It’s becoming increasingly clear that 2025 is shaping up to be the year of JRPGs. An incredible lineup of titles is on the horizon—some of which I covered in last month’s article. That said, this past weekend, I finally got my hands on Maliki – Poison of the Past through a demo sent to me by the developer, and now I’m here to share some details.
Interestingly, I wasn’t aware that Maliki started as a manga created by Ankama—the same company behind Dofus and Wakfu. In the gaming space, Ankama serves as the publisher, while development is handled by Blue Banshee.
Poison And Maliki
In the demo, we immediately take control of the game’s main character, the young Sand, who finds herself in the midst of a massive invasion of giant plants engulfing the city—covering buildings, cars, and even the citizens.
Suddenly, Sand is drawn into Domaine, a mysterious world seemingly suspended between space and time. Here, she encounters Maliki, a peculiar yet charismatic witch who helps her awaken her dormant abilities. Maliki also introduces us to a strange machine capable of moving time forward and backward. It’s in this realm that we learn about the game’s main antagonist—Poison, a malevolent entity that infects and consumes entire worlds.
The demo, which lasts about 40 minutes, provides a first look at the game’s mechanics, offering a taste of town-building, exploration, and the combat system. Let’s dive into the details.
DomainE – The Main Base To Take Care Of
In Maliki, town management plays a significant role, taking place within Domaine—a world seemingly unaffected by time. Here, players can cultivate crops to produce valuable resources for various purposes, such as cooking or crafting items useful in combat. As the game progresses, Domaine will gradually expand, unlocking new areas that provide access to additional resources and activities.
During the demo, players can till the soil and plant carrots, which can later be harvested. There’s also the opportunity to explore parts of Domaine, a charming and colorful environment, and meet other characters. Many of these aren’t just NPCs—they can also be controlled during exploration and combat.
Exploration
Exploring the game world happens in real-time, and thanks to a special device, our character can manipulate the environment by moving objects forward and backward in time. This ability allows players to access otherwise unreachable areas—for example, shifting a fallen log into a river to create a bridge or collapsing a tree to open a new path.
Each playable character appears to have a unique ability that can be used during exploration. In the demo, alongside Sand, we also control Fang, who wields a quantum pistol capable of pulling certain objects closer, allowing players to jump on them and bypass obstacles. It’s likely that every playable character will bring a specific skill to traversal, leading to increasingly complex environmental puzzles as the game progresses.
During exploration, players will encounter roaming monsters that, once within range, will give chase and trigger the combat system upon contact. Another key feature is the presence of portals scattered throughout the world. These serve multiple functions—not only do they restore health and mana, but they also allow players to return to Domaine to craft items or unlock new areas.
Overall, exploration in the demo was engaging and well-paced, showing plenty of potential for the full game.
The Combat System
Games with multiple gameplay layers often risk making the combat system feel secondary or overly simplistic—but that doesn’t seem to be the case with Maliki. When engaging an enemy, the game transitions smoothly into battle, featuring a well-designed and clean UI. In the top right corner, a turn order bar displays the sequence of actions for both allies and enemies. On the left, character portraits indicate HP, skill points, and any active buffs or debuffs.
When it’s a character’s turn, a menu appears with the following options:
- Basic Attack – A neutral attack that doesn’t consume skill points and can always be used.
- Tech – Special abilities unique to each character, divided into four types: Neutral, Lightning, Quantum, and Nature.
- Guard – A defensive move that reduces damage from incoming enemy attacks.
- Concentrate – Accumulates points for a shared party gauge, which is used to activate Temp Skills.
- Temp Actions – Once enough points are collected, these abilities allow players to manipulate the timeline, triggering combos and delaying enemy turns.
- Flee – An option to escape if the battle proves too difficult.
- Inventory – Grants access to consumable items for healing and support.
Each enemy has a weakness to one of the four elemental types mentioned earlier, and once discovered, a small window will display this information. Another standout feature is the Temp Actions, which allow players to manipulate the turn order bar. This includes the ability to sync an enemy’s turn with an ally’s, creating a brief window where players must quickly decide their next move.
The combat system left a strong impression—it has the potential to be highly tactical if Temp Actions are used effectively. This confirms that combat isn’t just an afterthought but one of the game’s core mechanics.
Graphics And Audio
Visually, Maliki – Poison of the Past boasts a vibrant and expressive art style, staying true to its manga origins. The environments are colorful and rich in detail, with Domaine standing out as particularly well-crafted, blending fantasy elements with a dreamlike atmosphere though I was expecting a bit more in terms of finer details—especially in the animations, which sometimes feel a bit stiff and simplistic.
On the audio side, the soundtrack complements the game’s tone well, shifting between serene, melodic tracks for exploration and more dynamic, energetic compositions during combat. Sound design is polished, with distinct audio cues for attacks, skills, and environmental interactions, helping to enhance immersion.
I highly recommend checking out the demo, which is available on Steam starting today. And don’t forget—the full game is set to launch on March 11, 2025!
