TOEM

Genre: Action-RPG

Players: 1

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Review:

TOEM is a family-friendly Action-RPG released on PC, PlayStation 5, and Nintendo Switch in 2021 and ported to Xbox One in 2023. In this game, players take the role of a youth setting out on a coming-of-age journey, making their way by trading favors to locals for stamps on a card that can be used to earn transit to their destination. As it happens, these favors usually come in the form of taking photographs.

TOEM’s presentation uses a mix of simple 3D and 2D hand-drawn visuals is a whimsical cartoonish style, with everything in the game colored in black-and-white monochrome. Despite the simple art style and unimpressive 3D, I think the lack of color in this game is likely the most divisive part of the presentation. Some will likely love it, but others will find it makes for a blander experience. While I understand that this is an artistic choice, I wish players at least had the option of turning on a more standard colorful presentation.

While not everyone will appreciate the visuals, the sound is another matter, with this game’s soundtrack being a wonderfully relaxing New Agey collection of tunes that is perfectly suited for this game’s laid-back and upbeat theme. Some good examples of this are the Title Theme, Photo of Home, Summer Breeze, A Place in the Sun, On the Hour, Hustle Bustle Shuffle, and just to add variety, there’s even a pretty catchy Rave scene too. Overall, this beautiful soundtrack helps to make up for some of what the monochrome visuals may lack.

As for the gameplay, players move through each location from one small square-shaped section of the location to another, speaking with the people you come across, with quest-givers having a star icon next to their name. Some will send you searching for specific items like a treasure hunt, some will ask you to get a specific camera shot, some will have you play a simple mini-game, some will require you to be wearing a specific piece of clothing, and some will give you tasks that are somewhat open to interpretation.

I found myself at times frustrated with this last type of task, that often seemed somewhat arbitrary. At one point, a ghost head shaped like some sort of animal asks you to find out who they were when they were alive, and there’s not really any kind of guidance regarding this. I ultimately showed them a painting of a horse to complete the task, but I really felt like I was shooting in the dark rather than solving a puzzle.

Thankfully, you don’t need to complete all tasks to proceed to the next location, and having different types of tasks to complete does offer players a lot of variety in what to do to progress. But I do feel like completionists will be annoyed by puzzles like these, and may want to resort to looking up solutions online.

However, while some puzzles frustrate and some elements of the presentation may not appeal to everyone, overall TOEM is a delightful game with good variety, clever puzzles, and a great soundtrack. If hunting for photos to solve puzzles sounds like fun, you’ll definitely want to give this game a try.

tl;dr – TOEM is a family-friendly Action-RPG where players take the role of a youth trading favors to locals for stamps on a card to earn transit, with these favors often coming in the form of taking photographs. This game offers a good variety of mostly photography-centric puzzles, and has a great soundtrack, but some puzzles seem arbitrary and not everyone will appreciate the visual presentation. Still, this is overall a delightful game worth checking out.

Grade: B

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