Game Theory: The Grim Lore of Cooking Companions 

Anatoly: F is for- Karin: FOOD! Anatoly: …I was going to say “friends.” Karin: So we were both right.

Cannibalism isn't even the most uncomfortable aspect of this game, which in itself is unusual.

As a Polish person I rlly like this episode. It's so cool to see stories of your childhood be noticed and your folklore aknowleged.

im polish and its so nice to see some one talk about slavic culture lol even if it is about cannibalism. my mum told me about baba yaga when i was little and every night i had nightmares of the cabin with chiken legs and i would be scared to go near the woods

Game: Seems innocent MatPat: Now this looks like a job for me

Monika really needs to take more care of herself. Knives aren't healthy if they're inside of your chest!

I’d like to point out that Baba Yaga really doesn’t kill the innocent or the bullied, often acting as a mother or grandmother (hence the Name Baba Yaga). She’s basically the cannibalistic avengers.

I'm from not that far away of these sites, and I remember that being a kid my grandma would scare me with stories of Baba Jaga and her cottage on a chicken leg. Really happy that they get to wider public, and they enjoy them too.

One thing I want to mention that aprooves of the "Baba Yaga" theory, if during the Nightmare Mode you spam the "RUN" option, you get an additional scene where a polish woman comes to the cabin to arrest us and reffers to us as "ma'am" I know the Nightmare Mode is meant to be a joke or something like that, as it says at the beggining of it, but it's still something worth taking a note of

Fun fact: Baba Yaga also rides in a mortar which she drives with a pestle. These are used for grinding herbs or spices. Ties into the cooking theme!

Polish person here! Zakopane in Polish means buried

Matpat: you have a spirit of Baba Yaga passed on to you Me as a Ukrainian: uhh.. that’s not really how Baba Yaga works…

When he said "pets" under the category edibles, I was horrified. I can't imagine being pushed to the brink to survive like that. It's something that reminds me how lucky I am and how much support the world needs. I just wish I could give it

I love the Slavic representation here, as a polish woman and someone who grew up with these stories and loves mythology and old tales thus is a joy to watch ^^

0:12 Monika: "I've been watching y'know, through the screen" Me: You've been watching me when I watch Netflix at the bathtub?

I'm surprised you didn't comment on Rasberry's dialogue about the storm being our fault for this theory. I do love these two videos, and these urged me to get the game for myself. These are well done!

Another clue pointing at the main character being baba yaga is his ability to control the weather and instill rain and hunger. Especially in the ending where he leaves the cabin to spread his wrath, the storm ends up following him

Fun side note: Zakopane means "buried" in Polish

The fact that the cabin changes their fates on death makes me wonder if the cabin itself isn't the true monster. Like it's own little pocket dimension. So down in the basement could lead to many things. It could be an ancient entity like the Hallway in the Coraline book.

Notes //\\ 9:01 Alongst the city, At certain points of the game, Polish can be heard trough the whispers or scrambled text 9:32 Not only this sentence was a lot said by Karin but unsually at the normal ending or other endings Greggor (near his death) is saiyng this 15:56 The chompettes might eb reincarnations of other victims of "the mc" , a reason why somme of them seem to "not forgive" us and aswell a reason why not only potato but ALSO raspberry seem to say a lot of odd things about our background and what happened in the past something that also backs up is what potato told us about cabbage and the reason why she wanted us to play so manny games.. also Karin is not the only caniball in the storry who knows- that well- shes eating her friends- but also anatoly and Greggor. Trough theyr choices (now that i have the game and tested most of them) they are aware of what we are doing and..what they are eating (i had more but i forgor) also am i the only one who..noticed the swquirrels dissapearance? ... i hope not...it dissapeared after mariah left the cabbin,. More conections, the dreams there were 7+ dreams , 3/4 of them hinting to each death of each character. 1- Disecting dream -----> Mariah 2- getting cooked in an oven dream ------> Anatoly 3- The eye forger dream ----> (possibly? Greggor 4- Hungry Fox dream...-----> Karin Theese quite later on reveal themselves near the end when you are at the staircase until starting the new loop? Conections....to ddlc :,) 1- The story-game style Both DDLC and Cooking Companions start off as a cute dating sim with different characters to get to know, dif activities and a VERY happy surrounding, starting with triyng to impress and go further into relationships with them. as the storry goes on for both games revieling gruelsomme happenings and showing theyr actual side , the horror begining with small character jumpscarres scrambled horror texts and hints to the actual storries and to who might be the antagonist the ending of the games quite differentiate but still have a little conection. both games "end" with lasty, te love interest who prooves out to be actually- evil? not evil but also as somme sort of supernatura evil. ( the reason why in the cabbin there were numerous horrors and ...disturbing imageries and jumpscarres after everybodys disappearance ) Karin AND Monika, each very controlling , hot headed ...and crazy,, also crazy to get "rid" of everyone to theyr survival...or benefit Actually Monika and Kerin have an interresting conection..as characters then we have the other characters who are like- each 3, Natsuki, Sayori and Yuri --- and on the other side Gregor , Mariah and Anatoly

