Toribash | a Review
originally published on 13/12/2024;
Hello everyone, I am the combat sports expert, G.E.M.Simov, a master of Kata with a billion colors of belt, and I am here to tell you about “Toribash”.
Simple review details - I rank games on an out of 10 basis, granting up to 3 points in 3 categories, as well as a last, single point from my own self, depending on my experience with it.
Gameplay
Toribash is a head-scratcher of a game. It is impossibly complex, but also relatively simple.
The Player controls the Player Character (PC), and the opponent is either UKE (the computer controlled character) or another Player controlling their own PC. The goal is to either knock the opponent out of the ring, force the opponent’s head on the ground or score more points before the frame limit expires.
Points are scored by landing hits on the opponent, and the harder the hit, the more points are awarded. In most cases, to knock the opponent to the ground or to throw them out of the ring, grabbing is involved - which occurs by clicking the hands of the PC (controlled by the Player), which will make them start grabbing whatever they come in contact with.
So far, so simple. But it gets more complex at a ludicrously rapid pace. The PC has a number of components - 20 - that are red (by default) spheres. In addition to that, the PC also has 14 parts that are not spheres, as well as a 15th part that is “very funky”. Those parts combine into a human-esque shape, with there being feet, ankles (spheres) between the feet and the calves, knees (spheres) between the calves and the thighs, then a pair of hips (spheres) between the thighs and the glutes (spheres)... With all the most important bits, such as abs, lumbar spine, chest, pecs, shoulders, elbows and even wrists. There’s also a neck.
These - the spheres, the joints - are what can be controlled. Everything else, aside from the hands which can be clicked to be made to grab - is completely left to the gods. By default, when a match of Toribash begins, both Characters - the PC and the Opponent - are relaxed, which means that their bodies will come crashing down rapidly. With the C button all the joints can be made to hold, which will allow the bodies to remain upright and will stop them from falling down for a tiny amount of time.
Then, the joints - when moused over - can be manipulated individually. By pressing the X key, the joint alternates between being relaxed and holding, and then by pressing the Z key the joint (in most cases) alternates between being extended and contracted. That leads into movement - and then that movement needs to be translated into strikes with either the legs or the arms, or, alternatively, that movement must lead into the Opponent falling on their face before the PC.
It is, conceptually, incredibly simple, but in execution it boggles the mind. Incredible amounts of time need to be spent playing this game and messing around with the Freeplay function - which features a dummy Opponent who just stands there - to get used to the movement. Then, even more must be spent in dealing with the computer controlled Opponent (Uke), and when the Player is comfortably dealing with that fellow, that’s when it would be reasonable to jump into the meat of this game - PvP.
But why? Well, because in matches versus Uke, there is no time limit to how long the Player can prod at the PC and experiment with its movements. In PVP matches, however, there is a limit, requiring not only precision and a know-how of everything involved, but also speed. Naturally, it is fortunate that Toribash allows the Player to see a projection of what kind of movement the PC and the Opponent will perform following an adjustment, which happens via the Ghosts.
The Ghosts are transparent versions of the PC and the Opponent, who constantly repeat the movement that the PC and the Opponent’s current joint settings are about to make them perform. Through observation of the Ghost, the Player can actually know what will happen as a result of their ministrations. This is where the aforementioned frames come in - matches in Toribash have a time limit, but that time-limit is not just a restriction - it’s also how movement is allowed to occur.
A match starts with, as an example, 500 frames. When the Player sets up the PC’s movement, they press the Spacebar and allow 10 frames to pass. During those 10 frames, the PC and the Opponent move in accordance with the settings applied upon their joints, and then they stop. Then the Player can either press the Spacebar again, to keep using the same settings, or they can change the settings.
It must be noted that the Ghosts show 20 frames worth of movement, if not even more, as a result of which there is a slight learning curve to even using the Ghosts. It should be mentioned that the camera is controlled via the mouse or by using the WASD keys, but this is a relatively minor part of Toribash.
Finally, when the Player fights in a PvP match, they are awarded with a number of things. Firstly, they get Qi - which is how they increase their rank, which is their belt. There are a ludicrous number of belts in Toribash, and getting through to the highest one is a monstrous grind. However, since this game does not feature matchmaking, it can be cheesed (with a friend).
Playing a match grants the Player 1 Qi, and the longer the match lasts, the more Qi is gained. Qi is… Well, it is both the Player’s rank - because it indicates how long someone has played, and the longer one plays the better they are at going to be (in theory), but it is also the means of progression.
The more Qi the Player has, the higher their rank, and the higher the Player’s rank, the more goods are accessible in the shop… And some stuff needs to be said about the shop. In Toribash, there exists some weird kind of Player economy. However, there also exists a different type of shop that does not get the game’s currency to circulate around the Playerbase.
Most of the things that can be bought are cosmetic, but there are some things that are not such. There are subscriptions that do not really impact gameplay and are just there for big fans of the game, though there are also subscriptions that impact progression. Pay a bit to get double Qi - that’s a funky one, or pay a bit to get more money from matches!
