Towelket One More Time Review

Towelket One More Time is the third entry in the Towelket series, released on March 16, 2009. Similar to the previous entry, this game is completely self-contained, so you don't need to play the previous games to understand the story.

So the plot goes as follows: You play as a young boy named Moochasu who is accidentally flung out of his parents' truck while moving to his new town. When he wakes up, he finds himself stranded on an island with three girls named Conchelle, Paripariume, and Lasagna. However, he soon finds out that all of the island's inhabitants, including himself, are under the island's curse: "The Curse of Curves"

I know this premise sounds pretty straightforward, but trust me, wherever you think this plot is going, it's not going there. It's really hard for me to describe this game in a way that does justice to the story and is completely spoiler free. What I can say, however, is that this is one of the most endearingly unique stories I've ever experienced in an RPGmaker game. The writing simultaneously manages to be both very simple and complex without ever feeling like it's at odds with itself. The result is something that feels truly genuine without ever losing sight of what it sets out to do. This is a game that has something to say, and what it has to say can resonate with anyone who's willing to give it a chance.

As always, the gameplay is standard fare, though there are a couple of sections of this game that attempt to switch things up a bit. Though they're few and far between, I think it's a good step in the right direction. Unfortunately, this game lacks the extra menu options that were present in the previous two games. They were nice touches, but overall their absence in this game doesn't feel too detrimental all things considered. However, I personally think that if there was a Towelket game that needed a hint system like in Towelket 2, it would probably be this one, for reasons I'll explain later.

What this game does have, however, are these little "Talking Points" scattered throughout each map. They're easily identified by the little jumping "click" buttons you see everywhere. As you can probably guess, interacting with them will give you a short dialog with the characters in your party. They're all completely optional, and you won't miss out on any important information by ignoring them (at least in this game), but it's just a charming way to get a sense of what your party members are doing or thinking as you travel. Overall, it's a nice touch that solves the problem of having an excessive amount of dead air between important plot points, which was one of the issues I had with the previous entry.

The characters themselves are all very endearing and fit the scenario this game presents quite well. While they may seem a bit simple at first, the little interactions with them along with the circumstances they go through in this game all work together to make them feel more human in a ways I didn't really expect. I remember the first time I played this game, I was trying to write about my thoughts on the characters and their dynamics, specifically how I felt certain aspects of them felt a little too forced, but as I wrote and actually looked at the characters for what they were, I began to realize that there was a lot more to them than I had initially given them credit for. It seems that this particular cast of characters within the series has stuck with the people who have played these games the most, and honestly, I can completely understand why. This cast definitely felt more cohesive than the cast of Towelket 2, which I thought left something to be desired when the focus wasn't on the main protagonists.

I think I really only had one or two problems with some of the characters. One of them is that your companion for most of the game can get a little annoying at times, especially when it's just them and the protagonist with no other characters to really bounce off of. But that's a more personal opinion. Another issue I had is that one of the characters is unfortunately a victim of the "Air" syndrome. Being "like air" in the world of Towelket basically means being pretty irrelevant for most of the story. For me, it just feels a little painful to see a main character labeled like that when I felt like there was some real potential for development that just never got the chance to really happen. But overall, it's a very minor issue, and the game still manages to get its point across.

Now, if you've played the previous entries, you might be a little surprised by some of the characters in this game. Conchelle and Paripariume are both characters that have already appeared in this series. This might lead you to believe that this is some sort of sequel to the previous games, but believe it or not, these characters have nothing to do with their previous counterparts. This is one of the many quirks that this series has, and you'll see it a lot in the future. In a certain sense, the characters are like actors who fit into whatever role the story has in store for them.

Going back to something I mentioned earlier, I think this game's most notable flaw is that it can sometimes feel a little aimless in terms of what you need to do next in order to progress. It's not too common, but there will be times when the other characters will just tell you to "go outside and play" without giving you a clear direction of what to do next. Sometimes there's a noticeable lack of "barriers" that prevent you from going way further than you're supposed to, and it can get a little frustrating when you're running around completely lost with nothing to really point you in the right direction. I feel like Towelket 2's hint menu would have definitely been a lot more useful in this game than that one. But overall, this problem becomes non-existent when you have a walkthrough on hand. In the end, it didn't really ruin my experience.

As a whole, Towelket One More Time is easily the most iconic game in the series and my personal favorite of the "Classic Era" Towelket games. I think it's a game that really showcases all of Kanao's strengths as a writer, and even though it came out over a decade ago, it still holds up quite well. I would personally recommend this game to anyone who is just interested in RPGmaker games in general, even if they're not quite ready to invest their time in Towelket as a whole.

I really hope that I have been able to convey my appreciation for this game and that everyone who reads this feels inspired to play it themselves. The story this game has to tell is crazy and bizarre and will probably remain relevant as long as humans exist. If it sounds even a little bit interesting, then I highly recommend that you take the time to play it. This game recently got a shiny new English retranslation, so now's probably the best time to check it out if you haven't already!

I rate this game 5/5 Towels