The notion of Black and white photography communicates a way bigger interest in artsy shit than the game actually wants (you) to explore. Taking selfies gets the same priority as the zoom function out here. You get a tripod, not for any further calibrations like a hight adjustment or angling the camera a bit, but to insert the player character and by extension yourself into any scene (and for a puzzle solution that kept being reused). After getting the ability to use filters I took a really depressing photo of a crying kid and then showed it to the npc who gave me the filters, their reaction was: "hahaha ha filters make everything so funny".
Now don't misunderstand me, this isn't me criticising the npc reaction from the standpoint of "I showed him sad thing not funny thing, game wrong" and more like this is just how the game views photography.. as just funny toy to f around with (or as a checklist of challenges with the photo club npcs). If there was at least one npc with a more interesting perspective on photography in this game this wouldn't even be a problem to me, but there isn't. The dialog in this game is so 'going through the motions' filler, sometimes reduced to just the gesture towards a common trope, that they didn't even credit anyone for the writing.
The main reason I picked this up was because I thought it would give me the same comfiness and freedom of artistic expression, a wholesome little world like "Chicory" gave me, but it sadly didn't.
In Chicory nobody ever tells you how or what to draw. In Toem you almost exclusively have to take photos for checklists with descriptions that first seem like they are open for interpretation, but are actually just light puzzles with one specific solution. Photograph the tiniest army means photograph the ants, not a group of boy scouts in uniform, or the other 'can be mistaken as the tiniest army, thing they purposely put in the level which I forgot rn. Like, imagine if it wasn't: take a very specific photo for me with this loose description. And instead all of the purposely placed Red Herings are possible solutions, making it more about the relationship of interpretation and description than about a dumb fetch quest. But that would mean writing thoughtful dialog which..this game..doesn't
Chicory gets more colourful with each player input, a move that seems like a no-brainer in a black-and-white game about an entire artistic medium. Tbh, I believe they only left toem in b/w because color coding is really hard and It's easier to make a pictures look good that way.
The game is still a relaxing affair and losing yourself while taking photos works for me no matter how basic it and disappointing all of the rest is.
Now don't misunderstand me, this isn't me criticising the npc reaction from the standpoint of "I showed him sad thing not funny thing, game wrong" and more like this is just how the game views photography.. as just funny toy to f around with (or as a checklist of challenges with the photo club npcs). If there was at least one npc with a more interesting perspective on photography in this game this wouldn't even be a problem to me, but there isn't. The dialog in this game is so 'going through the motions' filler, sometimes reduced to just the gesture towards a common trope, that they didn't even credit anyone for the writing.
The main reason I picked this up was because I thought it would give me the same comfiness and freedom of artistic expression, a wholesome little world like "Chicory" gave me, but it sadly didn't.
In Chicory nobody ever tells you how or what to draw. In Toem you almost exclusively have to take photos for checklists with descriptions that first seem like they are open for interpretation, but are actually just light puzzles with one specific solution. Photograph the tiniest army means photograph the ants, not a group of boy scouts in uniform, or the other 'can be mistaken as the tiniest army, thing they purposely put in the level which I forgot rn. Like, imagine if it wasn't: take a very specific photo for me with this loose description. And instead all of the purposely placed Red Herings are possible solutions, making it more about the relationship of interpretation and description than about a dumb fetch quest. But that would mean writing thoughtful dialog which..this game..doesn't
Chicory gets more colourful with each player input, a move that seems like a no-brainer in a black-and-white game about an entire artistic medium. Tbh, I believe they only left toem in b/w because color coding is really hard and It's easier to make a pictures look good that way.
The game is still a relaxing affair and losing yourself while taking photos works for me no matter how basic it and disappointing all of the rest is.