Attack of the Friday Monsters! A Tokyo Tale
Gameplay. In the game, the player explores the town which the protagonist Sohta has just moved to, with gameplay consisting of speaking to NPCs to progress the plot and playing card battles against other residents. Sohta must collect "glims", energy shards that allow him to magically obtain new cards. Plot. The game's plot is structured in 26 episodes and takes place in rural Tokyo in 1971, in the suburb of Fuji no Hana. It starts with the ten year old Sohta, who has recently moved into town and whose parents own  a dry-cleaning shop, being sent on an errand but forgetting about it. As he ventures through town, he meets various classmates, against whom he plays a trading-card game called "Monster Cards", and other residents. The episodes are non-linear and involve individual quests. The overarching story of the game is presented in a magic realist manner, and involves the sudden and inexplicable appearance of massive fictional superheroes and kaiju that battle every Friday outside of town. As a tokusatsu show is also filmed in the same town, it is unclear whether it is a supernatural phenomenon or a  giant hoax orchestrated by the townspeople. Reception. The game received an aggregate score of 77/100 on Metacritic, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Jonathan Holmes of "Destructoid" rated the game 9/10, praising the game for its relaxing gameplay and "beautiful artwork". Comparing it to work by Studio Ghibli, he also called the card minigame "surprisingly gripping", saying it was a good example of a short yet fun narrative game. Lee Meyer of "Nintendo Life" rated the game 8/10 stars, calling it "a lovely, memorable experience" that resembled a classic coming-of-age film. Comparing the episodes to the "Professor Layton" series in  how they are structured, he also called the game "visually and aurally pleasing". Griffin McElroy of "Polygon" also rated the game 8/10, calling its writing, narration, art, and sound design "superb", but criticizing the glim collecting as "needlessly repetitive".