A Fathomless Chaos
Tamashii, a puzzle-platforming game inspired by the likes of obscure, decades-old Japanese titles and the works of H.P. Lovecraft, came into my life at precisely the right moment. You see, I have been on a bit of Lovecraftian binge lately, recently enjoying Richard Stanley’s spectacular take on The Colour Out of Space, and re-reading The Dunwich Horror, The Unnamable,and At the Mountains of Madness. Lovecraft had an incredible way of taking a premise so wonderfully unassuming like an indescribable color that fell from the sky, and corrupt it in a completely unimaginable and horrifying way. It is this quality that resonated with me the most during my short but sweet experience with Tamashii. Having known next to nothing about the game, a passing look at its retro aesthetic got me thinking that it was going to be just another one of ‘those games’ – a half-hearted attempt of a game that once lured me in with its sprites, would offer very little depth gameplay wise. It turns out, however, that Tamashii is a game that is so deep, I almost couldn’t find my way out its darkness – and I loved every second of it.
A Truly Weird Tale
Tamashii opens in an ominous place known as the Twisted Temple, where an ancient deity has tasked you – an unnamed soul – to discover an evil source that is residing in the temple and to put an end to it. It’s a very familiar set-up, one that is made better by the game’s unsettling imagery. Rooms littered with massive eye balls, tongues flailing out of disembodied mouths are just some of the horrors you can expect to come across. Fortunately you are little creepy denizen of this hellish nightmare dimension and are more than capable of traversing the twisted tableau that lies before you.
The main gameplay hook here isn’t so much precision of your jumps/double jumps (of which you expect PLENTY of), but more in your ability to summon totems to solve the games many puzzles. As the unnamed soul you can channel your dark energy to create grim, lifeless stand-ins of yourself to activate switches and sigils. Things start off simple enough, with you dropping a totem on a switch to unlock a door, but soon you’ll be face with a lot more variety and change-ups than you can imagine. From motion-sensor lasers, to arrows that allow you to move your totem from left to right, you can often find yourself a tad overwhelmed – especially considering you can create up to three totems at once, all which are on a countdown to vanishing into thin air from the moment you drop one down.
Every room feels like beat-the-clock as you are always looking for the fasted and best way to utilize your totems. You’ll sometimes have to use a mechanic as simple as gravity to jump and then place a totem in just the right spot. The end result is a LOT of trial and error – not so much in not knowing what to do, but in trying to pull off what you want to do (I warned you about the precision, didn’t I? All of this culminates to some pretty impressive boss fights.
Even Death May Die
At the end of the each of the game’s five levels/chambers, expect a horrific twisted mutation to be waiting to put an end to your journey. Since you cannot physically fight any of these creatures, boss fights themselves become something of a puzzle as well. Only instead of worrying about stationary laser beams that are relatively easy to avoid, now you have to dodge an entire host of horrors such as orbs of energy. And considering how spongy you are, you’ll be thankful for all that trial-and-error gameplay that burned the games simple controls in your memory. Boss fights are quite possibly the most enjoyable part of the game outside of the satisfaction you feel when finishing a room’s puzzle. They are a spectacle in every sense of the word. Now if only the experience lasted a little longer.
Tamashii has got a lot going for it – but game length is not one of them. I was able to finish the game in a single sitting while doing my laundry. It’s a great little distraction full of nightmare fuel and an unspeakable horrors – it’s just over way too quickly. While similar games can easily overstay their welcome, Tamashii feels like a good friend that just dropped by to say hi. You chat for a bit, maybe share a joke or two, but the exchange is over in the blink of eye. While what remains is sublime expression of body horrors and imagery that will make your skin crawl, it latches on to you in such a way that you almost never want it to let go.
All fled—all done…
For the asking price of 11.99 on PlayStation 4, or the current low-low price of 1.99 on Steam (act fast though because that offer may expire by the time you read this), Tamashii is a fun albeit fleeting 90-minute slice of retro-inspired horror. Time Trial/Score Attack Modes offer an opportunity to expand your time, but in the end, Tamashii can’t escape how brief the entire experience. That being said, I’m going to firmly place this game in the Buy It column. It scratched an itch I felt in just the right spot and it deserves every shiny penny from me.
