The video game is best known for its violence, action or spectacular scenes. So from time to time, some titles come to offer us a more soothing, peaceful rhythm to help the player reconnect with simpler and less primary instincts.
Tasomachi developed by Orbital Express and published by PLAYISM is one of those titles with this ambition.
Will he be able to fully meet this need to go back to basics?
2nd time in my life as a gamer that a game has menus in Japanese characters by default. Follow this short visual guide to switch the game to English.
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In Tasomachi, you play as Yukumo, a young girl on a journey aboard her strange one-person airship-like flying vehicle.
But his trip will quickly be put to the test, since his ship finds itself unable to continue flying.
Stranded in a small village inhabited only by a feline creature, Yukumo will have to find Earth Essences to repair her ship and uncover the mystery around a strange fog that surrounds this village and the other surrounding towns.
Unfortunately, the game ends up being of a rather particular kind, since without staging, or voice, with less than the bare minimum of soundtrack, the game exudes the lack of experience in game design or resources. Or both.
So we are dealing with a platform / exploration game where the player will have to collect these essences again and again, without any adversity, nor originality sometimes after having faced uninspired platform "puzzles".
The repetitiveness of everything is felt very quickly and the absence of regular novelty does not help to renew interest. Especially since for a platform game, the management of jumps is quite complicated. The fault of a much too exaggerated inertia which can as well propel Yukumo for leagues around in the case of jumps on or from mobile platforms. Just as it can distort jump calculations quite severely.
Suddenly, while we were aiming to relax, frustration sets in.
Frustrated with having to deal with even elementary jumps that fail. Frustrated with only having these earth elements to collect. Frustrated with a flagrant lack of diversity and originality.
And it's still a shame if you want my opinion because the visual, although technically poor and not very varied, exudes a certain charm. This game had a significant potential for relaxation, but finds itself marred by a flagrant lack of resources and a gameplay that deserved a little more thought.
Casually, the most exciting thing about this game is when you find yourself in front of the main menu completely in Japanese by default and you have to find the options menu to switch the game to English...
