The Tomorrow Children: Phoenix Edition is a mostly improved version of a lost PlayStation game from 2016. Though incredibly obtuse, obscure, and, at times, off-putting, it's a fascinating entry in the crafting/survival genre.
When The Tomorrow Children released sometime in 2016 I never played it. However, before the game’s full release I spent hours with game’s beta. In my vast library of PlayStation avatars, I treasure the one I received for participation in Q-Games’ newest experiment.
There was something so oddly inviting about The Tomorrow Children to me. Its Soviet-inspired world and writing added appropriate flair to a communal crafting game while layering the narrative with unsettling subtext. I hadn’t yet attached myself to a crafting game and this felt like one weird enough to stick.
But when The Tomorrow Children released as a free-to-play game, it apparently wasn’t the right time. Nearly six months into the game’s full launch, Sony announced it was shutting down servers. And after about 13 months of being on the market, The Tomorrow Children was unplayable.
Like many, I would think of The Tomorrow Children randomly. Whether scrolling through my PlayStation avatars or the long list of games in my library that I’ve added but never played. Was I part of the problem? Maybe. But an even larger problem was that The Tomorrow Children, like many games these days relied on its online connectivity and a solution was never presented to rectify this growing fear of games preservation.
In a rare move, creator Dylan Cuthbert and Q-Games were able to buy the rights back from Sony and now we have The Tomorrow Children: Phoenix Edition.
The Tomorrow Children is not your average crafting game. While it does lean into the genre’s tendency towards player discovery and curiosity, there are elements of base defense, platforming, and online participation. Players find themselves as a Projection Clone, a humanoid tasked with restoring a semblance of humanity from The Void–the massive white world where the game takes place. To do, players will need to scour various islands that emerge from The Void for matryoshka dolls that can be revived back at base. The premise is bizarre but captivating and asks little of the player if they would rather ignore it.
At home base, players are meant to construct homes, workshops, and all manner of things to allow for smoother and more complex exploration. From grappling hooks to jet packs, to pickaxes and guns, crafting in The Tomorrow Children requires navigating these distant islands and mining them for resources.
Unlike other crafting games, materials aren’t just within arms reach of a base that players start themselves. There is risk involved as traversing the Void can be dangerous. Sure, there are enemies that will attack players but there’s also the platforming to consider. While it isn’t one the game’s strengths, it presents a challenge not often seen in the genre. Players can fall and sink into the Void, losing time. And eventually, the island will sink back into the white soup below, causing players to need to wait for another island to appear.
One of the sour points of The Tomorrow Children on its initial release was a distinct lack of tutorialization that only exacerbated its more weird, complex mechanics. Phoenix Edition rectifies that mistake, allowing curious players a fair shake at not being completely lost in the deluge of strange.
While experimentation is one of its own rewards in The Tomorrow Children, I can’t help but appreciate the universal good that comes from explaining things just a bit. For a game like this, elements need to remain nebulous but to completely enshroud the basics is no way to foster a community outside anyone that doesn’t have prior knowledge to the game.
Another sticking point with the original incarnation of The Tomorrow Children was its reliance on online elements. Players used to be thrown into a town with others online, meaning that progression was linked to a communal effort. Though it may extol the virtues of the game’s narrative, some players just want to do things alone. And I think that is where the Phoenix Edition will allow the game to if not thrive then at least survive.
Players have the ability to share town codes, join other players, and engage in the communal aspect of The Tomorrow Children. But not doing so won’t fundamentally break the game or make it inaccessible in a year’s time. It’s great hopping into another player’s game and running on a treadmill to help them complete tasks faster and it feels empowering having the same done for you. Joined a town and its player is out harvesting but one of the towering monsters is a few stomps away? Man a turret and blast that thing away, comrade!
The Tomorrow Children feels almost alien in its objectives and goals but that’s part of its charm. One thing that hasn’t necessarily changed is the slow start in building up a proper city and efficient tools that speed average processes up. Phoenix Edition lets players bring in AI companions to help out and dull the sting of solo play. Just keep in mind, it is going to take some time to completely understand what exactly is going on in the game.
The Phoenix Edition of The Tomorrow Children balances out a lot of the original’s flaws and makes it an entirely more accessible game. New content has been added such as Monoliths which, when discovered, alter the strange islands even further. What game allows players to mine at strange faces and hands that reach towards the sky? Still, I recognize how obtuse the game can be and with the crafting/survival genre, that isn’t always a recipe for enjoyment. Simply put, The Tomorrow Children is not for everyone. I understand that Q-Games’ inability to monetize it during the year of release affected its viability but when Minecraft, Fortnite, PUBG, and countless other behemoths are already at center stage, something so strange isn’t going to be appreciated at a mainstream pace.
The Tomorrow Children: Phoenix Edition does offer an engaging universe and twisted take on a genre that has hundreds of entries. Getting started may feel like pulling teeth at times and its genuine affection for being weird is not going to win over a more casual audience. But there’s a game here that has risen from the ashes, an allegory so rare in gaming. The amount of quality of life additions and the simple fact that an online connection is not required means that the Phoenix Edition of The Tomorrow Children will preserve the game and help it live to see thousands of tomorrows.
