TASOMACHI: Behind the Twilight from Playism and Orbital Express is a charming adventure you have to check out on Nintendo Switch. Learn why in our TASOMACHI: Behind the Twilight review!

 

TASOMACHI: Behind the Twilight from Playism and Orbital Express is a charming adventure you have to check out on Nintendo Switch. You’ll be playing as Yukumo, a young girl who is traveling around the world on an airship. Unfortunately, once she manages to get near Silent Valley to take care of some errands, her airship suddenly breaks down! What is she to do? Well, she decides now is a good time to explore the town and search for the pieces she needs to fix the airship and carry on with her journey.

But it’s when she leaves the airship and starts to explore the town that she notices something’s definitely up. There are no people to interact with, and it seems that the only inhabitants are a rather peculiar cat-like species. You’ll first meet Kogara of the Nezu Tribe. The area is also covered by a mysterious fog known as the Twilight Mist. Maybe if you find the right resources, you’ll be able to find out what is really going on and help to bring Silent Valley back to life? Oh, and new to the Nintendo Switch version is the Twilight Sanctuary, a new area to explore!

 

Kogara will let you enter its master’s house, even though said master seems to have left a while ago for no reason. Inside, you’ll learn ha you can collect Sources of the Earth – glowing floating lamps – to restore not only your airship but also to restore the valley itself. The more Sources of the Earth you collect, the more areas you’ll be able to explore since they will function in a similar way to the stars from Super Mario 64. Find a door with a sign that lets you know how many Sources of the Earth you need to open it, find enough, and go inside to see what else you can find!

Once you have control over Yukumo, you’ll move her with the left analog stick as you swing the camera around with the right one. You can zoom in and out with the ZR and ZL buttons and can quickly reset the camera’s position by pressing the L button. Yukumo can also jump with the B button. If you need to examine something or interact with a character, just press the A button. The skills she has access are mapped to the X, R, and Y buttons, and she can use an emote by pressing right on the D-Pad. When riding on Yukumo’s airship, you’ll be able to board it to move around between areas, ascending and descending with the ZR and ZL buttons and using skills with the Y and X buttons as needed.

 

There are many Sources of the Earth, and Kogara will let you know that to completely fix your airship, you will need to collect around 90 of them. At least after collecting a couple of them, you’ll be able to travel locally with your airship! But to be able to explore further and further and find more Sources of the Earth, you’ll need to receive the protection of each of the Sacred Tree Sanctuaries that you find so that the Twilight Mist can be removed from each area. Oh, and don’t forget to save at shrines! The game does not autosave, so if you don’t save often, you could end up losing some of your progress.

While exploring Silent Valley on foot or while riding the airship, you should keep an eye out for the many coins that you can collect. While on foot, you’ll have to get close to the shiny coin and press the A button to collect it. While using the airship, just run into the coin to automatically collect it. Do be aware of how coins will respawn when you leave an area, so if you’re running low, go back to a previous area to collect some extra coins! These coins can be used to pay for activating a teleported in trial rooms so that you can skip them, or you can trade with coins for items to decorate the house in the starting area or to unlock additional outfits.

 

TASOMACHI: Behind the Twilight is a fun and very chill 3D adventure on Nintendo Switch. It’s a slow burner of a game since you’ll start without access to additional skills, and trial rooms start on the easy side. But as you explore each area and gain the blessing of the Sacred Tree Sanctuaries, you’ll gain access to a stomp to destroy weak flooring, run into platforms that fall down after you step on them, or others that disappear after giving you a glimpse of their placement. And once you gain the air dash, things will certainly get trickier. TASOMACHI: Behind the Twilight is out on Nintendo Switch at a $19.99 price, and it’s a charming game you should check out.

Disclaimer
This TASOMACHI: Behind the Twilight review is based on a Nintendo Switch copy provided by Playism.