Chicory a Colorful Tale is a Beautiful masterpiece 

This is a game review of my favorite game of all time. I recently bought it two weeks ago (at the time of writing this) and it has automatically become an instant gem. I’ll go into why I love this game so much and some of the factors of why it's a must play, but first I'll go into what the game is about. Chicory is a game about a world where everything is named after food or food type stuff including the people which in this game are animals(and some bugs). The way the world works is that there is a special paint brush used to color the world given to a special person who is known as a Wielder where they basically are in charge of painting the whole world with colors they choose and with their own distinct style this is one of the games main mechanics which i’ll go into later.

The start of the game starts off by asking you a simple question “what is your favorite food?'' It's a simple question that seems completely out of the blue but will be the most important question Chicory will ask . . . well not that important it's literally just the name of your character which doesn’t really matter. SO after you choose your answer the game will do a little intro about the history of the world which it just scims over and introduces you to Chicory the current wielder of this world and your characters hero/ role model/ basically someone they look up to. After the intro it seamlessly cuts to your character who is a cute dog and is the janitor of Chicory messing around with a broom. This whole beginning part acts like a tutorial where the game teaches you how the painting mechanic works by  just making you sweep the room, the painting is a fundamental mechanic that gets introduced so geniusly like instead of the brush you have a broom and instead of painting your cleaning a room that's already painted but covered in dust. So after you sweep a bit some weird stuff starts to happen and eventually all the color in the world is gone so your character which i’ll just call pizza goes to Chicory to tell her what happened and there is some interactional stuff you could look at which provides more background on wielders and similar stuff. You eventually go in front of chicory's room but you notice something wrong. The brush isn’t with her which is worrying because it's her job to have that thing so you could try to go to her room but it's locked so you pick up the brush which allows you to paint!

Painting in This game is almost flawless you could hold the the paint button which colors in everything, if you paint the walls the game keeps you in there so you won’t paint the floor on accident, if you click on objects it colors it in for you so you won’t have to manually do it which is nice and really helps if you want everything to be neat and clean looking.  Later on the game uses painting to get through obstacles which I'll go into more detail later on.  The one problem with this is that some objects are hard to paint as in you have to find a specific spot to click to paint it but this is a rare occurrence and there is a way around it. Another issue is that some of the obstacles get in your way as you're trying to paint which is kind of annoying and sometimes there isn't a way around it but it isn't that annoying to stop playing the game but it's still there. 

Each world comes with 4 colors which all go together in some way or another which matches the area you’re in, for example if you are in a dark place like a spooky forest then the colors would be more darker and if you are in like a town the the colors would be more warm, this is what adds to the games atmosphere and overall style and emotion.The towns/areas in this game include various amount of stuff to paint like trees to houses to people which some areas may not include on of these things but its still great. Dark areas of the paint blend together unlike how the paint looks like in light areas which adds to the overall feel of the game.  Another thing that adds to the atmosphere and overall feel of the game is the music. The music in this game is something else.(in a good way)

I’ve never really been a music person but this game may have changed that. Each and every song in this game matches the place it's in perfectly and is made by the amazing Lena Raine who did the music for celeste which is another excellent game you should play. Each track even if it's a boss fight or just town music has an emotional side of it that really hits you depending on where the music is played and the npcs you talk to in said place. The music includes various amount of instruments which i can't really name, one of the instruments is a recorder which in a interview with Lena Raine says she included the recorder because she remembers for some odd reason in music class they use a lot which adds to the feel of the game where Pizza is starting his/her journey as the weidler and as the game goes on the music becomes more complex to show that Pizza is growing more and more. These details are what adds to what makes this game so dang good, But what's a game without Characters?

 The characters/npcs in this game are adorable and feel like actual people instead of some like robots or something, each character you meet has their own personal problem with them whether it's subtle or if they just flat out tell you, either of which still is perfect. The npcs you meet in this game consist of various animals and some bugs. Each animal is named after a food or stuff used in food like Pickle or Chicory (didn’t know this but Chicory is a type of flower used in some teas which is a nice little detail). The bugs are a nice inclusion which makes the game feel special. AT first you can't understand the bugs because they speak their own language but after you meet a special bug that speaks english translates them for you allowing you to talk to them which some of them talk about the history of bugs or just them being confused of what you are. The npcs you meet have their own distinct text style and the way they talk which allows you to make a distinct voice for them, for example one character talks like this “ hi i like what u did with the place” and others talk like “hi, like what you did here. Looks nice!” This small little detail adds to what makes this game special. These npcs may have some special interactions other than just dialogue whether it be giving them a letter and seeing them later on thanking you for sending them said letter or lending someone your brush for a bit where they draw something like their face all of which is super wholesome. If you choose to color in everything (which why would you not) some npcs old and new complement on painting the place 

Before i forget lets get on with the story so after you leave the temple (the place were the wielder is) Pizza notices that the color everywhere is gone and it's up to you to color in everything but you might not know how so some npcs you talk to teach some of the basics like filling stuff in, how to switch colors, and changing brush sizes.  The game progresses like a roguelike where you get a new ability and go back to a place you’ve been before to progress the story or get a secret or something. The abilities you get are from the boss fight which are something you’d not expect from a game like this but they don’t feel like they don’t belong ethier and they have their purpose for being in the game in the first place( i won't go into detail why you just have to go see for yourself). The boss fights just include you dodging attacks and painting the boss to defeat it. The abilities are pretty straight forward like your paint glows in the dark, you can swim in the paint, and so on which are used to get past obstacles you couldn't get past before. The abilities are introduced as a bond with the brush so each time you do something your bond grows which allows you to do somethings that you couldn’t before which matches with the Story.

