Review | Monster Menu: The Scavenger’s Cookbook - I'll Take One Of Everything

Monster Menu: The Scavenger’s Cookbook is a tactical role-playing adventure game that was developed by Nippon Ichi Software and ported by NIS America for the EU and NA markets. I originally saw this game being promoted during my trip to a game centre in Japan back in 2022 and have been looking forward to the game being brought over to the West ever since. The things that attracted me to this game included the recognisible art style Nippon Ichi Software is very known for from its last two games. I put hundreds of hours into those games, The Labyrinth of Refrain and The Labyrinth of Galleria,  and fell in love with their look during that time. 

The other major factor that made me want to check out Monster Menu was the customization options that are in the game. Monster Menu has a few unique additions when it comes to customizing every character in your party. 

See looks just like me fr fr.

The game starts out by allowing you to choose from the eight default characters it has prepared for you to choose from and then you get to customize everything about them. From their name, class and gender, to their hairstyle, height, and even the colour of their skin, eyes, hair and clothes. Once you've done all that, you'll get to choose their pose, expression and mood for an ID-like photo that will be used and show your party in battle. 

Once you're done customizing your first character, the story starts with your character going to the town of Piohne, an area known for its adventurers.  To test your own skills, you'll set off to check out a dungeon that's nearby. You’ll quickly lose track of where you're going in the dungeon with your supplies almost running out. Once you see that you've run out, your party will attempt to make a quick escape, only to have kept searching for three full (in-game) days, never knowing if the exit was ever in reach. During your time you’ll search the area for any small scrap of food until you come across an altar with the rotting corpse of a monster on it. With your health low and your strength waning, you’ll grab a leg from the corpse and ponder if you should eat it or not. 

Take a break, friends!

Without hesitation, you’ll eat the leg. Regardless if it didn't look edible, beggars can't be choosers when fighting starvation. After eating it, your body rejects the food and you’ll suddenly fall unconscious. Time passes and you wake up in a place that's completely different from where you remember eating that leg. Even the corpse of the dead monster and the altar are nowhere to be found. 

After a quick look around your new location, you’ll deduce that this place was previously used as a campsite. You’ll realise this place is a safe zone and make it your base of operations to reach the exit. From here, you’ll find broken pieces of items like a pot and a pan that might need some mending. Once you're ready to head out of the safe zone, you’ll leave this relative safety and venture forth to finally get out of here. 

Critical miss.

Combat starts whenever you run into the enemy. Once it begins, you can move in any direction within your attack range. You can use items or swap equipment during the fight, but you risk losing your turn for it. 

From the moment I took control, I found myself fighting the camera, I went to the next floor and got instantly killed by some boss enemy with little indication as to what I did wrong. I thought I lost my character permanently just like that, but nope. Monster Menu takes after  Dark Souls where death simply means returning to your last safe bas 

After a brief dialogue section, I got to create three more allies to join me in my deadly quest. The characters you create have all apparently wound up here the same way you did you all decide to work together to help each other survive. The game will warn you about the consequences of dying during your runs. Since I was playing on Normal difficulty, I lost levels, skills acquired from food, and any traps and materials I had on my person. Luckily, though, I didn’t lose any skills I'd gained from levelling up, equipment and any valuable items. Disassembling items will quickly become a lifesaver in Monster Menu when it comes to needing ammunition like arrows or when you need to get some of the rare items to keep you alive. Annoyingly, though getting ingredients requires a huge amount of luck since drops are all down to RNG. The biggest struggle I had playing Monster Menu was managing the hydration level of each character. I’d found myself thinking that either, the game should have been balanced to hydrate you more when you stopped to eat or at least for there to be a more reliable source my characters could drink from while at a campsite. Hell, it would have been nice I you were able to find some water sources at all that our characters can drink from during runs, even if it came with some risks. 

Ooooh, what’s in the chest?

Throughout my playthrough of the game, I realized some things I should have gotten in the habit of doing, like not checking the corpse of my enemies until I’m ready to leave the floor because the meat or organs I pick up from them will spoil rapidly and lose their freshness if they sit in your inventory for too long. While leaving it in the creature I defeated would mean it could keep fresh a bit longer. I should also have kept my original mindset when it comes to RPGs that hoarding certain materials is vital and that my characters should eat after each time I’m going to rest to at least keep the hunger at bay. 

The last note I would give to people is to save before you cook up your ingredients to make food, since doing so will keep resources around to use for other things like ammunition or repairing cooking ware. The game also introduced a shortcut option for using skills, items, and guarding.  So, trust your judgment, plan your route and always be careful of opening chests in the wild…because even mimics will take you out if you’re not careful.