Adventure Bar Story

Genre: Turn-Based JRPG / Management Simulation

Players: 1

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Review:

Adventure Bar Story, released on mobile devices in 2012 and ported to Nintendo 3DS in 2015, is a game that was instantly familiar to me the moment I started playing it because it is clearly the prototype for developer Rideon Japan’s subsequent game, Marenian Tavern Story: Patty and the Hungry God, which I already reviewed on Nintendo Switch. This game features different visuals and a different plot, but the core mechanics and structure of this game are much the same as that one.

Like Marenian Tavern Story, Adventure Bar Story is a Turn-Based JRPG with innkeeper management sim elements baked into it in a way that’s somewhat comparable to Stardew Valley and Moonlighter. And much as in those games, the different elements at play here are symbiotic – the tavern management and cooking is needed to increase characters’ effectiveness in the field, and exploring dungeons and gathering ingredients in the field is needed to boost your success in the tavern.

The story of the game takes place in a medieval fantasy setting and follows a woman who lives with her sister in a bar the two work in. This bar comes under threat one day when a powerful restaurant owner makes it clear he wants their property for himself,and their friend makes it clear that the restaurant owner will be using shady tactics to steal the property from them. Their only way to stop this from happening? Turn their bar into such a massive success that it couldn’t possibly be shut down.

It’s not a particularly great story, and it’s made worse by some pretty poor localization that at times makes it difficult to understand the characters. In particular, characters early on talk about “mats”, which some gamers may recommend as a shorthand for “materials”, but this isn’t common vernacular and the game using this shorthand seems sloppy and amateurish.

This issue extends to the rest of the presentation as well, with the game’s graphics using generic-looking pixel artwork that resembles classic 16-bit RPG styles, as well as a chiptune soundtrack that’s… just not very good.

On the bright side, that gameplay is actually pretty compelling, and the loop of fighting monsters and gathering ingredients, taking them home to create recipes to sell in the tavern, and then taking the money to buy better equipment for fighting keeps the game interesting, especially because the game doesn’t just leave it at that.

One ingenious thing this game does is that characters get no experience or levels from fighting enemies. Instead, you level them up by feeding them the foods made with your ingredients, a fun twist that will have you judging whether to put the foods you cook for sale in the tavern, or greedily gobble them yourself for experience.

Other systems, such as a recipe system that tells you some, not all, or the ingredients you need for some foods, or lets you get recipes from other townspeople, all add interesting twists to the formula as well. However, especially early on it seems like there are too many factors at work here to just guess at the recipes in question, limiting the appeal of trying to guess at working recipes.

In the end, Adventure Bar Story is basically a lesser version of Marenian Tavern Story, which itself wasn’t quite up to par with the likes of Stardew Valley and Moonlighter when it comes to mixing Management Sim and Turn-Based JRPG elements into a great experience with a lot of variety. However, it’s still enjoyable and does enough unique things that make it worth a look, especially for the low $6 price. Though, if you have a Nintendo Switch, you’re better off just getting Marenian Tavern Story instead.

tl;dr – Adventure Bar Story is a blend of Management Sim and Turn-Based JRPG that has players hunting in dungeons for ingredients and then bringing those back to their bar to make recipes to sell. It’s a good combination of elements that would later be built upon for Marenian Tavern Story, and this game does suffer from a terrible localization, but fans of Management Sims will still find this to be a charming game, worth the $6 price tag.

Grade: C+

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