Hunt, then cook under the clock
Battle Chef Brigade Deluxe splits every round into two halves. First you head out into Victusia and take down monsters with combo-based attacks, collecting fresh ingredients from what you catch. Then you take those ingredients to the kitchen and work through a match-3 style puzzle to build a dish for the judges. Both halves run against a ticking round clock, so time spent hunting cuts into cooking time and vice versa. The hand-drawn art and voice work carry the story of Mina and Thrash as they push through the tournament, with light RPG progression layered on top of the brawling and puzzling.
Playing together
Local Multiplayer lets you put Mina, Thrash, and Ziggy the Undead Necromancer Chef against each other, with rules you set up yourself. Ziggy is also playable in Break the Dishes, Survival, and Free Play. Remote Play Together is supported, so friends who are not in the same room can join a session. Beyond head-to-head matches, the extra modes give the group different ways to test cooking skill: Daily Cook-Off with leaderboards, Restaurant Rush, Break the Dishes, Survival, and Free Play for hunting down the best cooking combination. The Art Gallery collects the game's illustrations once unlocked.
Before you start
The single-player campaign follows two contestants through the tournament, so the story content sits in solo play while the competitive modes are where the group meets. Expect both halves of each round to demand attention at once: sloppy hunting leaves you with weak ingredients, and slow puzzle work means a dish the judges will not reward. Ziggy, the extra modes, and the Art Gallery are part of this Deluxe version, so check what your group wants to do first — a straight versus match, a leaderboard run, or Free Play to learn the cooking system without pressure.