Toem Review (lijunkang🍍)
An excellent wholesome/cosy & family-friendly adventure game with top-notch art and sound effect, which has photography as its central mechanics.
During the game, you will visit several locations (forest, port, city, snowy mountain, seaside resort) . Visiting a new location always feels like an exciting trip, since each provides plenty to see and do. You can stroll around, take photos, discover indigenous critters, find secrets, and most importantly, help out heart-warming NPCs. These cute and whimsical characters will give you casual quests in the form of lightweight puzzles, riddles, errants such as taking photos of a certain scenery/creature or collecting hidden objects.
What makes it particularly stressless is that none of the quests is compulsory, missable (neither are the achievements), time-limited, or dexterity-based. In addition, you get a bus pass to access the next location by completing enough (around 50%) quests in a location, with the possibility to come back whenever you feel like it.
Toem takes around 5 hours to complete and maybe 10 hours to 100% (a bit less with the help of some guides). It promises no revolutionary gameplay nor deep storytelling, but a wholly relaxing yet satisfying experience in a little but self-contained and well-crafted virtual world, which is a relatively rare offer from the modern-day gaming industry. Some even call it A Short Hike with a camera, which actually makes sense in terms of their common vibe. (If you do not know A Short Hike , go play it immediately; it is your homework today!) I find Toem to be one of the best wholesome games I have played; hence I wholeheartedly recommend it to players who are into short and sweet indie games.
PS: if you enjoy Toem's gameplay, have a look at Alba: A Wildlife Adventure by ustwo games (the studio behind Monument Valley). It is less focused on photography, but has a very similar vibe and gameplay elements to Toem.