Summer in Mara

It's a fun game once you get used to the mechanics, but it doesn't have cloud save. This is one of the type of games I think it should since there's many quests and takes you a long while to complete.

This game was a gift from a dear friend, Kiki Cakes!

This game has some bugs, could use an option for adjusting screen resolution for those with wide monitors and needs some tidying up in the spelling department, but it's nothing that will break the game or ruin any enjoyment. I love the art style, setting and characters and even after the end of the story, I was wanting more and will be playing again for the sandbox mode.

This is a mix of being a farming sim, fetch quest and adventure. All positives!

After the tutorial you can see right away something incredibly sad happened, and then a cute little creature named Napopo appears, and so the journey begins. It's incredibly satisfying to see the island come back to life and nothing bad happens if you take days just tending to the island and sailing around exploring. On that note, the fishing can be a little hard at first but it does get easier and it's worth to upgrade your fishing rod when the time comes. Upgrade the wells as soon as you can too, it makes a big difference!

For chickens, sheep and pigs- two of them you are given in the story but you get chickens and more of the other two by rescuing them out at sea and bringing them to the island, but be careful. It's easy to wind up with too many. I'm not 100% sure on this one, just from personal experience, I got other critters chilling on my island after feeding ones like them on the other isles. Rat, seals, duck, etc.

Going and getting what other characters need is a fun way to explore Mara and doesn't make it feel like a drag. There's a nice variety of characters of all kinds and you want to learn more about them as you go(Akaji is one of my personal favorites). The story does have depth to it and doesn't fall flat at any point, they got pacing down nicely. The controls are also fine as well!

For items you need to make things, the devs thankfully give you two options for this; you can grow/craft it yourself or see who sells it. Always make use of selling certain items to certain people to get the bonus of them paying more for things they want/use. Do that and it's easy to build up some money in the game.

On the main story you're playing as Koa, going around helping others and figure out what's going on so you can protect Mara. It also contains valuable lessons on taking care of nature and giving back when you take something. I don't want to spoil anything, the beginning and end of the game are very emotional.

I do recommend this game to kick back relax with!

I was a bit put off by this game at first, thinking oh it's a game for kids, and it probably is, but I don't give a hoot because it's fun as hell. I felt it was very addictive as I could not stop playing it. Chill game, beautifully crafted, controls are brilliant. Most of the game is pretty intuitive, but I still had to YouTube a couple of things as I suck at games. Navigating this gorgeous world reminded me of N64's Super Mario, with lots to do engaging in tasks and puzzles. I liked it so much I bought the PS4 version to play on the big screen and hopefully get my wife to play it. Chinbig, thanks for this awesome game, looking forward to more like this. Plays perfectly on my Steam Deck.

Be prepared to suffer some serious hand cramps as you hold down SHIFT to sprint everywhere doing endless fetch quests!
Cute, great story, a tug on the heartstrings. So much running though... -_- It pays to have at least 5 of anything in your inventory just in case someone asks for something. Once you have some cash you can fast travel.
A bit buggy as hell, but if you exit and re-enter the game, or just finish off the main quests then it seems to sort itself out.
Pro-tips:
* You need money, and it can be hard to come by. Buy cotton seeds from Caleb. Then make wooden boat models to sell back to him. It's a lucrative money making scheme. You're going to need money!
* You have max of 99 items in a stack, so don't bother harvesting anything that'll take you over. Sell the excess or make things to sell.
* Don't try to find all the mail crabs, there is a bug, and two of them cannot be found - ever. Just don't even bother.
* Once you can get pigs, get cheap carrot seeds from Caleb (along with your cotton seeds) and feed your pigs. 4 pigs fed = truffles. Sell truffles to pirates for mega bucks!
* During some events your fast travel won't work anymore, it's not a bug, it's a "feature"...
* Go back to the lighthouse after the end game, there is one more quest!

Summer in Mara is a nice adventure game where you take care of your island: plant and grow fruits and vegetables to cook so many various dishes, take your boat and explore islands. Talk to many characters and do some quests for them. The graphics are great and the ambiant is relaxing... I highly recommend it!!! 🩵🌴🩵

This is a truly lovely and family-friendly game. It deals (gently) with themes of environmentalism, death/loss/memory, neighbors and community, and more.
The gameplay loop never grew tedious to me, although at times figuring out what I needed to do next from cryptic quest log text ("Something interesting will happen soon! - meant I had to sail to a specific map spot, as one example) required me to check a guide online. It is only loosely a farming/lifestyle simulator--more emphasis on finding and delivering certain items in the later parts of the game over the farming elements. So don't come here looking for a Story of the Seasons clone, but don't be driven away by assuming the farming will be cumbersome!
The game is beautiful and bright, and the characters have more personality in them than many AAA rpgs.
I have a lot more quest content ahead of me and I'm at 13 hours played. I imagine without checking guides too often that I'll get at least 20 hours to complete the story and maybe most of the sidequests, but beyond that there are also collectibles to find.
I think Chibig tells great small(er) stories. I'm glad I bought this game and will probably pick up Mika at some point as a result of my positive experience with this one.

A fun little farming sim adventure game. Does feel like most of the focus is on the story and questing element, but you have to do a little farming, mining and foraging to get by. I like Koa a lot as a protag as she kind of grows as a person as you progress the story. There's a ton of quests to do so the game is gonna take a while to get through especially if you do all the quests.
There's a few minor things I'm not a big fan of, but those are mostly QOL things like not being able to buy or sell in bulk. It's got most of the modern QOL stuff though.

Anyway, I'd say the game is an 8/10 for me.