as always with Studio Investigrave, i adore the artstyle, story, and characters. but with Dead Plate, i find myself being disappointed with some of the gameplay aspects. the concept is great - a Diner Dash, flash game type of setup with a nice gameplay loop. i played this game around the time it came out, and replaying it now to get all the endings, i was surprised that my initial (unvoiced) criticisms hadn't been fixed.

to list them off; you can't tell what direction you're facing. this is made much worse by the very precise hitboxes, requiring you to get into specific, awkward spots to interact with tables or the orders station. it quickly becomes a problem when you're rushing to satisfy multiple tables and sprinting around.

another problem when there's a rush of customers is the lack of indicators - if they're eating, waiting to get their order taken, waiting for their food, or waiting for their companion to finish eating. this may just be a skill issue, since i was playing without any items equipped and therefore the game was much harder, but it'd also be helpful to have an indicator of what each table wants. it was easy to forget and then aimlessly run around trying to find the person the order matches, sometimes even holding a dish with seemingly no customer wanting it.

if these changes were implemented, i'd love to see an endless mode of this game, if possible :]

in terms of the story, i do wish there were more scenes detailing the relationship between rody and vincent, particularly outside of work. they're both really interesting characters so in general, it would've been nice to spend more time with them, delving into their psyches. but i do get that the game has a lot of content already, and perhaps things like that are just outside the scope of the game, or intended for a sequel/DLC.

overall, this was really fun and i'm excited to see what fan content exists, but i think it needs some QoL fixes.