Maliki: Poison of the Past is a turn-based RPG made by Blue Banshee, taking place in France during modern times, a terrible threat known as Poison threatens to destroy and ruin the land through its nature. With the use of time travel and clever gadgets invented by Fang, a friend of Maliki’s Entourage, an opportunity is made between you and their effort to put a stop to this devastating threat.
The poison mutates not only living things but also inanimate objects, posing numerous threats across the land to confront. But how effectively does this concept apply in this plant fair? Join Niche Gamer and find out below!
Maliki: Poison of the Past
Developer: Blue Banshee
Publisher: ANKAMA GAMES
Platforms: Windows PC (reviewed), Nintendo Switch
Release Date: April 22, 2025
Price: $29.99
Maliki: Poison of the Past presents a very charming art style. Some might find it similar to the likes of Wakfu, a French-styled yet charming look that I enjoy very much when I see it, though not very often, sadly. Each main protagonist, when they speak, has expressive 2D art portraits perfectly illustrating their personalities.
Each joinable character past the hero named Sand, who only shows personality based on the player’s choice of dialogue trees, each other certainly fills a common trope that never fails to charm the viewer.
My favorite character, Fang, a brilliant engineer girl who can prepare the crew with all her gadgets, won me over very fast with her wunderkind and prodigious demure. The more I think of her, and I’m reminded of this game’s use of time travel, the more it clicks with me that she’s heavily inspired by Chrono Trigger’s Lucca.
In most cases, even when it comes right down to their appearance, Fang is a direct creation from Lucca’s concept, which kinda felt on the nose, but at the very least, they chose a fantastic source for reference when designing the game. The references and noticeable comparisons don’t necessarily stop there with her design either.
When out of combat, each hero possesses a unique field ability required to explore and solve puzzles. More features are added to your farm and facilities as well, in a typical milestone fashion. When at the base, expect to channel Harvest Moon planting seeds and reaping bounties’ harvest to provide temporary food buffs from cooking, and also expect to spend time cleaning out fields of rocks and trees.
Harvesting may be a turn-off to many who just want the JRPG experience, but it could potentially entice the fan core to give it a try, but it’s very light. The combat system, however, seems to be where the game shines brightest. But with that being said, it doesn’t necessarily compete with Sandfall’s Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 either, or not by a long shot.
In classic turn-based fashion, your hero characters select between various commands, as well as come in with unique actions of their own based on how far you have progressed. The hero named Sand utilizes his chrono machine as well as his very capable martial arts to go toe to toe with the enemy.
Fang brings her smarts into play using her homemade laser gun which seems to be extremely effective in the early parts of the game, and several other characters that all have their usefulness in a surprisingly tactical approach. Enemies carry weaknesses which are best to always aim for; however, the heroes themselves carry their own and must be worked around to ensure safety.
In most cases, your accessories, being the only equipment you can determine, can alter your weaknesses entirely! The combat system’s most notable feature is the ability to effectively alter the turn order using the Focus gauge.
If you send a character very far back in time, it gives them an evasion boost as well as recovering a large portion of health and mana, keeping them going throughout a dangerous zone. This was very fun to take advantage of, as consumables are fairly precious in quantity, and there are no shops that exist that sell them or any shops, period, for that matter.
If two party members are lined up on the same turn, this allows you to unleash what is certainly the most creative concept from the system, being that they will be able to perform a unique, potent tandem ability. Remember that the enemies can do this, so be careful when lining up the timeline.
Lastly, and this can be very beneficial or detrimental, lining up a hero with an enemy turn. In these situations, certain special abilities have a “defensive” version of themselves that can only be done in this situation.
Maliki: Poison of the Past is a fairly humble entry to a very growing and returning to form genre, the JRPG. While this flower certainly does not need pruning in any way, I can’t help but feel it does lack certain refinements to truly be a worthy competitor to some of the very fierce competition that’s out there right now. Had this been released a decade ago, this would have been seen as one of the best games in its genre.
In the same generation of Metaphor: Refantazio, SaGa Frontier 1 and 2 Remasters, the Suikoden Remasters, and Expedition of 33, it’s very hard to see this being for what it hopes to be. With that being said, I enjoyed my time with it.
Maliki: Poison of the Past was reviewed on PC using a code provided by Ankama Games. Additional information about Niche Gamer’s review/ethics policy is here. Maliki: Poison of the Past is now available for PC (via Steam) and Nintendo Switch.
