I’ve been a huge fan of Keita Takahashi’s work for years. As a kid, Katamari Damacy was a weird and wacky sandbox that was so much fun to pick up and play. Returning to it years later helped me appreciate not only the touching story of togetherness that the game culminates in, but the effort that was put into making the simple act of play so perfectly satisfying.The blending of lofty themes with intertwined gameplay didn’t just elevate the themes, but is still fun as heck to play in it’s own way. I had high hopes that To a T would take this further. The game does have a poignant and heartwarming message behind it, but the lack of any kind of satisfying or consistent gameplay to go along with it makes this more of a mixed bag than gaming bliss.
In To a T, you play as a young child who’s inexplicably stuck in a permanent T-pose. It isn’t clear why, but you’re used to it – it’s a part of your everyday life at this point. Despite some low moments like dealing with bullies who make fun of your predicament, you’ve got a loving dog companion and a bunch of anthropomorphic animal townsfolk who support and cheer you on each day. Before the game has barely even gotten started, its message was already clear, yet the game wastes no time driving it home with a repeating theme song sung by the characters every chapter about how “you are the perfect shape.”
It’s beautiful, but it’s simple, and it also never goes much further from there through the games eight chapters. As you spend each day visiting a talking giraffe who makes you sandwiches, heading to your quaint Japanese middle school, and exploring your bustling suburban town, there’s little in the way of conflict and nothing new layered onto the initial message of the game by the time you reach that final act. I feel like a young child or someone struggling with their own self-conscious worries will connect with the game and learn a lot from it, I just wish there were more going on with the subtext, or the characters, or the story as a whole to make the destination as worthwhile as the journey.
My bigger issue is that you aren’t really doing anything specific or particular throughout To a T. There is no consistent or focused gameplay besides the act of running around town and, sometimes, collecting floating pink coins you can exchange for new outfits. Every story scene you trigger in the game leads to a bespoke minigame where the thesis is always “do a very normal thing, except it’s really hard because you’re T-posing!” It’s charming at first, but not forever. And since each of these scene’s are different from the last and over before you know it, there’s no evolving of gameplay concepts or increasing difficulty. These minigames never reach the rage-bait level of Getting Over It with Bennet Foddy, but they also never reach the endless trance mode of Katamari Damacy.
I wanted to love To a T a lot more than I do, but between the basic story and the unfocused gameplay, by the time my four hours with the game were over, I just felt like, “Huh, okay then.” It isn’t a bad game by any means, and I think a certain audience will absolutely connect with it in a really impactful way, but after so many years, it just isn’t what I was hoping for as the next game from Keita Takahashi.