Takeshi and Hiroshi

A strong story, a weak game

This is more of a story than a game. The game mechanism is fairly simple, once you found the know-how, the level is quite easy to beat. But the story is a touching one. A elder brother makes a game to motivate his younger sibling and make him happy. I can’t help to image that maybe there’s real life story behind the game. Besides the “gameplay” is a weak part for this game, there’s another unusual approach. There’re 4 different art styles existing in this game. It is not too much of a problem, but it will cause some exception issues. For instance, the game starts with a 3D cut sense to tell a story. Then as a player, my exception will be this should be a 3D game. But when it goes to the battle, it actually is a 2D one. From my personal experience at the time, I am surprised and slightly disappointed. Besides that, the main menu uses doodle style and 8-bit pixel for menu items. It adds more visual misalignment from my point of view. For the lovers of this game, I don’t think they will not care about the drawbacks I mentioned. Because the story and great cut senses are the key motivation to them. But for common gamers, this game might bore you quickly.

A Mixed Bag, But Do Try It

I really loved the puppet animation, as well as the designs of the in-game characters and monsters. I like the unique goal of building stress for joy but avoiding defeat. The game does a poor job of providing a clear tutorial or learning curve, however. Pro Tip Don't forget to use the sword powerup to get rid of the skeletons at the final battle! Potential Story Spoilers Ahead The story ended up being a very mixed bag. Takeshi's relationship and what he does to make his little brother happy is beautiful. The way he treats his friend, Erika, is almost depressing. He depicts her as an intentionally annoying monster in his game, and he only apologizes to her in his own thoughts. This is never resolved, and somehow she doesn't acknowledge the "Erikagoyle", even when helping Tskeshi directly with the game. His relationship with his classmate, Yosuke, is much more well done. The reason for his initial feelings toward him seem justified, albeit immature. Takeshi and Yosuke seem to get a bit of romantic subtext, and I really liked that. What was really sad, though, is the ending. It's very cut and dry; nothing really happens. It's the shortest part of the story, and it leaves you feeling like it wasn't worth focusing on. In the end, I wanted more thrills.

Endearing, casual, and worth every minute

T&H is a heartwarming vignette of support, anxiety, growth, and companionship. It tells a short story in a delightful art style not regularly displayed in video games, and the core gameplay loop reflects the story’s motives well. After some trial and error you’ll find a groove with the system and you’ll be able to integrate new mechanics into your play without struggle. Not long after that the game will end and you’ll be happy to have given it the few hours of your attention it asks. This is the kind of game that justifies my Apple Arcade subscription. A short, easy, story-based claymation game designed for iPhones? I never would have considered purchasing T&H. But instead I could just download and try it out of curiosity. I’m happy I did, and I’m willing to bet you will too.

Short and sweet; fun gameplay that kept me wanting more

This game is pretty short. Beat in it about two hours lounging around this weekend. It’s gameplay was challenging and fun, but it’s story made it really shine. It’s a lighthearted story but with a lot of depth that actually left me thinking about it after I was done; something I never thought a mobile game would make me do. It’s gameplay was captivating. It has its flaws in that if you’re shooting for high scores it takes as much luck as it does skill, but for a casual gamer just looking to clear the level it can be fun and exciting trying to come up with the right solution to make it through each chapter. I encourage all to give this a couple hours of your time, and hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Such a creative and innovative concept!!

This game has such a great story, it really pulled me through the tougher chapters. There was nothing too simple or too difficult about the gameplay but it wants you, as Takeshi, to provide a game within this happy medium of creating an environment not too boring and not too difficult for Hiroshi. I like this! I kept saying it over and over during my trial and error of sending monsters, you are literally sending out monsters in the game for Hiroshi and I wouldn't think this is something I would enjoy as much as I did! It's a short game, my partner and I beat it in a night but it was worth the download and even more worth the commitment to finish. ONE OF MY FAVORITES OVERALL. So quirky and so interesting. I hope more games like this come out!

Fun but boring

This is a great game like when you are first playing it it is really fun but after you’ve played it it gets boring. so I feel like you should make a sandbox mode where it has unlimited rounds and you can change the monsters stats. also you can make as many monsters as you like. and once you click a monster button it reloads with a random monster. Like if you click a button with a orc on it it would become a button with a random monster or mage spell on it but you would still have an orc in your army. Also if you get 14 monsters all in a row there would be 2 separate waves of 6 monsters and one wave at the end of 2 monsters. I hope you make it an update because I’m feeling like it would be very fun

A story like life is strange.

In this game, there are no choices to give you. It’s a one-way game. This game talks about a couple of brothers. (I want a handsome cute brother too 😭 ) The big brother makes the game which is what we play 👈 maybe we can call this game is a kind of mathematics. It needs you to calculate how to up the little brother's interest. Each monster has different parameters, so you have to do the math to make his interest up to 500. Have to say, the big brother is so prejudiced and self-conscious. His classmates try to help him but he refuses them rudely. All in all, this is a good story, but not a good game.

Absolutely incredible

I recently joined Apple Arcade and just happened to stumble across this game here. It was an absolute treat and almost made joining Apple Arcade worth it by itself. The game is super fun, with a rpg mechanic of sorts and an auto combat(kind of) the game isn’t super hard but the levels near the end are challenging enough to give a few game overs. The story was A+ in the way it was told. Effort and time and heart was poured into this game and I had so much fun. My only gripe that I could honestly give would be that it’s a little on the short side. A dedicated player could easily finish this in maybe 3-4 hours. But that’s about the only complaint I have. Otherwise I heavily enjoyed my time with this one. 10/10.

Warm, homey

What a sweet little game! It took me around 2 hours to beat it. The star of the show were definitely the stop motion animation and sound effects. Everything was so cute and charming, even though the story was pretty simple, the detail and execution was so top notch, the whole thing just shone! The actual gameplay was a little tedious at times but the idea behind it, the fact that you have to control the level of difficulty manually in order for Hiroshi to really enjoy the game... a warm thought turned into a unique game mechanism, it really worked for me, kudos!

Great Story but Boring Game

I want to love this game. I really do. The story is great and I want to see the ending but the gameplay is so boring that I can’t finish it. The problem is the gameplay just isn’t engaging enough. I got to chapter 4 and unlocked 2 abilities and like 6 monsters but half of them just aren’t fun to use. For instance, Erikagoyles use their ability too frequently to be useful. Never place 2 of them because her screech is like a 50% chance to use and it stuns you, so 2 of them will just stunlock you into oblivion. Plus on the first level I noticed when I restarted at the torch, I was only doing level 1 damage despite being level 3. It’s such a cute story but I just can’t bare to finish it.

Company. Apple. Updated: May 12. Apple launched its mobile ... Takeshi and Hiroshi Developer/Publisher: Oink Games Release Date: November 8 2019

Pocket Gamer.biz Fri Jun 23 2023