, where could gather ingredients to upgrade your characters musou style.

And speaking of food, I always liked that you could whup ass and then go eat out to get stronger in River City Ransom. The updated animations in the TurboGrafx and GBA ports were fun to watch.

Grandia 1 also has this feature. If you haven't played it, I strongly recommend it.

I got you user. Enjoyed the hell out of that one too.

Apparently this game is going to be released on PSN. Never expected that.

Still have my PS2 copy on the shelf. It's not as memorable as the first game, but I quite liked it.

I feel like the biggest problem the game has is its very generic plot and villain, which made people dislike it. Not like the first game has an amazing plot either, but it's still a bit more original than the generic revenge story of an orphan with magic superpowers.

Then again, LoL2 had these 2 fucks which might be the most hateable characters in jrpg next to Yuna from BoF4. At least from my perspective.

I only really remember having to awaken trees to clear mist in the first game, then the big bad was Noa's older brother or something