I’m already smitten by upcoming action RPG Town of Zoz thanks to how much it understands food

I love a game that features some kind of cooking element, so I was quite pleased yesterday when Humble Games revealed they’re publishing Town Of Zoz, a new action RPG that’s all about fighting off rats from eating your crops, taking down baddies to gather up ingredients, and using said ingredients and crops to make some tasty meals. It’s got wonderfully vibrant art and animation. The announcement trailer quickly won me over with the choppy, almost stop-motion-like quality of certain character models.

Town Of Zoz is the debut title from Studio Pixanoh, following Ito, a “young shaman chef adventurer” who has to come home to help run his family’s farm and restaurant. There’s the usual RPG questiness – dark secrets amongst the locals that you have to uncover, you know the drill – but what really sells me is its Breath Of The Wildy cooking format. Kill an enemy and out comes something like an avocado or chicken legs. Once you’ve got enough ingredients, you head to the kitchen, where it looks like you’ll have to fend off more enemies while your food cooks.

It looks like a fun, satisfying loop, and the cherry on top is what you do with the food afterwards. As you get to know people around town, you might learn their favourite meal. Making it for them will bring you closer together, and let you learn more about them. Obviously this is just a trailer, but so far Town of Zoz really seems to understand that food is best when it’s a communal activity, something to share and bond over. As someone whose family used to run a restaurant themselves, this one’s really speaking to me.

And if I wasn’t sold enough by this game already, some of the score is coming from 2 Mello. His Jet Set Radio inspired album Memoirs Of Tokyo-To is a banger, and he’s done excellent work for games like If Found, Bomb Rush Cyberfunk, and Later Alligator too. I’ll take that release date now please! You can, like I already have, wishlist it right here.