Chicory: A Colorful Tale

 PC
User Score
7.6

Generally favorable reviews- based on 76 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 53 out of 76
  2. Mixed: 12 out of 76
  3. Negative: 11 out of 76

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  1. srx
    Sep 5, 2021
    10
    Beautiful storytelling packed into a creative collectathon adventure game. Awesome characters, soundtrack, plot, worldbuilding, and game mechanics.
  2. SinirMert
    Jun 27, 2021
    10
    I can't even put my feelings into words. What an amazing game. Definitely a must try!
  3. StarryFox
    Jul 17, 2021
    10
    Chicory is a game full of heart and personality with a story that I found very relatable. It holds a special place in my heart and is securely in the spot of my favorite game I've ever played.
  4. TFG85
    Sep 4, 2021
    10
    I expected a cute little game about art, not to be hit in the feels so hard
  5. Parfaitlover
    Oct 21, 2021
    10
    Good game has a wholesome story like Wandersong and unique colouring mechanic. Also amazing soundtrack composed by Lena Raine(Celeste)
  6. Sufarius
    Feb 12, 2022
    10
    This game is like mom's cookies.
    There are no technologies that excite the imagination in it, but if you just try it, you will feel this kindness, softness, inspiration and deep, cozy warm, that not a single robot, and not a single major professional can create
  7. 7th7th
    Jun 29, 2021
    10
    A beautiful, heartfelt, achingly real game that is, on the surface, about a cartoon dog (named after your favorite food) going on a magical, old-school-Legend-of-Zelda-inspired journey to inherit a magical paintbrush that is the source of all colors in the world.

    Beneath that surface lies an evocative study of imposter syndrome, the pressure of trying to make everyone around you happy,    A beautiful, heartfelt, achingly real game that is, on the surface, about a cartoon dog (named after your favorite food) going on a magical, old-school-Legend-of-Zelda-inspired journey to inherit a magical paintbrush that is the source of all colors in the world.

    Beneath that surface lies an evocative study of imposter syndrome, the pressure of trying to make everyone around you happy, what it means to be an artist (of any kind, really), and a painfully, cathartically genuine portrait of several distinctly different types of mental illness. You'll cry, but you'll laugh far more often, and if you have even the slightest hint of a creative spirit in your heart, you'll be moved to try and be the best you that you can be, and to reach out as best you can, to help those around you along on the journey up to the metaphorical mountaintop.

    The gameplay is just as deceptively simple as the overarching themes; what begins as a sort of platforming-by-way-of-coloring-in-the-world-around-you evolves into some of the more technically complex boss fights I've run into, bending and twisting the way you use a controller/mouse, all with a deeply forgiving, customizable level of difficulty that keeps things as fun as they are challenging.

    With music by the composer behind Celeste's soundtrack, an immense amount of depth and thought put into even the simplest of mechanics, a deeply thoughtful array of options to make the game as user-friendly as possible (ty misophonia filter!!!), Chicory is easily one of the best indie games to come out in recent years, easily and readily comparable to all-time greats like Undertale and Celeste in almost every way. Take the time to play this one, I've no doubt it'll be near the top of all the GOTY lists come December.    … Expand
  8. Puntendo64
    Jun 13, 2021
    10
    A wholesome Top-Down adventure about painting a world with colors!

    Gameplay is as fun as it sounds with some unlockable tools and puzzles that are just right on the difficulty scale. I had high expectations for the story since it's by the team behind Wandersong. As someone who draws for a living, the themes Chicory explores hits right at home. In fact I'd say anyone with creative    A wholesome Top-Down adventure about painting a world with colors!

    Gameplay is as fun as it sounds with some unlockable tools and puzzles that are just right on the difficulty scale.
    I had high expectations for the story since it's by the team behind Wandersong. As someone who draws for a living, the themes Chicory explores hits right at home. In fact I'd say anyone with creative passions will find something to enjoy here.    … Expand
  9. Ananisapta
    Jun 28, 2021
    9
    This game is unlike any other I've played, and it took me a while to appreciate that. At first, it just looks like a big coloring book where you can color-in simple shapes with a small variety of colors and strokes. That was the first impression.

    It has a deep story about self-confidence, parental love, and the complicated web of feelings between teacher ("Chicory") and student (you).    This game is unlike any other I've played, and it took me a while to appreciate that. At first, it just looks like a big coloring book where you can color-in simple shapes with a small variety of colors and strokes. That was the first impression.

