Beastro serves a five-flavor deck system with puppet battles

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Timberline Studio has shared new details on Beastro, a narrative cooking-and-combat game set in the artisan village of Palo Pori. Players step into the role of Panko, a talented young chef thrust into wider duties after a mentor’s disappearance. The studio outlines how five core flavors – bitter, salty, sour, sweet, and umami – shape the world and power a card-driven battle system. Daily life revolves around managing a restaurant, preparing meals for visiting heroes, and then witnessing their exploits in a paper puppet theater at night. The update focuses on systems and story setup, without announcing a release date.

World and premise: a chef at the village wall

Palo Pori is presented as a peaceful hub hemmed in by a protective wall, while monsters from another realm creep at the edges. After a stranger delivers ominous warnings, Panko must balance running the local eatery with supporting the village’s Caretakers – adventurers who venture out daily to push back the threat and uncover who unleashed it. Gathering, farming, and fishing provide the ingredients that power both the kitchen and combat.

Flavor-driven design across the entire game

Beastro’s systems revolve around taste. Bitter, salty, sour, sweet, and umami are more than themes – they define regions, influence creatures, and act as suits in the card encounters. Stocking the pantry and opening the restaurant prepares a visiting Caretaker for the day’s venture, tying the culinary loop directly to progression in the wilds.

Puppet-theater nights and trick-taking battles

Each night, Panko heads to the tea house to watch a paper puppet show recounting the Caretaker’s day. Battles unfold as turn-based encounters inspired by traditional trick-taking card games. Monsters set the flavor for each round, and players respond with compatible cards. Overpowering an enemy deals damage and can also trigger special abilities, letting you subtly influence the outcome of the day’s journey.

Cooking builds your deck – meal by meal

Your combat deck is constructed from the exact ingredients and recipes used during the Mise en Place phase. Every dish can yield new cards, abilities, and combinations, enabling deeper forays outside the village. Some ingredients come with distinct effects – for example, bitter components can convert damage into health, and adding a marshroom can put a monster to sleep, preventing it from playing a card that turn.

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Monsters fight back with their own twists

Enemies also wield flavor-based powers. A key hazard is the risk of burned-up cards, which halve a card’s power and can undercut your strategy if you are not careful. This push-and-pull encourages careful planning during prep and flexible card play during encounters.

Key mechanics at a glance

• Five-flavor system – bitter, salty, sour, sweet, umami act as card suits and world motifs.
• Restaurant management – gather, farm, and fish to stock ingredients and feed a visiting Caretaker.
• Puppet-theater storytelling – nightly shows recount the day and let you steer outcomes.
• Trick-taking combat – monsters set the round’s flavor; play compatible cards to win the trick and trigger abilities.
• Deck from dishes – meals define your cards and unlock new combos and effects.
• Status and risks – bitter ingredients can heal via damage conversion; marshroom induces sleep; burned cards cut power in half.

What’s next: more details and a gameplay look

The studio notes that additional info is on the way and highlights a new gameplay trailer showcasing these systems in motion. No release timing was provided in this update.

Final takeaway – plan the meal, win the trick

Beastro ties kitchen prep directly to card combat, asking players to think ahead in the restaurant and adapt in the puppet theater. If you enjoy management loops blended with trick-taking strategy, this flavor-first design signals a distinctive spin on deck-based adventures.