Tearaway Wiki
Register
Advertisement

Tearaway is a PlayStation Vita video game developed by Media Molecule and published by Sony Computer Entertainment.

Plot

The player controls the characters Iota or Atoi, who must advance through stages by manipulating the surrounding world by using the features of the PlayStation Vita. . The environment is constructed with a flat, 2D paper, similar to Origami.

"Tearaway is kind of like a buddy movie. It stars iota, a messenger from a paper dimension, whose envelope head contains an urgent message to deliver… to you! It’s a very special message, and one that’s unique for each and every player. In order to read yours, you’ll need to take up the role of co-star and, together with iota, journey through the vibrant papery landscape — two buddies going on an epic adventure... You and iota will travel afar, taking on enemies and helping those in need. You’ll conquer adversity and discover magical papery surprises. But in Tearaway, you’re holding more than just a PS VITA in your hands — you’re holding the paper world itself![1]

Full Storyline

Main article: Story

Valleyfold

The Standing Stones

Atoi is created from an envelope and some paper. Now she's on an adventure to reach the Face in The Sun to deliver her message!

Oh, wait, she's being attacked by Scraps, and You need to help her! After you help her, she has to find hidden Scraps that are shadowing the sky.

She finds a Guide that is asking Atoi to move into Wassail Orchard to reach the Sun.

Wassail Orchard

Atoi is trying to reach the face in The Sun so she can deliver her message. So she went here to try to reach it.

In here, Atoi discovers the uses of Drumskin that You can use to jump, using the Rear Touch Pad. She platforms her way to reach The Drumming Ritual.

The Drumming Ritual was almost done, but the Scraps had plans to ruin it. As Atoi entered, the Scraps appeared. Atoi with Your help battled the Scraps and saved it before the Scraps could ruin it completely.

While looking for a way to reach the face in the Sun, she notices a white X on a platform. She jumped very high in the air, and while not actually reaching the Sun, she got very close, making a very good impression.

After the failed attempt, she discovers that she should stop resisting the You's commands to jump (allowing her to jump regularly). She also discovers that she should go to the Gibbet Hills next. She took a ride to Maypole Fields.

Maypole Fields

Here, Atoi is tring to find a way to Gibbet Hill so she can reach the face in The Sun and deliver her message.

She finds two Mummers and a Pig. One of the Mummers asked the other with, "So, what do you think, will your pig like my pig?". Then the other one replied with "Not a hope, my friend. Your pig is...well... let's just say your pig needs a make-over," insulting the Pig.

When Atoi got closer, the insulted Pig asked Atoi to make him cuter, and promised her that he'll carry her on his back if she did that.

After she changed him, the Red Mummer is shocked that she changed the Pig, "What was I thinking?!" Then the other Mummer said that "I'd take a Photo if I had a Camera!"

Atoi jumped on the Pig's back and ridden the Pig, finding Scraps and an automatic Photo Booth along the way. The Pig reunited with the other Pig at the house.

After this, Atoi discovered Crows that is blocking the path to Gibbet Hill, and that in order to scare them away, she must find a pumpkin in The Barn.

The Barn

After returning from the Barn, she put the Pumpkin head on the Scarecrow and entered Gibbet Hill.

Gibbet Hill

After a failed attempt to reach the face in The Sun, Atoi was told that in order to reach it, she needed to climb this mountain. Unfortunately, she had to hurry up because the fog was coming and the Sun was about to start setting.

Somewhere along the way, Atoi had to make her own Mittens, as mountains are very cold.

Atoi fails to reach the top before the sun was starting to set. Fortunately, You impressed everyone by turning the Mountain so she can launch to the Sun.

Atoi reached the Sun from the launcher, but instead Scraps bounced her off it and caused her to crash into Sogport, where she meets her friend to come.

Sogport

Crash Site

Atoi fell to Sogport due to her failing to reach the face in The Sun from Gibbet Hill. She gets lost, and finds an abandoned house near a talking tile of stone.

Along the way, she finds a blue Wendigo that gets attacked by black Scraps, and she gets attacked herself and trapped as well.

After defeating the Scraps, Atoi recovers him and makes friends with him, and loses her purse (for the cutscene). She discovers that he likes eating rolls of paper.

Later in the level, after he gets sore eyes, by an attack by Scraps, she gets to customize him, almost like she customizes herself.

Unfortunately, he gets trapped in a present and gets sent to The Caverns, where she has to go to to save him, but in order to reach it, Atoi needs to go to The Harbor.

The Harbor

Atoi has to go and find her friend. Along the way, she finds the Harbor, ans rolls into a small hole on a door on the Lighthouse.

