Developer: Implicit Conversions
Publisher: Marvelous, XSEED
Platform: Switch (2), PS5, PC, Xbox Series X|S
Tested on: PC
Milano’s Odd Job Collection – Review
It’s time for a blast from the past… sort of. With Milano’s Odd Job Collection, publishers Marvelous and XSEED are bringing an obscure PS1 title from 1999 to English-language audiences for the first time. That alone deserved our attention, not only because of the previous exclusivity of such a title, but also because this is yet another release that makes a good case for game preservation. Now, we’re not going to pretend that we’re experts on Milano no Arubaito Collection as the game is known in its home country. In fact, we’d never even heard of it before its Western release. Chances are you hadn’t either, though, so now that we’ve played the game, let us tell you everything that you need to know.
Story
Our story begins with unfortunate news for our protagonist, 11-year-old Milano: the little girl’s mother has to go to the hospital for a lengthy period of time. It’s summer, and with Milano’s father not around to watch her, her mother decides to send the girl to stay at her uncle’s house. When Milano arrives, she finds that her uncle is also gone, leaving her effectively home alone for the next 40 days. Fortunately for her, there are no Sticky Bandits to deal with, but the girl does have to make ends meet. She decides to take on odd jobs around town to earn money. Can Milano make it on her own until her parents come and pick her up?
Graphics
There is an undeniable charm to Milano’s Odd Job Collection’s anime-inspired visuals. By modern standards, PS1 games typically look dated, especially those that use early 3D graphics. That isn’t the case here, as the game opts for colorful 2D illustrations instead. These match the game’s warm, slice-of-life tone and imbue Milano’s Odd Job Collection with a timeless feeling. It goes to show that you don’t need advanced technology or flashy animations to convey the right atmosphere, even three decades down the line. Unsurprisingly, the game is very lightweight and undemanding, and we had no issues whatsoever running it on our PC.
Sound
It’s in the soundscape that we get the first real big change compared to the original PS1 release. The game has received a full English language voice track, including a theme song sung by Milano’s voice actress, Kayli Mills. It’s a welcome addition, as the voice work provides most of the mileage for Milano’s Odd Job Collection’s audio. The soundtrack -as whimsical as it is- never takes front stage. Its tunes are light and melodic. They support, rather than dominate, the cozy, low pressure atmosphere and the summer setting. Environmental ambience is pleasant, rather than intrusive, with background noises contributing to the immersion. Sound effects are functional but unremarkable otherwise, resulting in an overall soundscape that does what it needs to do but that doesn’t rise above mediocrity.
Gameplay
Given that Milano no Arubaito Collection never made it out of Japan, its reissue can’t hide behind nostalgia to justify any gameplay shortcomings to Western audiences. That doesn’t mean that we’ll hold it to modern standards either, but there is an undeniable difference between looking at a port of a beloved classic, a modernized remake or a rerelease of an obscure title that took three decades to reach us. The interesting thing here is that Milano’s Odd Job Collection clearly shows the roots of a genre that was still in its infancy in the late ‘90s: the slice-of-life sim game. While we’re still miles away from Stardew Valley or Until Then, you can still see the blueprint of what was about to come here. The sim aspects are built around a structured series of quirky arcade-style mini-games -the titular odd jobs. The core loop sees Milano choose one job per day to earn money, then spend her evenings doing low-pressure chores and activities to raise her stats, like mood, energy and skill. In Milano’s downtime, you can decorate her uncle’s house with furnishings you buy with her hard-earned cash. There’s a light narrative frame and a clear endpoint as summer is over after 40 days, but no branching story or major events. You’re simply judged based on how well you did, and then you can start over.
While you’ll be interacting with the townsfolk -and Milano’s cat- the main gameplay focus is on the jobs themselves. Cleaning dishes or preparing deliveries are straightforward enough, but the game takes a turn for the absurd once you’re milking flying cows. The eight minigames are simple and perfectly suited for quick, pickup-and-play sessions. They are diverse enough to keep Milano’s Odd Job Collection interesting, even if they lack complexity and depth if you look at them individually. Resultingly, Milano’s Odd Job Collection is a very accessible game. One thing to keep in mind though is the control scheme. While you can definitely play the game with mouse and keyboard, we found that using a controller resulted in a much tighter and more responsive experience. Given that the game was originally designed to be played with a PS1 controller, that’s hardly a surprise.
As faithful of a reissue as Milano’s Odd Job Collection is, there have been a handful of -very welcome- QoL changes to the game. The game takes advantage of improved hardware to give us a bump in resolution and improved load times, but the real MVPs of modernisation are a rewind feature and save states. At its core, Milano’s Odd Job Collection was always a laid-back game, but these additions make the overall experience even more frictionless. Anyone looking for a challenge won’t find it here, but if the increased popularity of “cozy” games of the last couple of years tells us anything, then Milano’s Odd Job Collection won’t have any problems finding an audience. In this regard, the game was definitely ahead of its time.
Conclusion
We don’t expect that Milano’s Odd Job Collection will be turning any heads this side of the millennium. As much as we enjoyed guiding Milano through her labour-filled summer, a reissue of a Japan-only PS1 oddity is only really going to appeal to a niche audience. Even so, if this is the kind of game that seems like it would appeal to you even vaguely, we urge you to give it a chance, both to show XSEED and Marvelous that there is interest in this sort of game preservation and to experience the roots of the life sim genre for yourself.
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