Papa's Pastaria Game Review

Papa’s Pastaria Game Background

Papa’s Pastaria is the ninth Papa Louie restaurant sim from Flipline Studios. You’re placed in charge of a pasta restaurant set in a picturesque canal town. As Doan, Utah, or a worker of your creation, cook each pasta dish to al dente perfection and serve them up to Papa Louie’s demanding clientele.

How to Play Papa’s Pastaria

Getting Started

To select, left click with your mouse or tap on the touchscreen with your fingers. Select Continue on the bottom right corner of the loading screen to bring up the welcome screen. On the welcome screen, select Play to begin.

Choose from one of the 3 available save slots to begin. Selecting an empty save slot starts a new game, while selecting an occupied one loads an earlier saved game. You can clear save slots by selecting the X button on the top right corner. Select Save a Backup to create a copy of your save on your device; you can use this save later by selecting Load Backup. Your web browser automatically saves your game progress.

When starting a new game, you have the option of choosing between Doan, Utah, or a character of your own design. After selecting a character, the cutscene explaining the game’s premise plays. Select Skip Intro on the bottom right corner to move past the cutscene and start the game in earnest.

Create a Character

Selecting Create a Custom Worker on the character selection screen brings you to the character creator. From here, you can create your own worker character in the signature style of the Papa Louie games.

Start off by picking a gender from the two presets. From there, you can pick from 8 categories of features, skin tones, hair colors, and hairstyles on the left to shape your character. On the right, you can refine your character’s features further using the 6 available sliders. Finish off your new character by giving them a name on the namespace, then select continue to proceed. Later in the game, you can make further changes to your character by selecting the customize button on the pause screen.

You can also buy new clothes for the character later on if you don’t want them wearing the default uniform all the time.

The Process

The game has 4 stations, which represent stages in the order preparation process:

• The order station, in green, is where you take order tickets from customers.
• The cook station, in orange, is where you cook the noodles.
• The build station, in blue, is where you assemble the pasta dish.
• The bread station, in purple, is where you finish off the dish with a piece of bread.

Switch between the stations by selecting the button of its color on the bottom row.

When a customer reaches the counter, select the Take Order above them to get their order ticket. You can leave the order ticket on the ticket hook on the top right or place it on the line on the top row.

At the cook station, place the pasta of the customer’s choice in the strainer and let it cook in the pot. A timer on the pot will indicate how done the pasta is. When the pasta is halfway through the desired doneness, select the wooden spoon on the bottom left and select the pot to stir the noodles as they cook. Take out the noodles when they’re done, then let them drip or shake them gently to drain them. Try not to shake the strainer too vigorously to avoid losing noodles. Place the finished noodles on a plate to bring them to the build station.

At the build station, select one of the sauces on the bottom to take a ladleful of it, then drizzle it over the cooked pasta from the center outward. You want to at least cover much of the center of the dish. Select fine ingredients like cheese and pepper, then shake them on top of the pasta as evenly as you can. Finally, select large ingredients like mushrooms and meatballs, then drag and drop them in as even an arrangement as you can. Select Next to bring the pasta to the bread station.

At the bread station, select bread from the bottom left corner, then place it on the toast conveyor. Once it’s out of the conveyor, put it on the finished pasta dish. While you can cook the bread while the pasta cooks to have it ready, we don’t recommend doing it too early as it gradually cools down once it’s out of the oven. When you’ve placed the bread on the plate, serve the finished pasta dish by selecting the order ticket, then dragging and dropping it onto the adjacent stand.

At any time, you can dispose of your dish if you make a mistake. However, it will cost you valuable time. We do recommend disposing incorrectly prepared dishes anyway; a late dish scores higher than a poorly made or incorrect one.

Basic Gameplay Advice

Summary

The game’s backstory is the same regardless of the character you choose. The character is invited to a big wedding, but due to booking issues cannot find a hotel room. Once they do find a place to stay for the big event, it turns out to not be a place to stay, but the room and board that comes with a job at Papa Louie’s new pasta restaurant.