Honestly, Matt Pat, it's hard to think it's all just a theory when you back it up with such strong evidence that fits perfectly together that fills the blanks in the story.

As much as I like this game, I really wish the creator would make a new ending (non-canon of course) where Gregor, Anatoly, and Mariah survive. For what is a pretty short game for a visual novel, I grew quickly attached to the three of them, especially Gregor.

“And Karin, who is a Karen.” That had me tho (girl stop complaining about my bland salad)

The fact that no one question about the missing squirrel

MatPat: "Kinda like pringles" Me: *Eyes the pringles I was just eating suspiciously*

“Talking vegetables!” The raspberry and bread: *am I a joke to you?*

Baba Yaga isnt always the bad guy either. There are stories where she gives a protagonist a horse fast enough to travel the world in a single day or spinning beautiful dresses for girls. She’s kinda morally gray.

This game is slightly messed up by how long humans can live without food and how much energy is in a human (not having oil to help digestion (for no reason) makes it more inefficient but still). Also, eating plants and staying in bed can help due to how much human energy is used for heating/thinking.

I looked into it a little bit, There is actually a male "Baba Yaga" that might fit the story line more. "Koshchei the Immortal" is related to Baba Yaga, typically her son or nephew, and he's 'a deity who cyclically dies and is reborn' which fits better with your idea that the power is handed down from person to person. There are also references to Baba Yaga having a pet cat thats described as 'particularly clever' (that might be her), invisible servants (might be the chompettes in this case), and possibly a daughter. I didn't do any extensive research, just thought these were worth mentioning.

Finally a game theory video that I have been craving for. This game was so confusing to me when I watched a manly hero play it, and I am still confused about the lore despite the countless videos discussing it. Hopefully this one can clear some question I still have about it

Mat:talking vegetables Bread and raspberry:boi-

i know this won’t matter to anyone but i watched this video last night; today, i had an academic team match, and 3 of the questions related to the holodomor: the answers being holodomor, stalin, and cannibalism. i was able to get all 3 of them right, so thank you matpat for talking about it and giving information surrounding it, since i wouldn’t have gotten them right without this video. i was very proud of myself

I stumbled upon the demo of this game ages ago. Honestly, I thought it was some sort of fever dream my brain cooked up from sleep deprivation. Apparently, the talking vegatables were real.

Mariah seems like the character that has a lot of lore packed into her that the game is packing into the most unnatural situations Also, isn’t it weird that the only voice we hear in game is hers when the haunting begins? Or why we can’t max her hearts in the new game plus? Or why her ghost form jumpscares us in one of the endings? Or why it’s IMPOSSIBLE to find out her backstory when everyone else has one? I swear she’s going to have more lore than karin

Game Theory is getting better at these Monika intros, but how fitting she should be taken out by another visual novel character. xD

8:22 Is it just me or did he almost sound like he was about to Cry?..

When Mat said they were a person possessed by Baba Yaga, I’m just imagining a really screwed up version of The Santa Clause, where some poor mortal needs to take up mythical beings mantels lol

Matpat: Starts talking about cooking the Baba Yaga in an oven Me who grew up with an alteration of that story: Hey I know that one!

