Alexia Unplugged

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Sometimes, my favorite part of a game is the food. Take The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. They both have dozens of delicious looking food that Link can’t wait to gobble up. I’m always on the lookout for games that make me feel like I deserve a good meal, so here are 5 of them!

1. A Taste of the Past

A Taste of the Past is a narrative journey about a second generation Chinese-American girl, Mei, whose mom has just died. We join Mei in gathering wisdom and ingredients from her ancestors’ spirits when she is transported to the spirit world after falling asleep on the train. We follow her journey through the train cars as she processes her grief and complex relationship with her mother through cooking. This game reached me in an emotionally distressing, uncertain time of my life and it has honestly made a lasting impact on my relationships with my family.

2. Venba

Along the same lines of A Taste of the Past, Venba copes with her new life in Canada by rediscovering her mom’s old recipes. This game had me bawling by the end. If you’re a first or second generation immigrant, a third culture kid, or just appreciate a realistic, beautiful storytelling, this game is for you. Play this game if you want to discover an emotional journey about food, family, and navigating two very different cultures.

3. Travellers Rest

Travellers Rest is an early access project where you manage a tavern, complete with an inn and a magic broom. It is definitely not a polished nor finished game, but it has a lot of potential. It can end up feeling kind of grindy sometimes, but it is still a really fun game, especially if you enjoy management sims. I’m certain that it will feel much smoother once NPC interactions and story elements are more fleshed out. I’ve spent dozens of hours cooking, brewing, and designing the perfect tavern. It even has a multiplayer option if you want to play with a friend! Travellers Rest has a dedicated dev team and the game has progressed rapidly since I first played it over a year ago. They are fleshing out NPCs, developing a better farming system, and generally expanding the game into a real RPG. I’m so excited to see where this game goes!

4. Lemon Cake

You can almost smell the delicious bread in this adorable game about running a cozy bakery. Lemon Cake is a nice refresh from the endless farming, decorating, and socializing in my usual cozy games. Its soft 3D graphics kind of remind me of a phone game, but it’s cute enough and kind of gives me nostalgia for some reason. In Lemon Cake, you are tasked with returning a haunted bakery to its full glory. Along the way you can adopt pets, tend to your greenhouse, and, of course, bake delicious pastries in your cute kitchen. This game is simple, repetitive, and has the perfect amount of progressive challenge for a low skill-cap cozy game.

5. Pekoe

I love cats, and I love tea. Pekoe is the perfect combination of both. Like many farming sims, you take over the local tea house after someone’s death. This is also an Early Access game, so there are some bugs and unpolished pieces, but nothing extremely game breaking. You play as the newest resident of Pekoe, you brew teas and get to know your neighbors, similarly to Coffee Talk. Each resident has a unique backstory, and pieces of Pekoe’s lore are released every time you improve the town. Pekoe’s simple gameplay combined with the well thought-out story makes it fantastic to just sit and chill to. This game is cute, and living in a little cat town, brewing tea, and getting to know my sweet neighbors is kind of the dream. I have some qualms about the art style, because it reminds me of VR Chat, but that’s pretty minor.