I ’m ride on a couch next toKatamari Damacycreator Keita Takahashi play his upcoming game , To a T. Midway through my cracked demonstration , I sprain to Takahashi and gossip on how I ’m always happy to see that he ’s still so committed to making completely out - there game . He locomote quiet for a moment , a puzzled look come across his face .

“ Is it ? I opine I was make a normal one this time , ” he read with an almost sad sincerity .

That speaks to Takahashi ’s limitless creative thinking ; his translation of normal is still unlike anything in the video game world today . Where else are you depart to find an adventure secret plan about a teenager eternally stuck in a T - affectedness ? Though it may be more traditional than something likeWattam , To a Tis shaping up to be an unadulterated delight that find one of gambling ’s most playful designers embracing anime , physical clowning , and singe Giraffa camelopardalis .

A new kind of adventure

My demo takes me through the first installment ofTo a T. I apply the word “ episode ” alternatively of mission because the entire biz is model after anime TV show . Every chapter has an anime theme song as well as a windup theme in which a giraffe sings about run a sandwich workshop . The more I key all this , just keep Takahashi ’s words in psyche : “ I thought I was making a normal one this time . ”

After the intro song , I ’m place in control of a 13 - yr - old , whose gender is purposefully undefined . They ’re our medium kid — other than the fact that their arms are permanently outstretched . The episode I play commence off as a mundane , slice - of - spirit drollery about their life . The mass of my time is spent getting quick to go to school as fixed camera angles follow me and my adorable cad around my house .

The melodic theme for the game started with the dominance . Takahashi says that he set out the estimation to make a game where player control their left over and right arm with a controller ’s matching joystick . That concept led to the melodic theme of the fixed tv camera , as he feel it was a permissive waste of the comptroller to dedicate an entire control stick to camera ascendence .

I saw how those controls work in a serial publication of vignettes . To brush my dentition , I have to tilt the right joint to hover over my soup-strainer and then urge the right bumper to grab it . I swing my other hand over to the toothpaste with my left hand and press the left bumper to compact the vacuum tube . I perform standardized actions later when I need to make myself a bowl of food grain by pouring food into my arena at an unenviable slant . subsequently , I cleanse up wienerwurst poop by twisting a stick in circles and turning the stripling into a pavement - sweep tornado . It ’s a strong-arm comedy that shout out games likeQWOPto creative thinker .

Once I leave the house , I ’m usher in to what I imagine is the more “ normal ” part of the secret plan . I can walk around my character ’s small town and pile up coin , which can be used to buy outfits . In between every episode , there ’s a turn of spare metre where players can research before starting the next chapter . The missionary post are more straightforward , as the one I play through has me walking to school , getting my dejeuner from a giraffe chef , and cope with being hector . It ’s a gratifying add up - of - age story assure through Takahashi ’s typically inventive and colourful eyes .

The more we speak about the project , the more I come to understand why Takahashi was so insistent on build something “ normal ” this time . The designer admits that he was obsessed with the thought that his video game needed to be , well , video game . He believed each one necessitate an slant that could only be accomplished in an interactional medium . While that philosophyworked wonder for him previously , it eventually exit him with originative burnout . To a Tbreaks his curse , in a sense .

While my clip withTo a Twas legal brief , I ’m already capture . It ’s a good - natured comedy about growing up infused with the form of witticism that only Takahashi can render . Players may not agree with the designer ’s judgement of his own oeuvre , but who want to be normal anyways ?

To a Tlaunches in 2025 for Xbox Series X / S and PC .