I was very surprised when you started talking about Slovakia. I'm from Slovakia, and it's not a very well-known country. This realy made my day 😅😊❤

I love this theory for using the folklore of Slovakia- the country I'm from. Not many games or theories from MatPat mention this small country. Play the game. It's fun

As a Ukrainian it was so interesting to watch this episode and see how you talk about our history and folklore. Can't wait for the second part

1. We’re a cannibal 2. We live in a shack in the woods Guys, I’m starting to think we might be Shia LaBeouf.

The game and the prequel has been out for a little while now, but I had just recently discovered this game and watched its play-throughs, and I’m hooked. After seeing the DLC of Cooking Companions, I think MatPat’s theory is almost right, but I believe two roles are switched. In the DLC, we see the kids who would later become the Chompettes, but we never see the faces of Potato or the Protagonist, even though we know they are in the story and are present when the kids are killed. We also know that Potato is the famous butcher who cornered the kids before suddenly being killed by the protagonist. But Potato is not the owner of the cabin, or the “first Baba Yaga.” When the Chompettes form into their weird food ghost forms, the Protagonist labels them as “trespassers,” including Potato. There were also notes sent to the cabin, presumably written by a toddler or someone who can’t write well. The writer of the notes was probably Potato, who dropped out of school as a kid to become a butcher. Another reason I think Potato isn’t the owner of the cabin is because it is hinted to be the creepy man by the river who the kids run away from. The man had apparently tried to smile at them to appear friendly, but it didn’t work. There is a note you get in the cabin bathroom early in the game; the note is a complaint to the cabin owner for acting aggressive towards a woman’s nephew. It doesn’t seem to make sense that the creepy man and the owner of the cabin seem to be the same person, as one at least tries to appear more friendly towards kids and the other seems to not like children at all. So with all of that out of the way, here is a summed-up version of an updated theory: Four kids hide in an empty cabin to escape a killer, who they believe has taken another child they know named Razael. Seeing evidence that Razael was in the cabin at some point, they start to believe that the cabin may belong to the killer. Sometime at night, the killer finds them in the cabin and breaks in. The kids plan to ambush the killer in the basement, but it doesn’t go in their favor as he corners them. Suddenly, the killer is stabbed multiple times by another person, the true owner of the cabin (the protagonist). Before the kids could thank him for saving them, the protagonist goes after the children too, killing them one by one. Not too long after their deaths, the protagonist discovers all five of his victims discovered in a drawer, taking the appearance of sentient anime food. Yeah, this theory isn’t as fleshed out as MatPat’s, but it’s fun trying to solve mysteries in a story like this. I wonder if MatPat plans on playing the DLC at some point; if he already has I couldn’t find it.

Did you know that cannibalism is the main reason for the disease prion existing? Types of prion that we know to exist include mad cow disease and laughing death. Thing is, we can get prion from eating each other, OORRR eating animals who have eaten each other.

I love that the title of the game can be extremely ambiguous. Similar to Doki Doki, it looks cute and fun on the outside "Cooking (with) Companions!" But once you get into the meat of the story, the meaning of the title changes because now you're literally cooking companions...

Fun fact: in Poland when we play statues/red light green light/whatever you wanna call it, we say "Raz dwa trzy, baba jaga patrzy" which can be translated to "One two three, baba yaga looks at you"

The photos used at 13:21 are the exact same ones i have in my old russian folklore childrens book my mother gave me! I'm so excited seeing this incorporated into a game!

I am Polish and I have heard teh story of Baba Jaga alot of times especially because I live in an area where Baba Jaga was assosciated so alot of the restaurants and tourist things near me have a Baba Jaga theme you can actually see Góry Świętokrzyskie from my house its about a 15 minute drive there but anyways at the beggining I had a wierd feeling that I heard this before and yeah now I know why

This game made me drop 5 kilo's and I'm planning to lose 15 more. I always struggled with my weight but I thought I just had a slow metabolism or something. Then potato started about calorie rationing, basic metabolic rate and so on. I got really fascinated and wondered what my own BMR was. Okay. Wow. That's actually much lower than I thought. Huh. I wonder how much I'm actually eating instead of just guestimating? I guess I could get a scale, download a food tracker and sweet baby Jesus, am I using THAT much peanut butter? Are there THIS many calories in a glob of olive oil? Yup. A cannibalistic potato is getting me to a healthy weight. Dear God.

