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Never trust a chef spending after-hours in a freezer

Key Takeaways:

Overview

Ever struggle to earn money but got stuck with a job and questionable boss? You run around trying to meet your quotas all while you begin to notice little things. These things are minor and not alarming but still, you can’t help but get an uncomfortable feeling. This is what its like to work at the bistro in Dead Plate.

Dead Plate is a 2D restaurant themed RPG horror game developed by RachelDrawsThis in collaboration with Studio Investigrave and Ekrix. Released on November 6, 2023, the game blends visual novel and point-and-click elements.

Immersed in a French bistro, the narrative on this RPG horror follows Rody, who’s a lively waiter striving to earn as much money as possible in a week. So, he applies to “La Gueule de Saturne,” a fancy bistro owned by the charismatic yet imposing chef, Vince.

You experience, as Rody, the hectic tasks of being a waiter while coming across various events and conversations that scream something isn’t right. It might seem like the story is going one way but gradually reveals there’s more to it, and it isn’t just some cannibalism.

The Story

Set in late 1960s France, Dead Plate introduces us to Rody, a young man eager to impress and win back his girlfriend, Manon. He plans to do this by securing a well-paying job to get a better apartment and improve his life by achieving a goal, which he often failed at in the past.

Rody lands a position as a waiter at “La Gueule de Saturne,” a prestigious bistro owned by the chef Vince. As Rody navigates his new role, juggling multiple orders by, by himself mind you, he becomes entangled in the bistro’s dark secrets.

From the interactions with Vince to the strange sounds and sights he encounters, Rody finds out how intertwined he is in the horror behind Vince’s outward appearance.

Spoilers

During my playthrough, I thought the story was good and added more depth than I expected going into it. I highly recommend exploring things when you can and talking to Vince when possible to get more out of the story from this RPG horror.

Otherwise, your first playthrough might leave you as confused as me, wondering where the heck in Manon and why Vince had her picture crumpled in a trash can. Day 1 and 2 mainly has you doing your job, I spent this time reading the catalog in Rody’s apartment and talking to Vince in the bistro.

By day 3, when you enter the kitchen to take out the trash from cleaning the dishes off the table, you get a cutscene where Rody got cut from something sharp as he pulled out the trash bag. When you get home, you start getting weird nightmares, which will continue as the week progresses.

On day 4, things get more hectic in the bistro customer-wise. If you need an easier time, I recommend buying the cologne or skates to complete the orders to get you quota easier. Also, if you talk to Vince early, you can ask if Vince is single, could you have a raise, or if Vince likes his job.

The last two questions are important as you learn about why Rody needed this job and you learn about Vince’s reluctance to cook in his own bistro. If you walk into the kitchen at 2:30 on day 4, you also see a cutscene of Vince chastising a cook.

Regarding day 5, talking to Vince we learn that Vince cannot taste anything since childhood, which might explain why he doesn’t cook that much in his bistro. Apparently, Rody also can get the leftovers from the orders the customers make (hey, free food, right?).

However, on this day, Rody stayed over a bit late. He hears noises from the freezer, which is lock, but Rody learns from going into Vince’s office there’s a bunch of crumpled love letters and picture in the trash signed “M”. At home there’s also someone looking at us from an adjacent apartment window.

As day 6 comes and goes, we might get a phone call from Vince inviting us to a house party. It here we get to learn from exploring Vince’s apartment that Manon was seeing Vince after she broke up with Rody, but she disappeared.

Funny enough, when I explored Vince’s bathroom and apartment, I found not only the freezer key but clues of Manon from her hair in the bathroom sink to seeing her shadow out the window. So, by now it became obvious something happened to her linking to Vince.

On the final day, day 7, once Rody enters the freezer, he gets ambushed by Vince and knocked out. Later, Rody wakes up tied by rope in the freezer and struggles to get free. By equipping the matches prior (hence why you want to meet your quotas to afford them) Rody can free himself and break the freezer to escape.

After escaping the freezer, Rody encounters a malicious Vince, who wants nothing more than to fillet you and make a dish out of you. His idea was to feed Manon to you to make his dishes filled with a loving taste, rather than the bland taste mentioned throughout the story.

If you manage to escape Vince’s attacks, after he bites Rody’s ear off (seriously Vince?), Rody can use a broken bottle found in Vince’s office and neutralize Vince. Then you should have Rody go into the freezer, get the oil, so he can set the bistro ablaze, thus ending the story.