    It has a deep story about self-confidence, parental love, and the complicated web of feelings between teacher ("Chicory") and student (you). There are a few boss fights of minimal importance tactically, and a lot more mazes, jumping puzzles, and other problems for you to solve. The variety of puzzles is one of the game's strong points.

    It is, in fact, "A Colorful Tale" -- so much so that it may alter how you see the world around you. If you're worried you lack the needed talent, you'll fit right into this story. You can spend a lot of time coloring the panels as you progress, or you can largely skip that part.

    For the money, it's a worthy purchase. If you mainly like killing stuff, walk on by.    … Expand
  10. Misterdiony
    Jun 12, 2021
    7
    A decent adventure game that focuses on creativity and colouring. It offers some nice mechanics and exploration elements. For creative people and fans of activities like color by numbers this might be a big hit, for all others .. maybe a skip.
  11. mert_au
    Jun 24, 2021
    10
    Superb game. Story hits many emotional notes, graphics are super cute and of course Lena's soundtrack is amazing. Well worth picking up!
  12. GandalfCzarny
    Jun 21, 2021
    9
    Greg Lobanov's (Wandersong) remarkable talent for writing ambiguous and engaging stories is revealed once again. I love how warm, clever and charmful this game is
  13. ronadi7368
    Nov 2, 2021
    10
    Chicory achieves greatness far beyond what other games lack the ambition to even attempt. It's not just better than almost every other game out there; it's better than those games were even trying to be.
  14. WEREWOLF07
    Jun 12, 2021
    10
    I thought this game is a fun cozy chill game about coloring some stuff but turns out is SO much more than that. There is actual gameplay and story there, accompanied by really good music. Highly recommend it for every fan of adventure games.
  15. Spassbremse
    Oct 12, 2021
    9
    A really really fun game about art, imposter syndrome, and cultivating creativity where creativity seems to be in short supply.

    I would say the aesthetic of a coloring book is an inspired choice. It allows the player, or a chaotic younger sibling as player two, to really paint the world and make it your own (HAHA BUTTS). It's cute, charming, silly, exciting, but it also doesn't pull    A really really fun game about art, imposter syndrome, and cultivating creativity where creativity seems to be in short supply.

    I would say the aesthetic of a coloring book is an inspired choice. It allows the player, or a chaotic younger sibling as player two, to really paint the world and make it your own (HAHA BUTTS). It's cute, charming, silly, exciting, but it also doesn't pull punches when it delves into it's darker themes.

    A well crafted story, albeit short, that has been crafted with love and care as well as a hint of sadness. Additionally, Lena Raine knocks it out of the park AGAIN with the pan flute, piano heavy tunes on this soundtrack. I'll dock a point for a few cliched story beats and repeated boss fights, but the overall journey I went on playing this game left me absolutely delighted. It even made me cry.    … Expand
  16. Teykom
    Jul 13, 2021
    1
    I didn't have many expectations about this.
    But in the end, I've found me pretty disappointed about this
  17. TitaniumDragon
    Dec 30, 2022
    8
    Chicory: A Colorful Tale is a lovely little heavily narrative-based puzzle metroidvania game where you color in the world to navigate the environment.

    You play as Pizza, the Brush Wielder’s janitor. One day, all the color in the world goes away, and strange black trees show up in the nearby forest. With the wielder, Chicory, apparently out of commission, it is up to Pizza to go save the    Chicory: A Colorful Tale is a lovely little heavily narrative-based puzzle metroidvania game where you color in the world to navigate the environment.

    You play as Pizza, the Brush Wielder’s janitor. One day, all the color in the world goes away, and strange black trees show up in the nearby forest. With the wielder, Chicory, apparently out of commission, it is up to Pizza to go save the day.

    The Brush gives you the ability to paint in the coloring-book like world, allowing you to fill in between the lines with colors, and paint the world. This is used to solve various puzzles, from illuminating the environment to allowing you to move through gaps to activate various things in the environment to achieve some end.

    In terms of core gameplay, the game is fairly simplistic; you start out with nothing special in terms of powers beyond the coloring, but over the course of the first half of the game gain more abilities – almost all movement based – allowing you to jump, to dive through your paint (allowing passage through small gaps), to climb certain walls, and to swim. There is almost no combat to speak of; there aren’t “normal” enemies around in the world, only bosses at the end of a few dungeons, the source of the “corruption” in the world. As such, the vast majority of the game is a series of navigational puzzles, using your paint to activate things in the environment, move around things that allow you to destroy other things, climb up walls and then jump, toggle switches, etc.

