Towelket: One More Time 2 is a story-heavy adventure game made in RPG Maker 2000. The young boy who lives in the countryside and his childhood friend, a charming little girl. This is the story of star-crossed lovers, torn apart by a sudden invasion of aliens. Contrary to the fairy-tale-like appearance at the beginning, this RPG contains content that is bizarre, sexual, and shocking, so it is R-15. Note that some the content is not suitable for children and teenagers. This game has a few minor references to the prequel "Towelket: One more Time 3" (which was released before Towelket 2), and a couple characters from that game make another appearance, for example the Pon Groom.
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i originally played towelket 3 a long time ago and dropped it but i decided to give the series another chance and i'm glad i did. honestly, it was good, and i had fun while playing it. the story may be a little silly but somehow it grew into me.
rpg maker 2000 is really limited (since it's a very old version of the program) so i always appreciate it whenever developers manage to bring such mechanics to their games. even if i like exploring and not missing anything while playing, i'm very sure i left some things behind so someday i'll replay it.
the gameplay is what you expect from a turn-based rpg game. i'm a fan of the genre so i don't have anything to say than that it's okay.
regarding the story, it hurts. a lot. the final chapter broke me and made me feel empty. while you mostly control only one character, it makes you see the perspective of other characters as well and how everything that is happening affects them.
despite not showing any cgs and being only dialogue, it made me uneasy and uncomfortable, and that's what made me respect it. most games rely on showing graphic things just for shock value, not handling serious issues with care and thoughtfulness so it's good to see this being the exception. don't get me wrong, it's not perfect and i wish we could've got a more in-depth on it but with the short duration of the game, i think it's fine and it gets you.
if you don't have anything to do right now, you should give it a try (obviously, read the content warnings before!). it can surprise you, in a good way.
rpg maker 2000 is really limited (since it's a very old version of the program) so i always appreciate it whenever developers manage to bring such mechanics to their games. even if i like exploring and not missing anything while playing, i'm very sure i left some things behind so someday i'll replay it.
the gameplay is what you expect from a turn-based rpg game. i'm a fan of the genre so i don't have anything to say than that it's okay.
regarding the story, it hurts. a lot. the final chapter broke me and made me feel empty. while you mostly control only one character, it makes you see the perspective of other characters as well and how everything that is happening affects them.
despite not showing any cgs and being only dialogue, it made me uneasy and uncomfortable, and that's what made me respect it. most games rely on showing graphic things just for shock value, not handling serious issues with care and thoughtfulness so it's good to see this being the exception. don't get me wrong, it's not perfect and i wish we could've got a more in-depth on it but with the short duration of the game, i think it's fine and it gets you.
if you don't have anything to do right now, you should give it a try (obviously, read the content warnings before!). it can surprise you, in a good way.
This review contains spoilers
jesus christ this game a ride. a beautiful, but tragic tale of how so much one event has changed and impacted the life of paripariume. how in that final chapter, those moments of walking around inside paripariume's mind you see the themes of her mental illness. from that moment when she was separated and groomed her whole life was changed and filled to the brim with regret and anguish was like i was walking through a fucking yume nikki map (which possibly was the inspiration for that section). it was very consistent with that and i respect that shit so much cause god it sunk my heart. those last moments where the hero and paripariume were together at last was beautiful.
i hope kanao is chilling nowadays considering how unfortunate everything about this game is, extremely painful experience jesus christ
played oct 6th for rpgmaker october
decided at the last minute i would play this, the only correctly numbered towelket game, instead of 3 (the actual first one). ive played the majority of this and im just gonna call it done for this day, bc i dont have much desire to go back to it another time. there's good bits, alot of rpg parodies overemphasize their jokes but this one is actually funny for playing everything pretty straight w/o need for comment, and also some of inner mind world stuff is interesting, both mechanically and narratively. but god does it get old to actually play. i could put my nose to the grindstone if the story was any good but it's rly not that committed to itself, not enough to grab me, and it started to lose its ability to surprise me abt halfway thru. towelket 2 really took notes from mother 3 and that included having a chapter of the game that is far too long to do it any good too!!!!!
