Food is a large factor in how people come together. Family units, friend groups, so many people bond over food. Inbento is a logic-based, sliding-based puzzle game that melds the love of food with puzzles and a heartfelt narrative.

Inbento is a puzzle game that is entirely based on the Japanese practice of making Bento boxes. For each “recipe,” you have a variety of pieces/ingredients, and you follow the picture provided for you. The tricky part is that some pieces can’t be rotated, so you have to match the pattern with movement restrictions intact.

Luckily, there are pieces that can help you with this. Things that allow you to stack pieces on top of each other to replace them, or swap placed pieces after the fact so that you can move them where you want them. There is a lot of depth in Inbento’s puzzles and there are over 120 puzzles to enjoy.

After each set of puzzles (split into chapters) you see a few text-free scenes that detail a heartfelt story. Without going into too much detail, Inbento reminds me a lot of Venba in its story of parenthood and coming of age. It is a little different, wrapped in Japanese styling rather than Venba’s Indian styling, but it is no less impactful.

What makes Inbento so approachable and engaging is the fact that it is calm and easy to understand. Each chapter introduces you to a new puzzle element and subtly teaches you to work with it. Of course, things get more complex as the chapters carry on, but that only makes solving the puzzles more satisfying.

The music is soft and calm, and the illustrated images are adorable. Inbento‘s style and atmosphere perfectly match the calm and almost meditative puzzles. It is also the perfect game for both adults and kids since the puzzles encourage pattern recognition and critical thinking skills.

If you like sliding puzzles, logic puzzles, or casual and relaxing puzzle games in general, you can’t go wrong with Inbento. The only problem the game has is that it might make you hungry. Inbento will keep you entertained for quite a while if you want something to test your brain and tug on your heartstrings, though.

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Inbento

$4.99 USD

10

Score

10.0/10

Pros

• Cute, heartwarming story
• 120 engaging puzzles
• Calming music and visuals
• Slow addition of new mechanics
• Great for the whole family