What’s Cookin’?: Pokémon Sword and Shield
Pokémon Sword/Shield has done the one thing guaranteed to make me fall in love with a game: added a cooking mini-game. Now the question is: is it any good? The short answer is…not really. The long answer is a bit more complicated, however, so let’s get into it!
In case you’re unfamiliar, Sword and Shield’s cooking game takes place at your campsite, and focuses on mixing berries with other ingredients you find in the overworld, stirring them together, and fanning your campfire flames to heat everything to perfection. Once your curry is done, you can share it with your pokémon, and, if it’s good enough, they can get stat bonuses or increases to their friendliness towards you. I love the idea of being able to cook tasty meals for my pokémon friends, but the game itself leaves a lot to be desired.
Mechanically is where things really falter. There’s just…not much in the way of a tutorial or explanation of the deeper systems aside from “throw in some berries and other ingredients you find, heat, stir, and hope for the best!” While I appreciate the attempt to have players mess around and experiment, it feels a little unfair to do this while also adding ranks that impact the quality of your curry, which in turn affects any benefits it might give to your partners.
The additional stat bonuses and increases to pokémon friendliness are very cool, but having to grope around in the dark to figure it out is frustrating and doesn’t really reflect how cooking often goes. Experimentation can, of course, play a major role in the kitchen, but ultimately, cooking is a science and relies on a significant amount of knowhow and at least some instruction. Being able to cook with NPCs or other online friends is a cool idea in theory, but once again lacks the nuances of actual cooking as you’re not dividing up your prep or cooking tasks, leaving it easier to get a better rank, but not really adding anything to the actual cooking experience.
What’s more, the prioritization of ingredients in relation to the quality of your curry seems to only be proportional to the amount and rarity of the berries you use, not how the flavors interplay with each other and with those of your other ingredients. How does that make sense? Sure, having high quality ingredients can make a difference in how your food turns out, but if you’re ignoring flavor profiles and how they interact, you’re going to have a bad time.
Now I, for one, love my Poké pals, and abhor the thought of giving them food that’s judged based on how many fancy berries are in it, or if I spilled a bit while stirring (yes, that does affect your curry’s rank) rather than if I’ve taken the time to carefully craft a flavor profile that each individual will love and get their much needed nutrients from. Crafting recipes for pokémon food is such a specific detail in the anime, and it makes me sad that more thought wasn’t put into its first ever in-game application. Imagine a game where you’re able to look at the stat bonuses of different ingredients, and where each partner has their own likes and dislikes you have to take into account. Balancing these kind of factors would add a welcome challenge, and would make each meal feel more impactful to your journey and relationships.
That being said, I do still appreciate that Sword/Shield introduced a cooking mechanic that does allow you to become closer to your partners. Cooking is often communal and intimate, an act to show those you love how much you care. While I wish the actual details of the cooking process reflected this more, it can’t be denied that there’s something special about watching your little (or sometimes very, very big) friends gather around the pot excitedly as you prepare them a meal. Seeing the excited anticipation on their faces as they gear up to take a bite in sync with yours is adorable and melts my heart every single time.
Though this initial iteration left me hungry (heh) for more, I’m still excited by the possibilities it presents for future games. Hopefully GameFreak will take the base they’ve created, and build something more detailed and reflective of the breeding and training scene that’s been so thoroughly fleshed out in the show, and to a lesser degree, the game’s predecessors.