Because I'm from a slavic country, it makes me happy when somebody gives attention to slavic folklore that I grew up with, like for exemple baba yaga

I wish some lore-heavy horror games like ddlc and cooking companions had a crossover, where we get to see the most powerful being from two universes fight to the death

“ i’ve been watching you through the screen “ me watching this while taking a sh!t : 👁️👄👁️

15:20 The way I gasped and said “POTATO!” out loud… this was a theory I was so excited for after watching the GTLive videos of this game so I am deep in it now.

Game theory crew: what should we do a cross over on? Mattpatt: cannibalism Game theory crew: bu- Mattpatt: too late, already working on it! And a part 2!!!

I don't think I've ever heard of this game, but considering that it's relatively new compared to the horror games that I researched in my junior year in high school I want to thank you for bringing me this to my attention. Especially since there are so many horror games disguised as other genres of video games like how Doki Doki Litrature Club is a horror game disguised as a dating sim or Irisu Syndrome which is a horror game disguised as a puzzle game. As someone who is not a fan of the horror genre in general, I did my homework so that no one would try and trick me into playing a horror game because I know it's a horror game.

i love that matpat stopped the entire video to show appreciation for Ukraine.

What’s astonishing is that JUST TODAY, one hour and 15 minutes ago I learned about Holodomor in my history class. What a crazy coincidence. I’ve also bought a support ribbon pin from my teacher who’s sending donations to the Ukrainian Red Cross!

The lore is in the title: Cooking Companions. In a way, the four that arrive at your cabin are your companions during the game and you end up eating them

I remember when I first played this and it was pretty spooky but I didn’t know it was deep enough for Game Theory!

I love these! I actually want to make a game or just videos like cooking companions

"Hey MatPat, can you bring back crossover weekend?" "Yeah, I can bring back cannibal crossover weekend." "No, it doesn't have to be about-" "Yeah, I get it, cannibals are the best." "No, I-" *Sigh* "This is the hidden lore channel, everyone ends up making the lore about either dead kids or cannibals. I've already beaten FNAF to death, just let me have this." "..." Markiplier: "Hey MatPat, wanna play a cannibal again?"

Potato Chompette: *Has Average Detective voice* Everyone who has not played the game: *_confusion_*

I love how when I was young I learned about all of this and I love the butchering of pronunciation and how it still would make sense to my mom. I was forced to watch a bunch of russian folklore to learn more russian when I was young, and it really helped. I c n finally say that yeah I watched and animated version of Ivanushka, and yep if you understand the words, the story is amazing.

As a person from Czech Republic, we have our own fairy tale about Baba Yaga, look up Hansel an Gretel, thats basically it. Also, if you've played Witcher 3 there's the Trail of sweets that also plays into this folk tale.

i remember seeing and LOVING this game for the creepy imagery, hidden lore, and the subtle nod towards the tragedy of the ukrainians and their forced cannibalism. and the twist of mc/us being the killer of some magical kind

11:06 So more than 5 million lives were lost due to starvation, and they even resorted to cannibalism. Such a sad and messed up way to go.

Matt just cant make a video without having a beautiful cause or charity or raising awareness to a problem and i love it geas such a beautiful human being

This man taught me more about history than school... BECAUSE OF VIDEO GAMES?!

I always thought the “chicken bone” found with the tiny sock was actually Razael(?)’s baby corpse. The reference to Baba Yaga was something I hadn’t even considered!

I love that you learned more about Ukrainian folklore for this. It’s very interesting and cool. Support to those affected by the Ukraine conflict

Monika at the beginning of the episode: "I've been watching you." Me: "No! Not my browsing history!"

The intro is so peak probably my favorite intro for game theory lol

I remember being terrified of Baba Yaga as a kid. Thanks for bringing back the memories, MatPat! I'm also never visiting the Tatra mountains alone again.