Basics

The key to impressing customers in this game is to give them exactly what they want as quickly as possible. The pasta must be cooked as close to their desired doneness as possible and each ingredient they ask for must be evenly distributed across the entire plate.

A new element in this game is the server. They are hired in a similar way to the main player character (choose from one of the default characters or make your own). Their job is to bring you order tickets from seated customers.

The game has a wide array of ingredients, most of which are unavailable at the beginning and must be unlocked. The following ingredients are available year-round:

• 9 noodle types
• 5 sauces
• 11 toppings
• 5 shaker seasonings
• 6 breads

Special holiday ingredients are also available whenever a holiday rolls in. There are 4 per holiday.

Work Week

The game is divided into work weeks, which are composed of 7 working days. The work week’s arrangement determines the arrival of your weekly pay, the closer who appears at the end, and the type of mini game available at the end of the day.

At the end of each work day, you earn a performance assessment based on how well you did in the following metrics:

• Bread
• Building
• Cooking
• Waiting

Use these metric assessments as a guide to improve your performance later in the game. These appear before your pay and customer points at the end screen.

Customers and Customer Points

The game has a grand total of 85 customers, each with their own unique preferences. Only a few are available at the beginning of the game; most are unlocked as you progress. Rather than committing their preferred orders to memory, we recommend cross-referencing them from the customer menu on the pause screen. You can also view many of the customers you’ve unlocked by selecting View Parade on the startup screen.

Upon ordering, customers are assigned an order slip. Attach the finished order to the correct order ticket to ensure the customer gets what they asked for. Giving the customer the wrong order ticket will not make them happy.

Customer satisfaction is directly tied to leveling up. You earn customer points each time you serve a customer. You must earn enough points to move up a level.

Each customer has a star gauge, a 5-star rating system that increases each time they are impressed by your service. Customers gain a badge after you fill their star gauge. Badges come in three ranks: bronze, silver, and gold. While a badge cannot be lost when you earn it, you can still lose progress toward your next badge if you displease the customer.

Closers

Closers are the last customers that arrive at your restaurant. There are different closers for every day of the week. A closer has higher standards compared to a regular customer and will judge their order much more stringently. Because of this, you must work hard to impress a closer.

The hardest closer to impress is Jojo, the food critic. He comes in once every week and rewards a good experience at the restaurant with a blue ribbon. The blue ribbon gives you higher overall tips for 3 days.

Seasons and Holidays

The passage of time in the game is marked by seasons and months. Each season consists of 3 months, and each month has an associated holiday. The game’s holidays are as follows:

• New Year in January
• Valentine’s Day in February
• St. Paddy’s Day in March
• The Romano Wedding in April
• ChiliFest in May
• Summer Luau in June
• Starlight Jubilee in July
• Neptune’s Feast in August
• Gondola 500 in September
• Halloween in October
• Thanksgiving in November
• Christmas in December

Customers have holiday preferences and, as a result, have unique preferred orders during a holiday. A few customers (and all closers) appear in unique outfits during holidays. Holidays also mark the debuts of some customers.

Each holiday has a unique set of ingredients and themed items, which must be unlocked over time.

Earnings and Improvements

You earn money through the following means:

• Customer tips. The happier the customer is with your service, the higher your tip gets.
• Your weekly pay. You begin with a base pay of $100 a week, which increases as you level up.
• Achievement badges. Each of the 100 achievement badges you earn gives you a one-time cash bonus.
• Mini games. You win a miniscule tip from them as a consolation prize.

You can spend your in-game money on various improvements to your shop. These include upgrades, furnishings and posters, wallpaper and floor covers, and clothes. Upgrades improve your workflow, while the cosmetic upgrades for your lobby improve customer patience.

We recommend buying upgrades first. These help you with various aspects of order fulfillment, which can help you stay on top as days get busier.

