I've recently stumbled upon a new genre that seems like its starting to take off - games where the main mechanic is taking pictures. I wanted to talk about the ones I've found and see if there are any that I missed
Toem
This one is really cool because you explore the world from a top down 2d perspective but switch to 3d when taking pictures. That mechanic plus the black and white coloring gives the game a really unique mood that I found to be super relaxing. The quests are also the right amount of difficult, encouraging you to explore without being frustrating
Eastshade
This one is a much larger 3D open world game. Instead of taking pictures with a camera you are creating paintings, but the mechanics are basically the same. The world is populated with animal NPCs and a ton of side quests to explore. It almost feels like an Elder Scrolls games at time, but doing something peaceful like painting instead of hitting people with a sword changes the entire vibe. I love it and revisit it all the time.
Pupperazi
Not much to say here because I did not get very far. You take pictures of dogs to fulfill certain missions. It just didn't grab me, and I put it down after a couple of hours.
Pokemon Snap
Felt like this needed a mention, both the original and the remake. Not my type of game and not what I am looking for in this genre. This is an on rails experience and there isnt much exploration
So there are 4 games, two I liked and two I did not. I think the big difference is the first two are basically regular games, you just use your camera/brush in place of the usual weapon. While the other two are more of a safari experience. Hopefully we see more of these "shooters" in the future!