When Ico was released years ago, I was awed by how well they could make the simple design work. It was amazing how you could be drawn into the narrative driven by two characters that basically communicated via grunts while exploring what was nearly an empty castle. There was something magical about the lonely, quiet atmosphere that I don’t recall seeing before in games. Shadow of the Colossus came next. It was a completely different game, but it also had the beautiful, contemplative atmosphere as you rode through the landscape. Team Ico then proceeded to work on The Last Guardian which will most likely never come out at this point. I never thought I’d find a game that’d feel like Ico again until I found Toren. A wonderful game that is unfortunately flawed enough that I am not sure I can ever recommend it.
Toren comes to us from Brazilian developer Swordtales. The game tells us this story: a long time ago, humans tried to make a tower to reach the moon. Angered, the sun sent a dragon to swallow the moon, making it perpetually daylight. You play as the Moonchild, a woman tasked to climb the tower, slay the dragon, and restore the moon. At the start of the game Moonchild is killed by her foe and falls to the foot of the tower. She is then revived as a baby.
What prompted me to download Toren in the first place were the screen shots. It looked gorgeous, and to be fair it is. However, once you see the game it becomes evident that what makes the game nice to look at is the art direction. On the technical side Toren performs as though it would be right at home on the PlayStation 2. Animations are stilted and awkward, and there are a number of other weird issues with clipping. Make no mistake, the game does look great, it just doesn’t feel great to match.
There are other problems too. The controls are not tight at all, which can be frustrating. The platforming is easy, and it seems that challenge is derived less from great level design and more from overcoming the control scheme. Another strange choice that increases the difficulty involves not giving the character a shadow in a lot of the “dream” sections. For some strange reason, you are also not able to turn around walk backwards when you are balancing in a thin beam or section. If you accidentally stepped on a branch, you will have to walk the whole way through to be able to turn around. There is no indication to me that these choices were intentional.
Combat feels even worse. Moonchild is sluggish, and it is hard to tell when you’ve hit an enemy other than a purple dome that seems to appear when they take damage, but other than that there is no feedback that you successfully attacked them. There is no real enemy variety, with the game featuring one type of enemy, and the dragon I mentioned earlier. Luckily there just isn’t a lot of combat aside from one or two sections. You do find enemies in many points where Moonchild is not even armed. That’s ok, because the enemies are easy to dodge, and even when they do hit you, they aren’t really a threat.
Toren also does a lot of things right. The story and atmosphere drew me right in. As I mentioned in my intro, there is a great atmosphere of wonder and loneliness in the game that supports the themes of sacrifice of Moonchild’s life and humanity. During the game, you will start as a toddler, and Moonchild will grow as she climbs the tower sacrificing her childhood an adolescence for the benefit of humanity. This usually happens through dream sequences, which are used as a way to explore a new mechanic and to relay the background story.
The game establishes early on that Moonchild is on a cycle of death and rebirth that will only finish when she fulfills her quest. The game uses this to do some clever things. When Moonchild dies she will go back to a lower point of the tower. This will sometimes be used to solve some puzzles or get past a specific obstacle.
This mechanic also does allow for some back-tracking and exploration. While Toren does feel linear most of the time, those who are curious can find some perks in previously visited areas. These usually involve acquiring upgrades to Moonchild’s equipment. They are cool, but they serve little purpose in the game, since as previously mentioned there isn’t a lot of combat to get through. The game does do a good job of using this to simultaneously provide flavor for the story, and also reinforce the theme of Moonchild giving up her humanity in the course of the game by doing things such as sacrificing the life of an innocent to make her weapon stronger.
The game is also short. Painfully short in fact. I took my time and completed it in just over three hours. I am sure it is possible to complete it in less than two hours if you don’t explore or waste time falling off of cliffs to try to find secrets as I did. While I will not argue that $10 for a 2 hour game seems like a lot, a game this flawed would wear out its welcome if it were any longer. I think it was worth the price of admission as I loved the unique experience, but I certainly won’t hold it against anyone if they feel the game’s length is a deal breaker.
Toren is a challenge for me as a reviewer. I loved the game from beginning to end, yet it is a deeply flawed experience. The controls need work, The combat fails to deliver, and the graphics are frankly primitive. It is so flawed in fact that I do not know if I feel comfortable recommending it to most people. While I know that this review will sound harsh, I actually enjoyed my brief time with the game quite a bit, and I am excited to see what else developer Swordtales will bring to the table in the future. If you enjoyed the style of games Team Ico produces and you can see past the flaws mentioned above, then go ahead and pick it up!
