Toki to Towa [PS3] review

[briareos_kerensky]

I keep saying that I'm no longer able to play JRPGs but here I am playing an other.
First impressions are not so good, 20 min. install and incredibly long dialogues following the usual anime cliches and bad lip-synching...animations aren't too hot either.
For those knowing nothing to little about the game, Toki to Towa is Imageepoch's latest effort, featuring anime-style 2D sprites and 3D environments, much like PS1/Saturn JRPGs, only in HD. And it's kinda scary that the limitations of that generation appear in this game, with choppy 2D animations and low-end polygonal backgrounds; but it's just the beginning of the game, maybe things will get better (not that I believe it :P ). Either way, the first impressions with the "story" parts of the game aren't really favorable on the technical side.

The game opens up with the Player (or the name or your choice), Toki, a blue dragon and the remaining female cast talking about Player's and Toki's wedding cerimony tomorrow. Among the lenghty dialogues you are asked to chose between options that, in the end, will affect who will the Player marry (more on this later). Even during the wedding cerimony you can chose between a yes or no at the fateful question; not that this will change much but this introduces a very personal problem: the main male character, your alter-ego, is a completely dumbass. His answers are either absolutely cheesy to completely snarky, making him unlikeable: during the wedding he gets stabbed and on his last breath he thinks "oh, I'm 100% cool"...no, really, f*** you.
Then Toki transforms into Towa, kicks the bad guys's asses and they go back in time to fix this; Player didn't know about Toki's extreme case of split personality and finds himself in the blue dragon's body.

From now on you control Toki (or Towa) trying to twart the assassination and finally the game starts. And the technical side doesn't really improve. The camera is fixed on Toki's back and moving feels awkward, with a lot of momentum and animations not perfectly linked to character movement. The running animation is a bit jerky and you can walk thanks to the magical analog stick, but the walking animation is just a slowed down running animation. Oh boy...anyway, first battle and there are no turns! Just hammer the circle button to constantly fire Toki's rifle and the first enemy goes down. OK, not exactly interesting, but it is not until a story-driven fight that the battle system is fully explained and there might be promise in it.
The analog stick is used to dodge incoming attacks (left and right) and to change between ranged and melee attacks (up and down). Circle attacks, L1 blocks, R2 is to use items and Triangle/square/X are for special attacks when the relative meter is full. The blue dragon is independent and can attack enemy or heal Toki/Towa. Battles are strictly two(player's side)-on-one affairs, with multiple enemies kindly waiting their turn until the previous is dead. The mix of different attack ranges and dodging/blocking abilities so far made battles interesting, though items do not have cooldown times and they can be spammed easily and dodging is far easier to pull off than blocking. I hope that enemies are varied enough to keep things interesting.

So far no big surprises, except for the technical side.

[Sketcz]

Japanese only?

[briareos_kerensky]

So far it's Japanese only. There were reports that Imageepoch were in talks for bring it over but so far no real updates on the matter.

[briareos_kerensky]

I don't for how much time I've played this game, but it feels like an eternity.

The game follow a rather rigid template: go to Toki/Towa's house, talk with her friends, go to the new area on the world map, repeat. As said before, dialogues are looooooooooooooong and with minimal understanding of Japanese, they get boring very quick. But I'm under the impression dialogues will become boring quickly even in English, as they are incredibly long-winded and don't steer too much from any comical attempt in anime: the only difference is that anime directors tend to have a much better timing at jokes and exposition.
Between story-driven missions there are several side quests, acquired from NPCs in cities or other locations. New quests, quests that can be completed and missions necessary for story progression are clearly marked on the word map and even on maps for playable segments; markers on these maps include treasures, warp and save points, essentially removing the thrill of exploring unknown surroundings.
The battle system holds up, though it has to deal with the low number of enemies: recolours abound, their patterns only slightly different in the best case scenario: there are some enemies that behave exactly the same and require the same approach in being defeated, making battles a necessary process to accumulated GPs (for unlocking new skills) and possibly complete quests. Bosses pose a more interesting challenge and when dungeoneering I found myself hoping for a boss encounter. An other thing that dulls battles down is Drake, the blue dragon accompanying Toki/Towa: he's capable of full heal and he does it with a good timing, so no real need to use items.
At each new level, Toki changes into Towa and vice-versa. Toki is more versed for long-range and has fire magic, Towa for short range and thunder magic. There are other subtle differences in how characters handle (Toki is more trigger happy and doesn't dodge as prompty as Towa) and attacks hit (fire magic is a straight line able to hit retreat enemies while thunder needs an almost stationary target); Toki and Towa each have their own skill tree, though in the end they hardly feel like totally different characters.

[briareos_kerensky]

I'll just leave this here.

[Sketcz]

Very informative! Thank you.

It's deadened my interest in the title. It doesn't seem worth it so much any more. No loss if it isn't localised, I suppose.

[briareos_kerensky]

Very informative! Thank you.

It's deadened my interest in the title. It doesn't seem worth it so much any more. No loss if it isn't localised, I suppose.

You're welcome. I don't think it will be localised, every western publisher seem focused on established IPs and won't risk a dime on new things.

[GluedOnBeard]

It's a shame it looks like it could have been could, but then you can say that about a lot of things. Thanks for taking the time to post this. At least I know about the series now, so maybe they will get it right next time.

I will probably still pick this up if I see it cheap anywhere.