The fantasy adventure genre has been a gaming staple since its earliest days, but many of those games require the player to pick up a sword and head out to stand toe-to-toe with the world’s enemies in order to be the hero. Beastro reimagines the fantasy adventure genre as a world where not all heroes wear capes — some of them wear chef hats!
Fresh ingredients are king in Palo Pori, so players will need to use Panko to forage for resources like fresh herbs and to find seeds that can be grown into exquisite fruits and vegetables that form the foundation of Panko’s recipes. With ingredients farm-raised by the player through gardening, foraging, and animal caretaking, Panko can offer up a customized menu for his town-to-table restaurant built upon player progression and choices.
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Beastro allows players to tailor Panko’s restaurant to meet the needs of the community of Palo Pori. Unlocking new meals by farming and foraging ingredients, progressing through a skill tree, and updating the restaurant’s decor all help to better appeal to the locals. But Beastro isn’t just another cozy farming and cooking simulator; there’s a secret ingredient up the sleeves of the developers — Card battling.
Panko may have opted to pick up the spoon instead of the sword, but that doesn’t mean his dishes aren’t pivotal to protecting the town from the ravenous beasts on the other side of the wall. The dishes built by the player using Panko’s ingredients are gobbled up by the Caretakers who protect the city, with each ingredient becoming a card in the Caretaker’s deck. The Caretaker, too, adds customization and challenge to the battle. Each Caretaker is from a different flavor region, which can impact the meals they’ll order from Panko’s restaurant. Some prefer bitter or salty, while others prefer sweet.
Once their bellies are full, the Caretakers venture out into the wilds to battle the monsters in the wilds, and upon return, they will recount their adventures. These storytelling sequences play out as puppet theater, giving the player the opportunity to shape the battle stories via turn-based card combat.
Players can utilize ingredient cards to fight the monsters by matching their flavor magic or neutralizing it altogether with a balancing card. Enhancing cards also give the player the chance to power up the Caretaker’s moves before attacking. Players can craft card decks that provide the Caretakers with effects that can turn the tide of battle by blowing away enemy cards or lulling them to sleep.
Beastro developer and publisher Timberline Games drew inspiration from classic trick-taking card games for this particular element of their sophomore title. In 2021, the Los Angeles, California-based studio released its first title, The Red Lantern, a narrative dog sledding game that saw players become a Musher trying to survive with her 5 sled dogs in the Alaskan Wilderness.
Beastro is a significant shift in gameplay mechanics for Timberline Games, and the studio’s first self-published release. While The Red Lantern is notably absent from Xbox storefronts, Timberline plans to release Beastro to Xbox Series X|S consoles and Xbox PC in 2026. The town-to-table sim meets fantasy adventure card battler is an Xbox Play Anywhere title, meaning players will only have to purchase it once to enjoy the game across the Xbox ecosystem, including on console, Windows PC, and handhelds. Beastro is also expected to launch day one on Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass.
