I played through this game twice simultaneously, once with my sister, once with my girlfriend, knowing it could leave Game Pass in the upcoming months.

When I started playing, I thought the paint-the-world-as-you-go gimmick would get old real quick, as it was kind of slow, though entertaining enough. I wasn't enamoured by the visuals and the adventure in front of me seemed trivial.

The game does an effective job in setting things up, then slowly but steadily flipping everything on its head. Rest assured, the painting mechanics get better as you go, the world around you is more and more welcoming the more you spend time with its inhabitants, and the adventure never stops escalating.

This is very much a Zelda-inspired title, so expect many equivalents, such as lite dungeons and collectibles. Overall, I may still prefer TLOZ's "latest" outings in the 2D genre, but the movement and traversing ended up being way more fluid here. And the characters have way more things to say in the world of Chicory.

This is a special title. I'll treasure my time spent with it. I had already purchased Wandersong, from the same developer, so I'm eager to try it out at some point.

I was player two for both of the girls, so I was limited to be an extra brush. I enjoyed it a lot anyway, I had all of the same tools as player one, and being together sped up every painting proccess dramatically in my opinion. I'd say playing the game in co-op stimulates being creative constantly, instead of leaving many areas in blank or having ideas stagnate on the paintings.

In the end, I played a whooping total of around 49 hours adding up both playthroughs. 30 hours and a half and 18 hours respectively. Played through Xbox Game Pass on Xbox Series S.

For me this game was a beautiful experience, and I am so glad I was able to play it. The story is fantastic with how it deals with themes of burnout and depression among a bunch of other things which I would be here all day if I talked about. The story really hooked me. I loved the characters and did feel emotions over the hardships they faced. The art is also great. It has a color book charm to it which makes sense… with coloring and art being kinda the theme. If you want a game that has hard puzzles or challenging combat this game is not for you. The game's main focus is getting you to the end, which honestly I had no issue with. I found the paint mechanic to be fun and never really got stale.
The only actual complaint I would have is not even a real one. I was dumb and ended up not picking up the fast travel item making it slightly more annoying when I had to back track but again that is not the game that was just me being dumb. If you like games as experiences or for story I do recommend this game. I personally think this is the game I played this year I like the most and I played a surprising number of great games already this year.

Overall, a decent little indie title with cute characters and a nice story that deals with imposter syndrome. However, the black and white aesthetic is tough on the eyes and coloring everything doesn't help all that much. The zelda/over-top perspective of the game also becomes an issue when the game demands you start platforming and makes some of the traversing aggravating. The controls mixed with the boss battles, especially with a controller, were also a bit annoying. I wanted to like this more than I did, but here we are. Reading some of the other reviews, I wonder if I was playing the same game?

I wasn’t initially sold on its cutesy vibes and clumsy controller painting, but then its insightful and heartwarming charm about the joy of creating started to shine through, while the controller painting “upgrades” let that part of gameplay start to shine as well. It’s still intentionally a bit clumsy after upgrades, but in a way that encourages as much player expression as desired and a consciously expressed absence of judgment or gatekeeping. If that sounds like a grab bag of needlessly clinical buzzwords, it doesn’t feel like that at all in action; it’s like a joyful magic trick that convinced me to color in my restaurant menu with the provided crayons.

The light platformer puzzling and innovative boss fights are great fun, too!

I don't have a ton to say mostly because I think it's a very world-driven game with clever ideas best explored blind. I will say the art style is great, the characters are wonderful, the story is very heartwarming and special, and it's got an amazing OST. The gameplay is solid, moving the paintbrush around, especially with a mouse is fun but the hotkeys for certain commands are slightly awkward. The bosses and puzzles were clever and entertaining though, even if I do feel they peaked in the first half of the game.

I was very weary about this game, I liked the demo okay enough but figured it was kind of just a game for artists/people who liked drawing, and while obviously, you'll like it a lot if you're someone who likes drawing it does a great job at making someone like me who's not very good at art have a fun time and connect with the world. So if you're at all like me and are bad at art maybe still give this game a shot and it could very much surprise you!

Chicory transborda criatividade e carisma na sua proposta de ser meio que um sandbox de colorir com gameplay dos zeldas clássicos. Eu me realmente fui comprado rapidamente logo no inicio do jogo, mas eu sinto que ele as vezes foi ficando meio monotono na sua jogabilidade mesmo com os diversos upgrades que ajudam na exploração, a história também, apesar de competente, eu sinto que ela não chega em um algum ponto mais profundo, é decente, mas nada de muito espetacular ou que me fez ficar impressionado. A trilha sonora eu gostei bastante, principalmente da parte meio jogo de ritmo na montanha, onde ela encontra o seu apice nesse quesito.
No fim das contas, é uma experiência bem diferente da maioria dos indies, pois ele realmente tenta trazer um elemento que eu acho que nunca tinha visto em um jogo, que é esse de colorir a vontade enquanto se joga.

