Overall a surprising blind purchase I've made that turned out to be a very cute and well designed puzzle game. There is a simple but cozy story with nice art that made me continue the game till the end. The music is not something to brag about but it's chill and that's what matters in the end. Afterburn managed to win me over and will try other games from them and will follow their future games to come (hope they will be as solid as this one).
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A soothing game about packing bento lunches. You follow the story of a mother cat and her child as you pack lunches through 14 chapters of 9 levels each. Confronted with tiles of food to place in specific patterns, you must determine the order and rotation of the tiles to form the pattern in the lunch box. The game is extremely cheap, providing you with a couple hours of relaxation for peanuts.

My one criticism is that the music loops are a bit short, so you end up listening to the same loop over and over again per chapter, which can get somewhat repetitive. The visuals, however, are perfectly calming, and I found myself delighted by the little images that tell the story of the cats.

4/5, with a star knocked off for the music irritating me a bit at one point. This is, however, a problem easily remedied by muting the music and playing your own tunes in the background.

It’s been a while since I’ve played a puzzle game on par with Inbento. Not only is it adorable, as promised by the felines and food it advertises, but it ended up being much more challenging than I’d expected! I did have to use a guide for a few (and my boyfriend for others), but that was ultimately only a small blemish on my enjoyment.
Inbento’s selling point for me was definitely the presentation. The game is mascotted by two cute cats, who pack cute little boxes of bento full of different foods. How could you not love that? The art is flat and lineless - simple, but colorful and warm. It feels like a cartoon from your childhood.
The game’s UI is surprisingly smooth, too, despite Inbento’s overall warmth; its colors and rounded shapes really help to carry that over. One of my favorite details in the whole game is that all of the menus are ringed ‘cookbooks’!
Although I already knew that I liked the art style going in, I was pleasantly surprised by how dynamic the music was. Most of the songs are led by the beautiful, relaxing combination of piano and xylophone. A new track accompanies each two chapters; and this music is not only important in setting an atmosphere, but also in keeping the narrative flowing.
Our main characters are those two adorable cats - a new mother and her baby. We follow their lives through a series of photos (one earned for each chapter finished.) These serve as snapshots into their relationship with not only each other, but cooking as well.
It’s a simple story at the end of the day, far from anything groundbreaking; yet it’s also incredibly warm and pleasant (again, just like a childhood cartoon.) Since there’s limited photos to directly communicate, though, the music is a big factor in keeping the narrative pacing and vibe intact during the puzzle portions.
You could say that the worldbuilding is a bit lackluster because there are so few actual story moments. I mean, the only time you earn more than one photo at a time is during the beginning and end. Still, there are plenty of cute details and inclusions. Spoilers, but I thought it was funny and cute how the mother is seemingly a single parent, and her child later becomes one as well. Pretty accurate to cats.
As for the puzzles themselves, well… as I’ve said, they were way tougher than I expected! The goal is to match your bento box to the solution shown, with the pieces provided. Sounds simple enough - but it quickly becomes challenging as you work with bigger boxes and more complex pieces.
I did get stuck multiple times in later stages. Although I eventually figured out a lot of them, I needed help from a guide or my boyfriend for many others. If I’m being honest, it did get frustrating; there were a few times where I honestly felt like I would’ve never figured out the solution on my own. Once, I swear it wasn’t even my fault! There was a trick involved that I just didn’t know about and hadn’t used at all up to that point.
Still, I came away feeling that most of Inbento’s puzzles were very fun and inventive. The mechanics build off of each other so naturally, as you gradually unlock pieces that can move, swap, or clone your cubes. And as the puzzles start getting harder, there’s a great feeling of accomplishment when you finally beat one. I also appreciated the sheer number of puzzles included - 127 total! It’s a great amount of content, able to keep me entertained for hours.
So, if you’re looking for an adorable puzzle game that’ll also give mind-bending challenge, I’d definitely recommend Inbento! I thoroughly enjoyed my time with it, minus a few instances where I truly felt like I was hitting my head against a wall. Even then, the beautiful music and charming visuals easily balanced it out to keep me engaged; and the puzzles are so much fun, especially when you piece together a particularly difficult one all on your own.

