Turn-based RPGs, especially those that stand on the shoulders of genre giants, need to either nail the fundamentals or bring a new twist to established mechanics. Maliki – Poison of the Past does both, mixing turn order manipulation with a solid mechanical core and a quaint, cozy-feeling story.
Taking different turns with time
The ability to manipulate time is core to Maliki’s gameplay, which functionally translates to futzing with the turn order. It’s also one of the main things that sets its combat apart. You’ll always know when your party and the enemy will move using the turn tracker on the upper right side of the screen. However, you can alter where allies and enemies appear in the combat order using Temporal Abilities.
We only have access to one Temporal Ability in the demo, Slide. Its function was simple: move the current character forward or backward on the turn tracker. If they move forward, they can go after their allies or enter a “Duel” state with an enemy. Duels allow you to use a set number of Techniques (character abilities) to clash with an enemy. If the character moves behind their place in the turn order, they also get HP and TP (Technique Points) back.
The other combat systems remind me of a mix of Super Mario RPG and Pokemon. There are four attack “elements” split across the physical (Normal and Kinetic) and special (Techno and Nature) types. Every unit on the field has an element that determines whether it can resist an attack, is weak to it, or takes normal damage from it. When a unit is hit by its weakness, it takes double damage and can receive debuffs. Resistant hits deal around 60% damage.
You can access four standard move types, the team’s Temporal Ability, and item usage. To succeed, you have to smartly balance Attacking, either with a regular move or a Technique, Focusing on your Temporal ability, or Defending. Items can be quite important because while things were pretty smooth sailing for most of the demo, the final boss was a massive difficulty spike — one I was glad to see. The fight is a true test of everything the game’s taught you up to that point, rather than being a simple damage check.
Overworld exploration deserves some mention, as each character has a unique field ability to manipulate certain objects. Sand, the main character, has a Chronopack that lets her turn time forward or backward for specific world items. Fang’s Quantic Pistol can move various objects around. It’s a much less complex system than the combat, though not a dichotomy that bothered me too much.
A story caught in time
Sadly, I can’t say much about the story because the dialog in the demo switched from English to French midway through. And my French is nonexistent. I can tell you that time travel and weird dimension-shifting plants called the Poison are central to the narrative, and your job in the game is to push back the Poison from a hub called the Domaine. You’re also tasked with eradicating Poison in larger pockets.
The narrative of Maliki – Poison of the Past is hard to unravel even without the language barrier, thanks to the changes in time. The story starts with the main character, Sand, almost crushed by a flying car, only to be saved by activating a Domaine barrier and portal. Inside, you meet the eponymous Maliki and Fang before being sent back to your own time so Maliki can pick the portal’s correct “temporal window.”
It’s a bit of a cluster by design, and that’s without digging into what is likely to be an adventure spanning at least a dozen hours and who knows how many timelines. Thankfully, your adventures are backed by a fantastic soundtrack, solid writing, and a deep, engrossing battle system. There is also a cozy farm-sim system, some light crafting, and plenty of key items with story significance.
Check out the demo for Maliki – Poison of the Past on Steam now. It should only take about an hour to beat, and I’m pumped to see more when the full release arrives.
Published: Feb 25, 2025 08:43 am