SEDAP! A Culinary Adventure is a co-op cooking adventure game by kopiforge that explores Southeast Asian cuisine through fast-paced action. You harvest live ingredients and serve them up to deliver a unique taste to customers, going through a variety of Southeast Asian recipes that evoke familiar memories to anyone who has eaten them before. Gameplay is fast-paced and cooperation is essential, resulting in good teamwork or hilarious moments of failure. Single-player isn’t recommended as the obstacles and design are built for two players. If you can bring a friend, this is one of the best Southeast Asian experiences ever. Without a friend, this is not the game for you.
You play as Som and Gon, the chef and hunter respectively. They are trying to revitalize their family business. Som’s sister sends them to a special island where they can prepare dishes with amazing ingredients. Some ingredients fight back while others require careful effort. Both boys must work together to create dishes quickly as the ingredients don’t last forever and customers won’t wait. Your adventures on the island involve Gon hunting down live animals or gathering various plants, while Som is responsible for cooking everything, though it is possible for him to do a little fighting too. Together they improve their skills and get new equipment to face greater challenges. Everything you do must be done quickly or you lose points and earn less money. That makes it harder to get new upgrades for later levels.
The adventure is your standard “go-around-and-cook” story with the duo learning more recipes with every level. It’s nothing unique, but what keeps you hooked is the new Southeast Asian dishes you learn. You are preparing dishes that you find around the region like teh tarik, mango sticky rice, and Hainanese chicken rice. While lots of the preparation is skipped over for gameplay reasons, the cultural aspects are properly retained. Som and Gon are also looking to push the boundaries of their cooking, giving you great motivation to uncover more dishes and culture. It’s exciting to learn about a dish that’s actually eaten in some parts of the world. It’s not a full lesson on Southeast Asian culture, but you learn a lot about the ingredients used and how people eat the dishes. It’s great if you have dreamed of going to countries like Malaysia or Singapore but don’t have the chance.
However, the emphasis on Southeast Asian culture is a double-edged sword. To anyone who grew up with the culture or is interested in learning more, you will have a great time. This game sticks to its roots and draws you in with familiar or interesting dishes. If you have no interest in the culture or plan to treat this like any other cooking game, the advantage disappears. This isn’t a game where you can pick up the interest since it doesn’t change much with the cooking formula from other games in the genre.
You spend a lot of time on different parts of the island, preparing various cuisines depending on your ingredients. At first you start out in the forest and have some dishes with a fruit focus. Eventually you branch out with ingredients like pork or seafood and your dishes change accordingly. Thankfully, many of these dishes have similar ingredients and that eases the learning curve. This makes it easy to transition through the levels without feeling overwhelmed.
The teamwork between Som and Gon is refreshing because it’s two characters playing to their strengths. Gon can fight and carve meat faster than Som, but he’s useless in the kitchen. Som can do some ingredient gathering but he’s in his element cooking. Unlike games where everyone can cook, this division lets each character focus on their strengths. That makes it easier for each player to focus on their jobs and do them perfectly instead of multi-tasking.
However, there is a downside to the role focus; coordination must be tight. It’s difficult for a single player since multi-tasking and switching between characters costs valuable time. While upgrading your tools gives you an advantage, it quickly evaporates when the levels get harder. It’s not impossible to succeed on your own, but it’s clear that the game was designed with two people in mind.
SEDAP! A Culinary Adventure is a fantastic cooking game that brings Southeast Asian cuisine front and center. By playing with a friend and having an interest in the region’s culture, every level is a blast. Unfortunately, it is hard to play on your own and the culture is the only strong point of differentiation. But if you have ever wondered about what Southeast Asia offers, you can’t go wrong with this game.
Victor reviewed SEDAP! A Culinary Adventure on PC with a provided review copy.
