One thing I’ve found in this generation, with plenty of indie games that have pushed to combine different gameplay styles and ideas together into one package, is how hard it can be to make these hybrids work well. Sometimes the issue is that the combination feels like mixing oil and water, with the elements simply not working together at all, and with others the focus can feel so broad that everything feels underdeveloped. In the case of Maliki, the ambitious idea was to mix traditional JRPG mechanics with some cozy farm sim vibes, and while it may not be a perfect marriage as a whole, it does still manage to be satisfying depending on your tastes.

Pulled into a future conflict with a fearsome plant monster named Poison, who is trying to gain dominion over all of space-time, it can take a moment to get your bearings at first. While the developers obviously tried to be helpful in getting you up to speed, there’s definitely a learning curve early on. Whether the issue is with finding your way around, coming to grips with how to utilize your time-altering powers properly in battle, or how to effectively farm, cook, and craft, there’s quite a lot on your plate and some necessary trial and error to understand all of the game’s systems and nuances.

That said, once you do get into the swing of things, for the most part there’s a nice flow and balance to things. You’ll venture out and get into turn-based battles, gaining new abilities as you go that you’ll need to continue to experiment with to remain successful. You’ll then return to your temporal oasis to regroup, cultivate some crops, do some cooking, and perhaps craft something helpful. The game does attempt to ease you into some of these activities with quests and some direction, but I can’t always say I felt confident in knowing precisely what I should be doing, so I did a fair amount of falling on my face as I worked things out. While this can be aggravating, for the most part I’d say the broad experience made it worth my while though.

While gamers looking for either something acting strictly as either a JRPG or a cozy sim may bristle at these disparate genres being combined, I didn’t mind moving between the game’s two sides. Both are implemented well enough to remain satisfying, and the game’s characters and some periodically fun interactions with them also help to keep things engaging. While some better in-game instruction and guidance could have smoothed over early rough edges, it’s still a reasonably good time overall.