Cook Serve Forever

Wow, just wow....

When i played this game way way early in development i was disappointed, the gameplay was very repetitive and got old pretty quick, it's safe to say i wasn't alone in feeling that either!

But oh my god did the team pull through, the turn-around this game had was amazing. It's genuinely a blast to play through and it hardly felt repetitive to me at all.

But this isnt a game you play just for the gameplay, oh no no no no, you play this game for it's story too and ohhhh boy did the team COOK on that department as well! Genuinely I couldnt have asked for a BETTER ending. There was a lot of subtle details that I loved between the voice acting and animation that made it just that more perfect as well.

It's safe to say that I genuinely love this game and i love this team, PLEASE play this game whenever you can, its amazing.

I've always been a fan of the Cook Serve Delicious games and stepping in to this one knowing it was a different experience had me a bit concerned. I first played this game very early in its development and the gameplay did not click with me and felt frustrating.
Fast forward to now the game is fully out and I have revisited it and I must say I am extremely impressed with all the changes that have went in to the experience. The gameplay feels rewarding and requires a lot of coordination with both of your hands simultaneously. Motions feel like the items you are prepping and as I got better at performing them the more I connected with quickly completing recipes. By the time I reached the end of the game, I didn't even need the on-screen instructions and could just do the motions based on color alone. Throw PSCR out the window, a new lasagna muscle memory has come to town.
I have always found the Cook Serve franchise to be underrated with it's world building and writing and the narrative in this game is absolutely superb. I would even call it the highlight. So much so, that it has become my favorite game in the franchise. I loved how all the main characters have their flaws and a lot of the game is centered around them working through them. Without delving in to spoilers, I saw a lot of reviews that did not agree with some of the choices, but I think in the grand scheme of the narrative that the ending works very well. Just excellent writing and great performances from the cast all around.
In a year full of fantastic video game releases, for me this one stands among them. I am happy to say that the turnaround on this game has completely won me over and I will continue to champion the Cook Serve franchise!
PS - For those franchise players who are typically keyboard mains, this one is definitely worth plugging in that controller for.

Edit: now that all of the content is out, I can confidently recommend it! They really stuck the landing with the ending, it is truly inspired, it's so sweet. Again, TLDR; this is a narrative game, not a Cook, Serve, Delicious! game. You can skip the cutscenes, but if you do there's not too much here for you, the writing's the best part. I can certainly recommend it at the current price point, but I would still wait for a sale — not necessarily because it's not worth full price (there is a lot of bespoke art and voice acting for an indie game), but because it pretty regularly goes on sale for 50% or more, and it's definitely worth that price.
I've always loved the Cook, Serve, Delicious series, ever since I was a kid, and this game does not feel like playing one of those games.
Here's the thing, though: that's good, actually!
I'm actually kind of a weirdo in that I've always been just as invested in the writing of the CSD series as the gameplay, so having a whole game to let that writing shine? Delightful! There are so many fun interactions here, I love the relationship between Nori and Brie, and the VAs do a great job with the dialogue! The art is still lovely and the music is incredible as always!
The gameplay is different, for sure. I can't speak to how well the old gameplay system worked (I only played the demo before the new stuff was implemented) but I quite like the new system. It has much lower of a skill ceiling than the main trilogy games, but what it lacks in complexity it makes up for in thematic relevance. Because unlike in the previous games, where you're starting from ground zero, Nori is already a good chef, and she already knows a lot of recipes. So going through the motions lets you listen to the dialogue stress-free, while making you feel busy and competent. And that's especially well-felt in the nighttime scenes where you aren't timed and just get to make food while listening to TV in the background. Y'know, like what people actually do when they cook. It makes it feel so much more homely and alive! It gets you in the zone of the story much more than if it were just a straightforward visual novel (which, to be honest, it's probably best to view this game as anyway).
The only gripe is that there just isn't a whole lot of game here, especially at full price. I got it half-off, which I'm fine with given that it'll be a full game eventually, but it only took me about 2 hours to do all of the story that's currently on offer, so whether you want to buy in on an incomplete story is ultimately your call. Me personally, I'm excited for the rest!

Welcome to CS:VN - Cook Serve Visual Novel. Enjoy cute art with mostly lacking gameplay mechanics.
Now, I'm playing this game after its 1.0 release, and I don't judge it by previous CSD games I've played. In comparison with those the disappointment would be even bigger.
People reading my reviews know, that above all I value addicting gameplay mechanics that are satisfying to execute. Unfortunately, in CSF those are almost non-existent. I'm totally missing sense of progress in this game. No food upgrades, no menu selection, no additional gameplay mechanics - even a single thing that would add some spice into this fully linear experience. You've pretty much seen it all since the first minutes of the game.
On top of that, the game was entirely designed with controllers in mind, sure, you can use keyboard, but it's visible that it was not the intended way to play it. That alone is not a bad thing, but CSD series was on top of everything else, a typing game, which CSD2 took to extreme, CSD3 striked perfect balance, while CSF ruined it.
Honestly, if it wasn't the massive amount of work put into the art and overall experience, I'd rate this negative. I don't have the guts to do it though - the story is heartwarming, giving a lot of positive vibes, it really pays off - if it wasn't only for those gameplay mechanics that are entirely off here. The combination that CSF includes really doesn't click, see VA-11 Hall-A as a prime example where mixing several genres worked really well instead.
Would I recommend it? Ehh, I really don't know. I don't feel bad playing it, after all I've 100% finished it, so if it was that bad I'd drop it. On the other hand it's also not a title I'd suggest grabbing, especially for its current price, which I believe is overpriced a little considering the content included.
Feeling up for a challenge? Grab CSD, continue with CSD2, and finish with CSD3. Feeling up for a nice storytelling? Grab Life is Strange, The Walking Dead, Sherlock Holmes or something. Want to mix both because you have weird taste? CSF might be a nice experience after all, if you give it a fair shot, ignore its problems and handle its gameplay mechanics like I did - annoying mandatory breaks that require some button mashing during otherwise nice cutscenes. Yes, it's harsh, but it's the best that can be said about the game that missed its point so much that it required a complete rewrite at the end of making it. Sorry Nora, you're the perfect chef, but not in the world they forced you to cook into.
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Having finished all the content in version 0.95 (the final content update), I feel very positive on the game overall. The story, while nothing groundbreaking, is a nice change of pace from the other games in the series. In terms of gameplay, I liked the fast-paced simplicity of the actions and I felt that completing all the blitz levels with gold ranks was a good challenge. However, I think some of the recipes, especially ice cream, do not give the player enough time on the default difficulty to complete them without mistakes. Conversely, hamburgers and roll sushi give too much time to get the delicious ranking, making these recipes feel easy, which is a disappointment when comparing the difficulty of CSD2/3 hamburgers to this game.

The recent update improved the gameplay significantly. The old gameplay was grindy and all of the recipes felt the same. The update fixed that issue without turning up the difficulty too much. The developer is clearly trying to go for a less hectic experience than in the mainline CSD games. If you're looking for more CSD then this isn't it, if you're looking for a similar game with a more relaxed pace then that's what this is.
Also, ignore my playtime. I left the game open on my computer on accident for like three days while I read a book or something. In its current state I wouldn't expect anyone to get more than a few hours out of this game, if that.

I refunded the game before but bought it again now that 1.0 released, they really changed the game and made it a lot more fun, It's not cook serve delicious gameplay, but is has the same designs, amazing soundtrack, artwork, and I really like the story this time.