Wage horror is one of my favourite subgenres of horror. I think it’s because employment means you’re beholden to work in place. You can’t tell your employer that you need to leave because things are too spooky; you have to keep that gas stand running, or that security booth monitored.

And food service accounts for a not-insignificant chunk of wage horror. I’ve already reviewed a couple very recently, and Meat Grinder: Hotdog Simulator wasn’t my favourite. I felt that it lacked a creative edge to it, and instead stuck to the most obvious approach to things. It demonstrated a poor understanding of what makes wage horror work.

Which is nice because, inversely, Tostchu gets it entirely.

ALL TOASTERS TOAST TOST

Tostchu has you covering for your parents’ absence at a tost stand. Tost, as I understand it, is a sort of Turkish sandwich. To hear the developer describe it, there’s a whole culture around tost. I think the closest analogue that can be found in North America is a panini, or perhaps just a grilled cheese sandwich. It’s a loaf of turkish bread, sliced, heavily buttered (with margarine in the game) and filled with a combination of sausage and cheese. Looks delicious, but I’ve always been a sucker for a good pressed sandwich.

The tost stand you’re running is only open late at night (perhaps because of this tost culture). Specifically, it seems you open at 9pm and run until 2am, but that isn’t important. What is important is that it’s late.

Gameplay is almost entirely making tost. You slice the bread, butter it, add the toppings, and grill to perfection. There are only four combinations on either whole or half loaf. It sounds simple, but there’s very little in-game guidance. It took me three do-overs before I was really cooking.

MYSTERY INGREDIENTS

The developer says that they intentionally made the game with as little instruction as possible to force the player to figure it out. Which I did, but normally you’d forgo instructions when the process is either intuitive or obvious, which, at least for a Canadian, it is not.

Adding to the intentionally obtuse nature, you can order ingredients that don’t actually get used in the sandwiches. It’s explained early on that the regulars aren’t very adventurous and don’t want anything outside the four standards. The unnecessary items are greyed out, but they’re still purchaseable. They’re a really weird inclusion. I bought them because I thought that, maybe, once I had them in stock, people would begin requesting them, and that just didn’t happen. Those extra ingredients are actually there just to befuddle, though the developer says they’re for immersion, which… okay, I guess.

Beyond making delicious tost, there isn’t much else. You can sweep floors, find cassette tapes, watch TV, or listen to the radio. You’re there to make tost.

EAT FRESH

Which actually works completely fine. Part of what makes Tostchu so effective is the fact that you never see sunlight and you can never leave the shop. Your only view of the world is from the front window or the small amount you can see out the door. You’re in an isolated space. The only other visible building is a tire store across the street, and while the owner stops by occasionally, you can’t call him (even if he asks you to). If something were to happen, there’s nothing you could do about it.

In that sense, it’s not a far cry from something like No, I’m not a Human or Static Dread: The Lighthouse, though it’s worth noting that Tost came out before them.

Tostchu is advertised as a slow burn, which I think is only partly true. The whole game can be completed in less than three hours and things start getting weird on Day One. You get snippets of information about people disappearing and strange, possibly extraterrestrial happenings in a nearby town.

Instead of a slow burn, Tostchu is more accurately a consistent simmer. It’s always throwing things that don’t exactly scare, but they itch at the back of your neck. A guy shows up offering suspiciously cheaper meat, a pervert keeps knocking at the door with a fixation on your butthole, the police keep asking you about missing people. It’s hard to get a grasp on exactly what is going on, but it makes certain that you know something is wrong.

Yet, otherwise, things are perfectly peaceful. The tost stall has great atmosphere. You can practically feel the summer air as bugs beat themselves to death again the lightbulb and the TV drones on in the background. If this wasn’t a horror game, it would still be an extremely relaxing work sim.

EEF FREEF

It’s worth noting that Tost is not really trying to be a cooking simulator. If you want to just put one slab of cheese and a single slice of salami on a full loaf, there are no repercussions. If you put 10 slabs of cheese and a whole log worth of salami on there, there’s no reward. Plus, there are no upgrades for the shop. Tostsmithing is done simply to advance. Now that I think of it, I’m not sure if anything bad would happen if you don’t serve it at all. You’d be bored, certainly.

I can say that something bad will happen if you keep doling out rotten food. So, maybe don’t do that.

Which not-so-subtly leads me to the fact that Tostchu has multiple endings. Four, maybe? The actual criteria for what ending you get is vague. Which is intentional, I’m sure.

I think that the grand vision for Tostchu has been to continually add to the existing foundation. So, some of the post-release updates talk about adding new customer dialogue and events, while the roadmap discussed things like additional endings. That would be great, but it’s sort of a situation where I’ll believe it when I see it. Not that it’s impossible, but to remain committed to a project this far post-release would be rare. Frankly, I think Tostchu would go from enjoyable to brilliant if it got a little thicker around the waist.

TOSTBUSTERS

For what it is, however, Tostchu is a very enjoyable time, but it requires some degree of willingness to participate. It would appear that it’s extremely easy to cheese, and some facets have exactly zero purpose. If you only want to reach the credits and care about nothing else, then… Well, that’s kind of unfortunate, guy. You also need to forgive the fact that it won’t teach you the “proper way” to interact, which might be a smidge unreasonable.

Yet, I don’t find it all that hard to sink into Tostchu. The quiet of the late-summer nights, the moths at the outside light, or, better yet, the lazy thunderstorms; it all really takes you into the scene. And then the scene gets creepy with talk of disturbing butthole violence (content warning) and aliens. You’re trapped with nothing to do but make sandwiches while the walls close in on you, and that feels fantastic.

7/10

This review was conducted using a digital Steam version of the game. It was paid for by the author.