Food Personified Around the World!note
This is a legend filled with beauty and adventures - Food Souls
They give countless souls the power to survive;
to move beyond the endless darkness that has infested this world and to guide all things forward.
They have answered the prayers of the living and have become the driving force for new dawn.
They bring the world hope and happiness.
They will forever be a part of this world...
—Intro sequence
Food Fantasy is a story-heavy gacha RPG whose gameplay revolves around two things: A Gameplay Automation battle where you aid your summoned Food Souls in battle, and a Restaurant Management game where you sell a wide variety of dishes and get lots of money. Originally released by Funtoy games in 2017 in Chinese application play stores, it was released internationally by Elex on July 20th, 2018, on the Google Play store and iOS, and later received a Japanese release on October 2018. In early 2019, a second global version for Oceania and South America was released, titled Food Fantasy: New Journey.
You, as the Player Character, had just opened your very first restaurant, and is eager to get started. On the day of your shop's opening, a random woman walks in and becomes your first customer. After complementing your food, she advises you in the way of summoning Food Souls, who would have an easier time in procuring fresh ingredients. So you do so, and of the Food Souls you summoned, one stood out: Rice, a Soul that cannot fight.
And it all goes south from there.
Compare Cuisine Dimension (all-female food personification game) and The Tale of Food (all-male, all-Chinese).
Food Fantasy contains examples of:
- Alliterative Title: Food Fantasy.
- Ambidextrous Sprite: True for most one-eyed Food Souls (such as B-52, Peking Duck, and Cassata), whose covered eye appears to switch places when looking the other way (left and right).
- Amusement Park of Doom: The 2018 event "Halloween Amusement Park" features an abandoned amusement park, and ever since it closed down, anyone who entered were said to be never seen again.
- And Your Reward Is Clothes: Some events reward the player with a "Skin", which is an alternate appearance of a Food Soul. Equipping this would give the Food Soul a new portrait and a new outfit, sometimes including a new weapon and animations. Some skins even have Live2D animation in their art.
- Animal Companion: Many Food Souls are accompanied by animals. Examples include Peking Duck's ducklings, Sanma Shioyaki's cats, and White Truffle's dog.
- Another Side, Another Story: How most of Food Souls' backstories work, as they are often connected to another Food Soul. An example of this would be Peking Duck and Yuxiang’s stories. In Yuxiang’s story, you find out about the aftermath of a whole city being destroyed, with Peking Duck being heavily implied to be the one who destroyed it, in Peking Duck’s story you find out his motivations and why he spared Yuxiang.
- Arbitrary Headcount Limit: In both Teams and the Restaurant.
- Teams for combat and delivery can only have five Food Souls at most.
- The number of Food Souls that can work in the Restaurant is determined by the level your Restaurant is at, with more positions being unlocked as it levels up. You start with a limit of two Food Souls, but can grow that limit up to seven (2 chefs, 4 waiters, 1 manager).
- Back from the Dead: The "humans" in Sakurajima have all died due to a plague and were brought back as Fallen Angels by Inugami.
- Beach Episode: In a sense, the "Beach Party" event, a skin gacha that gave several Food Souls beach-themed skins as well as plenty of ocean-themed furniture.
- BFG: Brownie's weapon is a bazooka-like gun that's as long as his upper body, which naturally deals a lot of damage.
- Bowdlerize: A number of Food Souls who originally bore flesh here or there, particularly from early on, had their outfits modified to cover said parts covered up
for the international release. (These changes were reverted at one point, only to be reinstated shortly thereafter.) - Brother–Sister Team: Taiyaki and Dorayaki have a combo attack together. There is also Sushi and Sashimi.
- Cast Herd: Some groups of Food Souls have their own stories and interpersonal problems, such as Coffee, Chocolate, Milk, Black Tea and Tiramisu, who all once ran a café together, while Peking Duck's story is connected to Hawthorne Ball, Plum Juice and Yuxiang. Doubles with One Degree of Separation because while some Food Souls aren't too connected per se, they have a connection to at least one Food Soul from the group. (For an example, Bonito Rice later finds himself helping Sanma's school before he found Raindrop Cake).
- This comes into play in the Food Soul Collection, where trying to unlock the backstories of an entire interconnected group of characters will net you rewards (such as a player icon of one of the characters, or some exclusive furniture for your restaurant. In fact, if you want a four-person table for your restaurant, the Food Soul collection is the only way to obtain one.)
