Born of Bread Review

Born of Bread

Release: December 5, 2023
Publisher: Dear Villagers
Developer: WildArts
Genre: Action, Adventure, Genres, Nintendo Switch Categories, Role-playing, Switch Reviews, Turn-Based, Video
PEGI: 7
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Born of Bread is another indie game thats inspired by Paper Mario. Is Born of Bread worth checking out? Let’s go see what’s in the oven. Here’s our review of Born of Bread for the Nintendo Switch.

In Born of Bread, a cook is just trying to make dinner for his queen when someone comes along with a new recipe. He puts it in the oven and next thing he knows: he’s a dad. Wait, what? Well, you see the cook baked a little boy made out of bread. He names him Loaf and quickly puts clothes on him. No son of his will walk around naked!

Then the cook goes to see the king, his little boy of bread follows and they are confronted by a bunch of nasty people looking for some mysterious stones. From there, Loaf ends up on a quest and along the way meets other allies. We’re trying to not give away too much of the story. There’s a lot to it with some surprising twists and turns. Best of all though is the game’s dialogue. This game is so very funny. Its just packed with wonderful, unexpected humor. The dialogue is so good. This game has a great story, dialogue and its gameplay is really good too.

The gameplay in Born of Bread feels like the classic Paper Mario games from the 64 and the GameCube: a hero finds different allies who have abilities that they can use in and out of battle. The player explores things much in the same way that they did in Mario’s games but with abilities that are very different from what we’ve seen in those games. All of the characters are really neat and fun to use. Also the battle system, while turn-based, has its own unique layout and interesting weapons.

And while the battles do have you pressing buttons to attack much like Paper Mario, Born of Bread’s attacks are a bit more interactive, having you move a joystick or press a button at the right moment. We prefer Paper Mario’s simpler press A at the right moment to get an extra attack in to Born of Bread’s which can be a bit more challenging in what feels like an unnecessary way. Still when you get the hang of the attacks, it definitely becomes a bit more fun.

Exploring out of battle can be fun, though sometimes you can get lost and not know where exactly you should go. The game doesn’t hold your hand, it gives you a general direction to go and lets you find your way. The areas are a lot of fun to explore with hidden items, challenges, and cool enemies to encounter. There’s a lot of platforming in this game too and its not always great. Loaf and his friends can’t swim and you’ll often find them accidently falling into the river. Loaf will lose HP points when he does. Its not a big problem, but we do wish the platforming was better or at the least you didn’t lose HP when falling in the water.

Born of Bread isn’t a super challenging game but some battles will be a challenge if you don’t take the time to level your characters up a bit. There’s some grinding but not too much. You see the enemies and can avoid them occasionally. Born of Bread, overall, is a really fun game that definitely took inspiration from Paper Mario and then did its own thing. Thats even more obvious with its graphics.

Born of Bread looks like a Paper Mario game on the surface: with its paper thin characters and its 3D backgrounds. However the game has its own very unique looking characters and places to visit. It has a charm that isn’t Paper Mario at all. The two styles blend together to create a game thats visually pleasing. However, there are some minor issues on the Switch that we wish were better. There was one area where the game kept freezing and we wondered if we’d be able to progress in the game. Thankfully, we finally continued on with the game. Also, there are a lot of load times, with the longest one being when you start the game up. Despite its issues, though, Born of Bread is worth checking out.

Born of Bread has a fantastic story and despite our issues with the gameplay and its performance on the Switch, there is a ton of fun to be had here. The charm and the adventure to be found in this game is irresistible. If you love Paper Mario and any of the games like it, you’ll have to check out Born of Bread. Its a wonderful game that you should absolutely put in the oven. We mean buy it from the eshop. Don’t miss this tasty loaf…um…we mean game. Yes, sorry, we couldn’t resist. We’ll see ourselves out now.

Thanks to Plan of Attack for providing a digital code for this review. Born of Bread will release on December 5th, 2023 for the Nintendo Switch eshop!

Trailer