Yes, in addition to Qi, the Player gains Toricoins - the currency of Toribash - and that can be used to trade in the marketplace or to just buy stuff. There is also another currency, which is bound to events. The Player can buy both currencies for real money, and there’s also the option to just buy Qi straight up.
Even so, these are very lackluster things. Since there is no matchmaking, rank does not matter, and the only type of thing that can be bought is cosmetic, as a result of which, again - it does not matter whether stuff is bought or not. It’s a reasonably existing system, with the only issue being that ranks are bound to Steam achievements, meaning that the Player is incentivized to pay so as to get their Steam achievements filled out. Alternatively, they can play for ungodly amounts of time, or, again… They can cheese.
Overall, Toribash is an exceptional game, one that is so unique by comparison that nothing comes close to it. Purely off of its gameplay, it is one of a kind. 3/3
Presentation
Toribash is weird when it comes to its Presentation, just like it is weird when it comes to its Gameplay. It places heavy emphasis on clarity and readability, but due to that it also sacrifices some of the conventional appeal it could have in other circumstances.
The Characters are a weird collection of cubes, spheres and cylinders, with the spheres being situated where the limbs can bend and being highlighted in a particular color. The environments do not exist,
With its incredible complexity, Toribash desperately needs a tutorial, and it does have one, which attempts its best to teach the Player how to make use of the simple controls. It does a pretty good job, though it also fails in a few regards. Instead of presenting the information it could present with a text box in the center of the screen, or one that is situated in such a manner so as to easily be reached by the Player’s eyes, instead the information the Player gets is shoved in the lower corner of the game’s window.
Due to the fact that Toribash is an incredibly visual ame, taking one’s eyes off the thing that is currently being shown is a bit problematic, and then there’s the matter with where the button for continuation is placed - there’s a lot of space that could have been better utilized, it seems. The main issue here is that the text is out of the way, requiring extra time to focus on, and then the game decides to go on to the next bit text box, without the Player’s input.
Not only that, but the Player does not get a comprehensive list of inputs to go through - instead, there are directions that are provided, but the expectation that the Player will remember them is quite problematic - not only that, but the pace at which things move is quite high.
The game starts assuming that the Player has learned something by the time half of the tutorial is completed, but in truth that is not so, due to Gameplay related issues and due to the speed at which the tutorial moves. If the tutorial was slower and required more stuff from the Player - such as performing the move once with directions and then performing it without directions - that would have helped with the Player’s introduction to the game.
Other realms in which Toribash somewhat fails with its Presentation would have to be the texts themselves - what is said by the Characters (mainly in the tutorial) is sometimes missing a word and, thus, is just plainly wrong.
However, those are all relatively peripheral things to the game itself, and the game itself is very well presented. The Ghost is something fierce, giving the Player so much information on how to approach the situation that is about to befall them, and that’s really all the information the Player needs, as a result of which the game presents itself almost immaculately in that regard.
When it comes to sound effects, there aren’t many, though in a game like Toribash it would be hard to come up with a good reason to have sound effects - seeing as the game is spent in what is, essentially, pause mode over most of the playtime. Music-wise, there are some okay-ish ambient tracks, but there’s nothing truly spectacular - and, on top of that, they don’t play half the time, leaving a dead silence.
Now, strangely enough, the biggest issue with Toribash’s presentation is the customization the Players can get up to. There are some elements that add more and more stuff to the screen, including some violently unpleasant effects that flutter about at rapid speeds and can be problematic even for people who do not have issues with epilepsy.
In addition to that, most of the available options are plain ugly. Those that are not purely colors and are not simple shapes added in stick out like sore thumbs that really do not work well with the visuals of the game and, thus, wind up in a problematic inconsistency.
As a result, Toribash winds up not being a very well presented meal, even if it is tasty. 1/3
Story
There is no story in Toribash, aside from some martial arts teacher teaching the Player Character how to fight and Uke being a sparring partner. What’s even worse than there not being a story (which isn’t really bad for a game like this) is that half the dialogue that is present, most of it just being quips presented by Uke whenever he wins or loses, are incredibly unsportsmanlike.
BMing isn’t, actually, good - especially when the people engaging in it don’t know one another and have no idea how they would react to verbal abuse, be it insincere or not. It’s just in very poor taste and left me disappointed that this was what textboxes were being used for. 0/3
Legendary Point
Does this game get the Legendary point, so craved and wanted by all and none at the same time? While the concept is really intriguing and the execution is not half-bad, Toribash is definitely a very odd type of game, to be sure. As a result of that, though, it fails to get me riled up to play it, as it feels more like doing pivot animations than playing a game. So no, Toribash does not get the Legendary Point. 0/1
Conclusion
4/10. A phenomenal piece of software that really allows for some ludicrous sights to be beheld, but one is held back by the obtuse nicheness of itself, as well as the monstrously steep barrier to entry. Again, it feels more like animation software than a game, so I do not know whom to recommend it to… But it is free, so if what was described intrigues you, give it a go.
I tuck it under my belt, an incredibly crude gem that glimmers with infinite potential…