Chicory: A Colorful Tale

Chicory tries to meld the coziness of Animal Crossing with the action and adventure of Zelda. There are towns to visit, characters to chat with, and portraits to paint; likewise, there are dungeons to delve through and bosses to battle. It sounds great, and in some ways it is, but unfortunately there are a few niggles that dampen the proceedings.

Let's start with the story and characters. The main characters are a highlight -- the dynamic between the protagonist and Chicory is one of the best parts of the game. Both characters have clear motivations and distinct personalities, and their conversations flow between topics like friendship, confidence, and artistry with ease. Reading their conversations is always a joy.

As for the other NPCs, my feelings are mixed. They're all fun and quirky, but I rarely felt engaged when chatting with them. They'd tell me about their problems, or thank me for painting their houses, or talk about what they'd had for lunch, and I'd simply nod my head and wonder how soon I could get back to the main crux of the adventure.

The adventure itself is also one of ups and downs. Exploring the map is fun, and the game offers up plenty of clever puzzles to solve, both mandatory and optional. If you've played a Zelda game, you can expect puzzles in that vein, although often with unique painting-centric twists.

The bosses, on the other hand, were frustrating. Because there are no Game Overs in Chicory, the bosses aren't difficult in the traditional sense, but they do take a lot of hits to bring down. Although the battles look intense, knowing you can't lose drains them of any sense of tension. Just keep swiping with your brush and you'll win eventually.

While I appreciate the story and I'm glad that Chicory exists, for me it feels a bit too at odds with itself. It has an abundance of cute characters but 90% of them have nothing interesting to say; it's a Zelda-like adventure but with boss battles that feel less tense and more tedious. The result is still a strong game, but one that could've been even stronger if it had cut a bit of fat and doubled down on what it does well.

My cherished "wholesome healing composed-by-Lena-Raine game" the only other one being Celeste which I like a bit less

I almost never go for a 100% completion but I would absolutely recommend to do it with this one!

The thing that gets buried with the discourse on this game is that as a pure 2D Zelda-esque puzzle game, it's really good. If you come to this game looking solely for that, I think you'll have a good time. That's not the most important thing about this game, but if you tunnel vision on the things that make this game unique I think it can make it sound like an unwelcome experience for anyone who doesn't particularly like colouring or drawing (like me!) or even someone who doesn't figure themselves any kind of creative. So I figure it'd be good to let people know that really isn't the case. Drawing and colouring is a big part of it (and even on a PlayStation controller it's not too bad, as long as you remember to use the touch pad instead of the sticks when you want more speed or precision), but the game has a lot to offer beyond that. This a fun world to explore and collect things and solve puzzles with new abilities that you collect. It's also a really easy world to navigate once you collect a few abilities, so exploring is a lot of fun.

But: when people focus on the game's embrace of creativity and the artistic mind, encouraging even those who don't feel they have any artistic talent (and may not even want to), they're not wrong to do so. You play the game as a player-named character - the default is Pizza, so I'll run with that here - who takes over the role of being the one who colours the world with a magic brush after the previous wielder of the brush, Chicory, finds herself unable to continue the role. Through the course of the game, we see two different forms of artists in Pizza and Chicory that each have their own self-doubts that the game suggests are equally valid. Pizza is a complete amateur, who was only a janitor before picking up the brush; Chicory is a perfectionist who trained her whole life to become this. Pizza is very self-conscious about their lack of trained skill and whether they really 'deserve' to be the one wielder, and because they came into the role at a time of major crisis, they find themselves unsure of their creative chops because they're so busy helping other people and making colours as to how others want. Chicory finds that willingness to help others admirable, because Chicory's vision of art was always very self-centered, to the point that Chicory spiraled into a depressive bout that left her unable to be the wielder that others needed. But as a player with limited tools, you can't help but feel weak next to what you're able to see of Chicory's fantastic art.

The world around you is also great, filled with ambient dialogue from unique, funny, and heartfelt characters. (They actually remind me a lot of the characters in Paper Mario, which I consider a high compliment.) There's one person who wants to remember his recently passed friend by decorating the area with plants, and is truly moved when you help him out. By a bus stop, you can find two people who debate the merits of socialism. (The game's universe is apparently already socialist, and one of those characters is actually pushing further left. You simply love to see it.) Other people who have anxieties or unease of their own are moved by how Pizza is able to push themselves to become more than they once were, even as many people doubted them when they first wielded the brush. One constant source of comfort for Pizza, though, is their family. Their sister is a trained artist who regards Pizza not with jealously but complete support, helping them sort out their feelings when it seems like the world is closing in on them. Their parents are also a constant line of support (quite literally, forming an extremely generous and specific hint system that I was grateful for on a few occasions), who worry about Pizza but also trust them to be able to do what's best for themselves and others.

And of course, Lena Raine's music is a delight! I admit that she was a good chunk of why I came to this game, and on that front I was not disappointed. Since Celeste it seems like she's really upped her arrangement skills, with beautiful interplay of instruments that's often anchored by unique percussion patterns. The music often contains a lush, cute beauty to it, but there's also a sense of unease in this world where the colour has been drained from it, often maintained by the odd percussive patterns. In the main town's theme, for instance, the snare hit gets held off for so long that you're just waiting for it to drop, to the point where the tension becomes the main aspect of the rhythm - but that doesn't stop that eventual thwack from being immensely satisfying. And there are moments, too, when she leans all the way into the darkness of the story, with some tracks being outright dark ambient scariness or drum and bass chaos. Amidst those it often feels like she's calling back to Celeste's music, and honestly I don't think it's simply a matter of Raine having a composing style that she's comfortable with.

I have a hard time believing those musical connections are accidental, because this game draws very explicit connections with Celeste. This overarching narrative of this game, is very similar: Pizza and Chicory have to discover their confidence and overcome their anxieties much like Madeleine did in Celeste. Along the way, they meet dark doppelgangers that reflect their deepest and darkest troubles, and it's only by learning to accept those as part of their inner being that they can prosper and love themselves. (There's even a snowy mountain that have to climb!) But Chicory carves out its own space, applying those general personal concepts to concrete ends of being a creative person. I might not be a visual artist, but I do like writing, and I found a lot to connect with in both Pizza and Chicory that I didn't personally get as much from Celeste, which left a lot to subtext. That subtext worked tremendously for a lot of people, but I personally appreciated Greg Lobanov's specificity in writing this game: not just platitudes or copying someone else, but a clearly felt point of view. I was really, truly impressed.

This has the cute and wholesome energy that I love from indie games while also tying in a lot of very clever and meaningful metaphor and philosophy. And while that's not a concept that's new when it comes to games, I could fucking draw on this screen forEVER. Very pleasant time, beauty in its simplicity.