Born of Bread (2023) [PC] Review

Good bread is the most fundamentally satisfying of all foods; and good bread with fresh butter, the greatest of feasts.
― James Beard

Tell me if you’ve heard this one before: a doughy hero in a red shirt and blue pants. A loyal but nervous partner in green. A 3D world with 2D characters. Fights in turn-based combat as you work towards saving the world from evil forces. I must be talking about Paper Mario, right? Close. Let’s focus a bit more literally on the word “doughy” this time. This is about Born of Bread, a new indie Paper Mario-like from WildArts Studio Inc.

It’s no surprise Born of Bread caught my attention. I’ve written here before about my unabashed love for Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door and its vibrant world and characters. And, as a lover of turn-based RPGs, I also love the gameplay. As with many fans, though, the Paper Mario series stopped scratching that itch for me long ago when Nintendo began to explore other directions for it. Thanks to indie developers, the paper RPG subgenre is far from dead. Moonsprout Games’ Bug Fables proved that people still loved and longed for the original paper vibes, and that small teams could do it just as well.

So how does Born of Bread stand compared to the big names of paper-style RPGs?

The Characters

We start Born of Bread with a trio of bumbling scientists freeing a gang of fiery fiends from their eternal slumber. The baddies immediately set about doing what baddies do best: ruining everything. In an attempt to break into the Royal Castle and steal a shard of Sunstone, they pass the royal baker, Papa Baker, a book with a strange bread recipe. Instead of a delicious loaf, out pops Loaf, our doughy hero. Congratulations, Papa, you’re a dad! And also imprisoned as a suspect for the crimes of not giving the queen her daily carbs and blowing up the castle.

Along the way to saving Papa and stopping the evil Jester (who is not a jester, he’s a prince, thank you very much), Loaf befriends his own squad of companions, starting with Lint, a lost raccoon writer with an active imagination and Dub, a rather small dragon with a great internet connection and the power of social media. As paper-style games are accustomed to, you have your small team of Loaf and one companion against, well, everything else.

One of my favorite parts of Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door is the short dives into the lives and minds of the other characters, namely Bowser and Peach. There’s other things going on in the world and it takes a little time to show you. I always appreciated that. So consider my pleasant surprise when, at the end of Chapter 1, we take a brief interlude with Jester. Born of Bread wastes little time showing that there’s more to our motley crew of baddies than just being bad. It gives that same richness of character that I loved in Thousand Year Door.

There are many more characters I could go on about, but I’ll leave the rest for you to meet. Suffice to say, Born of Bread easily matches the charm and vibrancy of character that its predecessors thrived on.

The World

I’ve established that the characters fit the mold for making Born of Bread a top tier paper-style game. How does the world hold up?

In my opinion, it’s a bit of a step down. Don’t get me wrong, the world is vibrant and full of character and characters. There’s a war between badgers and birds due to drilling in the forest, the castle town is bustling with all species of people, and somewhere in the far distance beyond a peaceful farmland is a martial arts competition I’m sure to enter. It’s a world that feels lived in.

However, it’s also a world that’s easy to get lost in. As a 3D world, the path is much more complex than a simple left and right option. You’ve got up, down, and all around too. I frequently found myself having made a circle thinking I was exploring deeper into an area, or exploring deeper into an area when I thought I was just looking around for goodies. Of course, that’s part of exploring, but it also says something for the breadcrumbing.

There’s also an issue at points of blind jumps. See, as a bread golem, Loaf can’t swim. Soggy is a bad state for bread to be, unless it’s about to become French bread, and your French is limited to “croissant” and “baguette.” However, there’s a decent amount of water around, and sometimes you can’t see it until you fall into it. You don’t take much damage when you do (and there is the option to turn off environmental damage entirely) but it can still be annoying to think you’re heading for solid ground and wind up in the drink.

I’m also noticing a lot of opportunities for backtracking. All of your buddies have overworld moves, once again a familiar mechanic from Paper Mario games. However, at the beginning, it’s just you and Lint and his ability to dig through dirt piles. I’ve also noticed transparent flowers that are clearly platforms to other areas and roots that will eventually be cut down or burned for shortcuts and alternate paths. Whether the story will encourage me to return to these places to explore or if that’s something I’ll have to do on my own time, I’m not yet sure.

The Gameplay

Okay, so the characters are great, the world is interesting but a bit easy to get lost in. Here’s the million dollar question: how about that gameplay? Well, it’s Paper Mario all over again. Like they say, don’t fix what ain’t broke, and the Paper Mario method sure wasn’t broke when Nintendo decided it needed fixing. In Born of Bread, you have your two-person turn-based combat with blocking for damage reduction. You’ve got your choice of stat increases on level up. There’s badges (or “boons” as the game calls them) and tons of quirky food items, baked or otherwise, for various healing effects. All told, there’s plenty of familiar things for fans of classic Paper Mario and Bug Fables.

That’s not to say Born of Bread is only cookie cutter gameplay. Unlike other games, you can upgrade your partners move sets with skill trees. It’s up to you whether Lint goes into battle with an attack, healing, buff, or debuff. Loaf, in the meantime, changes his moves with a little inventory Tetris with the weapons you find. You can change them at any time outside of battle too, so mix things up for different strategies.

There’s also the streaming mechanic. Similar to Thousand Year Door’s on-stage combat for an audience, Dub the dragon streams your battles. An active chat cheers and jeers as you fight. Sometimes, if you perform requested actions, you’ll get a boost, usually in the form of skill points. It’s a fun type of technology in a fantastical world that amps up the overall charm.

Upper Crust or Half Baked?

As a relatively new game fresh out of the oven, Born of Bread has some glitches and quirks still to work out. I definitely encountered my share of visual glitches, like Papa Baker and Lint dropping into the floor when I’d try to explore off the beaten path in town. However, the bakers are hard at work picking out the bugs and improving the recipe. With a little more time to bake, I think this game will end up rising to the ranks of the other paper-style greats.

Now, who wants a croissant?

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