Tale of Toast is an indie MMORPG developed by Toasty Leaf AB, a two-man team trying to offset the lack of resources thought passion and vision.
Being inspired by old school MMOs, it aims for a hardcore Sandbox experience that puts emphasis on PvP, crafting, and player interaction.
The game doesn’t present itself well at all. In fact, it looks more like a cartoon for toddlers than a 2018 PC title. The oversaturated simplistic colors, the odd and inadequate animations, the terrible character design, the outrageously dull and dated UI, combined with bad music and sound effects similar to the noise produced by the patients of a psychiatric asylum, make the game so unappealing to the senses that it just might be the most hideous title in MMO history.
Beyond its misshapen appearance, though, there seems to be a design that does not stir away from innovation and bravely steps off the beaten path, leveraging the core elements in MMO design.
The combat is strategic and death is rather punishing. Particularly so in PvP where players can loot your items. Said items are produced mostly by the player base itself. In fact, there’s a great deal of crafting, gathering and trading going on.
Gone are the simplistic mechanics of other MMOs. In Tale of Toast grouping together is hard and essential, the world is mysterious and full of peril, and loot is rare and sweet.
There are no set classes. Players form their own playstyle by distributing skill points and stats. Skills acquire levels when actually used. Also, it’s quite hard to respec after level 10, which makes each character quite unique and boosts the RPG aspect of the game.
Despite being Free-to-Play, the game seems to have a rather fair monetization system, featuring mostly cosmetic items and services.
However, its mixed Steam reviews are due to friction between the developers and the players, where the latter feel mistreated and denounce frequent bans, both in-game and on Discord.
In conclusion, play Tale of Toast if you’re looking for a title that attempts to address the lack of originality, community involvement, and difficulty of contemporary titles, but only if you feel confident that its atrocious aesthetics aren’t going to trigger a descend into madness.
