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Austin Manchester is a writer and editor living in New York City. At Polygon, he covers gaming and entertainment news, reviews new video games, interviews behind-the-scenes talent, and more. He enjoys discovering hidden gems and sharing them with Polygon's audience. Previously, he was the gaming editor for AIPT Comics and has written for other outlets like XDA, How-To Geek, and The List.
He enjoys soulslikes, character-driven RPGs, and third-person shooters plucked straight out of the Xbox 360 era. He also likes to flex his non-video game nerdy knowledge sometimes, whether that's explaining who's who in the new Wolverine game or recommending a comic book series about a sentient sword.
The Witch's Bakery has real Studio Ghibli bona fides too
Sharing food with others begets a certain type of magic. That goes double for baked goods and desserts. In The Witch’s Bakery, that magic is literal. It’s a charming, cozy, and heartfelt adventure that goes heavy on the Studio Ghibli vibes.
In Sunny Lab’s debut game, you play as the heart witch Lunne who moves to Paris and sets up a magical bake shop, along with her pink, cat-like companion Orio. Monday through Saturday, her days are consumed by work. Prepare dough, infuse it with magic, and have Orio bake it with their elemental magic. Tend to customers and rake in that dough. Er, dough being money, in this case.
Some customers are indecisive, while others are impatient. Anyone who’s worked in food service or retail will, unfortunately, not be surprised by the annoyances of those customers. Where Lune’s magic comes into play is for customers haunted by regrets that manifest as cute creatures floating around them, which only the magically inclined can see.
Serving these customers offers some enjoyable variety to workdays. Instead of handing them a croissant and calling it a day, Lunne will dive into their hearts to heal them, freeing the customer of their past heartache. Lunne navigates a mini-maze to find the regret and remove it while contending with emotion-specific obstacles, like literal waves of sadness pushing her back or fiery plumes of anger barring her way. Just like in last year’s Tiny Bookshop, it’s very easy to fall into a relaxing rhythm doing basic shopkeeping duties.
Outside of Lunne’s bakeshop is where The Witch’s Bakery starts to open up as you explore the beautiful streets and views of Paris via 2D side-scrolling locales. Lunne quickly makes friends throughout town, like her cinema-owning neighbor or a young witch still finding her way. You can invite them for dinner or to see a play, or just spend an evening with a new book while enjoying dessert (that someone else made) at a cafe. The world is your beignet.
Early in The Witch’s Bakery you meet Estelle, who has a ginormous regret hanging over her. Lunne spends time at Estelle’s office and even her home. Her intentions are twofold — Estelle is an accountant, and Lunne is much better with bread than she is with numbers. But Lunne also wants to free Estelle of that regret, even if she helps accidentally.
Lunne gets pulled into Estelle’s Heart Palace, which is much more imposing than the simple mazes she navigates in other people’s hearts. Playing with the idea of sadness as an ocean, Estelle’s Heart Palace is like an underwater ruin. It's filled with puzzles that involve connecting points via arrangeable cubes; they’re never too difficult, but do offer a fun challenge at times and a way to mix up the gameplay. There are even sections where Lunne must avoid a monster lurking in the Heart Palace called a Torment. Spooky!
Estelle’s story is quite blue, requiring multiple dives into her Heart Palace to get at the root of her problems. And that’s the heart of The Witch’s Bakery; while cute and cozy, it’s really about disentangling those big emotions that are sometimes too scary to face outright. In many ways, it’s a Studio Ghibli film in video game form; any comparison to Kiki’s Delivery Service is obvious and earned.
The Witch’s Bakery actually has some real Ghibli bona fides to it, too. When I first heard its opening song, I thought it’d fit in well alongside the studio’s movies. Turns out Cécile Corbel is behind that song — she composed the soundtrack to the underrated The Secret World of Arrietty. So many games get compared to Ghibli’s work, but very rarely do you have one that features talent behind your favorite movies.
Take that Ghibli magic, a relaxing gameplay loop, emotional stories, and some charming character designs — Lunne’s braid looks like plaited bread — and you have a winning recipe. Any gamer looking for their next cozy treat will want to check out The Witch’s Bakery.
The Witch’s Bakery is now available on Nintendo Switch, Switch 2, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X.