Tohu Review: Adorable Adventures, Comfortable Puzzles
Tohu is a beautiful adventure game from developer Fireart Games and publisher The Irregular Corporation. The game sees a curious young girl with the ability to transform into a mechanical alter-ego named Cubus set out on an adventure to save the mechanisms that power the world's floating fish planets. A pure indie adventure game along the lines of Bear with Me, Tohu offers good adventuring and respectable puzzles wrapped in a wonderful visual style.
Tohu is a traditional point-and-click adventure in the vein of the best LucasArts adventure games where players take control of the little girl and direct her around locations by clicking on the ground or certain interactable elements. Gameplay consists of gathering special items, solving puzzles, and interacting with a wide cast of wacky characters, all in the service of helping the little girl and her muscular alter-ego save the universe. As players dig deeper into Tohu's story, they will discover more about this odd universe, its origins, and deep truths about the self.
Mechanically, Tohu plays the same as most games in the adventure genre. Players will be presented with a problem that the little girl will adorably articulate in thought bubbles. They will navigate the little girl around the word as far as she can go, encountering puzzles that block progress, some contained in specific rooms, some spanning entire worlds. They will also acquire items that get stuffed in a bag, including a mug of coffee at one point, and carry them about until they can use them in the right space. The formula is predictable, but comforting, and thankfully none of the quests suffer from illogical point-and-click puzzles like Darkestville Castle. Players hoping for a recognizable adventure game, especially veterans of the genre, will find exactly what they're looking for in Tohu.
Visually, Tohu is a treat. The worlds are beautifully animated and contain a myriad of mechanically themed insects, characters, and buildings that easily transport players to a surreal wonderland. Animations, especially for the little girl, are exceptional, with her walking, climbing, and interactions crisp, pretty, and often charmingly funny. Each new world manages to maintain a consistent theme throughout while introducing enough new elements to keep gameplay fresh, from the claustrophobic confines of Junkle's workshop to the chilly snows of a tundra planet. The visuals are wonderful and help cement the feeling of the game, as in the recent adventure Shady Part of Me.
Audio is a stumbling block, however. While the music is quite pleasant, with soft melodies that accompany the little girl's adventure, the sound design needs some work. The grunting voice lines are fine in theory, evoking a Banjo-Kazooie-style feeling, but listening to a teapot ship captain yell the same garbled phrase repeatedly while trying to figure out a puzzle can be a little grating on the nerves. There are also puzzles that rely on sound to complete properly, and while Tohu encourages using headphones, playing on a television should not be considered sub-optimal for a Nintendo Switch title.
There are also minor complaints mostly related to Tohu's Nintendo Switch release. Some minigames and puzzles require precision movement which is difficult using a joystick, though not impossible. The hit boxes for characters and interactable places in the world often overlap, and load times can be a little long for a game of this graphical intensity. These qualities don't ruin the experience, but they certainly drag it down from where it could have been if they were absent.
Overall, Tohu is a wonderful adventure game that is sure to fit well in the collection of any seasoned point-and-click or LucasArts adventure specialist. While the beautiful art, fun visuals, and enjoyable puzzles can serve to entice, there is nothing revolutionary in Tohu that will draw non-adventure game fans into the genre.
Tohu is available now on Steam, Xbox One, Playstation 4, Nintendo Switch, Android and iOS. A digital copy for Nintendo Switch was provided to Screen Rant for the purposes of this review.
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