• The doorbell ($30) lets you know when new customers arrive.
• The cook boosters ($120 each) help you cook the pasta faster when you hold them down.
• Alarms ($80 regular, $120 al dente) let you know when the pasta is cooked to the desired doneness.
• A second toaster ($300) lets you cook twice the amount of bread.
• Bread boosters ($120 each) let you toast the bread faster.
• The golden spoon ($150) lets you stir pasta twice as fast.
• Heat lamps ($175 each) let you keep bread warm for longer

Interior Design

Decorating the lobby is the key to managing customer patience, especially later in the game when the lines get longer. To get started, select the Decorate Lobby option at the startup screen. Items you bought for decorating appear on your inventory. To place them on the lobby, select them, then drag and drop them into the walls and floor. To remove them, simply select them, then drag and drop them back into the inventory.

Your lobby has a score, which increases based on the number of items placed on it. Try to keep the lobby’s score as close to maximum as possible to optimize its effects on customer patience. Over time, the lobby’s maximum score increases, which should motivate you to buy more furnishings in the future.

The game rewards you for keeping your lobby well-furnished and on-theme. The game’s lobby items are part of a theme, indicated by the letter on the top left corner of their icon on your inventory. Mismatched items will not contribute as much to your lobby’s score.

The game also monitors the how “fresh” the lobby looks in the eyes of your customers. Over time, customers tire of how your restaurant looks; this decay in freshness can be counteracted by swapping out items over time.

Advanced Playing Tips & Strategy

General Tips

The following tips are especially important in the early game when you have no upgrades. We recommend buying upgrades as soon as you can afford them to speed up your workflow considerably.

Periodically check on your pasta as it cooks. This is especially important in later levels when you have a lot of pasta cooking at once. Not only will you need to take the pasta out when it’s at the right doneness, you’ll also need to stir it at least once at the right time. If you’re short on time, don’t be afraid to let some of the pasta drip dry instead of shaking it.

Early in the game, you should cook the bread just as the pasta dish is at the build station and not a moment sooner. The bread will cook just fast enough to be halfway to entirely done when the pasta dish is completely assembled.

Stay Organized

Keep the order tickets sorted according to their stage in production. Ideally, you should sort them according to their urgency. Newer order tickets should be placed behind ones already well on their way to completion.

Mini Games

Mini games appear between each work day. You have the option to play or skip them. You can play mini games as many times as you want as long as you have tickets to do so.

To earn tickets, you must impress customers. A star gauge appears in the counter measuring your progress in impressing customers enough to earn tickets. You can usually earn 3 tickets in a day.

Grab-A-Roni Gondola

Your goal is to collect enough elbow macaroni pieces before the gondola reaches the finish line. Move your cursor or fingers to move the gondola around, and click or tap hard to jump. If you fail to collect the target number of elbow macaroni, you instead get a consolation prize of tips based on the number you collected.

Home Run Derby

This is a simple baseball game. Select at the right time to swing the bat. Hit the ball right out of the park to win. Avoid missing or hitting a foul; three strikes and you’re out.

Slider Escape

Move the slider to the exit by selecting. Move the cursor or your fingers around to change the direction where the slider points. The slider can only slide from one edge to another, using blocks as stoppers. Bring the slider to the star spring to win. Some mazes have cracker tiles, which crack after being hit twice. If the slider exits the maze by missing a block, it’s game over.

Hallway Hunt

Find the door the targeted customer is hiding in by following their eyes around when the room gets dark. The customer is part of a group, so pay close attention as they move around.

Burgerzilla

Use your fingers or mouse cursor to move your player character. Grab as many burger ingredients as you can and stack them until they reach the level shown by the dotted line. Try not to miss too many ingredients. Top it off with a bun to finish the burger and win.

Maple Shot

This is a simple arcade shooting game. Select an enemy to shoot maple syrup at them. Shoot at the target number of enemies. Avoid missing too many enemies; if you fail to hit the target number before your run out of foes, it’s game over.

Mitch’s Mess

This is a simple timed finding game. Find all the items shown on the bottom row in Mitch’s jumble of items before the timer expires. You can only select incorrectly 3 times before you fail.

Educational Aspects

The game challenges a player’s skills in time management and task switching. Players must remain attentive to each customer’s precise needs even as they move quickly from one task to the next.

Player Age Recommendations

This game is suitable for older school-aged players and above. We recommend this game for players who enjoy restaurant sims and fast-paced time management games.