- Cast of Personifications: The Food Souls are all physical spirits, but all of them look very human.
- Cherry Blossoms: A number of examples can be found throughout the game:
- Sakuramochi is a Cherry Blossom Girl.
- The Japanese-inspired island, Sakurajima, is Exactly What It Says on the Tin with cherry blossom trees abundant around the area.
- During the Spring Time event, one of the rewards was a frame decorated with Cherry Blossoms.
- The event Sakura Falls introduced Raindrop Cake, who is associated with hydrangeas but has cherry blossoms on his umbrella.
- Combat Hand Fan: Crepe uses her fans as weapons; her normal attack involves whipping up tornados to attack enemies, and her power skill is her doing a fan dance as an attack.
- Combatant Cooldown System: Most Food Souls have skill cooldowns and casting times for skills that are not their basic skill.
- Cooking Mechanics: You collect ingredients and use them to make many different dishes to serve in the restaurant portion of the game, or feed them to your Food Souls to raise your level.
- Creator Provincialism: This game is supposed to showcase different foods from around the world, but it should come as no surprise that about half of its various Food Souls are Chinese or Japanese because the game originates from China.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: The first time you fight Boston Lobster in the story. Everything seems fine until the team brings him to 50% health- then he performs an attack that kills everyone on the team at once. However, provided one is lucky enough to have summoned a powerful Food Soul, it is perfectly possible to deliver this onto him instead.
- Dating Sim: There's no actual dating involved, but Food Fantasy has the Pledge System, which functions similarly to marriage.
- Do Not Try This at Home: The in-game description of honey.Getting stung by a bee is worth it for this delicacy! (don't do this)
- Dude Looks Like a Lady: There are plenty of male Souls who are masculine, and a couple who look girly at first glance that you'd have to read their profiles to make sure of their gender. Special mentions go to Kirimochi, Borscht, Cordyceps, Croissant, Sea Urchin (a Wholesome Crossdresser), and Bloody Mary (who has a skin where he wears a dress).
- Dysfunction Junction: Increase the fondness of several Food Souls enough, you will learn that a good portion of the Food Souls have inter-connected yet also Dark and Troubled Past with some having psychological scars over it and/or have a Humans Are Bastards mindset in the aftermath, only getting slightly better while under the care of the playable Master Attendant. Keyword, slightly.
- Eagleland: The appropriately-named Gloriville appears to be inspired by the United States, based on some of the food associated with its cuisine (Popcorn, Pork Burger, Roast Beef, French Fries, Roast Chicken, Chicken Pizza...)
- Edutainment Game: In a sense, since it's a game about humanized food. All of the food in the game is well researched, from when it was first invented, its country of origin, and what type of food it is. You'll probably come across at least a few dishes you've never heard of while playing, and might be tempted to go research it further.
- An Entrepreneur Is You: Your main goal in-game is to improve your restaurant with the help of your Food Souls. Oh, and save the world while you’re at it.
- Evolving Title Screen: The game's title screen background changes according to current events, such as anniversaries and Christmas seasons. You'll either find Rice still floating with her eyes closed, or open and beaming, and the food on the tables changed to match the event.
- Fairytale Wedding Dress: A few of the female Food Souls have special wedding dress-inspired skins.
- Black Tea's "Fragrant Rosebud" skin is a long, slinky dress with lace, bell-shaped sleeves, an underskirt covered in sheer fabric and roses, a matching rose sash and veil, red ribbons, and white heels. Even her pistols have a matching pink rose motif.
- Vodka's "Dance of Pledges" skin is a bluish-white sheer lacy dress with a Romanoff-esque veil, crown, and sash, lacy stockings and gloves, and matching heels. Even her eagle, Andre, has a little hat on to match.
- Nougat wears this as her default skin instead of an alternate, being someone who wants to fall in love and ring all the bells following it someday.
- Fire-Forged Friends: One of the ways to increase relationship values with a Food Soul is to use them often in battle, which may randomly net you relationship points for one or more members of the current team.
- Fission Mailed: Zigzagged. In the first fight with Boston Lobster, it is supposed to be impossible to win. The story continues after your defeat, and his Attendant simply calls him off and leaves. However, if you do manage to win (most likely by being lucky enough to summon an Ultra Rare Food Soul), the story continues as though you had lost.