I have not expected Matt to go after Slavic folklore. To be fair, "slaughter stew" might be just an oversight from Slavic cuisine. We love meat in all kinds of ways, and "kashanka" (blood sausage) stew is just one these ways. So, unless you find me a smokehouse and some wheat groats (and you said they're low on supplies) in this cabin, I ain't going down the road they actually made and smoked some blood sausage out of each other to prepare the "slaughter stew". -- Then again the slaughter stew shows up as is, sooooo......... (there was your tid-bit of info on blood sausage cuisine)

Really happy to see a semi-popular game that involves Poland and their neighbours! Seeing the folktales I know realised in a horror game is awsome!

matt have you done a theory on Bugsnax? It would be really cool to see one about it! It was such a greay game and it had alot of little easter eggs and lore/plot.(it also counts as a psychological horror game, if it matters)

Imagine a doki doki film with just that opening... Steph voicing Monica would be 👌

The thing about baba yaga is though, that she aint plain evil. She is a moraly quite complex character. She is cruel and unforgiving like nature itself, but if you respect and manage to play by her rules, she can also be a mighty helper, think of her as a force of nature. Like fire she can be fickle and dangerous, but it is not everything she is. Somehow that nuance tends to get lost in adaption . . .

Did NOT expect to see Caitlin in this vid! What a neat little cameo

I just finished this game being totally bamboozled. Thank you for this video! It's hella interesting!

Oh. It feels really nice, since I am from Slovakia, a little european country no one really talks about, to actually hear about it from someone like you. And also, as a slaw, I am very familiar with those folcloric stories, so even more interesting. I can't wait for part 2!!!

so when i first played Cooking Companions my friends and I did a bunch of nerd research in order to figure out it's lore, we came to the baba yaga conclusion but we never could figure out the chompettes or any of the other small lore bits. we had some theories but nothing concrete. im SO excited to see matpat play and do theories on this as i just have so many questions and i just love this game so much, thank you, thank you for playing

2:14 The fact that MatPat put a picture of Cassidy made me laugh out loud lmaoo

10:44 I gonna nerd a little, but it was systematic genocide created by Joseph Stalin, and Soviet goverment told that everyone was starving.

"Karin is actually designed to look very similar to another character from slavic folklore Vasalisa the beautiful." She first reminds me of Amane Suou. And that comparison does work to some degree with more than just appearance. But that's just a theory. A very loose character inspiration theory!

Been waiting for this since I saw the gtlives 😆

just finsiehd watching the gameplay, saw this in my recommended... I HAD to watch this

Okay, this is by FAR the BEST EVER intro bit in ANY of the channels! By FAR!

Ever since I watched ManlyBadAssHero’s play through this has been in the back of my brain, thank you for delving into it!! (Super recommend his play through, he got a secret/joke ending first. And shows all the other stuff!)

Monika: "You can't defeat me." MatPat: "I know, but she can!" *Karin turns Monika into a human soup*

I was researching the famine in Ukraine for my English class, a few days later this video was posted. Kind of strange but I do enjoy this video, since Bijuu Mike did a play through of this game I really wanted a theory, so thank you MatPat

0:35 that dish actually freaked me out and was really disturbing to me but I still pushed through because I have nothing better to do then watch matpat actually use his brain unlike me who can't even say a sentence with it

There is just something so... wrong about hearing someone say "the" before "Baba Yaga". It's not a type of creature, it's her name.

There was a latter under the floorboard in the bedroom saying that someone was stabbed and their body was hidden in a potato barrel. My theory was that potato chompette was in that barrel possibly and that's why they know so much about the human body

NOT ME GETTING A BURGER KING ADD IN THE MIDDLE OF WATCHING THIS💀💀☠☠

This game is literally just "What if Monica took cooking classes" and I love it

Hello from Ukraine. Thank you very much for your words of support. A fan of your channel for many years, I did not even expect that someday I would see references to one of the most terrible moments in the history of our country. As always - I was very intrigued by the first part and look forward to continuing XD

As a slovak person i like this episode so much,thank you for mentioning our folklore!

I swear that everytime MatPat mentions Poland it's like a jumpscare...

I love Cannibalism Week, we need more themed weeks across the channels