Towelket One More Time 3 Review
Towelket One More Time 3 is the first entry to the Towelket series, released on February 12th 2008. If you're new to this series, you're probably wondering why the first game is Towelket 3. Honestly, I have no real answer to that. The games are intentionally numbered weirdly.
This game has some weird history so I'll briefly delve into that. Towelket 3 actually has three versions, The original released in February, a remake released in September after the release of Towelket 2 and another remake, this time recreated in RPGmaker MV which was released in 2017. The game I'll be reviewing is the second remake since it's the only version that has been translated into English.
Anyway, the premise of this game is that while you and your younger sister are looking through the storage room, you accidentally come across a magical book that shrinks you both to microscopic size. As it turns out, this book actually belongs to a group of tiny aliens called the Kisechu, who plan to use it to take over the Earth.
The premise of Towelket 3 is quite simple, its story resembling something you would read in a picture book. And for the most part, it plays out that way. There are no crazy twists or turns, the story is very straightforward, and the characters are rather simple. None of this is bad in itself. In fact, I would say it would be quite endearing if it were not for the fact that this game greatly overstays its welcome.
Let's start with the gameplay. There are traditional RPG elements in this game, though it's nothing really special. As someone who isn't too picky about RPGs in the first place- especially not indie ones, I don't particularly mind this. It's just that, despite its simplicity, the game is very intent on making you go through boring mandatory encounter after boring mandatory encounter.
Generic enemies are often weak and can be dealt with in a turn or two, while bosses are just as weak in terms of their attack, the only difference being their obscene amount of health. There are two ways to approach this. You can either spend a boring amount of time grinding, or you can gain a few skill points and trade them in for a specific skill that boosts your entire party's attack and essentially spam it in every encounter until it's maxed out.
There is an elemental system, and specific skills like fire, water, and wood will make up a good portion of your skill set. However, it's really not worth trying to figure out which enemy is weak against what. Often it's not very apparent just by looking at them, and picking something they're resistant to is a waste of a turn. Chances are your basic attack will do about the same amount of damage anyway. Restoration items aren't a problem, you can buy a bunch of them in the shop for super cheap.
There are two additional aspects to the gameplay. When you open your menu, you'll sometimes be able to access "The Mind" and "Helpers". Helpers are just about what you would expect. Random NPCs will decide to join you on your quest and you can use them as a fourth party member whenever there's room for them. It's an interesting concept, but aside from one character that appears later, these helpers don't really add much to your team.
Then there's The Mind. This area is much more interesting. As you progress through the story, different things will appear in your mind. Interacting with them can give you some money, a new skill, an item, or even additional dialogue/scenes. You can also heal here whenever you want. It's an interesting concept, but overall it doesn't really add much to the game itself.
And as mentioned before, you can trade skill points for additional skills in your menu. The only thing you need here is "+Attack lv.3/all", which you can get at any point in the game as long as you have the points for it. The points aren't hard to get, you'll get some after every encounter. Everything else just isn't very useful, so you're better off ignoring them altogether. If you find the game too easy, the only other option is to grind, as bosses tend to be health sponges, and the faster you can get through these boring fights, the better.
Things like this are usually not enough to put me off an indie game completely, because it takes a lot of effort to make an RPG that is really interesting. However, Towelket 3 seems to overestimate how interesting its gameplay really is. There was never really a point where I felt the need to change my approach to a particular boss, no matter how many were thrown at you. It gets to a point where it just becomes mind-numbing when all you really want to do is progress through the story - which is also not very interesting.
So let's get into the story. Honestly, there's not much to say here. As mentioned before, it's a very simple story with a picture book feel...sometimes. Despite the premise and the look of the game - make no mistake, this is not a game for children. This much becomes obvious as soon as you enter the first area and uh...
Yeah.
There are several moments in the game where it tries to incorporate shock humor in the form of sudden perverted jokes. And admittedly, they managed to catch me off guard enough to make me laugh. But then it just... keeps going...
When it comes to stories that are decidedly more lighthearted, they're often carried by two things. Characters and humor. There is one joke in this game. Something suddenly perverted happens. Alright, I'm exaggerating a bit, but the screenshot below is more or less what you should expect from 90% of the jokes in this game. I'm all for raunchy humor, but this game doesn't even feel particularly committed to going down that road. There's often no punchline. The characters have little reaction to what's going on around them. Perhaps it is up to the viewer to find these moments shocking and therefore funny, but it never really escalates beyond what it shows within the first 30 minutes. The result is something that just feels weirdly out of place and never gets any funnier as the game goes on.
The characters themselves just sort of exist. Aside from one unique, very specific trait each of them have, they are sort of interchangeable. Obviously, they're not going to go through any super crazy, insane character arcs or anything like that. They're meant to be simple. But still, there is something so "monotone" about this cast. The way they talk, the way they don't have any interesting reactions to the wacky events that happen. The relationships between the characters are almost non-existent. Female party members will fall in love with the protagonist instantly upon laying eyes on them. They're just boring. Which is very unfortunate for a game like this.
Another aspect I wasn't too fond of with this game was the amount of padding. It takes a good while to get to the "meat" of the story, and even then the story itself is already simple. The characters aren't interesting enough to keep me invested in their struggles because the game hardly presents these moments as struggles. Bad things happen...sort of, but it never feels like the stakes are really there. Part of me wonders if that's supposed to be the "joke" somehow. But the situations these characters find themselves in aren't bizarre or humorous enough to make me laugh along with the game. It just feels like fluff for the sake of fluff and an excuse to have more boring combat.
Overall, I don't think Towelket 3 is a very good introduction to the series. There is nothing in this game that really represents any of the strengths of the series. It's a game that constantly demands your time, but also seems to lack the content to justify it. There's clearly a lot of effort put into it, so maybe I can give it that? But that effort just feels misplaced. A lot of this game just screams "Baby's first RPGmaker game", but without the charm I usually associate with them. Part of me wants to try to be more forgiving but I just couldn't bring myself to enjoy this game. There are just a lot of other games, both within and outside this series, that do what it attempts much better.
A lot of people end up dropping the series after playing this game, and honestly? I get it. Even during my first playthrough, I didn't really enjoy it, and the only reason I managed to get through it was because I was curious to see what the rest of the series had to offer...and if it was really just more of the same (spoiler: it's MUCH better). The only time I've ever been able to look at this game fondly is when I'm not playing it, which is really not a good thing.
So yeah. If you're interested in Towelket as a series, I highly recommend that you skip this entry and go straight into Towelket 2. If you find yourself curious about this game anyway, I'd say maybe try out the first hour or so and see how you like it. Because that's basically what the entire game will be.
I rate this game 1.5/5 Towels
