’tis my opinion that Tokatonton: One-Armed Blacksmith is a rough forge with the potential to become something bright, shiny and desireable, pending Semo Games can finetune how to match customer requests.
When I first cast mine eyeth on this medieval simulation, I thought, “Bro, those graphics are crazy, innit?”. You’ll never hear me say ‘Bro’. Anyhoo, it looked good and gave off a welcomed folk vibe.
Forging itself in the murky depths of development for 2027, I’d, for some reason, seen this an automation type game and was now dreading it. Plugging my earholes with rubber and plastic and settling into the sofa, I was indebted to covering it and then realised, this really is pretty.
Guy, the blacksmith, has it going on. Married to Bea, he has a daughter actually interested in his line of work. If only. The first task in the… tutorial… is to make your daughter a hammer.
The narrative elements are gorgeous. Aside from dangerously running through a hazardous workshop, Tokatonton: One-Armed Blacksmith is a beaut. However, as enchanting as the story is, Guy’s wife gets burned as a witch, loses his daughter, then has his arm cut off.
Cue some flashbacks and the younger Guy serves customers one-by-one, creating custom sickles, pickaxes and claymores for Hollows. The creation process is unique.
There’ll be a dozen or so comments comparing this to Tetris, though it’s more like Settris, and teeny bit of Dredge. Components are colour-coded to their attributes and level – be it durability or attack speed.
Each blueprint presents a void for Guy to fill with shapes. Using more of the desired attribute will increase the ranking, i.e. multiple blue squares will increase the durability, while combining with other ores and ingots will add multipliers – in addition to an in-depth skill tree.
These spaces must be perfectly filled and there can’t be any gaps or overlays, which makes it problematic when you’re trying to appease a customer with a desire for a particular stat/ranking.
No matter how many times I completed the Minesweeper-like smelting minigames, or dabbled with Tokatonton: One-Armed Blacksmith‘s alchemy, I could never attain the customer’s wish, only settling for something close to it.
When close to the brief, the customer would try to haggle as the end result was not to their standard. I didn’t care – next customer! Numerous fails later, my level and skillset improved, though no closer to the desired artefacts.
This proved frustrating as I was invested in Tokatonton: One-Armed Blacksmith‘s story, and the actual process of shape-arranging was fun. I stuck with it. Because of this, my playtime accumulated unnecessarily as either there’s a fundamental flaw with how to achieve the objective, or the same thing, but my brain.
Yet,Tokatonton: One-Armed Blacksmith is charming. I find medieval-themed games cliche with the same forgettable, sometimes irritating music. Here it kept me sane in the throes of untenable requests, high quality tools not good enough for the customer, and a craftsman who clearly doesn’t understand the dangers of running in the workplace.
Ironically, Tokatonton: One-Armed Blacksmith doesn’t cost an arm and a leg as there’s a playable demo up for grabs, so you can keep all those appendages you may possess and craft something for yourself. Eff the customers – they’re hard work.
