Toem is a game in which you solve puzzles by using your camera. The idea is straightforward: Talk to everyone you meet, find out what they need, and try to solve their problem. The main way is of course through taking pictures, but the game treats the camera more like a multi-purpose tool with entertaining possibilities. The game's charming writing embraces the nonsense of doing favors for needy strangers and never takes itself too seriously even when it gets a little emotional.
Each completed task you do for someone gets you a stamp on your Community Card which eventually allows you to move onto the next area. In addition to task-giving characters, each area is also packed with animals and objects to photograph for the completable Compendium book. Fully completing each area is not mandatory to progress, but I was impressed how tasks in later areas would build off of photos I had gone out of my way to get at the time. The experience of fully completing an area was satisfying and I felt compelled to do so out of genuine enjoyment and curiosity. I'm not a completionist type of player because I find that kind of thing exhausting, but in Toem it was handled with good spirit that didn't feel overwhelming. Each area has a little more to offer than the last, but it always felt like an appropriate amount of effort to me. This game paces itself well with there being a casual order of operations to some of the tasks. It always kept me on my toes as I traversed the area. There is more to this game than meets the eye for anyone who wants to spend time with it.
I savored Toem and its post-credits bonus level to 100% in about 9 hours, which I would guess is pretty slow for a game of this size. I spent some time lost in each area trying to get back to places I had been to before but couldn't remember how. Those with a bad sense of direction like me will probably find that frustrating. An in-game map would probably help with this and I admit I was occasionally wanting one, but I don't think it's exactly necessary. There are a lot of things to discover in each area that are easy to miss. Backtracking multiple times and taking "wrong" turns is often beneficial and the moment of finding something that was cleverly hidden is so satisfying. Overall I recommend this game if you like relaxing atmosphere and to-do list style of managing objectives. The hand drawn art style and soft music create a very gentle presentation that made me feel connected to the world and its characters as I got to know it on a detailed level. Completing Toem's final area felt a little bittersweet, but not for long thanks to the post-credits bonus level (which is a step up in every sense from the main game and totally worth getting to).
Each completed task you do for someone gets you a stamp on your Community Card which eventually allows you to move onto the next area. In addition to task-giving characters, each area is also packed with animals and objects to photograph for the completable Compendium book. Fully completing each area is not mandatory to progress, but I was impressed how tasks in later areas would build off of photos I had gone out of my way to get at the time. The experience of fully completing an area was satisfying and I felt compelled to do so out of genuine enjoyment and curiosity. I'm not a completionist type of player because I find that kind of thing exhausting, but in Toem it was handled with good spirit that didn't feel overwhelming. Each area has a little more to offer than the last, but it always felt like an appropriate amount of effort to me. This game paces itself well with there being a casual order of operations to some of the tasks. It always kept me on my toes as I traversed the area. There is more to this game than meets the eye for anyone who wants to spend time with it.
I savored Toem and its post-credits bonus level to 100% in about 9 hours, which I would guess is pretty slow for a game of this size. I spent some time lost in each area trying to get back to places I had been to before but couldn't remember how. Those with a bad sense of direction like me will probably find that frustrating. An in-game map would probably help with this and I admit I was occasionally wanting one, but I don't think it's exactly necessary. There are a lot of things to discover in each area that are easy to miss. Backtracking multiple times and taking "wrong" turns is often beneficial and the moment of finding something that was cleverly hidden is so satisfying. Overall I recommend this game if you like relaxing atmosphere and to-do list style of managing objectives. The hand drawn art style and soft music create a very gentle presentation that made me feel connected to the world and its characters as I got to know it on a detailed level. Completing Toem's final area felt a little bittersweet, but not for long thanks to the post-credits bonus level (which is a step up in every sense from the main game and totally worth getting to).