Eastasiasoft continues their indie publishing efforts with one of the latest titles I checked out being TORINTO from developer Leaf Team Games. This time I headed to medieval times for some run ‘n’ gun action, sort of. Here is my review of the PlayStation 5 version.
TORINTO is a side-scrolling run ‘n’ gun game with a medieval fantasy twist. The game is only a few dollars and available on all the major platforms. There isn’t much of a story here but rather just a setup to give you reason for what you are doing. Basically, an evil wizard named Malzer is terrorizing the kingdom of Torinto and your knight character has to put a stop to it all. The game is simple to play with you having movement on the stick, a jump button, and your attack button. While the game is a run ‘n’ gun you aren’t using guns but rather spears. Each side-scrolling level that you make your way through has enemies approaching from the front and back of the screen and you’ll have to clear them each time before a message pops up telling you to proceed. Sadly, the combat in the game has issues that hurt the experience.
The combat is simple but also quite punishing. Your character can throw spears and they’ll defeat basic enemies usually in one hit. There are bigger enemies though that hurl boulders at you that take more hits to bring down along with dragon enemies that fly through the air and attempt to drop bombs on you. The difficulty comes from the fact that your character dies in a single hit and the game can frequently throw so many enemies at you on-screen that it feels impossible not to get hit and die. You also don’t get many lives and if you lose them all it’s game over. Your character can duck to dodge things like the thrown boulders but you can’t move while ducking which leaves you vulnerable to any other enemies who may be approaching you. Giving your character a bit more movement freedom and the ability to make more than one hit would have made this a more enjoyable experience.
Another issue I have with the game is there just isn’t enough variety. You’ll see the same handful types of enemies over and over as you play through it and weapon variety is lacking too. There are a few different grenade types you can pick up from defeated enemies but they all feel like they just blow up and kill enemies all the same so it might as well just been one grenade type. I actually like the pixel art style the developer went with here that reminded me of some old Sega games I played in my youth but the locations aren’t varied enough. You’ll have some castle backdrops, a field with some trees, a village, but there isn’t enough to look at. If you’re a trophy hunter you will find an easy 13 set here to earn including a Platinum.
TORINTO’s medieval run ‘n’ gun action is functional enough but the lack of variety and a punishing difficulty makes me wary of recommending it. You simply die too easily in it and you’ll be looking at the same types of foes over and over either as you proceed or get forced to restart. Eastasiasoft publishes a lot of titles so you may want to consider some of those and pass on this one.
*TORINTO is available now on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. PlayStation 5 version reviewed. Review copy provided by the publisher for this review.
TORINTO
$4.99
Pros
- Run 'n' gun gameplay works well enough
- Liked the old-school art style
Cons
- Punishing difficulty
- Doesn't have much variety in the gameplay, enemies, or weapons
