Developer: Blue Banshee
Publisher: Ankama Games
Platform: PC, Switch
Tested on: Switch
Maliki: Poison of the Past – Review
Maliki: Poison Of The Past is the first game of indie studio Blue Banshee. They set out to combine an interesting blend of turn-based combat with new mechanics and casual farming gameplay, dressed up in a quirky art style. For those familiar, Maliki is actually the name of a French graphic novel, with the artist of said novel also being the main designer of this game. However, it’ll show very quickly you don’t need to know a single thing about the graphic novel to get a kick out of the time-bending adventure this game offers.
Story
In Maliki : Poison Of The Past, you play as a young woman named Sand. While Sand is walking along the streets one day, plant-based monsters burst forth and start to tear everything up. A portal appears and transports Sand to The Domaine, a magical place removed from time and space. In this alternate dimension, an enigmatic girl named Maliki explains to Sand that they are a refuge for the last few people who can stop a terrible monster called Poison. Poison can affect multiple dimensions at once, but its creatures are powerless in The Domaine thanks to the Time Tree protecting them. There, Sand meets a colorful cast of characters and sets out to stop Poison’s destructive rampage.
Graphics
Maliki: Poison Of The Past definitely uses its unique look to its advantage. The game world and battles are presented in a pretty simplistic but endearing 3D chibi art style, that reminds us of other open-world RPGs. That being said, the game really shines with the gorgeous 2D character stills we see during dialogues and some cutscenes, which show the typical Maliki style. We found that the original look gave the game a lot of charm and its own identity. Though it was kind of weird that the character sprites constantly have moving lips even when their dialogue is a single word.
Sound
We wouldn’t call the soundtrack of this game bad by any means, but it is a little bland. Most of the songs are generic, whimsical fantasy music, and even the battle music didn’t really stand out to us. The game also had no proper voice acting, instead, we got generic vocalizations like grunts or hums whenever a character started to talk or during battle. We wouldn’t say it completely ruins the game or anything, but it just felt boring compared to how much effort was put into other aspects.
Gameplay
Maliki: Poison Of The Past is an RPG that combines turn-based combat segments with exploration. There are also some base-building and farming elements. Within the safe zone of The Domaine, you are free to plant seeds, tend to your garden, and use the resulting materials for cooking or crafting. This is mainly used to make items you can use during combat or to provide your character with better gear. Once you’re ready to jump into the action, you can go into one of the portals within The Domaine and explore wherever it leads. Each location has some simple puzzles, but also enemies. And combat is where the game truly shines.
We’ve experienced turn-based combat in other games before, but Maliki: Poison Of The Past adds a fun gimmick. Your character can literally alter the flow of time. This means you can delay or switch around the order of turns, both for your enemy and your own party. Using this, you can set up cool combos by having the turns of two characters overlap, for example. It’s a simple mechanic, but one that allows for a lot of fun experimentation. Besides this, the pretty typical stuff is here. You can attack, block, and every character has their own special techniques if you have the required energy for it. Enemies and bosses also have a specific elemental type, which dictates their weaknesses and resistances to certain attacks. Your gear works the same, meaning you can change your loadout depending on what sort of enemies you go up against. If you win battles, you earn EXP and level up.
While this game is an enjoyable experience, we also need to point out a few minor flaws. The game can be a bit grindy and makes you backtrack a lot, having you pick up an item needed on the other side of an area, then making you walk all the way back to where you picked it up. And while the story is interesting enough to keep us playing, the battles do get somewhat slow later on. If you’re happy to invest time, however, the campaign is definitely long enough to be worth the game’s price.
Conclusion
Maliki: Poison Of The Past is by no means a perfect RPG, and it’s clear the developers have a lot left to learn, but what it lacks in technical execution, the game makes up for in charm. If you’d like something off the beaten path, we recommend giving this unique time-warping journey a shot.
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