Tsukumo Snap!

Tsukumo Snap! follows Haru, who spends the last week of summer at their grandmother’s house in Wasure-machi, the Forgotten Town. In the storeroom, an old yellow flip phone that has been boxed away for 12 years switches itself on. It contains Denpa, a sarcastic AI stuck at 4% battery and the only being able to see tsukumogami: spirits that grow inside objects people have stopped caring about.

Photograph the spirits

You raise the TsukuLens to turn the town violet and find spirits hiding in places such as bushes, beneath vending machines and behind shutters. Hold your breath, frame a spirit and take its photo: a good shot can earn you a friend, while a bad one may leave you with a blurry thumb and an annoyed spirit.

There are 161 spirits, including a raincoat that never dried, a self-appointed judge of a stapler and a vending machine with strong opinions about loyalty. Each has a tribe, a personality such as shy, cocky or sleepyhead, a favourite snack and a bond that grows when you feed it.

Battle with your team

Your six friends occupy a spinning wheel, with three fighting at the front and three catching their breath at the back. Spin to rotate them, aim with the camera, purify cursed spirits and throw snacks. When the gauge fills, trigger a Burst and hit the rhythm.

A town on your calendar

The in-game calendar follows your real calendar: festivals arrive when they arrive, and a full moon coincides with the real one. The weekly boss changes every real Monday. The ghost bus stops on Tuesdays, at places that do not exist.

Places and activities

The game includes 14 places, among them the town, a hot spring, a beach festival, a neon city, a landfill kingdom, a school at midnight, an abandoned hospital, the sewers, a dead train tunnel, the spirit back-alley and the town in 1987.

Other activities include fishing, gachapon, karaoke duels, menko, cooking, using a bug net, visiting an onsen, watching a TV channel, hearing rumours and completing photo quests. A free photo mode offers filters, stickers and frames. You can decorate your own room with things you bring home and hang your photos on the wall.

Challenges and co-op

The Tsukumo League pits you against eight rivals scattered across the world in a tournament. The Tower of the Forgotten has 50 floors with random modifiers.

In two-player co-op, the second player takes the role of Denpa, using a cursor to mark targets and throw snacks.

Story and tone

The story is warm and silly, with occasional sadness as it follows things people have thrown away. Denpa insults you, and the story can become emotional around chapter six.