Carefree Mutsu

Explore the mysterious water world with Mutsu

JP release: 18th July 2002
NA release: N/A
EU release: N/A
Developer: Takara Tomy
Publisher: Takara Tomy
NGC Magazine Score: N/A
Original Name: Mutsu to Nohohon
Mods Used: Widescreen Hack

Carefree Mutsu is a combination of a pet sim and an exploration game. You start off a game with a pet sim tutorial where you look after your little mutsu in a little fish bowl, give it food, compose music for it and talk to it. It’s very chatty and asks you a load of questions. Unfortunately, the language barrier is rather high and I couldn’t figure out how to progress from this tutorial tank for a while. There were 12 tanks in one of the menus but they say locked – it turned out that you have to start on tank 4 (they represent seasons, so you start in April).

In these worlds, your mutsu will swim around on their own. If you push the control stick, arrows will appear on the screen, but it seems to have zero effect on the movement of the creature (I can only theorise that it takes time for them to trust you and start going where you want them to go). As a result, a lot of the game is just waiting around for them to find the items you need to progress. I found keys in each world, which unlock the next area, but the game also references special crystals (or sweets, I got different translations at different points of the game) to find.

As they look around, they’ll speak to other creatures, open chests and ask you questions, which will grant you items you can use on your mutsu, some of which can turn them into another creature or change their colour. Some of the worlds are also some minigames where you need to win a challenge to press a key, usually a race with quick time events.

While there’s not a lot to actually do, it does give the impression that this game is designed for young kids, and there’s a quirky charm about it.

Fine

I have mixed feeling on this, it’s not fun to play, but it has really good atmosphere and it’s a unique experience. So if you want something strange to play in the background or want something else to relax with this might be worth looking into.
JetWolfEX, Backloggd

Remake or remaster?

It seems charming enough for a re-release.

Official Ways to get the game

There is no official way to get Carefree Mutsu.