- Developers: Blue Banshee, Blue Banshee S.A.S.
- Genres: Role-playing video game
- Platforms: Nintendo Switch, Microsoft Windows
- Engine: Unity
- Publisher: ANKAMA GAMES
- Style: Cozy, Anime-inspired
Beneath its flashy visuals and ambitious worldbuilding lies a game overflowing with systems, yet lacking the structure to hold them together. Maliki wants to be a lot of things—an emotional RPG, a time-bending tactical battler, and a cozy sim—but in trying to be everything, it loses its grip on what matters most: clarity, cohesion, and a satisfying player experience.
Story and Presentation
From its opening moments, Maliki: Poison of the Past makes an impression. The striking art style, snappy dialogue, and emotional tone suggest you’re stepping into something bold and distinct—maybe even a hidden indie gem. But the deeper you go, the more tangled things become.
Set in a near-future world ravaged by the Poison—a strange, time-warping plant monster—Maliki: Poison of the Past follows a small group of survivors led by the enigmatic Maliki. From their hidden sanctuary, the Domaine, these survivors work to restore the space-time continuum. You take on the role of Sand, a masked avatar sent through fractured timelines to piece together the past and prevent total collapse.
The premise is undeniably intriguing. There’s a strong emotional undercurrent, hints of rich lore, and a sharp anime-inspired art style that immediately sets the game apart. Visually, Maliki is expressive and full of personality, with stylized designs and surreal environments that give the game a distinct identity.
But that identity gets lost in the delivery. The game’s rhythm is constantly off—cutscenes appear abruptly, new concepts are introduced before old ones settle, and the pacing feels more like a sprint than a journey. There’s a lot to absorb, but little time to process. As a result, even its most poignant or visually impressive moments can land without impact. Maliki has the ingredients of a standout experience, but the presentation keeps tripping over itself.
Gameplay and Mechanics
Maliki: Poison of the Past throws a lot at you, and fast. Between turn-based battles, time-shifting puzzles, combo attacks, elemental affinities, and light life-sim mechanics like farming, crafting, and base upgrades at the Domaine, the game is absolutely packed with systems. At times, it feels like three different games competing for attention.
The Chrono Pack, in particular, is central to both combat and traversal, but it never feels as substantial or refined as it should. It carries narrative weight, but mechanically, it comes off as a lighter version of time-based systems we’ve seen executed with more clarity and depth in other games. It neither redefines the formula nor evolves it in a meaningful way.
The same goes for the elemental system—it exists, but it’s barely explained and feels disconnected from the flow of battle. Combat itself can range from overly simplistic to awkwardly paced, and without strong tutorials or contextual clarity, many of the mechanics blur together rather than working in harmony.
Even the peaceful hub moments back at the Domaine—intended to be a break from time-hopping chaos—feel overloaded. Planting, cooking, upgrading gear, tending a giant tree…it’s a lot to manage in a game already struggling to establish a steady gameplay loop. Instead of deepening the experience, these features dilute it.
There’s no shortage of ambition here. But the systems don’t support each other in a cohesive way, and that leaves Maliki feeling directionless beneath all the good ideas.
Final Thoughts
Maliki: Poison of the Past is a game brimming with heart, ambition, and originality. It’s clear that the creators poured a lot of love into its world, characters, and core concepts. The art style is striking, the themes are resonant, and there’s no shortage of ideas here—some of which could really shine with the right structure.
But as it stands, the experience feels disjointed. The pacing is erratic, the systems clash more than they complement, and the onboarding is too shallow for a game this mechanically dense. It’s not that any one element is outright broken—it’s that the whole thing lacks cohesion. That said, one bright spot is how accessible it is from a hardware standpoint. I was able to run the game smoothly on a Surface Pro 5, which speaks to its optimization and low system requirements—great news for players without high-end setups
Maliki isn’t unplayable or even unenjoyable. There are moments of charm, clever design, and emotional sincerity. But to get there, players have to push through confusion, clunky systems, and a scattered presentation. For fans of experimental indies or narrative-driven RPGs, it might still be worth exploring. For everyone else, Maliki is more of a curiosity than a must-play.
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