Just a typical day in paradise...
Welcome to the Monument Islands, the finest vacation spot in the world! Here you can relax and take in the beauty of the islands, or engage in several fun activites such as deep-sea diving, surfing, or even mining for diamonds. Or perhaps you're interested in the titular monuments that are scattered throughout the islands? These ancient, mysterious artifacts of the past are the pride and joy of the Islands, visited by many from around the world for their simple grandeur.
Some would even go so far as to say they hold secrets that are no less intriguing and possibly surprising...
The Touryst is a voxel puzzle-adventure game by Shin'en Multimedia, released on November 21, 2019 for the Nintendo Switch. You play as the Tourist as he arrives on Touryst Island to take a vacation on the beach. However, no sooner does he arrive than the local monuments catch his attention. On the advice of an older tourist, he sets out to uncover the various mysteries that those monuments contain...in between the more typical vacation fare, of course.
Not to be confused with the film The Tourist.
Tropes found in The Touryst:
- Adam Smith Hates Your Guts: Inverted. You can sell the diamonds you find in the Soggy Island mine at the Cash2Go shop on Leysure Island. However, the proprietor will only buy them for a relatively small price compared to the amount of diamonds you find that particular spelunk.
- Advanced Ancient Acropolis: The Monuments that are the Islands' claim to fame are remnants of an ancient advanced society that built many wonders from materials gathered from meteors landing upon the earth's surface. One particular instance is the TOWA Monument, which hides the launchpad of a working rocket-ship!
- And the Adventure Continues: The game ends with the Tourist and the Old Tourist riding a rocket ship into space, looking for further adventure.
- Beach Episode: This game is nothing but this trope, being a beach vacation for the Tourist. The defining example, however, is the island of Hawayy, complete with a surfing competition, coconuts, and a tacky shirt shop.
- Book Ends: The Title Drops described below.
- Cool Starship: The ancient rocket-ship hidden beneath the TOWA Monument, powered by advanced technology relative to the modern-day setting.
- Cordon Bleugh Chef: The Iceman from Hawayy when you first meet him. His frozen treats include salami salmon and vanilla onion ice cream, for starters! Naturally, you need to help his business by getting him ingredients for ice cream that people would actually want to eat.
- Death Is Cheap: Anytime you die from anything (Bottomless Pits, falling debris, acid,...), you simply respawn in the entrance to the area you were last in.
- Double Jump: Incidentally the last ability you earn from Axl's shop, just before you need it to open the way to the TWYN Monument.
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Soggy Island is, as its name suggests, eternally drenched in rain thanks to an artifact stuck in the RAYN monument that seems to attract lightning storms. Once you solve the puzzle within, the trope gets completely subverted to the delight of a few NPCs.
- Fetch Quest: There are a few things to collect for various people around the island.
- For Axl and Stèphane, you'll need to use the camera to take pictures of monuments and certain NPCs respectively.
- The Ybiza Island DJ will request that you get him some new tracks to spin once you get his equipment set up to bring his beach party to life.
- There's also gathering fruits for refreshment vendors to make their fare: smoothies on Ybiza, and (decent!) ice cream on Hawayy.
- Hawaiian-Shirted Tourist: The protagonist starts the game wearing the typical attire of a beach tourist, though he can find a shop that sells various shirts in Hawayy. Some of those shirts will be necessary to explore exclusive areas or play certain minigames.
- My Nayme Is: The title is spelled with a Y instead of an expected I, as are almost all the islands (Soggy Island being the exception).
- Non-Indicative Name: Soggy Island stops being soggy once you solve the puzzle in the RAYN Monument.
- Red Herring: One of the possible NPCs you can photograph for Stèphane's Fetch Quest is the DJ on Ybiza island, who seems like a good candidate for one of the clue phrases in that quest. The camera even identifies him the same way that it does the other NPCs needed for the quest. Too bad the DJ doesn't count for that clue phrase...or any of the others. He's just there for the sake of a different quest entirely.
- Shout-Out: The Micro Arcade has a few arcade games based on previous games made by Shin'en Multimedia, such as an arcade version of FAST and Jett Rocket Dynamite.
- Surfer Dude: There are a few attending the surfing competition in Hawayy. You, too, can become one by buying some shorts from a vendor in the same area, if only to attend the same competition.
- Sprint Shoes: The ability to dash is available after unlocking the ZEA Monument. It allows you to clear the gap caused by the monument's activation breaking the bridge to it. You can also use this to damage cracked walls like the ones guarding the monument scrolls.
- Tap on the Head: Anything that hits the Tourist on the head will automatically knock him out. This is especially prevalent in the boss encounter for the LYFTA Monument and again in the GRAVYTA Monument.
- Title Drop: "Touryst" shows up as the name of the first island you visit and as the coordinates (formatted TOUR Y S T) for the rocket ship in the finale.
- Tropical Island Adventure: The main setting of the game, obviously.
- World Shapes: As revealed in the ending, the planet the game takes place upon is roughly cube-shaped with terrain variations.