had some high expectations going in yet wound up not really seeing the appeal. should be way shorter than it is at least. idk if there's more to be gotten out of these games when it's the series taken as a whole, maybe there's another entry i could like better, but if this is widely decided to be one of the best ones then i feel like it's not for me.
decided at the last minute i would play this, the only correctly numbered towelket game, instead of 3 (the actual first one). ive played the majority of this and im just gonna call it done for this day, bc i dont have much desire to go back to it another time. there's good bits, alot of rpg parodies overemphasize their jokes but this one is actually funny for playing everything pretty straight w/o need for comment, and also some of inner mind world stuff is interesting, both mechanically and narratively. but god does it get old to actually play. i could put my nose to the grindstone if the story was any good but it's rly not that committed to itself, not enough to grab me, and it started to lose its ability to surprise me abt halfway thru. towelket 2 really took notes from mother 3 and that included having a chapter of the game that is far too long to do it any good too!!!!!
had some high expectations going in yet wound up not really seeing the appeal. should be way shorter than it is at least. idk if there's more to be gotten out of these games when it's the series taken as a whole, maybe there's another entry i could like better, but if this is widely decided to be one of the best ones then i feel like it's not for me.
This hurts.
Lemon and salt in the wounds. With a little bit of pepper!!!
Lemon and salt in the wounds. With a little bit of pepper!!!
"On ne naît pas femme, on le devient."
Towelket 2 is a profoundly haunting experience with so much emotional gravitas packed into such a short playtime that you would've forgotten Kanao's previous game was Towelket 3. While that game was silly, irreverent, yet sporadically morbid, 2 is more stripped back and deliberate. Magic is gone. Weapons and armor are ordinary objects and clothing. And anything that happens to a character is permanent. One of the things I loved about 3 regardless, though, was its perspective switching: how it forced you into the shoes of characters besides your own. 2's utilization of this is remarkably effective combined with the more focused cast. It's downright cinematic at several points. Paripariume leaves for the city, an unfamiliar place where she is just a small fish. The game then cuts to Mocchi, in an alien spaceship (which even looks vaguely like a train), drawing an effective thematic parallel. All the characters represent different ways society oppresses, yet their pain is shared. Mitsue is a temporary recipient of, and eventual victim to, society's beauty standards. Ketsuago, ‘clever girl,’ has created a society herself, yet is still unable to change the wider attitudes. Paripariume, a deeply tragic victim of patriarchy, clings to memories she felt were free from the world’s twisted, contradictory expectations in order to keep pushing forward even as she, once an exemplary human being, is broken down, Mocchi serving as her mirror both physically and spiritually. It felt like there was so much thought put into the construction of this story, and if anything, the writing was so strong I just wish it were longer, because media that handles shocking graphic/sexual content without feeling forced or tactless is surprisingly rare. But please be warned: although I think the writing is nuanced enough it’s possible to draw some positive conclusions, it is hellishly dark in its portrayal of these issues. I had some difficulty sleeping afterwards.
