Bokura Review

Developer: tokoronyori

Platforms: Mobile, PC (Reviewed), Switch

Genre: Action, Adventure

Publisher: Kodansha

Bokura is a two-player puzzle adventure game. Bokura is developed by Tokoronyori and published by Kodansha. There really isn’t any game similar to Bokura; The Past Within could be considered to be in a similar vein. This review was done for the PC.

Bokura is a two-player game where you play as two boys who ran far away from home and are now trying to make their way somewhere far away. Bokura started off with a man who was commuting to work on a train. He had started to reminisce about his childhood friend, in which the player gets thrown into a flashback of the two boys playing their favourite game together. One of the boys was from a wealthy family, whereas the other was from an unwealthy family. The two decided to run away from home together. The two decided to run away from home together. Before leaving, they wanted to climb the town’s mountain to blow up the Mayor’s statue head, but during their journey, they ended up coming across a dead deer and passed out. Later, they woke up and found themselves in a strange alternative universe.

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The controls for Bokura are extremely simple. All you really need to press are the W, A, S, D keys and Z to interact with objects. I would say that the placement of the interaction key is a bit odd as you have to reach under your hand to actually press the key, and on top of that, you can’t really change the controls. The controls for the game work smoothly with no delay whatsoever. Besides the controls, I believe there were a few glitches at the beginning of the game that caught us off guard. For instance, the very first control icon did not show which letter was the interaction key, so we had to guess which key it was. There was also another glitch where, when interacting with a box, after a certain point, it would disappear, but after a couple of trials, it seemed to get fixed on its own.

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The art style of Bokura is so interesting. The game is mainly a side-scroller with; so many different environments, colours and styles. The art style kind of resembles a hand-drawn pixel graphic novel. The visuals are extremely cute, and their being so simple makes it look even more stunning. In addition to that, the character animation is also so cute that when they walk, they bob a little, or the sliding, falling animation is just too artsy and adorable. What’s interesting is that the art style goes far beyond what you think. When I was playing this game with my sister, and we reached the part with the ‘supposed parents’ after the weird tear glitch in reality, I called out to my sister saying that I saw a duck and a toad-looking character, where she was lost and kept saying ‘I don’t see a duck! I don’t see it’; we carried on with the game to then come across the same conversation to find out that this game has a hidden gem. Each player sees something completely different from the other player. This doesn’t just mean different platforms, but the environment is completely different; the music, the characters, and the background are all unique for each player. This detail of the game really sets the game on another level. It was so interesting how, on my screen, I saw animal characters with an autumn-themed foreground/environment, whereas my sister saw a more Aztec environment with weird robot characters. That completely caught us off guard but made the game so much more intriguing. The visuals and audio for the game were so lovely, and I was honestly surprised by the scenery switch, which exceeded my expectations.

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I really enjoyed this game as it was a nice game that you could play with someone else and work together to solve various puzzles. I really liked that each puzzle was also unique; you would not always be moving boxes over, but you could have puzzles that included symbols and holding down buttons to make platform moves. Both my sister and I loved the story of the game as well, as there was plenty of dialogue and cute little cutscenes, which added more to what Bokura really is. I would say that the puzzles were not that difficult; some were a little bit aggravating, but they were all very manageable. Now, because the game is intended for two players, I would suggest that the developers make it available on Steam as a friends pass, where only one person has to own the copy so your friend can play with you. It’s similar to how It Takes Two is available through Friends Pass, which I think would definitely be a way for more people to play this game. I highly recommend it, especially if you want to play a nice strategic co-op game; in a way, it has its own little tranquillity to it.

Now, if you want to play an immersive, cute co-op game that captures an intriguing story about two boys who get brought into an alternate universe. A game where you and a friend have to work together to solve puzzles and try to reach the end of your journey, Bokura is definitely for you.

Overall: 9/10