Game Review: Marron's Day

By Manuel

Players: 1
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PC (Steam)

Sometimes a game comes around that defies genre and gameplay norms, and turns out to be more difficult than one would think to review. Marron's Day is just that sort of game, and it's set to arrive soon coming soon on the Nintendo Switch. This isn't its first appearance though, as it released on Steam last year, and on the Game Boy of all things a while back. You're forgiven for thinking that I must have misspoke when it came to it being available on the Game Boy, but that is indeed the case. We're going to be taking a look at it on the Nintendo Switch, and hopefully decide if it's a game worth playing. Without further ado, let's dive in!

Marron's Day places you into the role of the titular Marron who also happens to be a bunny. She lives in a very Animal Crossing-like village where most (if not all) of the town residents are animals. Life in her small town is peaceful, and she's looking forward to the upcoming town festival. Unfortunately for her, it seems that the festival has been cancelled. The Mayor claims that a lack of signups for festival booths is the reason for the cancellation, but the town in general seems to not be the happy place Marron feels it usually is. No one seems at all interested in hosting the festival, and that's something Marron just can't understand. Naturally, she's not going to take the lack of a town festival lying down. After begging The Mayor to reconsider his decision, she's tasked with convincing the townspeople to host booths after all. Marron is of course all for this, and sets off to get the necessary sign-ups. From there the game turns into a series of character interactions, fetch quests, and minigames that isn't too dissimilar to an adventure game. The story never really progresses beyond the initial plot, but you do learn more about the town's inhabitants over the course of the game. Though simple, the game has so much charm to it that I ultimately found that I didn't care. I grew to love each resident of the town, and was truly sad when the game was over. I can see how some might want higher stakes in their games, but I think the story told here suits everything just fine.

Discussing Marron's Day's gameplay is a bit difficult, as there are plenty of genres thrown together. Even though I compared it to an adventure game earlier, it probably best fits that ever-so-elusive "cozy games" genre. Then again you can't really call "cozy" a genre, but I think most people understand what I mean by that. This is something of a simulation game, but on a much smaller scale. There is no way to "die" or fail the game, and there's really only one way to reach its end. There's limited inventory management, but most of the game's interactions are simple conversations with characters. There are some minigames to break that up a bit, but they come and go rather quickly. These minigames include a Sokoban-like box pushing game, a crop collecting arcade-style game, a very random RPG-like battle game, and fishing. These are all nice breaks from the core gameplay, but there's no way to replay most of them once you've completed them. You can of course keep fishing until the very end, but there were a few that I wanted to give another go, but realized I couldn't. This isn't really that big of a deal, but I actually liked the random eraser game, and was bummed that I couldn't get another go at it unless I started again from the beginning. Some of the minigames also have optional goals attached to them, but these exist mainly for the completionists out there. Overall things manage to be both simple and fun, and most players will probably be able to wrap up this one in about an hour or so.

Even though I had a great time playing through Marron's Day, I guess I should mention some of its negative aspects too. Even though I found just all the minigames to be fun, they can be a bit annoying at times too. The farming game had weird scoring and I only won it by cheesing it, the eraser game is based completely on RNG, fishing takes way too long to complete, and finding all the rocks is surprisingly more difficult than you think it will be when you first take on the task. Most of these are negatives one can easily get over, but some of them felt like they needlessly made the game longer. The fishing minigame only takes so long to complete since you have to wait nearly an IRL minute for a catch. It's also surprisingly easy to find yourself stuck in Marron's Day. There are only about ten screens in the game, but I somehow still had a few "Where do I go next?" moments. These are mainly due to the fact that the game requires all current tasks to be completed before moving on. If you're missing something small, you have to complete it before moving on to the next part of the game. That said, trial and error will get you through the game due to the fact that it's so small, but it felt like wonky game design nevertheless. Probably weirdest of all, the end-game scene only allows you to get epilogues for a few of the characters in each go. I don't want to spoil what I mean by this, but you essentially have to finish the game multiple times to see everything it has to offer. There is an end-game save you can make use of, but it would've been nice to just see them all at once. None of these issues are game-breaking by any means, but it does bring down what would otherwise be a great game.

