Play game
Touhou: Food for the Heart's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Overall | #2 | 4.294 | 4.294 |
| Audio / Music | #2 | 4.235 | 4.235 |
| Use of LGBTQ+ Themes | #2 | 4.471 | 4.471 |
| Concept | #3 | 4.294 | 4.294 |
| Visuals | #4 | 4.500 | 4.500 |
| Story / Writing | #5 | 4.324 | 4.324 |
| Balance (Challenge and Fairness) | #6 | 3.412 | 3.412 |
| Gameplay | #14 | 3.294 | 3.294 |
Ranked from 34 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Team Members
ZzzZleepy, Megapig9001, JaCoder23, Telimus, Breadmaster, Camellia, Cinna, illusorybread, absolutedexter, DJThunderHeart, saishoo, NotQuiteHere
Streaming Permission
Yes
Leave a comment
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.
Comments
I really enjoyed this VN for a lot of reasons! There are a lot of custom-made pieces, well-placed music, and an excellent set of well composed & polished art all around (including dishes and backstories!). Extra features, up to cooking minigames and down to a subtle doki-doki sound, also add greatly to the fun, wholesome writing.
There are minor gameplay anomalies (namely the washing minigame), but none detract from the writing at all. In fact, I'm impressed with how well the Touhou lore was implemented, as well as side characters such as Rinnosuke. Seeing screenshots of tools & illustrations & other pieces in the credits was also a really cool extra, and helps me appreciate all of the work from those involved.
Overall, it's a really nice story that goes above and beyond to tell itself. Your team did excellent work on this project. Thank you all for making this! *u*
Happy to have helped on this game!
While they're incredibly simple and the tutorial every time kind of messes with the flow, I like that the changes and escalations of the cooking minigames symbolize Marisa's development, understanding and acceptance of her feelings. I missed that connection when reading the draft, like learning how to cook = learning what her feelings mean, and learning what she wants to cook = learning how she wants to express her feelings. It's a lot more obvious with the gameplay, which is cool. (Gameplay enhancing story, hooray)
I can't, I can't... I just can't. This game is just too beautiful!!!! I love it >.<
The pacing, the atmosphere, the mood and the vibes. The character interactions and development despite being a short story, the "spice" of the cooking mini games to add a little bit of breathing room between scene and scene. The mini games are very tactile so rather than challenges they are more like soothing set pieces which ease you more into the fluffiness of it all. The music, and let's not start with the art. All of the artist did fantastic!!!! The flashbacks, the portraits, the food! and often overlook in VNs, the BACKGROUNDS!!!! Marisa's room is gorgeous. It is so expressive!!!
My Favorite Parts: It is so hard, almost everything could be consider my favorite part, but if I could choose something it would be this screenshot with this portrait in particular and this background. This two artworks where my absolute favorites!!!
The music and the writing was something to enjoy, but what really won me over was the art.
I like the cooking mechanic! Give the whole game some complexity. Greate work.
Thank you for making SakuMari content in 2025 God bless you!
The "eating" sound effect used right at the start triggered my misophonia hard. Played the rest of it without audio to ensure I didn't hear it again.
The soup of heart-warming.
Only big thing about the gameplay is: you really they need to take it easy with the tutorials, no need for all the textual interruptions with back-to-back cooking. I think even just figuring out on the fly how to use the utensils is straight-forward enough, just need to say "Wash" or "Stir" in the corner and it'd be good.
But yeah the cooking part is not bad.
The art and sound direction is fantastic by the way, blows me away. Also how very sweet of Marisa to be so thoughtful in her cooking. Thoughts so powerful they may have cooked the dishes.
Marisa, why do you always have that... skull-and-crossbone "seasoning" at your cooking table?Yeah we barely finished the minigames in time so tutorials are kind of a stop-gap solution. Before we had the opposite problem of you didn't know what to do. Thanks for playing! Glad you liked it!
this game made me laugh and smile! i could tell this was a group effort. the talking sprites especially were fantastic too
Very cute cooking game! Art style is so lovely and the minigames are a treat to play. Really makes me want to find my DS and check out cooking mama again. Marisa is so cute <3