When I was a young boy, my older brother used to tell me stories of secret arcades hidden in the oddest places around our house that him and his friends would visit to play the latest and greatest games. I didn’t exactly believe him, but I didn’t not believe him either, and I’d search for these phantom arcades, because really, why take the chance on missing out on something that sounds so amazing? As I got older, my concept of the nature of reality became a bit more concrete
(sort of), but I will never forget the feelings that I had as a youth, when reality was fluid and just about anything seemed, if not probable, at least possible.
I wish my town had monster battles every Friday!Attack of the Friday Monsters! A Tokyo Tale is the third and final game release in the West from Guild02, Level 5’s second compilation of games created by various developers across Japan, and it deals with the unrestricted nature of reality to a child in a very lighthearted and nostalgic way. Developed by Millennium Kitchen, creator of the popular Boku no Natsuyasumi ("My Summer Vacation") series in Japan, Attack of the Friday Monsters! A Tokyo Tale puts you in the role of a young boy named Sohta who lives in a town where giant monsters and superheroes battle it out every Friday in a dramatic way. There may or may not be a logical, adult explanation for why this is so, but to Sohta and his friends, it’s a phenomena that exists on the edge of reality, and well worth looking into.
I don’t want to spoil too much of the story, but suffice to say there are some weird happenings surrounding the friday monster / hero battles that go on in this town, and Sohta, as an energetic and inquisitive young lad, is intrigued enough to chase down every thread that he can find in order to solve the mystery of the battles. The player, as Sohta, experiences events that transpire over the course of a single Friday, forever changing the town and the inhabitants within.
Attack of the Friday Monsters! A Tokyo Tale is dubbed as a “life simulator”, but don’t expect anything like The Sims or Animal Crossing here. For the most part, the “gameplay” consists of running around town and finding the right person to talk to in order to move one of the many episodes forward. The town itself is not overly large, so you will be visiting a lot of the same places and talking to a lot of the same people throughout the course of the game, which can make the scope of things feel a bit limited. If you need more tangible gameplay, there is a (generally, but not always) optional mini-game that lets you collect “glims” that you can convert to cards which can then be used to battle against your friends, but even this is basically just rock-paper-scissors with a small twist.
That’s mom, always looking out for you.You navigate Sohta using traditional analog 3D controls, while the environments themselves are static, 2D environments (giving movement an almost old school Resident Evil-ish feel, but without the tank controls.) Things can get a little confusing if you rely on the bottom screen map to navigate too much, since the camera shifts on every new screen, so the directions you press to move on the top screen won’t always match the directions on the bottom screen map.
The game includes 26 “episodes”, although labeling these as episodes is not totally accurate, since they are more akin to tasks (some mandatory, some optional) for Sohta to complete, and you will often have several “episodes” in progress at the same time. I found the episode mechanic to be a bit of a confusing way to go through the game, as you will often have an episode open in which you cannot do anything more on at the moment, and by the time you can make further progress, you can easily forget what the episode was even about (outside of the often vague titles of the episodes, there is no other information in the menu’s episode list to remind you.) This really only holds true for the optional episodes, as the mandatory ones generally point you where to go next on the bottom screen map, but it’s still a bit frustrating. I completed the game with three optional episodes still “in progress”, and short of running around aimlessly talking to everyone or checking a FAQ, I’m not sure how I would be supposed to know what to do in order to complete these episodes.
Just another average day in an average town in Japan.The 2D backgrounds are fairly well done, and the style evokes a nice sense of youthful nostalgia, although as the town is relatively small so you will see most of what there is to see early on. The 3D character models aren’t bad either, and mix with the backgrounds well enough. The soundtrack is excellent and almost makes the game feel like a light-hearted anime movie, although the music will often (wisely) pull away and let the sounds of summer speak for themselves. One particularly neat presentation element is how Sohta will often break in to narrate certain story elements, giving you a bit more insight into how the various characters feel about what is happening; it’s a nice little touch.
If I am going to be 100% honest with you, there is not much of a reason to play Attack of the Friday Monsters! A Tokyo Tale outside of the presentation and story elements. The gameplay is borderline absent, and what little does exist is not exactly compelling stuff; you’re either finding people to talk to, or playing a rock-paper-scissors spin-off mini-game with your friends. However, the environment, characters, and plot do succeed pretty well in what they set out to do, creating a nice little punch of nostalgia that will have you longing for youthful innocence (even if you can’t directly relate to the Japanese monsters / heroes themes.) It’s not a very deep experience, and at $7.99 (NA) for about 3 hours of gameplay the price may feel a bit steep, but I can’t look down too hard on a game that brings such positive vibes along with it.
Everything is fine, just keep swinging...URL to share (right click and copy) 