Gameplay-wise, it's a massive step up from 3, but I would struggle to call the combat itself interesting. Autoing every battle is genuinely the best option most of the time, though I guess I do prefer simple turn-based RPGs to be easy, so this is not a huge downside to me personally. However, I think this was the game where Towelket came into its own with regards to gameplay mechanics. The flower garden ensures smooth progression so you don't necessarily need to be constantly updating your equipment, Elizabeth is a genuinely good character hidden within a hint menu, and the Mind system is one of my favorite ideas in any RPG ever. Not necessarily for gameplay repercussions, but more in terms of thematics. It lets players reminisce on the story so far, providing a breather, and granting abilities and powers for interacting with all the game has to offer. Memories imbue you with the strength to move forward, but at the same time cannot let you escape reality. The story not only acknowledges a frightening dichotomy within its own philosophy, but masterfully ties together this concept with ideas that seem to mirror what an indie developer might say about their own work. -These games, our personal works of art, are the culmination of everything that brought us to this point. We have things we want players to see, and not see, and it is within this intimate space we are allowed a connection between creators’ and players’ brains. Eventually it ends, the connection terminated, but if our souls conjoined just once, it will have all been worth it. -
In a sense, Kanao found a way to justify their predilection to absurdity and morbidity by applying it to characters with experiences all too familiar with reality. As if they’re saying: "This world is really what's morbid here!" Yet there’s only so much we can do in the face of the seemingly unbreakable systems of oppression. And that is true horror.
Towelket 2 is a profoundly haunting experience with so much emotional gravitas packed into such a short playtime that you would've forgotten Kanao's previous game was Towelket 3. While that game was silly, irreverent, yet sporadically morbid, 2 is more stripped back and deliberate. Magic is gone. Weapons and armor are ordinary objects and clothing. And anything that happens to a character is permanent. One of the things I loved about 3 regardless, though, was its perspective switching: how it forced you into the shoes of characters besides your own. 2's utilization of this is remarkably effective combined with the more focused cast. It's downright cinematic at several points. Paripariume leaves for the city, an unfamiliar place where she is just a small fish. The game then cuts to Mocchi, in an alien spaceship (which even looks vaguely like a train), drawing an effective thematic parallel. All the characters represent different ways society oppresses, yet their pain is shared. Mitsue is a temporary recipient of, and eventual victim to, society's beauty standards. Ketsuago, ‘clever girl,’ has created a society herself, yet is still unable to change the wider attitudes. Paripariume, a deeply tragic victim of patriarchy, clings to memories she felt were free from the world’s twisted, contradictory expectations in order to keep pushing forward even as she, once an exemplary human being, is broken down, Mocchi serving as her mirror both physically and spiritually. It felt like there was so much thought put into the construction of this story, and if anything, the writing was so strong I just wish it were longer, because media that handles shocking graphic/sexual content without feeling forced or tactless is surprisingly rare. But please be warned: although I think the writing is nuanced enough it’s possible to draw some positive conclusions, it is hellishly dark in its portrayal of these issues. I had some difficulty sleeping afterwards.
Gameplay-wise, it's a massive step up from 3, but I would struggle to call the combat itself interesting. Autoing every battle is genuinely the best option most of the time, though I guess I do prefer simple turn-based RPGs to be easy, so this is not a huge downside to me personally. However, I think this was the game where Towelket came into its own with regards to gameplay mechanics. The flower garden ensures smooth progression so you don't necessarily need to be constantly updating your equipment, Elizabeth is a genuinely good character hidden within a hint menu, and the Mind system is one of my favorite ideas in any RPG ever. Not necessarily for gameplay repercussions, but more in terms of thematics. It lets players reminisce on the story so far, providing a breather, and granting abilities and powers for interacting with all the game has to offer. Memories imbue you with the strength to move forward, but at the same time cannot let you escape reality. The story not only acknowledges a frightening dichotomy within its own philosophy, but masterfully ties together this concept with ideas that seem to mirror what an indie developer might say about their own work. -These games, our personal works of art, are the culmination of everything that brought us to this point. We have things we want players to see, and not see, and it is within this intimate space we are allowed a connection between creators’ and players’ brains. Eventually it ends, the connection terminated, but if our souls conjoined just once, it will have all been worth it. -
In a sense, Kanao found a way to justify their predilection to absurdity and morbidity by applying it to characters with experiences all too familiar with reality. As if they’re saying: "This world is really what's morbid here!" Yet there’s only so much we can do in the face of the seemingly unbreakable systems of oppression. And that is true horror.