Atoi meets a stranger that says he is keeping an eye on the face in The Sun, and says to go to the Tavern. He also opens up a pathway down.

Atoi finds that in order to enter the Tavern, she needs a Heart Tattoo so she can be granted access. After making her tattoo, she goes into the Tavern.

In the Tavern, Atoi finds a paper cone. Getting close to the Cone, she says to show Your palm. She says you must go to the Wendigo Fissure, so she goes.

Wendigo Fissure

Scrap
"I couldn't believe my eyes..."
This article or section is a stub. You can help Tearaway Wiki by expanding it.

Atoi finds a person near a Billboard that is supposed to be scary. She customizes it, then heads along the path.

After a short walk, Atoi discovers that this place is guarded by large white Wendigos instead of the normal Scrap enemies she finds on her journey to deliver her message.

Here Atoi must head through the Fissure without losing a stamp so she can find her friend.

She finds the entrance to The Lab building.

The Lab

Atoi finds the Lab entrance. Inside she talks to a Scientist, that activates an elevator in the labs that goes down.

Atoi customizes herself and takes a picture of her.

After Atoi is attacked by Scraps, she finds about the lab's secret weapon. Inside a white building, she picks up the Weaponized Squeezebox.

Atoi accidentally damages the Lab using this and activates an alarm. She deactivates this using the Squeezebox.

The damaged Lab alarm caused Scraps to know where it is and they attack it, causing setting off an alarm. However, now this time, "The little horrors can fly!!" Atoi must take then down using her new Weaponized Squeezebox Cannon and shoot them to dispatch them.

Now she must head to the Chief Scientist's office.

Scrap
"I couldn't believe my eyes..."
This article or section is a stub. You can help Tearaway Wiki by expanding it.


Here, the Scraps invade the office and the floor gets destroyed, allowing Atoi to fall into The Caverns during in her quest to retrieve her friend.

The Caverns

Scrap
"I couldn't believe my eyes..."
This article or section is a stub. You can help Tearaway Wiki by expanding it.

Here Atoi must find her friend. She finds him in a cage, but she also has to fight hundreds of Scraps in order to uncage him.

Later in the level, Atoi finds the Baby Wendigo's mother in a cage. She must dispatch the Scraps again to uncage her. This time she is helping Atoi.

After dispatching all the scraps, the newspaper turns into regular paper. Here, Atoi enters a drill to go Between the Pages.

Between the Pages

Scrap
"I couldn't believe my eyes..."
This article or section is a stub. You can help Tearaway Wiki by expanding it.

Atoi has dispatched all the Scraps in Sogport. Now she must do a final task, however the Guides aren't sure what she should do for her final task.

She must platform through the pages, to give them enough time to get an idea.

Along the way, she hears that the pages gets more dangerous at a certain point, and is told to follow the ink.

The Guides decide to “…wing it!” and Atoi enters The Desert.

Grand Tear

The Desert

Scrap
"I couldn't believe my eyes..."
This article or section is a stub. You can help Tearaway Wiki by expanding it.

Here Atoi must find her way in the Desert, with little help at all. She will need to find a truck so she can go into The Traveler.

In the Desert, there are a few interactive bones that you can talk to, and the Green Man appears as a cactus, near The Traveler.

The Traveler

Scrap
"I couldn't believe my eyes..."
This article or section is a stub. You can help Tearaway Wiki by expanding it.

In The Traveler, Atoi finds a lost messenger that was unable to be guided to their You.

The You helps Atoi and the Messenger to the other side of the trailer with the power of tilting the PSVita.

You help the Messenger be released to find their You, by opening the roof with the touchpad.

After helping the lost messenger, Atoi jumps down to enter The Tear.

The Tear

Scrap
"I couldn't believe my eyes..."
This article or section is a stub. You can help Tearaway Wiki by expanding it.

In the Tear, Atoi uses the power of The You’s tilting ability to get through to The You.

In the Tear, there are obstacles referencing other areas and it contains “…things that never happened.”

In certain places, there are faceless messengers that seem to be watching you.

  • Atoi is able to throw rocks or Gophers at these messengers.

At the end of the Tear, Atoi rolls on a very curved slide to reach The You.

The You

Scrap
"I couldn't believe my eyes..."
This article or section is a stub. You can help Tearaway Wiki by expanding it.


During this segment, there are moments of seeing all the papercraft creatures you befriended, like King Squirrel being crowned, and The Scarecrow reading stories to a group of crows.

After seeing all of your friends, (and 2 Winged Scraps) music plays as you reach the You, which Atoi has to walk up a wall to see.