- Game-Over Man: A variant of this happens where when the player loses a level, three chibis of Long Bao will appear.
- Loading Screen: Happens when you enter a battle. It’s usually migrated with loading cards.
- Magically-Binding Contract: Summoning a Food Soul automatically forms a contract between the Soul and summoner, and the Food Souls must obey the Attendant they are contacted with.
- Moe Anthropomorphism: Of various foods around the world.
- Non-Indicative Name: Dine-and-dash customers don't actually run off without paying, or even order anything to begin with. Rather, they just dance on one of the seats and prevent others from using it until you step in and kick them out.
- Rarity does not directly indicate how hard someone is to obtain, but their potential in battle. Rare Food Souls are actually the easiest to obtain in a Feast of Creation, both collectively and individually, while Mundane ones are the hardest to get collectively. Ultra Rare ones vary individually, although they are still the second-to-hardest to get collectively.
- The Oceania/South America version of the game, Food Fantasy: New Journey, does not set you off on a new journey, as the levels and story are both the same as before. It is only a localization for several regions that were still awaiting the one game.
- Olympus Mons: Ultra Rare Food Souls were this in previous versions of the game until the Specials arrived. Still, going for URs is a more realistic prospect compared to SPs unless you have the Crystals and Embers to burn.
- Poison and Cure Gambit: Calamus Wine's former Master Attendant poisoned all their servants, and would only grant them the antidote if they submit to their master. The poison only took effect after a varying period of time, and would induce great pain instead of immediately killing its victim, but if the master didn't think someone would be useful, no amount of begging could save that servant. Almond Tofu's elderly Master Attendant was a former servant who escaped with Calamus Wine's help, but finally succumbed to the poison many years afterwards.
- Power Equals Rarity:
- In a literal sense that rarity is used as a combat ranking than the probability of getting them. Fighting potential is ranked in this order from lowest to highest: Mundane (M), Rare (R), Super Rare (SR), Ultra Rare (UR), and finally Special (SP).
- It's pointless to put Mundane Food Souls in combat, but their real purpose is to manage your Restaurant and other stamina-intensive tasks, having skills you can upgrade that boost the related skills. That said, you might have thought that Mundane-rarity would be Com Mons in conventional rarity-based Gacha Games, but really, they're among the hardest to get.
- Really 700 Years Old: The Food Souls' character stories all reveal that many of them could and have lived long to over 100 years.
- Retcon: Dorayaki used to be Taiyaki's younger brother, but it was switched around in an update.
- Self-Harm–Induced Superpower: Bird's Nest Soup is described to sacrifice her own blood to enable "Bleeding Cry", her energy skill.
- Shout-Out: The ingredient, Spinach, is described as "The secret behind a sailor's strength."
- Something about a Rose: Chocolate holds a bouquet of roses, and his Combat Skills involve roses; his normal skill has him throwing roses in the air to assist his teammates, and his power and linked skills uses the scent of roses to damage enemies.
- Spread Shot: Black Tea's power skill, Flower Blossoms, and her linked skill, Super Flower Blossoms, deals damage to all enemies via her pair of flintlocks.
- Storm of Blades: Zongzi's power skill, Shooting Swords, and his linked skill, Super Shooting Swords, rains swords made of energy on the Fallen Angel.
- Super-Deformed: The Food Soul's in-game sprites are all chibis. There are also various Long Bao chibis that can be found throughout the game.
- Through His Stomach: Other than battling, the other way to increase relationship value with a Food Soul is to feed them food. Each Soul has a Trademark Favorite Food that nets them more relationship points than normal, and a favorite food that's especially well-cooked earns even more points than that.
- Victory Quote: If a Food Soul is a leader of your team, they exclaim a victory quote when you win a battle.
- Video Game Tutorial: Rice, the mascot, serves as your tutorial guide for the first few levels of the story. (This is despite the fact that story-wise, she hasn’t even been summoned yet!)
- Wonder Twin Powers: Some skills can be used when two (or more) Food Souls are in a team together, such as Black Tea and Milk, Coffee and Chocolate, Cloud Tea and Sweet & Sour Fish, Wonton and Tortoise Jelly, and many others. Most of the link skills between the Food Souls are more focused on their connected lore with each other. In the case of a few linked pairs, such as Sweet Tofu and Salty Tofu, they really are twins.
