Before jumping in and playing ‘TOME (Terrain of Magical Expertise)’ you first must go back into its history. When you think back ten years ago when ‘Newgrounds’ and many other types of content entertained us on YouTube and the internet; from content creators and individuals with web series and cartoons. These people did not just entertain us but had cult followings along with unique glimpses into what the game industry could be. One such unique and entertaining web series was ‘Tome: Terrain of Magical Expertise’.

From the mind of the original creator Chris “Kirbopher” Niosi, comes the game within a game. Developed by Neo-C Productions and published by 1C Entertainment, you jump into this single-player game about a game that’s based on an alternate version of the original series. Based in the year 2020, you, as the protagonist, play as a white-hat hacker that is gifted the game by a mysterious friend.

Your job now is to take down sinister Black-Hat hackers that are trying to win a huge cash prize offered by the creators of the game. Along the way, with the help of many familiar faces from the original series of the guild the Dandy Alliance, you begin your journey in this turned-based, adventure game.

For those who are familiar with the original web series, you may be excited to see old familiar faces but it does not hinder the experience for new players to the game as the game’s story eases new players into the world and characters in an entertaining way. This is great as all the while it gives new players an interesting way for a beginning tutorial at the start of the game to learn all the new concepts and controls.

The game mechanics may seem familiar to veterans of many RPG games with the control systems carefully explained for both keyboard and controller. The game does feel more at home especially with a game controller, so for those planning on playing comfortably on the PC at home, I would highly recommend a controller setup when first diving in.

For the world interaction and combat, a turn-based system is implemented much like the classic Final Fantasy combat system, where each character has a choice to use many types of attacks, magical items, or special moves. As for the open world in the game, you can interact with many NPC’s for information at the start to help you get familiar with the game mechanics. The game world is vast, and to help you along your way. Respawn areas and special rejuvenation pools can be found to help you on your journey. Besides those little bits of game mechanics, the real enjoyable aspect of the game is of course the story of the game.

As for the game’s looks and sounds, the bright colours of the game environments, characters, and animation are kept in line with the original source material of the web series and that was a great choice due to the game world’s abundance of interesting character designs and the long history of content from the original series. I do have to note, the character customisation for your character was a little bit of a letdown with the no choice on customising your appearance other than choosing what race, class, what type of magic alignment, and your fighting technique. Not particularly an experienced killer as the rest of the world and story characters in the game just look exceptionally well but it was a shame your character couldn’t have been a little bit more involved in the progress.

As for the voice acting the game boasts 50 voice actors used in the game including many well-known voice actors from anime and games like League of Legends or Final Fantasy. Just to name a few off the top of my head the title includes the likes of Griffin Puatu, Faye Mata, and Alejandro Saab, all of who are terrific voice actors in their field.

In conclusion, TOME (Terrain of Magical Expertise), is a fun single-player experience that is not just for fans of the original series but opens itself up for new fans to enjoy their content with its unique art style, humour, and the familiar world can relate to many people. I do have to mention the game is a little on the nose being based in the year 2020 during a “factional” global pandemic, besides that little bit of humour that is a little close to home I enjoyed bringing back old memories and creating new ones in the world of Tome.

Written by: Simon Hayward