The Story is an emotional roller coaster. The story may look like it's just about painting the world but it's more than that. The game talks about heavy themes such self doubt, feeling like a nobody, being alone, failure, and much more. These things that i just mentioned are your (Pizza’s) and Chicory’s feelings where Pizza is a nobody and doesn’t think they have a purpose while Chicory is a Wielder (basically famous) but struggles with thinking that they aren't enough and is alone. Throughout the game you combat these emotions and dark thoughts through  progressing the story. this is the extent of what i'm gonna say about the story in order to not spoil it so just play the game if you want to know about it 

Other than just the main story there are side quests as well, most of the side quests include drawing something/ designing something in some way n example of this is designing a shirt which after you finish you could always change the design and you could see some npcs wearing it as well and if you talk to them they’ll compliment you on your work. Other side quests include decorating stuff with decoration/ furniture of course, which you get by finding lost children and can be bought using litter(basically trash) you find all over the place which this rewards exploration. The decorations are used to bring npcs all over the world which you can talk to which provides cute dialogue and some compliments which everyone loves. Other sidequests just include giving people letters that have some cute dialogue and sometimes even give you something as a reward, speaking of which, i  should mention rewards/secrets or whatever (i'll just call them gifts for short). Gifts are found all over the place and given to you and some involve using some sort of platforming or just exploration in general to get. Depending on the size of the gift, it gives you one of three things, the small gift or basically the normal one gives you one of two clothing items which is either a hat or shirt and the bigger gifts are brush styles which as the name entails is a brush style for a paint brush(tbh im not sure what you were expecting). Some of the brush styles do cool little things like filling in the floor or walls immediately so you do have to hold down the paint button, this is a great thing to use for painting in specific spots in a drawing. Other styles let you use custom colors and similar stuff like that. Over all this game is amazing, i don’t see myself as an artist and i barely draw but i've managed to absolutely adore this game, which is perfect because you don’t have to be an artist to enjoy the game and understand some characters thoughts and stuff but if you were this game will be extra good.

One thing in this game that deserves more love other than just the whole game is the art academy. You encounter the art academy after going to potluck and meeting your parents where you see your sister and her friend who acts all sassy to you because she's jealous that they work their asses off to become the wielder and that someone like Pizza just got it for nothing. After your sister Clementine's friend leaves she tells you that you should attend an art class which involves you drawing stuff like recreating classics(I have no clue if the classics are actually classics or not in real life so) and drawing stuff like an emotion or a thing like a dream you had. With recreating the classics you totally don't have to recreate it one for one but it's actually encouraged to draw in your own style. After each painting other art students compliment you on your work except for Clementine's fried radish who eventually leaves the academy and has a whole side quest after that which I won't spoil here because it's honestly better for you to experience yourself. There are twenty paintings you could do in total where half of which is classics and the other is just other stuff. you could see the paintings of other stuff across the world and you could see the classics in the gallery where the curator will give you the originals as decorations

Speaking of which you could get directions in this game which are obtained by finding the lost children and also can be bought with litter. the decorations very from plants to furniture which you could put anywhere and some npcs will comment on the furniture saying stuff like "this looks nice here, thank you" and some places require you to place stuff like for a party which will get new and old npcs to hop on in and just enjoy the party. There is a special type of decoration called music boxes which play music from certain places like towns to caves which you could place anywhere just as decoration or for its intended purpose . . . to play music.

Some small details in this game that deserve appreciation is the hint system which is accessed by going to a telephone booth which Pizza calls their parents which I just find adorable. The mom gives you a simple hint on what to do next and sometimes Pizza’s dad wants to talk. If you let him talk he just tells you exactly where to go which kinda breaks the fourth wall but that's alright. (a little thing i like to do is letting the dad talk even though i don’t need the advice because it's always nice to let your dad talk once in awhile.) ANother detail is that everything is paintable even the little bugs that walk across the place. There is so much I want to talk about this game but I will refrain from doing so, so I won't spoil anything.

This game hit me personally. I struggle with self doubt a whole lot which allows me to connect with the characters and the game overall. This game also came to me when I needed it most, my dad was in the hospital at the time and this game acted like an escape from that to help me from worrying about his safety and stuff like that. I recommend this game to anyone who has a soft side to them or someone who's looking for a comfy game to play. I’ll be giving this game a 10 out of 10 but I might be biased so go check it out for yourself. The game is on switch, ps4 and steam and costs  20 bucks but it's so worth the price because of all the enjoyment and the amount of things you can do in it. I have just finished the game hundred percent (the first game i have done so in) which honestly wasn’t hard at all and there are npcs that let you know where some stuff are too.( there is a little thing that the developers do after you get 100% which is just adorable and really cool)

This game changed my life( this may be exgatreration but it honestly did) It's a experience that i'll will treasure and love forever which i hope this game will give you too