I chose to pick this one up on my tablet and I'm glad I did. I'm sure it's just as brilliant on smaller devices, but when it comes to battle I find the extra swiping space helps. Battle you say in a game that looks like it's cooking based by the icon, what do you mean!? It is a game called Tavern Quest by Glu in which you both run a tavern AND embark on mighty quest battles!
Lemme give you a bit of background. Our hero you see, is the dragon from the icon. Unlike the other dragons, he isn't about terrorising the citizens of the world, he's more preoccupied with cooking. Being keen and wise, he quickly realises that by opening a tavern and befriending the heroes of the realm he can get the chance to exact revenge on those who bullied him in the monster world by sending the heroes he is feeding out after them!
Build your tavern and cook your food, much like Chefville and other cooking games. Place your cooking areas and select your dish to cook based off it's time or if you require them. This is where it is not like the other cooking games. Each dish has a flavour (sometimes multiple flavours) and these flavours are what your heroes are after.
Heroes will wander in seeking sustenance of a particular calibre. If you have that flavour and the amount requested, the hero will stay and dine. They take varying lengths of time to eat, so make sure you have plenty of seating or Glu Coins to hurry them up. Once they are done you can offer them a room in your tavern to stay in (this increases with your tavern level). Once they accept the offer you can now use them for quests!
Quests sometimes require specific heroes in order to complete them. Build your standards and unlock new heroes. Each flag attracts a set and as you level up, try and keep one of each type of hero you encounter as you may need them down the road. Just make sure you don't get them killed. When you choose a quest to complete the difficulty level is denoted by a skull. The easiest quests are 1 skull hard and they only go up from there. You will have the chance to select who to take into the quest (some classes locked) so you can level up your lower level guys at times or sub in your tougher guys if required. Take your heroes in and start your campaign against the monster.
Defeat the monster and your heroes earn experience. Experience of course results in levels! Levels power up your heroes and this is why it's important to collect one of each and not get them killed. Pretty straight forward I know. Collecting one of each also earns you Glu points and other rewards.
There are of course items in the game that can only be purchased with Glu points and will prevent you from completing quests and the such but it doesn't look finite. This isn't a wall, it's a grade (those things us farmers love to vanquish just cuz we can!).
Ways to earn Glu points:
Finish the cooking tier for an item
Complete quests (there are a few that offer Glu points here and there)
Complete the objectives and tasks
Watch videos or download other games and apps (on Android at least, we all know Apple isn't down with that normally)
Join the Glu VIP program (of course!)
So it is not impossible to get your Paladin standard and start attracting them etc.; it's just going to take longer then most people can tolerate.
So build your tavern, do your quests, cook your food, level up your heroes and exact your revenge as a bullied dragon who wishes nothing more then to express himself through his culinary endeavours. How can you not love it? The art style is quirky and personable. The character name generator is amusing and fitting. The recipes themselves are equally as amusing and you have to appreciate that some recipes look sad while cooking, indifferent when sat on the counter waiting to be served and happy once on a customers table.
It's the little things that matter really!
It is also one of the few games I play with the audio on. Very fitting and complimentary.
I very much approve of this game as it has prevented me from playing the multitude of other games I've been meaning to check out as I look into applying to different companies for employment... :s
Now...
Exploit!
There is only one exploit I have discovered in the game so far (but I've only had my hands on it a few days so far). The game doesn't take well to an 'L' shape in your tavern and you can use this during trying times to build your available dishes for a hero without letting your regular customers wear down the numbers on you.
The game is set to automatically consume and pay you for dishes when you're out of the game or off elsewhere questing etc. HOWEVER! If you are in the tavern and you build it so that there is a length of it that you can place your counters and cooking utensils in BUT keep the dining area off screen, the game doesn't automatically consume the dishes you have out unless you scroll the screen back out over your current customers.
Unless a new hero walks in (at which point the camera will pan across the tavern to the door) and you hear automatic gun fire which the sound of the game populating the tables with dishes when it realises you're looking!
Doing this can help you horde one minute recipes for a much needed hero or help you preserve dishes when you know you have another ten minutes before you can place anything new on the counter (avoiding pissing off your customers and lowering your popularity).
I am not obligated to update this class three should they choose to fix it. :)
Get It!
iOS: http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/?id=495058349
Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.glu.tavkeeper&hl=en
