TOEM

This is a review for a game I finished in February 2025. I just felt compelled to write about it now, I guess.

This is one of those chill and cozy types, a photography game where there really is not a lot of pressure or challenge. It was the debut game from Something We Made and you are a young photographer who is tasked by mom (or grandma? can’t remember) to take a picture up a mountain of a phenomenon called “TOEM”.

To get to that mountain you have to take a bus, and to pay for the ticket you have get stamps, which you get by completing quests, all of them require you to photograph certain things in your current location, and the bus will give you a ride to a new place after you collect enough stamps.

This game was an absolute joy, it looks really nice, with a style similar to Paper Mario, where characters are flat and 2D, in a basic 3D environment. The whole thing is also in black and white.

I found the challenges to be extremely fun, the game has an isometric perspective, which you can rotate to reveal certain angles, and expose things hidden from plain sight. You can also use the camera mode to look in places the regular perspective won’t allow. For example, to photograph a balloon in the sky which is not visible otherwise.

There’s also a puzzle element aspect to things, with certain areas being unaccesible until you figure out how to get it. It often is as simply as bringing a photo of something, TOEM also features outfits, where you can style your character however you want, and of course, this is also a mechanic, of the game, where you will be required to disguise yourself, or to wear something specific to access an area.

The game is extremely short, but it really has a lot of charm, the dialogue is thoughtful and warm and the characters you meet, while simple, are still always nice to see. There’s some who you’ll see throughout the game, doing side quests with their own objectives for which they’ll often require your helps.

Since the quests are basically a to-do list, I actually felt compelled to do every single one of them, I got rewards and I felt great doing it. This is a game I got for free because of a Steam code, so I also played it on my laptop (a rare ocurrence) and got every single achievement for it, with some online help for the most obscure ones, not gonna lie.

At last, reaching the top of that mountain is definitely an wonderful experience you owe yourself to try, or maybe the journey is what it’s all about?

Highly recommended if you want a chill time, some nice music and a cozy vibe for a couple evenings, since it’s super short! This is day 96 of #100DaysToOffload