Born of Bread - A lighthearted, Paper Mario-inspired RPG adventure

[Victar]

Currently available on PC, Playstation, Switch, and Xbox, Born of Bread is a lighthearted RPG obviously inspired by the early Paper Mario games, both in art style (strictly 2D characters on a 3D background) and in gameplay (turn-based combat with action commands, low damage numbers, and the "boons" resemble Paper Mario badges). The story is family-friendly, leans on the fourth wall sometimes, and features a lot of comedy in its somewhat-serious core plot.

There's just so much charm on display. The youthful protagonists (the hero is a "bread golem" who literally pops into existence at the beginning of the game), the cutesy monsters, the witty and wisecracking NPCs, the barrage of puns, the colorful landscapes, and the wonderful music all make Born of Bread a delight to play.

The main story of Born of Bread is fairly short. However, there are lots of sidequests to complete, and tons of hidden treasures and skill points to search out. Choosing to do all or most side content makes Born of Bread into a satisfying, full-length game.

Born of Bread's most notorious flaw, and perhaps the biggest reason why it didn't sell high enough to keep its developers afloat (as far as I know its development team has disbanded, and no future updates or sequels are likely to happen), is its preponderance of bugs and glitches. These were especially egregious on the game's release.

The worst of the game-breaking and softlock-inducing bugs have been patched, but the damage was done  to Born of Bread's reputation, and some of the remaining bugs are annoying. In my playthrough of the PS5 version, I encountered a quest-related softlock (reloading and being more careful about turning in quest items solved it), an exploration-related softlock (starting combat by whacking an enemy solved it, reloading also would have worked), a quest-breaking bug involving Papa Baker in the quest "Sweet Success" (leaving and re-entering the Royal City solved it) and most aggravating of all, a bug that impeded 100% completion.

This anti-100%-completion bug was a grapple point in 4th chapter's city that Just. Doesn't. Work. Grappling seems to work fine at every other grapple point, but this one grapple point refused to accept the grapple command. The only way to reach the treasure near the grapple point (required for certain Achievements/Trophies) is to collect all three in-game speed boosts and perfectly execute a running jump to the sandbar you're supposed to reach by grappling. This running jump is very tightly spaced and I succeeded only once in dozens and dozens of tries.

These bugs were infrequent enough that they didn't ruin the game for me. But taken all together, they were noticeable. The other reasons why Born of Bread didn't have too much success probably were its limited advertising, its high base price of $25 (budget-conscious gamers can occasionally find it on sale), and stiff competition from other Mario RPGs and indie RPGs released right around the same time.

It's unfortunate. Born of Bread truly is a gem of the game. The music is especially outstanding, with unique battle themes for each major sub-area and boss. A great deal of content was allegedly cut from the final game, including an optional boss battle and a whole additional chapter exploring an urban environment reached by subway. Hints as to what could have been can be experienced through the previously-unreleased Born of Bread soundtrack songs on YouTube.