Magical Delicacy from Whitethorn Games and Skaule is a colorful and cozy 2D Metroidvania-lite with a dash of magic and cooking thrown in for good measure. Check our Magical Delicacy review!
Magical Delicacy from Whitethorn Games and Skaule is a colorful and cozy 2D Metroidvania-lite with a dash of magic and cooking thrown in for good measure. You’ll be playing as Flora Feliika, a young individual who travels to Grat, a harbor town built upon cliffs, where she decides to open a shop to fulfill her dream of becoming a full-fledged witch. This location will allow her to take on an unexplored island full of wonders, leading you into a pixeltastic adventure.
Flora grew up on the small island of Ulport, north of Grat. No one there really understood a lot about witches, which is why she decided to go to Grat on her 21st birthday. This will lead Flora to meet two members of opposing covens: the witch Cassia and the magus Tauno. Their magical expertise is important for your growth, so be sure to pay attention to what they have to teach you! You’ll have to be a quick study since you need to do a great job to be able pay for your new shop!
Hyge – who greets you once you reach Grat – will tell you that your new shop needs to be paid for since they can’t just give it away for free. Think of it as an interest-free business loan to get you up and running as fast as possible. Once you enter your new shop/home, you’ll find Hina inside, who seems to have lived there without Hyge knowing about it. It will be Hina who will give you your first task to complete, which will serve as a short tutorial to teach you how it works.
Cooking meals and crafting potions are going to play a key role in this journey since you’ll have to talk to the townsfolk and take their orders so that you can work your magic – quite literally! Take, for example, Hina’s request. It’s a simple one since all you’ll need to do is turn on the stove and cook a not-too-spicy stew. You’ll have to collect a pot, a mushroom, a vegetable, and something salty for flavor. Oh, and you’ll also need to add water to the pot for that stew!
Once you’re ready to go, you can control Flora with the left analog stick or the D-Pad, jumping with the A button. You can use the right analog stick to look around. The Y button will be used to interact with other characters or items as needed. Important items will be added to your inventory, which you can check with the X button. Abilities will be mapped to the ZL, ZR, and R buttons. With this one being a Metroidvania, you should always check your map by pressing the L button.
You’ll be able to search for ingredients for your recipes as you explore the different areas you’ll explore in your Magical Delicacy journey. Another option is to use the small backyard in your shop to plant some ingredients. You could plant a spicy hornpepper, or maybe you will grow a refreshing Ulport plum. Your plants are robust, so once you, well, plant one in your backyard, then all you’ll need to do is wait for them to grow strong. You can also trade with merchants to obtain some of the ingredients you need. Who doesn’t like some delicious noodles?
If you want to keep your business growing, then you’ll need to visit Star’s Forge. Star is the blacksmith, and you’ll be able to buy some cooking tools for your shop. You can get an excellent-quality knife and cutting board, which is a must for any witch worth her salt. You’ll need two free slots to install it in the store. Another option to consider is the mortar and pestle, which can be used to grind ingredients into powders and flours. This one requires only a single slot in your shop, making it easier to fit into your configuration.
There’s a good variety of accessibility options for you to tailor your experience. There’s Easy Platforming, which will disable most timing-related platforms and level hazards while also slowing down moving platforms. Another one is Skip Reaction Minigames, which, as the name suggests, skips all reaction-based minigames – such as cooking and harvesting. One more is Disable Hold Inputs, which will replace inputs where you need to hold a button down with a normal button press.
That’s only for the controls, and there are additional accessibility options for reading and visuals. You can select between the default font, an open dyslexic one, or a hyperlegible one. You can turn off dialogue effects, so there are no bouncing or shocking words during dialogues. For the visuals, you can have Always Outline Flora so that there’s a constant outline around your character so that you can easily focus on her. You can also change the UI scale and the control prompt scale.
Magical Delicacy is a colorful and cozy 2D Metroidvania with a dash of magic and cooking thrown in for good measure. You’ll be playing as Flora Feliika, a young individual who travels to Grat, a harbor town built upon cliffs, where she decides to open a shop in order to fulfill her dream of becoming a full-fledged witch. Cooking meals and crafting potions are going to play a key role in this journey since you’ll have to talk to the townsfolk and take their orders so that you can work your magic – quite literally! Magical Delicacy is out on Nintendo Switch with a $24.99 price tag.
Disclaimer
This Magical Delicacy review is based on a Nintendo Switch copy provided by Whitethorn Games.
