Maliki: Poison of the Past from Ankama Games and Blue Banshee is a turn-based RPG with a sci-fi twist. Learn more in our Maliki: Poison of the Past review!
Maliki: Poison of the Past from Ankama Games and Blue Banshee is a turn-based RPG with a sci-fi twist. This one is based on the webcomic of the same name. The game takes place in the near future, during a time when humanity is on the brink of extinction. The cause? The deadly Poison, a plant monster that alters the space-time continuum. You’ll be taking on this one alongside the titular Maliki, who works alongside a few temporal survivors who are doing whatever it takes to save everyone before it’s too late. They’ll be working from the enigmatic Domaine, a haven that operates outside of the time continuum.
The game’s story will be told with a mix of in-game scenes and hand-drawn cutscenes as you learn more about the world of Maliki: Poison of the Past. This is how you’ll be introduced to Sand, the first party member in your group who ends up thrown straight into the conflict when she enters a portal that transports her to the Domaine. The Thousand-Root Tree is under attack, and you must now rush there to protect it at all costs. You’ll also meet Fang and Becky, who are doing their best to keep the enemies at bay. Oh, and Maliki casually mentions that it’s odd that Sand has this weird look on her face… as if it was the first time she was meeting everyone!
While exploring each area, you’ll move around with the left analog stick, jumping with the B button and performing contextual actions with the A button as needed. These include talking to other characters, activating switches, or collecting stuff. Use the right analog stick to bring up the character selection wheel so that you can switch between your party members. This is important because each party member will have a main action that can be used with the L and ZR buttons, as well as a secondary action, which you can perform by pressing the R or ZR buttons. Sand can manipulate time, which can be used for some puzzle-solving action. Fang can use her pistol to move some objects using quantum entanglement. Press the – button to call Qbee, who will provide you with contextual assistance during your adventure.
As mentioned before, the game features turn-based combat. For each fight, you’ll need to pick each character’s actions as you pay attention to the order of the turns for your group and the enemy group. Do this by checking the gauge on the upper-right corner of the screen. Each character will be able to use regular attacks, block incoming attacks, grab an item from the inventory, focus to regain some Chrono Points, and use Chrono Points for special techniques or to activate powerful Temporal Actions. Every special technique will potentially have an elemental affinity for you to consider so that you can take advantage of it and target an enemy’s weaknesses.
Temporal Actions use up a lot of Chrono Points, but they’ll be crucial for your survival. You could, for example, move a character back in the battle’s timeline to heal some of their wounds or move them forward to power up combined attacks that can turn the tide of battle. Do know that using Temporal Actions could end up superimposing an enemy’s turn with your character’s turn, which will trigger a duel. During a duel, you can quickly choose an action – since you’ll be on a timer – to hopefully counter or overcome your opponent’s action.
While exploring each area and fighting against the enemies and bosses you run into will be important, you should also work on upgrading the Domaine and taking care of it, doing things such as cutting down weeds, planting seeds, and harvesting produce. Doing this will not only reward you with new items, it will also allow you to collect Naturons. Naturons are the natural energy produced by all healthy living beings. By taking care of nature, nature will take care of you. Who knows, maybe using Naturons with the Thousand-Root Tree will lead to something good!
By removing Poison’s underlings from the overall timeline, you’ll help heal the Thousand-Root Tree and expand its reach so that you can increase the safety area around the Domaine. And as you successfully complete battles, you’ll also be rewarded with experience points. As expected, once you’ve obtained enough experience points, you’ll get a chance to level up. When this happens, you’ll unlock new techniques for party members, as well as receive a boost to their stats. Extra HP, strength, defense, resilience, and special affinity will certainly help! As a heads-up, you might want to consume some delicious pumpkin soup to boost the number of experience points you get so that you can speed up this process.
Maliki: Poison of the Past is a turn-based RPG with a sci-fi twist. This one is based on the webcomic of the same name. The game takes place in the near future, during a time when humanity is on the brink of extinction. The cause? The deadly Poison, a plant monster that alters the space-time continuum. You’ll be taking on this one alongside the titular Maliki, who works alongside a few temporal survivors who are doing whatever it takes to save everyone before it’s too late. They’ll be working from the enigmatic Domaine, a haven that operates outside of the time continuum.
The game will take you on a journey through time as you try to undo the damage from Poison and keep it from completely erasing Maliki’s evolution and growth, which allows her to become the powerful guardian of the Domaine and the Thousand-Root Tree. By targeting Maliki’s past, Poison aims to keep her from turning into the one who brings together Sand, Becky, and the others, which is certainly bad for the whole universe! Maliki: Poison of the Past is out on Nintendo Switch with a $29.99 price tag.
Disclaimer
This Maliki: Poison of the Past review is based on a Nintendo Switch copy provided by Ankama Games.