She jumps into the player’s PlayStation Vita, and enters The Message

The Message

Scrap
"I couldn't believe my eyes..."
This article or section is a stub. You can help Tearaway Wiki by expanding it.

The You reads Atoi’s story, and stats like how many times Atoi jumped, how many steps, etc.

This is the only time the Messenger speaks actual words, although there isn’t a voice and it’s just text on the screen.

”This is your world. Make it a world of stories!”

- Green Man

Features

At the beginning of the game, you are given the option to change features of Iota or Atoi, like gender, eye color etc. At an unknown time in the game, you will be given the ability to customize Iota or Atoi and make them look any way you desire. The player must alter the surrounding environment by the use of the PS Vita's touch pad. By tapping the rear touch panel or by blowing into the microphone, players can poke through paper walls, or summon a large gust of wind. Iota carries an important letter inside of him, and the player must guide him to it's destination.

"Using the god-like powers inherent to someone who can hold an entire world in their giant hands, you can make your presence felt using a wide range of godly powers that take advantage of all the PS Vita’s bells and whistles — some subtle and some epic. You can shake things up or turn them upside down. A gentle breath from you is a gusty storm. You can even poke your fingers into the back of the PS Vita to tear through into the world and help iota complete this very special delivery." [2]

Reception

Tearaway was recieved very well, with mostly ratings at 90 or above.

Playstation Lifestyle 90/100

"The excellent integration of the Vita’s features into its gameplay, the way Tearaway reaches out to the player, the charming and well-developed world, the use of imagination in a medium where imagination is a precious and often forgotten thing – these factors stand above the negative to create an experience you should play at least once." 

 IGN 93/100  "'Tearaway is a joy. Whether it was a riding a pig towards the sunset or playing basketball with a super-powered accordion, it never failed to make me smile. It sincerely believes that imagination really is the most important faculty, and in turn, succeeded in transporting me back to a time when I built strange worlds equipped with nothing but crayons and card. It does this by using every aspect of the Vita, crafting an experience that I can’t imagine being realised elsewhere. It might be short, but it’s very special. Please come back soon, Iota. "

Videogamer.com 90/100 "Tearaway is a beautiful title. It represents the importance of stories, manages to create friendships, and is capable of exciting and entertaining regardless of its simplicity." 

Eurogamer 80/100  "These complaints are fleeting in nature and don't do much to dim Tearaway's enchanting glow, however. They certainly won't stop you reaching the end. It's not a long game, but for every section of simple platforming there's a moment of pure creative delight that leaves most other games looking stuffy and sterile, locked away behind their joypads and glass, away from your prodding, inquisitive fingers. Tearaway's tactile world may be no more real, but while you're under its spell it certainly doesn't feel that way." 

EDGE 90/100 "At six to seven hours, Tearaway isn’t the longest game in Vita’s library, but it packs in more joyfully realised ideas than many games manage in three or four times the runtime. It’s a beautiful, brilliant game, but it’s more than that: it’s the first great Vita game, using the console’s gimmicky featureset – its gyroscopes, cameras, touch panels and microphone – to make something that wouldn’t be possible on any other system. It’s a game that refixes Media Molecule as the misshapen jewel in Sony’s wonkily sketched crown, one that shows immersion isn’t about story or spectacle but the simple pleasure of play. And throughout it all there’s you, up in the sky, gazing benevolently down from the sun, the smile on your face forever unbroken."

Destructoid 100/100 "Everything just works so well in unison. The soundtrack is delightful and odd, at times reminiscent of Paprika’s parade fanfare with its lively horns. The world, put together in paper scraps, is unbelievable in its artistry and function. Tearaway’s paper water and ripples as you walk through it are more impressive than any realistic water graphics I’ve ever seen. The level of unique detail in the world is staggering. Every moment spent immersed in it is heartwarming. Fittingly, it feels positively handcrafted." 

Escapist Magazine 90/100  "'All of this is well and good but what it really boils down to is that Tearaway is just fun. Thoughtful, engaging, and charming in a way that many recent games haven't been, this beautiful world will appeal to lovers of platformers both old and new. And yes, it's a PlayStation Vita exclusive and sure, lots of people don't own a Vita, but the game itself has integrated the PlayStation Vita's functionality so well that housing it on any other platform seems wrong."

Gallery

Wikisquare
The Tearaway Wiki has a collection of images, videos, and other types of media about Tearaway here.

Trivia

  • In a trailer, It showed an unused cutscene where when you first touch the rear pad on the Playstation Vita, Your finger would pop out and a Scrap would be scared.[citation needed]

Refrences

Advertisement