Kitchen Sync: Aloha!

It's unbelievable how little reviews there are for Kitchen Sync Aloha.
As an avid fan of the cooking genre with games like Overcooked, PlateUp and Chef Life, Kitchen Sync Aloha brings all the fun elements of the cooking arcade mechanics, added a unique hawaiian story, along with truly making it their own.
For the quality of this game, it's actually pretty baffling how many reviews it has for it. For instance, the game itself is completed with a story, along with an endless mode and varying difficulties for the player's replayability.
1) Steam Deck Compatibility
Played the game on Steam Deck LCD, during my playthrough, there were no lag spikes or stuttering issues. It is a pixel game after all, haha
2) Story
You play as a pair of siblings (you choose male/female at the beginner of your playthrough) and start the story by inheriting your family's restaurant in Hawaii. Without much spoilers, the story is mainly about growing your restaurant with others and truly embodying the aloha spirit. It's about growing together, and overcoming challenges with the people around you. This is a heartwarming and well-thought out story plot which allows the player to naturally progress throughout the game.
3) FOOD?
Of course, a cooking game cannot go without delicious looking food! In the context of Kitchen Sync Aloha, all the 2D graphics were chef's kiss. The food looked incredible and it was thoughtful to touch on the backstory behind certain dishes with hawaiian roots. :)
4) Plethora of activities
Apart from the main minigame, players can engage in side stories as well as minigames like fishing and hiking. If you wish as well, you can develop relationships between your unlocked chefs and even ship them together at your own will <<< This may be an enticing game mechanic for all the dating game lovers haha.
THE VERDICT?
While I did not get hooked into the social aspect of the game, since I was mainly here for the food >:( I cannot deny how well-made and thoughtfully designed the game is. It truly is a gem that should have more traction. If you're on the fence on whether you should purchase the game or not, let me help you decide.
YES if you:
Love cooking style/foodie games
Enjoy matchmaking aspects from games such as Love Ghostie
Like having variety in your gameplay (Different minigames/flexibility in how you play)
NO if you:
Didn't enjoy games in the same genre i.e. Plateup
Looking for an arcade style game, this game forces you to unlock levels and progression based on the written story and some cut scenes do drag a bit.
Game is solid 8/10. 50/50 on whether I would get this full-price or on a discount though.

Kala and Kai’s aunt dies, and their uncle is just too derpy to run a restaurant by himself, so the two siblings make their way to an island of Hawaii known as Maikai to take up the family business.
Info
• Turn-based, grid-based movement. Assign a food dish to a character and where they must begin to cook it, then pass it off to a different character for combos. Time pauses automatically when everyone has finished their tasks, so no time is wasted.
• Support Links between chefs. These unlock extra dialogue scenes and increase stats. Reaching A rank unlocks Sync Styles, which are special moves that can occur during gameplay. Romance can be had once a Support Link reaches S rank between the chosen protagonist and a character or chefs that are “shipped”.
Praises
• They/them pronouns available.
• Nice art and character design.
• Food images look really appetizing.
• Not capitalistic. It isn’t about profiteering. In fact, the goal has nothing to do with how much money is made, the game doesn’t even keep track of that. It is purely about making the best food.
• Raises awareness of how rich foreigners and mainland Americans keep buying up land & businesses all over Hawaii, forcing locals (actual indigenous Hawaiians) into financial ruin.
• Lots of random tidbits of Hawaiian culture and a little history.
• Characters are appropriately tan and darker-skinned, because that’s generally what people who live in Hawaii look like.
• Gameplay is fun and addicting.
• The best caliber equipment is purple … as it should be.
Complaints
• Not enough conflict for the first 12-15 hours. Everything goes smoothly for Kala and Kai on their quest to create the best restaurant on Maikai until they receive a second Hoku (Star), which is several hours into the game. Without any resistance or struggle, stories are often boring. Most people give up on game after a few hours if it doesn’t spark their interest fast enough. (Thankfully for the devs, I don’t give up that easily because I want my money’s worth.)
• No queer male pairings, unless you choose the male protagonist? Kala can date anyone. Hina and Pele can date. None of the male characters can date each other. The rest are hetero pairings. I really hope this isn’t a “queer women are hot, but queer men are gross” thing.
• Hard difficulty achievement. Less accessibility.
• Achievements for all the different “ship” combinations. Dude, I don’t want to play the game that many times or go through the hassle of save file manipulation.
• Exactly 1 typo. At the end, Ms Winters says, “I believe a change in plans is necssary to achieve our goals.”
It’s a slice-of-life cooking sim with JRPG elements that’s about overcoming the evils of capitalism with the power of love … and food. Thus, I do recommend it! Just be sure to keep in mind that the story doesn’t really get going until the protagonists get their second restaurant Hoku (Star).

