Summer In Mara Review Wind Waker Lite The Nerd Stash

Title: Summer in Mara

Developer: Chibig

Publisher: Chibig

Genre: Adventure

Available On: Nintendo Switch, PC

Version Tested: Nintendo Switch

Official Site: chibig.com/summer-in-mara

Release Date: June 16th, 2020

Where To Buy: Switch E-Shop, Steam

Summer in Mara takes a lot of elements from other games to compile them together. The game’s farming and crafting gameplay will likely draw in fans of Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley. Its sea exploration between various islands is inspired by The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. While its gameplay isn’t nearly as polished as those games, it’s still a light-hearted adventure about helping others with a charming art style and a likable protagonist.

Enjoying the Summer in Mara

Summer in Mara follows Koa, a precocious and adventurous girl who has a whole island to herself. While her island begins in a rather derelict condition, Koa uses the farming and crafting skills her adoptive grandmother taught her to improve the island. Koa can mine several resources for various materials. But to truly improve her home, she’ll have to brave the seas for the first time.

After learning how to craft, farm, and fish on Koa’s island, the player can then venture out to the archipelago of Mara. The island called Qalis is the only place Koa can travel to at first, and this island serves as the main area of the game. It’s where players will find a big portion of the supporting characters and obtain quests. The characters are cute and charming, from the stuffy bank manager Edegan to the deceitful cat-person Mayo. Koa herself is also incredibly likable, with her curious and adventurous nature sure to bring up childhood memories of playing outside.

The cutscenes of Summer in Mara are reminiscent of classic Disney animated films. And this art style is also shown off during dialogue encounters with quest-giving NPCs. However, the animation is so fantastic that it makes the graphics look a bit lackluster in comparison.

Fetch Quests Abound

Summer in Mara begins rather slowly and is restrictive on what you can do. There are only a few NPCs that can give Koa quests once you reach Qalis. But you meet more characters later. Also, harvesting any crop requires a few in-game days to pass before you can do so. Koa has an energy bar that depletes while farming and mining for resources or when it gets too late. Eating something or sleeping will fill it back up. But if you run out of stamina somewhere, Koa will pass out and wake up at a different time and location on the island.

Having a stamina bar isn’t a huge deal, but having to worry about reaching a place to sleep or eating some of your precious consumables before the bar empties halts the game’s progress. This is especially the case early on when Koa doesn’t have as much access to resources.

Once Koa meets enough NPCs, however, waiting for crops to grow or resources to replenish becomes less of a problem. You can always work towards one quest while you wait for a crop that’s required for another. But locations for resources are never given. And you may need to shop at Qalis’ market or go exploring before you can find what you need. Most of the quests that the NPCs will give you are fetch quests. Bring this item to this other character. Gather these ingredients to make this special meal. Here are some seeds to grow this crop.

And since the only place Koa can farm is on her island, you’ll be doing a lot of back and forth travel between it and Qalis. Koa’s home is also the only place she can cook meals, craft tools & other items, and even look at the ingredient lists for these items. So many times I’d be given a quest that required gathering certain ingredients to make something, have to travel back to my island to see what those ingredients are, and then turn right back around to go find those ingredients. It’s all a bit more time consuming than necessary. Having several active quests though did help to break up the monotony.

A Larger World

The main story of Summer in Mara, which revolves around exploring more islands to discover a mysterious threat to Mara, tends to take a backseat to its resource management and NPC quests. On the bright side though, leads to more exploration. Once Koa reaches a certain point on Qalis, she gets a map of the sea with a few surrounding islands. However, this is another case where the game becomes restrictive. Koa can’t go any further than the charted islands and can only explore more fully by continuing through her quest. The islands she gains access to aren’t very unique either. They’re much smaller than Qalis and usually don’t have people on them, but they at least let Koa gain more resources. Running into barrels floating in the sea is also a fast way to gain more items and money.

There are points in the open sea where Koa can deep dive for loot if she has goggles. It’s a sort of minigame where Koa must collect a treasure chest and swim back up to the buoy before the time limit runs out. If she doesn’t, she loses the pair of goggles and must buy another. The stiff controls here paired with the short time frame makes for a lot of wasted money. Fishing is also its frustrating minigame. It requires moving a small bar along a line to the same point as the moving fish. To win, you must reduce the fish’s energy bar before that of your fishing line. But some fish move much faster than you’re able to move the bar. Both of these minigames can lead to lost resources, which would be more forgivable if the games weren’t required to complete certain quests.

Verdict: There is a definite charm to Summer in Mara. The characters are kooky and their quests highlight being a caring, helpful person. The resource management gameplay will certainly draw players in. But some elements, like its restrictive progression, needless backtracking between islands, and frustrating minigames make exploring this unique archipelago feel less adventurous than it should.