The Title screen for Towelket 6
" Towelket (a portmanteau of "towel" and "blanket") A type of bed linen resembling a large beach towel and used in Japan to cover oneself in hot weather."
Definition of a Towelket
Towelket: One More Time (タオルケットをもう一度) is a series of doujin RPG games made on RPG Maker 2000 by Kanashimi Hocchikisu (かなしみホッチキス). With combat style and exploration similar to Earthbound, it features cute characters, and solid story-telling. Most of the games deal with alien invasions (with one exception). There are 7 main titles, with 3 spin-off games, that are slightly related to the main series.
Each of these games shares a general plot. The planet gets invaded by aliens, and the main character and his or her friends defend their home from said aliens. If there are no aliens present at the time, then the town is instead "invaded" by or infested with random animals.
An anonymous team has been translating the series.
Main games include:
- Towelket One More Time: Mochasu was riding in the back of a moving truck. While he slept inside a cardboard box, an accident flung him into the river. Its currents carried him to a mysterious island where three girls were also stranded. On top of that, they had to walk like robots because they were afflicted with the Curse of Turning Corners...
- Towelket One More Time 2: A young boy, his talking cow Ushi-chan, and his childhood friend Paripariume. These three lived a perfectly normal life in a small country town. However, that peace wouldn't last... One day, Ushi-chan was abducted by aliens in a flying saucer.
- Towelket One More Time 3: The main character and their sister Kimiru are shrunken by the mysterious power of a magical book. At that time, the Kisechu, a group of tiny aliens bent on conquering the Earth, appear! The main character's allies must band together and defeat the six fish-hat leaders of the Kisechu to put a stop to their evil ambitions. This is the only game that is partially translated, which can be downloaded here
- Towelket One More Time 4: A boy was led by a fairy to a mysterious ocean world. The main character Moka (Mocha?) and a girl set out to search for him. Meanwhile, the fish-hats plotted to take over the world. Can Mocha and his friends find the boy and stop the bad guys?
- Towelket One More Time: Fury: As soon as the main character was born, he was caught up in a terrible fate. And then on the constellation Day, it came to fruition. The result of a love triangle...
- Towelket One more Time 5: In the center of the earth, a pair of robots constantly jump to turn the planet. But one day, thanks to a stupid girl, the world stopped spinning! Elsewhere, a girl named Roppenchu was invited out by a girl from her class... With the world in turmoil, can everything really be put right again?
- Towelket One More Time 6: The Pon aliens have run out of resources and come to destroy Earth. A young girl named Minpo and her friends rise up to restore peace. But the Pon invaders have overwhelmingly powerful technology. What will happen to Earth and its people?
Spin offs include:
- Warau Wawau: A rich little wimp named Warawau is teased by her maid again today and heads to school. But on the way, she becomes lost in the strange and mysterious World of Laughter. There she encounters a young girl claiming to be her guide, and goes on a journey through the World of Laughter. A heartwarming tale of a lady and her protector. A translation project for this game has just begun.
- Kaiketsu! Nekoashi Otome-chan: Kitty girl Nekoashi Otome-chan is a bundle of energy. In order to save enough money to open a bakery, she decides to enlist in the Kitty Special Forces. As a soldier, she endures harsh training with her companions and superiors. All of a sudden, a group of girls called Otome Bakudan (Maiden Bomb) appear from the sky...
- Yoru no Umi de Otsukisama wo Tsuru: In the stormy ocean, you encounter a mermaid. Then you take a job at an inn with some girls, living with them in a strange village. Who will you choose as your bride? While reeling in the moon, a dog fisherman speaks, a certain legend of the sea.
You can download the entire series here: http://www.freem.ne.jp/brand/1039
Because of a loss of interest in making games, the developer of these games cancelled the series on May 28, 2014. The author also lifted the "embargo" on the series, and people are permitted to publicly upload videos featuring the game.
This series provides examples of:
- Action Bomb: Some enemies will explode on the player, doing damage to all party members while taking their own life.
- Anachronic Order: The games are intentionally numbered incorrectly. In order of release, it goes 3-2-1-6-4-5(fury)-5.
- And Now You Must Marry Me: The Pon leader attempts to invoke this onto Conchelle in Towelket 3. Things do not end well. Later in the game, you are given a choice to marry the Pon leader again, which may or may not affect the ending.
- Cult: Conchelle unknowingly has one which consists of Pons in Towelket 3.
- Cute Bruiser: All the characters, even the villains.
- Cutscene Incompetence: Happens on occasion to the main character. For example, in Towelket 1 after you freeze yourself into the future, you fight a mob-like robot and his minions while wearing a robot suit yourself. Once you defeat him, however, he suffers no damage, but your suit is completely trashed.
- Disguised in Drag: After the starting character is revived from crashing onto earth in towelket 3, , the female singing Pon dresses up the character in one of her outfits to hide him from the alien invasion.
