Little Dragons Café Is Cooked To Perfection

Published: August 6, 2018 1:00 PM /

Previewed By:


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The last sim game I played by Little Dragons Café designer Yasuhiro Wada was Harvest Moon on the original Game Boy.  While I can appreciate the wackiness of Deadly Premonition and style of No More Heroes, I never found myself all too interested in the more slice of life experiences Harvest Moon had to offer.  So when I got an invite to a press event for Little Dragons Café, I was curious and skeptical.

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The choice of color in this game is incredible

Little Dragons Café is one of the most visually appealing games in the genre.  Its pencil sketch color pallet compliments the chibi character style and leaves every frame bleeding with personality.  As a colorist, I found the color pallet throughout the demos interiors and exteriors extremely pleasing and it definitely amplified the overall tone of the game for me.  The music and sound design are also stellar, and within a few moments, I found myself totally engrossed in the small world around me.

Little Dragons Café isn't your typical JRPG or Life Simulator.  You are tasked with helping your mom and sibling run the family café all while raising a dragon and making sure you can meet the needs of individual customers.  Gameplay-wise Little Dragons Café is about what you would expect from this sort of title. There was no combat and the dragon's mechanics felt like raising a pet more than just having an NPC aimlessly follow me around.  Cooking was a fun diversion and involved a rhythm-based minigame akin to Parappa The Rapper where my timing would lead to me cooking a better dish—thankfully there are no repercussions for messing up this minigame.

As the name suggests, running the café is the main feature of Little Dragons Café.  You will need to enlist the help of your sibling (who changes based on what gender you choose to play the game as) and a few other characters that come through the doors of your shop as time moves on.

Exploration in Little Dragons Café is just as important as timing your button presses right while making eggs and other things I can't seem to do in real life.  While exploring, you're tasked with finding various ingredients all over the small island the main characters live in. Most are as simple to find as just walking up to them and pressing X.  Due to the lack of weapons and combat, animals and fish take a bit more creativeness to catch and hunt.  While playing the demo, I was able to scare chickens enough to lay eggs and then told that I needed to use the environment to capture and defeat bigger animals.

On the PS4, Little Dragons Café ran fine, the frame rate was high and the load screens were minimal and often unnoticeable.  Unfortunately, I can't say the same about the Switch version of the game.  The load screens were noticeably longer and the frame rate seemed to jump around from a sub 30 to a low 20 at times when exploring the outer world with my dragon companion. This quickly became unnoticeable after a few moments with the game and for most people who play exclusively on the Switch, I can't see it being a major discrepancy and this could have just been the pre-release build I was playing.

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Little Dragons Café is set to release on August 24th in North America on the PS4 and Nintendo Switch.  The game will not feature any PS4 Pro or HDR enhancements.  Little Dragons Café will feature a hefty collectors edition including the games soundtrack, character cards, and a plush dragon that's super adorable.

Little Dragons Café was played at a developer event for the press on both the PS4 and Nintendo Switch.

What do you think about Little Dragons Café?  Does the idea of running a café seem exciting?  How about that art style?  Let us know in the comments below! 

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Nick Maillet TechRaptor
| Former Lead Video Editor

When im not playing games Im working on TV shows as a colorist. You can find me on twitter posting pictures of my rabbit and other useless junk.