Visuals: 4/5
Sound: 4/5
Gameplay: 3.5/5
Story: 3.5/5
Worldbuilding: 3.5/5
Overall Game Score: 3.5/5 [3.7/5]

If you’re reading this before January 4th, 2024, Inbento is on sale for 1.49 on Steam right now, which is an amazing deal!

Um puzzle com uma estética adorável e uma história fofinha da família de gatinhos.

O objetivo é reorganizar as marmitinhas e para isso você tem algumas ferramentas e regras específicas de cada fase, como por exemplo ferramentas que trocam ingredientes de lugar, ou retiram eles da marmita para que você possa organizar e colocar em outros lugares.

Começa muito facinho e gostosinho, nível fazer uns 10 de uma vez só e progressivamente vai ficando mais difícil nível que eu ficava o dia todo pra resolver um só (abrindo de vez em quando durante o dia, como todo jogo mobile deve ser jogado). Infelizmente ficou difícil demais pra mim e acabou a magia, porque começou a me dar preguiça da dificuldade de alguns e passou a me cansar mais do que me divertir.

No fim fiz 93 puzzles de 127 e eu acho que ta bom, aproveitei bastante o jogo e me diverti enquanto deu.

Recomendo com ressalvas.

Jogado no Google Play Pass.

Inbento is gorgeous and challenging and I desperately wanted to love it as much as Golf Peaks by the same developer, but it didn't reach the same heights for me.

Aesthetically there isn't really a flaw I can point to - beautifully drawn with charming animations, great music, thematically pretty strong. If you wanna chill out with something for a while there are plenty of way worse options, and the way it looks and feels to be in the game might be enough to keep you engaged all the way.

Unfortunately, while the mechanics were very unique and interesting the variety was low (at least as far as I saw), and some puzzle solutions were far too obtuse. I ended up giving up about halfway through after I spent 15 minutes on a puzzle with no solution in sight, and was not tempted to push through at all.

This game is still really great! I may have persisted if there wasn't such a huge number of puzzle games in this bundle - I've got plenty to move onto if I want to scratch some brain itches, so unfortunately I'm putting this one down (for now).

‘inbento’ es una cosita achuchable y derretible sin más, el típico producto catalogado como wholesome cuya experiencia no progresa más allá de la ascendente dificultad de sus puzles de montar sushi. Tiene gatos, para llamar la atención y vender copias, como otros tienen gansos haciendo gansadas sinsentido. Posee un diseño gráfico bastante sólido y limpio, con bordes redondeados y colores suaves y claramente distinguibles que no obvian lo simple que es. El único cometido que tienes como jugador es colocar los bloques de sushi en el lugar y momento adecuado para montar un mosaico similar al que tienes que imitar, y ya. Al menos tienes que comerte el tarro para completar los retos propuestos, algo es algo. De vez en cuando salen viñetas de gatos para recordarte que el juego va de ellos, aunque sea para vender copias. No hacen nada interesante salvo cocinar sushi, pero ya es más de lo que puede decir el gato de ‘Stray’. ¿Os he dicho que tiene gatos? Sería lo único chulo del juego si pudieses acariciarlos.

Perdonen el desvarío. Pese todo ello, en la comodidad que ofrece ‘inbento’ está su encanto y el confort de sentirte tranquilo, sin exponerte a cualquier riesgo o reto que resulte abrumador en primera instancia. Dejándote llevar por los colores y la estética cuqui que hace tan apetecible un plato de sushi a posteriori. Puede que estas obras sean tan inofensivas que te hagan rabiar por su simpleza, clamando por un maki roll más picante y atrevido de tanto en tanto. Pero es lo que tienen los wholesome games: su experiencia de juego no evoluciona y se conforman con proponer ese espacio acogedor durante su existencia en la memoria del dispositivo. Si no les gusta, piensen que podría ser peor: hay un juego de hacer dónuts similar con un 91 sobre cien en Opencritic… no digo más.