Tales from Toyotoki: Arrival of the Witch | Switch Review.

Publisher: Aksys Games
Developer: Fragaria
Nintendo Switch Review

*Disclaimer: I was sent the code for this game by Game Press for Nintendo Switch in return for a review, all opinions are mine and mine alone.

I love visual novels, they help put my thoughts and imagination together on the screen, Tales from Toyotoki is a perfect slow read for them days where you just want to sit and relax. I've not been feeling my best, i needed some downtime to relax whilst also keeping my mind busy which is why this visual novel was the perfect distraction. Before I started this game I knew very little about it, i didn't want to read up on what it was about so that I could fully immerse myself and enjoy the the story (which I did).

Tales from Toyotoki: Arrival of the Witch takes us on a journey with a teenage boy named Hikaru Nishime, he was given the news that he would be sent to live with his grandfather. Personally this was very sad, the boy had already lost his family and was living with his aunt and now he has been uprooted again to live even further away all whilst he was supposed to start his first day of High School which is stressful enough for a kid. He does as he is told, he flies to Okinawa then takes a boat to Toyotoki which is where his grandfather lives, he waits to be picked up by his grandfather but this never happens.

Hikaru has no choice but to make his way to his grandfathers house, he could have forgotten or time could possibly run away from him (these are the thoughts that went through my head). He gets help from a local girl who makes him pay for the pleasure, kind of sneaky if you ask me! Once he reaches his grandfathers house he soon realises it's locked and he is homeless, his only choice is to find shelter elsewhere. Getting tired and hungry he finds a sugarcane field which had small shelter in, just as he starts to fall asleep the owner appears. A young beautiful girl called Lilun appears in front of him, obviously unhappy that he has taken her shelter they have a bit of a disagreement.

Hikaru and Lilun form an unlikely friendship, helping one another and eventually living together in Hikaru' grandfathers house. Lilun can be quite stubborn, you see she's a witch and rather than rely on modern appliances and paying for the pleasure of power and water she would rather use her powers. She is solely on the island for her own mission, she makes it known to Hikaru that once she has accomplished what she needed to, she will be leaving. 

A big chunk of the game focuses on the two of them living their lives together, just two kids making the most of what they have in this life. It had a nice chill vibe about it making the story easy to follow. There were instances that did make me feel uncomfortable, such as the remarks Hikaru makes about female characters and their bodies. I understand this is a coming of age visual novel but I found these parts to be unnecessary, a story can be told without sexualising characters. This was the only issue i had with the game everything else about it was very beautiful and nicely put together. There wasn't anything distracting about the backgrounds as the main focus was on the characters anyways, the backgrounds and music were there just to give a feel of the scene, it was the art-style of the characters that caught my eye more than anything. 

I want people to bare in mind, when they play this game that it will be very text heavy because it's a visual novel, if you have trouble with text and reading this is unfortunately not going to be the best kind of game for you to play-through. However there are game options to speed/slow down text and customise it to however you prefer as well as an extensive help section that breaks down how to work the game, al the game options and buttons etc. This is a great way to show the functions and the ins and outs of how the game works even though it is a visual novel, i would like to see more games breakdown their game functions in the same way. I throughly enjoyed the story, I didn't want to go into too much detail as it will ruin what happens for players, Hikaru and Lilun have an interesting story to tell!

Have a cosy day

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