Maliki: Poison of the Past is coming out soon and it looks promising for those seeking not only a new turn-based RPG, but one that’s in an anime-inspired art style and a realistic-looking world. There aren’t a ton of games set in a real-ish world that have been released recently. There’s Echo Generation, which went for a voxel art style and a real world-inspired setting while also blending in Paper Mario-style combat and that’s really about it. Maliki features an anime-inspired cast and puts 3D models based on those drawings into this world that makes things almost look like a diorama.
Maliki combines party-based combat with a life sim allowing for you to go from a crazy anime-styled opening video and animated cutscene into chopping trees and then fighting enemies. There’s a blend of powers to use from plant-based to things like pitchforks when playing as a farmer, swords, plant-based attacks using vines and even blasters. Each party member will seemingly be class-based to some degree or at least skill-based differences. you’re able to also launch animals at folks and that seems just bizarre but also super-fun.
Maliki combines party-based combat with a life sim
Turn-based Turmoil
The mix of character types and the use of animation to showcase them is something I’m looking forward to seeing unfold with more context behind it. It’s tough to tell what’s there for things like an animated intro or if it’s part of the pre-fight setup. There will be a demo released during Steam Next Fest and I’m looking forward to trying that out a lot because I’m a sucker for turn-based RPGs and those with a diorama look to them are rare. There’s really only Fantasian out there and that’s in more of a fantastical version of a real world.
Maliki is set for a March 11 release in full and the demo should shine some light on how the game flows. It does appear to have a lot of nuts and bolts to be a fun experience, but the game flow is a big part of how fun a turn-based RPG will be. The demo should allow for a good slice of that to be seen, although it could also nix some things – like how the legendary FF VII demo gave you super-powerful characters to use and showcase higher-level skills. We’ll see for sure when the demo launches next week during Steam Next Fest.
Mado Monogatari: Fia and the Wondrous Academy Gets Western Release This Year
The dungeon crawler RPG Mado Monogatari series makes a return to Western territories.
