2025-08-06

to a T

Gotta be honest I slept on this game for months, I did not know how hard they cooked. It’s by the Katamari guy’s studio, which usually gets really experimental, but not here. Some places describe it as a “life-sim”, but it’s definitely just a narrative adventure game. It borrows the structure of a slice-of-life TV series: Each episode starts off with the same OP and ED (with variations!), and each episode’s story is generally one day of life as a kid stuck in a T-pose.

Controlling him isn’t actually difficult, there’s inverse kinematics to let you rub up against walls and stuff. To reiterate, this is just a narrative adventure game, it’s not about physics or puzzles or any sort of simulation. Besides just moving around, the gameplay is microgames where you twiddle the stick around to perform tasks. You do unlock a spin move, which lets you jump really high to explore new areas, but it doesn’t have a lot of depth. Exploring is cool, there are collectibles and stuff, but for me just seeing more of the world was the real reward.

It’s a similar setting as Katamari, but a bit more grounded. Usually wacky settings get exhausting, but to a T has a lot of respect for its realistic aspects. It never wants to kill the impact of an emotional moment with some goofy joke. It’s not trying to be subversive, or overly kid-friendly, it’s a sincere story about youth and life. Like, is Yotsuba a kids manga? to a T has a similar vibe, but more intense and more fantastical.

And the soundtrack is fantastic, I already mentioned the OP and ED, but the rest of the OST is great background music. It’s currently my top pick for getting 2 nonstop hours of chores done.

Easy 3/3 score here. I could nitpick that it doesn’t have enough gameplay, but doing 1 or 2 episodes a day completely brightened my life, possibly permanently.

orTa gorTa