Cooking Metroidvania Lone Chef Expands Team, Adds Japanese Cuisine
The expanded development scale and addition of Japanese cuisine reflect the game's unexpectedly strong wishlist traction in Japan, which now exceeds that in its home market of South Korea.
Reporting from 1 sources: 4Gamer.net.
At BitSummit PUNCH in Kyoto, developer Project Moreum showed an updated demo of Lone Chef, a Metroidvania where the protagonist explores a world that has lost the art of cooking. The team has grown to 12 people, added an opening scene, weather-based gimmicks, and Japanese language support. Japanese cuisine is being added to the game, and a 2026 release is planned.
Project Moreum co-founder Yoo Jae-young told 4Gamer that the team grew considerably over the past year, now numbering 12 people focused on pixel art. The story, which was always planned, has finally been integrated into the game as development progressed. An opening scene shows the amnesiac protagonist waking up and picking up cooking utensils, followed by the comedic destruction of his restaurant by a female demon king.
Stages now feel more like dungeons with increased exploration value, and weather-based gimmicks have been added-for example, rain causes water spouts that let the player jump higher. The pixel art has become more expressive compared to earlier cut-in expressions. Japanese language support has been implemented, and Japanese cuisine is in development. A release within 2026 is targeted.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 1 cited source below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.