Chicory is another one of these cute, wholesome games that is secretly about depression. It has a lot going for it thanks to the high polish in general but particularly with the writing and characters. It's also unique in the format, it's sort of an open-world top-down puzzle-platformer but you can paint on the screen with your mouse at any time.

This gameplay is certainly unusual but it works well thanks to the great level design. The painting mechanic is not just for aesthetics, you can interact with stuff which is good because I didn't have much interest in the artistic aspect. While I think it was well implemented and worked for the game, ultimately it is gimmicky and never really felt as slick or comfortable as a more traditional control scheme. The limited movement, top-down view and lack of depth-perception also made it difficult to navigate at times. It's a cool idea but I don't think we'll see many games like it in the future without some significant changes.

While the traversal is a bit clunky, the main appeal of this game is the cute world and characters. The dialogue is very well done, both in terms of content and presentation. I'd say the game also does a great job in how it handles depression, I actually felt like I learnt something playing this. I'd say the story and world are a bit generic but the overall quality is good and there is plenty of content, I didn't really care for extra side-content or exploration here but it's there for people who like it. Overall it's a good choice for people into this kind of game.

Chicory a colorful tale is an extremely fun and charming indie game. It really is just a nice chill fun game. It isn't too complicated and it is just a relaxing game. The gameplay is fun, the visuals and art style are cute, the characters r fun and its just a very good game bordering 8/10. But the only reason I have it rated at a 7 instead of something higher is because it doesn't really have anything to push it above and beyond a lot of other games. With that being said the game is still great a very solid 7/10.

Reviewing every game i've fully completed #59

Chicory is a unique feel-good puzzle platformer about bringing color to a black-and-white world. Playing this game with a controller is a significant handicap, but the overall difficulty is so low it didn't matter. Coloring in the world is immensely satisfying, and almost all of the finicky drawing sections are optional. I do not have the gene for visual art, but the game makes coloring very accessible while still allowing for higher-order art if that's something you enjoy.

Unlocking new abilities and exploring the world was great fun, and most of the puzzles were engaging. Boss fights are really creative and visually stunning, although a couple of them are so gruesome and nightmarish that I can't imagine a child playing them. It's a real shame, because otherwise this is very much a sophisticated game for modern children, with a lot of room for player expression and optional secrets.

The game is well-written, but I would have liked a few more "quirky" characters (Pickle is the MVP). The message of the game is beautiful and heartwarming, but it misses the mark a bit by over-indulging in dialogue. For a game that is so diagetically unique and compelling, you really don't need to underline every theme over and over again. If a picture is worth a thousand words, you don't also need a thousand words to explain it.

While not doing a whole lot for me emotionally, Chicory is a very endearing experience that reaches out to the people that needed to hear its message. Gameplay is fun using the brush to colour in things willy nilly or using it as intended to solve puzzles and discover new areas, and the game does a good job guiding you through those areas so you dont get super lost. Dialogue is a mixed bag for me, ranging from emotional lines or funny one liners to eye rolling conversations that dont feel needed. I really enjoyed my time with Chicory, im a Finji shill so anything they put out im vibing with, was hoping for something more deeper reaching but its overall message was good as is

knew this was leaving game pass so i had intended to spread it out over the remaining days of the month with plenty of time to spare. ended up playing this over two days in bigger binge sessions instead. i really enjoyed myself.

didn't know a ton about this going in other than the charming artwork. i had assumed this was going to be an RPG (a turned based one at that) with more focus on combat and the other elements that come with it than the puzzle adventure game with light combat that this turned out to be. what i ended up with is more to my tastes most of the time so it worked out for the better.

cannot stress enough how taken i was with this for its duration. loved the universe with the characters within, visuals/colors, music, and even the combat was better than i had expected when it showed. i could see where this might be a bit repetitive but it also probably didn't help that i played through this the way i did.

i've been drifting away from going for 100% in most games but i'm really glad i did here. some of the stuff could be taken or left (the litter?) but pretty much everything else felt essential. the mystery side diversion with the cameo from Frog Detective and general Ace Attorney elements was so wonderful.

i would've gotten to this eventually but i want to give thanks to @Wollom for suggesting this in my you choose, i play list. the mixture of that and it leaving game pass brought me to it earlier than i would've otherwise.

looking forward to my eventual replay.