By Aeth Finch

Some games are serious, like story games that deeply try to connect to the viewer and usually look realistic. For me, Red Dead Redemption 2 comes to mind. Others are more on the silly side, like co-op experiences with more cartoony graphics like the Mario Party series. Some games have both a story and cartoon-like graphics. Katamari Damacy is a game about rolling a sticky ball to collect items along the way. You clean up the world and that idea particularly moved me. Within the game, there are also riffs on themes of climate change. 

To a T is also like Katamari Damacy, not only because both have the same director, Keita Takahashi. It’s also lighthearted – just as it tackles struggles we find in real life.

In To a T, you play as Teen, a character whose arms are locked into a T-shape. The game tells a coming-of-age story with the character accepting joy in the unexpected and unconventional. The character has a physical disability of not being able to adjust their arms, and is forced to go throughout daily life – school, home life, and social awkwardness – without the ease everyone else has of being able to move their arms with full motion. T is bullied for being different, or is looked at with a mix of curiosity and sympathy. 

The game explores these themes of discrimination by showing how both the main character and the people around him react to his predicament, and it uses a mix of surreal comedy with some emotion and empathy to unveil a story that can connect with many, while also making people laugh. Even with this unusual condition, Teen still goes on with his life and learns to accept himself in his fixed T-shape form, – with the help of his family, friends, and his dog. The premise, while simple, allows those with disabilities of their own to connect with the character directly, and for those without to get a glimpse at what it is like to have a disability.

The gameplay is more on the simple side. Puzzles and other daily activities that would usually be easy for those with free length of their arms become more difficult. But this can lead to a creative variety of creative solutions and workarounds. Because you must be determined to check out the areas to solve puzzles, the environment and story that is based around Teen take center stage. The art style also adds to this immersion, embracing a toy-like aesthetic that pays homage to Takahashi’s original work, Katamari Damacy, but without the characters being over the top. This artstyle mainly uses flat colors, soft shading, and simple shapes, building a world that is both approachable and surreal, featuring simplicity over realism. The characters, most with beady eyes, including the dog, are whimsical, but not overwhelmingly strange. It fits into the game’s tone to, um, a T. 

The sounds and music, while not being anything major to write home about, do their job well by capturing the overall feeling of whimsy and empathy well. For example when you’re spinning fast enough to begin flying, the music jumps from being calm to being energetic quickly as you lift off into the air. Alternately, going back to being calm after falling from a tree after the attempt to fly doesn’t work out well for you, and the music is sadder.

While the game is pretty short, clocking in at about six hours, it feels like the perfect amount of time for sending a message about acceptance and self-expression. For me, its memory lasted a while. Its duration, however, could lead some players to want more narrative paths, or to explore even more of Teen’s life with their disability. But for me, the compact experience feels just right. And for $20, I would say it’s a reasonable price for anyone looking for something thoughtful, yet enjoyable.

In the end, To a T is mainly about being in someone else’s shoes, and the experience that comes within that. Seeing games like these about a disability can make those who are abled want to help out those who are disabled even more. In general, To a T is very heartwarming. Teen comes to terms with their disability and makes it work. I highly recommend To a T. It’s well worth experiencing. 

Circle intern Aeth Finch just graduated from John Dewey High School in Brooklyn. He begins his college studies in August.

---