Summer in Mara is a single-player adventure and farming simulator on Steam, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch developed and authored by Chibig. You play like a young care-free and adventurous girl referred to as Koa who endures an online island with her Yaya Haku (grandmother). In Mara, the specific archipelago your home is in, you can craft, farm, and visit other islands of the archipelago while completing quests for the many residents, making friends, and creating and fostering bonds.
You begin the sport on your own island and go through the loving relationship Koa and Yaya Haku have together. The start moments from the game behave as a tutorial with Yaya Haku sending yourself on errands around your home island. I instantly got Stardew Valley and Harvest Moon vibes after i started the crafting portion of the tutorial. While you progress, you receive a feel of the items you’ll do and how the game is played. However, exactly what the tutorial fails to mention or educate you on, is which buttons do what and just what certain icons mean. For the first couple of moments of the game, it was trial and error. The options menu is barebones, only enabling you to change the language of the game and adjust the level of the sound clips and music. Furthermore, there isn't a manual save option, the sport just periodically autosaves.
Adventuring in Summer in Mara can be very tedious. While you’re awaiting crops to mature, you find yourself making multiple trips involving the home islands and the other islands of Mara. While controlling Koa and going through the world of Mara in 3D, conversations are locked in 2D as the characters speak to one another. Residents will have you fetch items but additionally give back the place to find craft requested items. Sometimes when a quest required me to grow something there was little else to do, I forwarded the game by sleeping the amount of days until the crops were ready. Luckily, resting refills your energy meter, which lets you run and make preparations crops.
Preparing crops is simple. You use a hoe to prepare the land and then you plant your seeds. There is a number seems over individual crops indicating how many days until they mature. You are able to further speed up the development process by using water from the well. Watering crops subtracts eventually off and may simply be watered daily. However, be cautious while using well. You only have three uses with the well and have to wait until it rains so that it is replenished.
Quests can build up pretty fast in Mara but the great thing is some will lock up before you continue Koa’s main quests. The requests are quite obvious but certain times I had to hold back until I unlocked the opportunity to craft other items. One downside about quests is that they don’t update or note where items are available. Nor will the game possess a waypoint system. I found myself wandering sometimes until I saw a floating arrow indicating an item of interest.
Summer in Mara may have its flaws but it could be overlooked by how beautiful the game looks and just how peaceful the game’s soundtrack is. Each character is exclusive and well crafted, you are able to tell each one was created with the utmost care. It’s also a bonus that each character has their very own personality. You’ll adore characters and enjoy the interactions between them and Koa. You won’t help but get lost in completing quests for that delightful citizens of Mara.
Summer in Mara can be obtained on Steam and Nintendo Switch on June 16th.
