Sweet Ange, a cooking game / dating sim by Koei set in Angelique universe
(This review was originally published on January 12, 2006)
System: Gameboy Color
By: Koei
Year: 1999
Genre: variety game/cooking game
Difficulty level of Japanese: intermediate (an enthusiastic beginner armed with a good dictionary could probably play it without running into major trouble).
Target group: little girls (but cuteness-appreciating adults or people interested in confection making would probably enjoy playing this).
Multiplayer mode: none
Where to get it: amazon.co.jp (used)
Official site: スウィートアンジェ 製品案内
Keywords: cooking, recipe, collecting, Angelique, confection, drink, popularity
Collect recipes and ingredients, make confections and drinks, display your creations to win popularity, or give them to your friends as gifts. Sweet Ange is a cooking game published by Koei and set in the Angelique universe (just in case you’ve never heard of Angelique: it’s a popular dating sim for girls, consult Wikipedia for more information).
The game takes place several years before the events in the first game in the series and the characters are correspondingly younger. In the beginning, you are asked to choose your character (those you don’t choose become your rivals): energetic Angelique (the protagonist of other Angelique games), refined Rosalia (a young lady of noble birth), carefree (but very hardworking when it comes to confection making) Collet, or the smart and determined Rachel. Your character is a student at the Smallney Academy, one of the four lucky candidates for this year’s “Rose Contest” – a cooking contest consisting of two parts. The first part is a preliminary contest in which you have to become 1st or 2nd in popularity in 15 days. The second part is the actual contest.
The gameplay is simple – the preliminary contest consists of 15 days/turns. There’s a group of cute and popular boys at the Smallney Academy, called “The Sweet Knights” – they are the “Guardians” in other Angelique games: Marcel, Randy, Zephel, Olivie, Lumiale, Oscar, Julious, Luva and Clavis. At the end of each turn, you ask one of them to take you into town. You must also choose one or more rivals to go along. The “town” is actually a board game – you gain ingredient cards and other items as you move around. There are many special fields on the map: a star enhances the quality of one of your ingredient cards, a gem means you can open a treasure box if you’re the first one to get there, while a heart gives you an opportunity to become better friends with a Sweet Knight. Once you reach the goal you get new recipes or hearts (the in-game currency). There are over 200 recipes to collect (and use), divided into 9 categories (6 kinds of confections and 3 kinds of drinks), each of them associated with one of the Sweet Knights. Whenever you make a drink/confection, the Sweet Knights judge your efforts based on the recipe, quality of ingredients, and skill (the more you use a recipe, the more skillful you become in making that particular confection). You have to display your creations in their shops in order to gain popularity. Unlike other Angelique games, this one doesn’t let you date the Sweet Knights, you just get to learn about their interests and preferences instead. They’ll give you hints and presents while visiting the town, and sometimes even teach you new recipes.
You can buy simple recipes from Dia (the queen’s aide in other Angelique games), who also supervises the cooking process. In order to actually prepare a dessert, you need to gather all three ingredients specified in the recipe. If you weren’t lucky enough to get them for free, you’ll need to buy them in the store staffed by a mysterious lady whose identity is only revealed when (if) you actually enter the contest. There’s no special skill involved in making the confections – once you’ve gathered the necessary ingredients, you only need to talk to Dia and choose the appropriate category and recipe. It’s a very satisfying moment nevertheless, since you’ll be able to see the picture of your chosen confection for the first time once you complete the recipe.
Although being relatively short, Sweet Ange is an enjoyable experience. It’s completely turn-based and while being easy to play (and easy enough to win), still provides a considerable challenge for ambitious players who want to collect every single recipe. Highly recommended to anyone who likes cute cooking games.
+
●Not being forced to play as Angelique is refreshing (especially if you don’t like her).
●Recipe illustrations are really cute.
●It’s a relaxing, easy going game – you don’t feel too bad if you lose.
-
●Sweet Knights are not quite as charming as their older incarnations. Since they are only children, the romantic element is gone from the game.
●Not being able to save the game at any moment can be a problem sometimes.
●In order to be able to play well, you have to remember lots of things (Sweet Knight’s preferences, confection&drink compatibility etc.)
Interesting
It’s an interesting turn from the dating sim concept of other Angelique games. I hope they make a sequel or at least port this to DS.
If you like this game, you might also consider playing:
- Doki Doki Cooking Series 1 Komugichan no Happy Cake
- Ritorubateishie Keki No Shiro
- Harvest Moon Another Wonderful Life