Spoiler end

Overall, the story, with the true ending was great. My only critique was during my chase with Vince, I had no idea how to get away from him since the doors were locked. I stumbled into his office and happened to find the broken bottle to use as a weapon.

This didn’t ruin the story but took me out of the immersion a bit, as I had no inkling there would be a broken bottle in his office. Maybe if I heard the glass break in Vince’s office or went into the office and broke it myself, it would’ve flowed seamlessly story-wise.

The Gameplay

The game uses standard RPG horror mechanics such as collecting items and managing your resources, (you know, your money). The interaction controls also take advantage of a point-and-click mechanic on occasions such as reading over the catalogue in Rody’s apartment.

Controlling Rody was easy and smooth, with no bugs maneuvering in the bistro. Doing Rody’s tasks such as serving customers, managing orders, and maintaining cleanliness were designed well, as the hectic moving around simulates the responsibilities of customer service and hospitality (I don’t miss those days.).

I also liked how the items you get can make the job easier like the cologne, which extends customers’ patience or the roller skates to increase speed. However, you can only equip one at a time for your shift that day, which was a bummer but did add a good challenge to the gameplay.

The game’s feature of four distinct endings, which was determined by the choices I made from dialogue to talking periodically to Vince during shifts. Multiple endings that I can control is always a stellar feature in RPG horrors, as it encourages you to interact with the environment while trying to juggle work.

Game Guide

Graphics and Audio

Dead Plate boasts a retro aesthetic, with 2D pixel art that captures the ambiance of 1960s France. I dug the character designs of Rody, Vince, Manon, and the other characters as each stood out. The bistro was designed well with enough assets and palette colors to make this RPG horror fit the setting.

The original soundtrack, composed by BellKalengar, complements the game’s atmosphere, with audio cues that heighten tension during critical moments, a key feature of RPG horror. I also noticed how some of the speech text generates a different sound depending on who speaks, which was neat to hear.

Performance and Technical Aspects

Developed using RPG Maker, Dead Plate is an RPG horror available for Windows and macOS platforms. While the game generally runs smoothly, some gamers have reported minor bugs. Some of the bugs mentioned were issues with object interaction and character sprites.

During my playthrough, when I would go to clean a table of its dishes, sometimes the choice box never appeared to clear the table. Another bug I encountered was when I finished serving the customers, mostly seen on day 5 or 6, the customer wouldn’t go to the counter to pay their bill.

The customer would then leave mad but pay for the meal. Even if I kept trying to interact with the customer sprites, no choice box would appear near them or at the counter. At least I still got paid though.

The developers have acknowledged these concerns and provided guidance to mitigate them. In fact, among RPG horrors this game gets recent updates.

Length and Replayability

The estimated playtime for Dead Plate is approximately 1 hour and 20–30 minutes according to the itch.io page, which isn’t bad for an RPG horror. This is for a single ending, If you make strategic saves in Rody’s apartment, this can reduce the time it’ll take to get the other 3 endings.

I will say the game may still take close to and hour as your shifts last a while depending on the number of customers you serve. So, you could see about 3 hours required to experience every ending.

The multiple endings and hidden secrets encourage replayability, as gamers have the chance to explore different choices and interactions to uncover the full story, which is helps make the RPG horror engaging.

Closing Thoughts

Dead Plate was by far a well made and great RPG horror. I liked how the creep factor steadily rose from the cutscene on day 3 and the proceeding nightmares. The game’s unique blend of restaurant simulation and horror delivered a compelling narrative.

Parts that stood out for me were the story and twists. I went in assuming a chef turned cannable story, feeding his customers people unfortunate enough to encounter him. Though the story does have some cannibalism, e.g., Vince trying to get Rody to eat Manon, that was not Vince’s sole goal.

Vince to me seemed to be a metaphor for someone that devours love, which fit the restaurant theme, since he used Manon to try and add a sense of love to his dishes.

This understanding would explain why Vince shifted toward not only wanting to murder Rody, for discovering his secret, but also make Rody into dish, since he had a strong love for Manon.

Anyway, the game’s gameplay, atmospheric design, and multiple endings provided a memorable experience for me, and it would for any indie horror game fan. Despite minor technical issues I encountered, the game’s strengths make it noteworthy among RPG horrors.

So, what did you think of Dead Plate? Did you play it? Share your thoughts and comments below.

For those interested in experiencing Dead Plate, it is available for download on Itch.io. If you want more RPG horror, check out my 10 Fun & Free RPG Games Online.