It probably goes without saying that Marron's Day has a visual style that's meant to emulate Game Boy graphics and aesthetics. This of course makes sense since this game was originally developed to run on actual Game Boy hardware. Its original itch.io release was actually a GB ROM file, and it even had a physical cartridge on sale at one point. I can only assume that this means that the current version of the game runs on some sort of Game Boy emulator, but I guess that's neither here nor there. What this means though is that when I say that this is a game that captures the retro handheld graphical look, I really mean it. This could very well be a long-lost Game Boy game, though one that has some a bit of modern vibes to it. The pixel graphics look amazing, and it runs smoothly on the Nintendo Switch. There isn't anything particularly impressive graphically, but I guess that makes sense since it was meant to run on hardware that's ancient by today's standards. One neat thing though is that the game alternates between color palettes. This not only keeps it from being simply black and while, but it also adds a touch of life to the otherwise small town that makes up the game. My only real negative regarding the visuals is that there aren't too many of them. This is a small game comprised of only a few screens, and there isn't a whole lot to see. I'd have loved an entire world done in this style, but I guess that we can simply appreciate what we are given instead.

If I thought Marron's Day did a good job on the graphics, then that goes double when it comes to music. Part of why I feel that the game encapsulates the cozy vibes so well is due to its soundtrack. Each song is chill and upbeat, and some of them remind me of the "calm town" type of tunes that one would get in an old-school JRPG. Just about every song in the game got stuck in my head, but in the best way possible. Despite the fact that many of the tracks loop over and over again, I never got bored of them. I don't know if one can get the soundtrack on its own, but it honestly feels like an instant chiptune classic. It may be a running theme to say that my one complaint would be that I wished there was simply more music, but that's honestly how I feel. There's a good amount of variety here, and there's definitely quality over quantity, but I would've loved it if there was just more.

No matter how you look at it, Marron's Day is a fairly short experience. I was able to fully clear it in about an hour, and that was with full 100% completion. I was also stuck in the game a couple times, so I imagine that some people can almost speedrun this game on accident. This is a very short game, but it was also a very fun experience. There is a bit of replayability if you're going for the 100%, as well as if you're trying to play those minigames again. That said, there isn't much in the way of bonus content here either. There is a manual you can go through that's pretty cool, but that's about it. I was a bit let down by the amount of content here, but even more so when I saw its price tag. Admittedly $9.99 isn't a lot to pay for a game today, but I can't help but feel that games for half the price have delivered deeper, more rewarding experiences. It still is priced low enough that I can safely say that it's worth the price of admission, but it's not the runaway smash it could've been if this was a game that lasted longer than the average movie.

Reservations aside, I still have to give Marron's Day a full recommendation. It's cute, it's charming, and it's a nice change from games that require a deep investment of both time and gaming skills. I wish the ride lasted two or three times as long as it does, but it is a memorable journey nevertheless. You can grab this one on the Switch on February 20, or you can get it on Steam now. Either way, it is worth picking up if you're a fan of games like Stardew Valley or Animal Crossing. My big hope is that this game gets some sort of follow up, maybe even a sequel, and I can one day take a look at that. Until then, see you in the next one!

Check Out Marron's Day on Nintendo Switch:
https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/products/marrons-day-switch/

---

Story: A
Gameplay: B
Graphics: A
Music/Sound: A
Value: B

Overall: A-

Pros:
+ A cute and fun game that embodies the "cozy" gaming aesthetic.
+ Though small in scope, the game's world and characters are full of charm.
+ Captures the retro handheld look and feel perfectly.
+ The soundtrack is as perfect as the graphics, and also successfully recreates retro aesthetics.
+ This is a game where you can't die or fail, and it doesn't require intense gaming skills. One can simply go in and have fun.

Cons:
- The overall experience is very short. Most players will be able to fully clear the game in 1-2 hours at most.
- Even though the game is short, there are parts of it that feel like they're padded for time.
- Not being able to easily replay some of the minigames, nor see all the epilogues at once, was an odd choice.
- Though far from expensive, the game does feel a bit overpriced at $9.99.

A copy of this game was provided to us free-of-charge by the publisher for the purpose of this review. This did not affect our review in any way.

---

Marron definitely has one up on me!

#MarronsDay