As someone well past the age of marathon video game sessions, it's been difficult for me to stick with any of the new games I've tried out, excellent though they are. Just don't have the time or ability to engage so deeply anymore.
I picked up Kitchen Sync Aloha because the dev cited Fire Emblem as an inspiration, and I'm so glad I did; it combines some of the best parts of Fire Emblem for me (the NPC support system) with a gameplay loop that is somewhat strategic, isn't too demanding (at least on Cozy difficulty), and allows playing in small chunks of time.
This is a lovely game in many respects; the art style is quite nice, and you can really feel the interest in and passion for Hawaiian culture shown by the devs. The chefs you recruit are quirky and likable. I got much more invested in the main storyline than I expected to be, and am looking forward to the day Aloha Pearl trounces the greedy corporate sharks that have been deliberately sabotaging Maikai restaurants for their own bottom line.
My main gripe is that I want more! More support conversations, more exploration into how certain personalities and backgrounds would clash. I'm not particularly asking for everyone to romance everyone else (although a few more romance options between NPCs on top of the existing ones would be nice), but there are so many ways for a relationship to evolve outside of romance.
Tl;dr: Two thumbs up.

First and foremost - This was an AMAZING game.
I played on Cozy because I'm not the type who likes the time pressure, but for those that want a little more tense gameplay, it's there. I basically 100% the relationships and all the recipes, and though it was a bit time consuming, seeing it all play out in the end made it feel worth it. And the artstyle was really cute and well done.
The relationship mechanics very much remind me of a Fire Emblem game I played. It allows you to pair a lot of the different characters together as well as romancing any of the other chefs you unlock! It even has a convenient tracker to help. Not only that but you can build up both platonic and romantic relationships, so it really feels like a whole community!
In terms of cooking mechanics, there's a lot of variety and different challenges you have to face with each kitchen, and it was a lot of fun finding different recipes to streamline it or work around that. Plus I LOVED the variety of recipes and clear thought that went into writing down and working on the twists for each one of them. I loved that some of the other chefs could give their own twists as well when you had a higher relationship with them.
Finally - the characters themselves. Each character had well thought out, amazing personalities that had you hooked and invested in them pretty quickly. From the chefs, to the side characters, to even your main character, you get to know a lot about them and really get attached to them.
All this to say 5/5, cannot reccomend this game enough if you're looking for a cute, cozy, fun, cooking game.

I love cooking games and I love dating sims, so this game caught my eye and I bought it AND played it the day I saw it despite my ever-growing backlog, lol. My first session with this game was an 11-hour all-nighter, so uh... whoops? Great game guys LOL.
I don't feel the need to go into detail about the gameplay mechanics or story, as the store page and a lot of the other reviews have already done so; all I have to add is that everything is extremely well implemented. The gameplay loop is super fun - I equally enjoyed setting up my kitchens beforehand and playing the actual days themselves - and stuff is also well-balanced on top of that. My gaming tends to be mostly VNs or casual games, and I don't really consider myself "good at video games", but I was still able to complete the achievement for getting S+ rank in all kitchens on hard difficulty with a combination of levelling up my chefs/equipment and utilizing the game mechanics well. It wasn't easy-peasy, but it wasn't agonizingly difficult, either.
I also really loved the story, and I think the romances are all thoughtful and each given equal weight + have unique storylines and art. After my original run, I went back to get every one of them and it was absolutely worth it!
Hugely recommend this game if you like cooking games, dating sims, and/or Fire Emblem.

Kitchen Sync: Aloha does something I’ve been wanting for over 20 years: it takes the support conversation system from Fire Emblem and transplants it into a completely different genre, allowing for character exploration outside the main plot and providing gameplay benefits for having certain characters work together. This works shockingly well with Kitchen Sync’s gameplay loop, and I find myself getting sucked in as I try to push those support points up each in-game day. The game also recalls FE through its planning phase, as you consider your menu, work stations, and chefs to best approach the coming challenge.
All that might sound daunting to non-FE fans, but worry not! The actual gameplay is more casual-inspired, as your chefs dart around the kitchen to complete orders. There’s a time limit, but the game pauses frequently to let you get your bearings and assign the next task. If you’re looking for a cozy experience, lower the difficulty and enjoy watching your cute chefs bond while cooking up Hawaiian food to island vibes. If you’re looking for more of a challenge, crank up the difficulty, turn off auto-pausing, and watch your careful planning pay off as your chefs turn up the heat.
My only gripes are the lack of voice acting (I’m sure full voice acting is off the table, but I’d love to hear Uncle shout “Keiki!” every few lines) and the fact that you can only have two chefs in a kitchen at a time so far (I want to build more support points aaaaaa), but those have done little to hamper my enjoyment. If this sounds at all interesting to you, whether you’re a hardcore FE fan, a cozy gamer, or anything in-between, I can’t recommend it enough.

This game is the definition of a hidden gem. For a first game from a small indie dev, it's incredibly polished and everything from art, gameplay, music and story, is so... satisfying.
I was hesitant to pick up at first because of the price and the official pics/trailer doesn't communicate the gameplay very well. I'm glad I looked up a short play-though and noticed it has similarities to other cooking games like Plateup, Overcooked, etc - just instead of controlling a single character, we're managing the flow of a kitchen and the actions are automatically completed at the stations. It only took a couple runs to pick up the gameplay loop and I've been hooked since - something like a demo would probably help similar players get into the game.
The story is also quite charming - although it starts off a little too "cozy" and slow-paced, it develops more depth than I was expecting. The visual novel aspect was utilised well to progress the main story and to learn more about the supporting characters. I also love the attention to details with cultural dishes and general respect to Hawaiian culture - hoping to return someday to try out these delicious dishes!