    The game basically can be split into two halves – in the first half of the game, Pizza is on their own, going around and fixing the corruption that plagues the world, while Chicory is alone and miserable in her tower. This serves as an introduction to the world and its locations and NPCs, and over the course of this, you end up meeting a bunch of people.

    However, it is also very low impact; these people play little role in the plot, and only a few of them actually end up mattering all that much outside of a very small section of the plot. As a result, your relationship with these people is very ephemeral – while you briefly interact with them, you don’t really build a relationship with them in any way, and so you don’t really care much. This makes the first half of the game feel kind of weak – while there is an underlying plot, the fact that no one other than Pizza is really seeing it through means it is harder to care.

    But at the midpoint of the game, things change; events transpire that result in Chicory going around with Pizza for the rest of the game, and so for the last four major areas of the game, plus the final boss, you have a companion with you. This changes things massively, because the game is very much about Pizza’s relationship with Chicory and their relationship with the world at large, and the pressures Chicory was under that Pizza has inherited.

    This makes the game so much better, and Chicory – who was already the most developed NPC – becomes someone that the player cares about, and wants to see succeed and be happy, reflecting Pizza’s own desires. The player’s perceptions of Chicory evolve with Pizza’s own, and by the end, the relationship between the two is very satisfying, and has moved from idol and janitor to master and student to finally one of friendship and mutual trust and admiration. You do things with Chicory and for Chicory, and she does things for Pizza.

    This gives the whole second half of the game much more emotional gravitas and makes the harder hitting themes hit home. The second half of the game also isn’t as cutesy, but it doesn’t forget to be cute, and the relationship that grows between Pizza and Chicory has very serious aspects and very cute ones.

    All in all, by the end of the game, you are pumped and primed to solve the world’s problems – and to make Chicory and Pizza’s lives better in the process. One of the biggest flaws with “save the world” plots is that they often feel impersonal, but because of Chicory’s personal investment in the situation at hand, it becomes much more meaningful and important due to that human connection.

    There was a moment during the final boss fight that made me laugh with glee, and while I won’t spoil it, it is something that I feel a lot of games really want to do, but which few game manage to earn the emotional investment necessary to pull off. Chicory and Pizza earn their happy ending.

    If the entire game was as good as the second half of the game was, this would be one of the best games of all time.

    But, alas, it is not.

    In the end, this is a game that I’d recommend, but it is not without its flaws. In particular, the first half of the game is not as good as the second half, and the game has a bunch of quite time-consuming sidequests that are very much a mixed bag, particularly doing a bunch of painting side-quests that felt increasingly time consuming and repetitive.    … Expand
  18. MomentoMori
    Jul 30, 2022
    10
    This Game is proof that games can be an art form. And that they can be a masterpiece.
  19. klaaz
    Jan 26, 2023
    9
    A beautiful game that deals with complex issues such as depression accompanied by an impeccable artistic design.

Awards & Rankings

4
#4 Best PC Game of 2021

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
90

Universal acclaim - based on 23 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 23 out of 23
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 23
  3. Negative: 0 out of 23
  1. Adventure Gamers
    Sep 30, 2021
    100
    Chicory: A Colorful Tale is like a warm hug from a wise old aunt, simultaneously bursting with creativity and offering an unblinking but hopeful look at humanity.
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  2. CD-Action
    Sep 1, 2021
    80
    I never thought I’d enjoy a game where drawing and coloring are gameplay’s core elements. Don’t let the seemingly infantile graphics fool you, because Chicory is much deeper and more serious than you might think. Or rather can be, because it’s for you to decide whether you want to delve into the deeper, darker layer of the game and uncover the therapeutic power of art in the fight against depression. If you don’t, you still get a weird, unusual and very enjoyable mix of an adventure game, a puzzle game, some platforming elements and a coloring book. [09/2021, p.30]
  3. RPGamer
    Jul 23, 2021
    100
    Despite not everything going off without a hitch, and some systems sure to appeal more to certain kinds of gamers, Chicory’s emotional core is so strong, so impactful that it eclipses all other shortcomings and just leaves the player with an overwhelming feeling of pathos.
    Read full review
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