Cauldron Review: Mini Games Have The Power

Mini-games in RPGs are typically fun distractions tied to a minor benefit or achievement. With Cauldron, the mini-games are your source of power. As you gain more resources from mini-games, you invest them into your team who then explores more of the world. You must fight the darkness and save as many people as you can. The world is full of mini-games to explore and part of the fun is figuring out how to succeed with few instructions.

Cauldron creates a world that doesn’t take itself too seriously, providing snarky humour that engages you effectively. Making mini-games the foundation of your strength gives you a reason to perform well. A lack of explanations sometimes makes gameplay more frustrating than necessary and the modes can feel repetitive. However, Cauldron is still a great game for short bursts and promises an entertaining time for mini-game lovers.

Cauldron is available on PC for USD $13.49.

You fight the darkness to reveal one square at a time.

Story – Dispel the Darkness

You join the novice witch Nyx as she suddenly wakes up to find her world covered by darkness. With her sidekick Blinkie, she must literally fight off the darkness by approaching the squares and defeating enemies. By revealing more of the darkness, Nyx finds allies willing to fight with her and save civilians trapped by the environment. Eventually she confronts the source of the darkness and ends the adventure on a happy note.

The story isn’t remarkable on its own but it shines with its simplicity. Similar to games like Critter Café, Cauldron’s story doesn’t have much plot and the adventure is over in a few hours. However, you have additional modes to complete that help expand upon the original ending. Every story moment is packed with snarky humour that doesn’t take itself too seriously, breaking the fourth wall often. This helps ease you into the game’s theme and lets you laugh at the odd joke.

You can never take the bosses too seriously.

Breaking the fourth wall fits Cauldron well because Nyx finds herself in an unusual situation. Her path is literally blocked by dark squares that contain enemies. Allies act like stereotypical RPG character classes. The character skits provide more character depth with a generous helping of snark that highlights the silliness. Poking fun at these aspects makes the story feel approachable because it’s funny and easy to understand.

Gameplay – Power through Mini-Games

Cauldron’s mini-games are similar to those in On Your Tail but actually influence gameplay. Mini-games give you resources that you can put into upgrades to improve your score. Alternatively, you can invest those resources into your cauldron to boost Talent Points for your whole party. Talent Points are your stat and ability investments, making your characters stronger in combat. This lets you explore more areas and unlock more content.

You pick apples by moving your basket from side to side.

The other half of gameplay is your standard RPG exploration with turn-based combat. Each dark square you reveal has a difficulty rating based on the enemies. Your Talent Point investment lets you decide whether it’s a fight you can win or should postpone for later. This turns mini-games into your leveling and progression system. As your scores rise in the mini-games, you get more resources to invest in your skills.

The mini-games are fun to play and the benefits inspire you to practice. You may struggle to play at first but eventually the upgrades turn the tide in your favour. Eventually you can auto-harvest enough resources to let them accumulate naturally, letting you focus on the game. It’s a good way to let you focus on progressing the adventure without trapping you in the mini-games. There are also additional puzzles that grant extra points in the world if you want an additional challenge. However, you can’t skip them or the game becomes significantly more challenging.

Fishing looks complicated and takes a while to master.

Accessibility – Easy to Pick Up

One of Cauldron’s greatest advantages is the difficulty. It isn’t a tough game and you can easily learn how to play in 30 minutes. Combat is relatively straight-forward and the mini-games don’t increase in difficulty that quickly. If you feel the game is too easy, you can always challenge yourself with difficulty modifiers or play on another game mode. Should you invest in upgrades and regret your choices, you can reset everything at no cost.

This makes Cauldron a casual game that’s hard to fail. You will make mistakes early on but there’s nothing you can do that blocks you out of gameplay. It’s easy to try a new battle strategy or shift tactics in a mini-game. This encourages you to experiment and figure out what works for you instead of grinding your way to victory. Combat and mini-games have a variety of options available to you, providing many opportunities to test things out.

You can never fail a mini-game and can always do better next time.

Where the accessibility falls short is the lack of information. It isn’t difficult to pick up the basics of the game but figuring out the more advanced sections requires trial-and-error. There are also concepts like enemy defenses that aren’t explained to you at all. This causes a problem when you fight tough enemies who require certain methods to win. You don’t know where to start because you have no idea where to look up information.

Replayability – Present yet Repetitive

One advantage of Cauldron is that it has several game modes that you quickly unlock while playing. They don’t fundamentally change the game’s nature but do add modifiers. There’s always an advantage and disadvantage compared to the regular game mode. Even the mini-games have variations thanks to their puzzle versions found around the world. However, this variation quickly becomes repetitive if played in long bursts.

Smashing ice cubes is fun at first but quickly becomes repetitive.

The modes are mostly for challenges, unlocking special upgrades, and reaching the ending. Otherwise, it’s the same adventure and the same mini-games. That might not seem bad at first but you often find yourself playing the same game repeatedly. Play often enough and you can easily get burnt out because there is little variation. Since mini-games aren’t optional, you must put yourself through them in every playthrough.

This doesn’t mean that you can’t take a break and rest. But it’s an endless cycle of mini-games and combat with few other activities. With the activities quickly becoming repetitive, burning out on Cauldron is easier than other games. There’s also an element of waiting for resources to gather that can bore you if you don’t like waiting. Every game eventually loses its shine due to repeat playthroughs, but Cauldron hits that point faster than most.

Choose the same options enough times and it becomes boring.

Audio & Visual – Simple 2D animations

Cauldron uses 2D animations and simple background music throughout the game. It works because it ties into the character’s reactions to their situation. You clear out the darkness one square at a time. Bosses are mostly still images because they are posing for certain reasons. Attacks and magic in combat don’t have flashy effects apart from inflicting status effects. It’s nothing fancy but it works well.

The mini-games use the same graphics and music, letting you seamlessly transition from RPG exploration to a game.It also keeps everything casual without making you feel any intensity from an encounter.

Cauldron was reviewed on Steam with a code provided by the publisher Caketown Interactive.