- Dude Looks Like a Lady: If there is a playable male character, there is a good chance that the sprite will still look feminine. Invoked further as the only male sprite in towelket 1 and onwards is described as very feminine.
- Empty Room Psych: You will often find dead-end rooms with nothing in them (except maybe common monsters).
- Extreme Omnivore: Robot dog girl Pucchi in Towelket 3, who will eat many questionable objects, including alien bodies.
- Flanderization: Robot dog girl Pucchi. In the first game, she suffers from dog-like tics due to a malfunction but is the most capable member of the party. In her next major appearance, her creator constantly berates her for being a stupid dog. Every game after that she is, in fact, a stupid dog.
- Heroic Mime: Played straight in the original trilogy and once more in 5(Fury). Subverted in 6 where the protagonist gains the power to talk towards the end.
- Human Popsicle: In Towelket 1, the protagonist hides in a fridge to escape from the robots, but gets frozen, at two different points in the game. Each time, thousands of years pass before he is released and thawed.
- I'm Standing Right Here: In Towelket 3, two of the Pons discuss about the new "Conchelle" model that one was making. They ignore the fact that the real Conchelle was standing right there. Although she does not say anything, her sprite appearance afterwards resembles this trope.
- Improbable Weapon User: The player can equip objects they find in towns as weapons. This includes flowerpots, chairs, lockers, dust, underwear, nude photo albums, daikon, utility poles, [[Touhou Project trains... At one point, you can use a Pon corpse as an accessory.
- In Love with Your Carnage: Conchelle in Towelket 1 becomes impressed with the main character's strength after defeating several groups of enemies in the cave.
- Interactive Narrator: Done In Towelket 3, when character shrinks and the narrator tells the character to check on self.
- Kleptomaniac Hero: It is possible to take the following items: leaves, flowerpots, insects, drawers, tables, lockers, and at some point, panties. Said items can be in any home, and you don't have to worry about being chased down. These items can double as weapons and armor.
- Loads and Loads of Races: Humans, cats, cows, vegetables, ants, kisechu, ai no kuchibiru, chuchan, fairies, mermaids, pigeons, whatever kind of alien Otome Bakudan is, all of them appear as NPCs and enemies throughout the game. There are also robots, ghosts, and goddesses as well.
- Love Triangle: Occurs a lot throughout the series. Whether the player character is aware of it is up to the player to decide.
- Multiple Endings: In a few of the games, there are three endings, one good ending, one bad ending, and one joke ending by buying a certain item.
- Negative Continuity: Although several characters and themes appear throughout the series, there is no continuity between the games. Even a particular character's appearance, personality, and gender can vary drastically.
- Older Than They Look: Paripariume, in spite of her young sprite appearance, is actually 35, and is shown giving birth to children.
- Could be the case with other characters due to Negative Continuity.
- Panty Thief: You in several of the games. This culminates in the spinoff Kaiketsu! Nekoashi Otome where nearly every character's panties are available, often being among the best accessories and headgear.
- Pick Your Human Half: Subverted when the curse of the turning corners in Towelket 1 forces the main character and three girls into turning 90 degrees and making their limbs act robotic. They have no choice but to do this, else get flung back to the island. As a result, this makes them a large target of isolation by the class population, especially to the male character.
- Becomes Cursed with Awesome when said movement helped the main character blend in with the other robots in the future.
- Public Domain Soundtrack: Many BG Ms in the series consist of music box renders of classical music.
- He Is Not My Boyfriend: Conchelle in Towelket 1 acts like this towards the main character. In the future, chips based off her memory makes some robots act like this too.
- Second-Person Narration: Done in Towelket 3 in the beginning before being dropped.
- Shout-Out: The setting of Toweklet 1 resembles a similar situation from a Nintendo Classic...
- Shrink Ray: The book the player character discovers in Towelket 3 is practically one. The aliens are trying to find it in order to increase their size to take over Earth.
- Spurned into Suicide: Played for laughs in Towelket 5. After a failed confession of love to the main protagonist, Pompe threatens and attempts to jump off the school building. However, she misaims her fall and lands into the water. She can't swim, and shouts that she doesn't want to die...
- Time Skip: Occurs at frequent intervals in all the games, ranging from hours to several years.
- Torture Cellar: All aliens in the towelket series have "experiment rooms" with weird tools to use on prisoners. Some of which are quite dangerous...
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Mochasu's parents never make an actual appearance in Towelket 1 after the box he slept in fell off the truck, even after he returns to civilization. Such Parental Neglect...
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Widget Series: Sometimes, things will happen for no apparent reason, even if you understand Japanese. - Willfully Weak: Conchelle appears to have this ability in cutscenes in Towelket 3. When you start to play as her, some Pons will be enemies. When you check their "corpse," you get the description "Seemed to have held back."
