The Towelket series has been a bumpy ride. It’s kind of crazy to think the entire mainline series was made within the span of two years, but this is the end: Gaugau’s Bride. And it totally throws out the rulebook, in true Towelket fashion. To give you an idea of what this game is like, the "なんつって" item, which is usually offered to give players the option of seeing an alternate gag ending, actually doesn’t change anything in Gaugau’s Bride. It just adds a 10 minute bonus cutscene after it’s all over. Yes. This game, in its entirety, is one big gag ending. Maybe the Towelket Fury Penis Ending was actually canon after all.
I attribute this mostly to the Towelket dev’s increasing interest in writing comedic games like Nekoashi Otome, as this game feels more in common with that than any previous Towelkets. While this may be disappointing to those who appreciate the series' more dramatic elements, Gaugau’s Bride works as an entertaining piece of fan service because of its more lackadaisical comedy sketch format and its total disregard for the fourth wall, with a plot that mirrors Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth, but with even more weird sci-fi twists and lots of surreal, perverted humor. Panties, bras, penis, vaginas, friction between the two - it’s Towelket at its raunchiest. Also, since this game features dinosaurs, Kanao of course doesn’t miss out on a few puns: “Penissaurus'' comes to mind.
So, the #1 question that determines whether you should play Towelket 5: is it funny? Well, I would say mostly, yeah. It can be clever, strange, and there's more effort put into the jokes' timing and delivery (The cats' introduction and Pucchi's redemption arc were highlights). The meta humor is hit or miss, but at least it's consistently absurd and actually contextualized later in the story. Unfortunately, there was one aspect of the humor I wasn't a fan of.
I can tell that Kanao has a lot of respect for Towelket 2 seeing how much they reference it in…every single game, and this one is no exception, but the gags are more blatantly parody-like. They can be funny, but you know, paradoxically, despite Kanao deleting Towelket Fury, which was originally supposed to be the fifth one, for apparently being too graphic and offensive, I actually found this game to be MORE offensive than Fury precisely because it doesn’t take anything seriously. About an hour into the game, Ponpe is sexually assaulted, and then the camera fades to black and back, and there she is, in the famous pose: “ああ。。。汚れた。” It’s funny because rape! I know Kanao has enough self-awareness to understand, in fact, maybe that's the point, as Towelket 5 drowns in the artifice of fiction, perhaps doubling as a commentary on how cruelty towards women is normalized in the media industry, and it’s probably also a jab at people who just want Kanao to make Towelket 2 again and again and again, as well as people who like that game for the wrong reasons. I dunno, I mean, it’s TOWELKET, so far be it from me to complain about dark humor, but I just found it not very funny at several points.
While it's not the most tasteful, I'd say this game is worth checking out for Roppenchu alone: she is a super entertaining character and proof that Kanao can write a great lead who isn't a silent protag. Although the necessity of this game is questionable after the release of Nekoashi Otome, if you're just looking to inject a short 3 hour burst of that concentrated off-the-wall Towelket humor into your veins, and you know Japanese, I'd recommend this.
I attribute this mostly to the Towelket dev’s increasing interest in writing comedic games like Nekoashi Otome, as this game feels more in common with that than any previous Towelkets. While this may be disappointing to those who appreciate the series' more dramatic elements, Gaugau’s Bride works as an entertaining piece of fan service because of its more lackadaisical comedy sketch format and its total disregard for the fourth wall, with a plot that mirrors Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth, but with even more weird sci-fi twists and lots of surreal, perverted humor. Panties, bras, penis, vaginas, friction between the two - it’s Towelket at its raunchiest. Also, since this game features dinosaurs, Kanao of course doesn’t miss out on a few puns: “Penissaurus'' comes to mind.
So, the #1 question that determines whether you should play Towelket 5: is it funny? Well, I would say mostly, yeah. It can be clever, strange, and there's more effort put into the jokes' timing and delivery (The cats' introduction and Pucchi's redemption arc were highlights). The meta humor is hit or miss, but at least it's consistently absurd and actually contextualized later in the story. Unfortunately, there was one aspect of the humor I wasn't a fan of.
I can tell that Kanao has a lot of respect for Towelket 2 seeing how much they reference it in…every single game, and this one is no exception, but the gags are more blatantly parody-like. They can be funny, but you know, paradoxically, despite Kanao deleting Towelket Fury, which was originally supposed to be the fifth one, for apparently being too graphic and offensive, I actually found this game to be MORE offensive than Fury precisely because it doesn’t take anything seriously. About an hour into the game, Ponpe is sexually assaulted, and then the camera fades to black and back, and there she is, in the famous pose: “ああ。。。汚れた。” It’s funny because rape! I know Kanao has enough self-awareness to understand, in fact, maybe that's the point, as Towelket 5 drowns in the artifice of fiction, perhaps doubling as a commentary on how cruelty towards women is normalized in the media industry, and it’s probably also a jab at people who just want Kanao to make Towelket 2 again and again and again, as well as people who like that game for the wrong reasons. I dunno, I mean, it’s TOWELKET, so far be it from me to complain about dark humor, but I just found it not very funny at several points.
While it's not the most tasteful, I'd say this game is worth checking out for Roppenchu alone: she is a super entertaining character and proof that Kanao can write a great lead who isn't a silent protag. Although the necessity of this game is questionable after the release of Nekoashi Otome, if you're just looking to inject a short 3 hour burst of that concentrated off-the-wall Towelket humor into your veins, and you know Japanese, I'd recommend this.