Made Marion Review by Foxxelle
EARLY ACCESS REVIEW
A unique otome twist to the Robin Hood story. With gorgeous art, beautiful music and sound effects and a compelling storyline, this is a must buy! Beware, only one love route is available for now.
Every now and again, a developer takes a well-known and loved tale and creates an original variation based around it. Less often, a visual novel will appear which can boast an enthralling storyline, strong reader immersion, every in-game feature you'd expect to find, and throws in some extra design triumphs on top for good measure. Made Marion delivers both of the aforementioned.
Overview
Beginning
with a fully voiced narration in the prologue, the game introduces us to the
pre-story history of the area with a tale of the mystical Fae and druids, and
how this relates to the modern-day society of Marion's era. Upon restarting the game, the option is
provided to skip this section and jump straight into the main storyline, with
the player cast as the titular character.
We begin with Marion acting as surrogate lord of Glastonbury holding in her father's extended absence, a situation which ends promptly with his return and intent to marry her off to a well-positioned noble.. who happens to be none other than Geoffrey of Woodthorpe, the new lord of Nottingham, more commonly known as The Sheriff. Will Marion accept her fate, or choose to defy her father and forge her own destiny?
Although this game is based around the tales of Robin Hood, and at the time of writing, only Robin's route is currently available; have no doubts that this is Marion's story and as such feels very original, with nothing lost to the reader who is familiar with the legend.
Graphics
The
standard is set immediately by the beautiful portrayal of Marion on the opening
title screen, and the level is comfortably maintained and occasionally outdone
throughout the content which follows.
The screenshot below demonstrates the background quality perfectly, just
look at the detail and those textures.
All major characters have very well drawn and appealing sprites, with minor players (presently shown as silhouettes) also promised to have full sprites as development progresses. The screenshot below shows two characters in an external location, where the background has a softer, yet no less detailed, appearance; which rings true to the reality of indoors and outdoors.
There are also some pleasing animations. I particularly liked the flying dove within an inset graphic.
The obvious attention to detail can be found everywhere. It hit me the moment I first started the game with the appearance of a beautiful, bejewelled arrowhead as a cursor. This has to be seen to be believed.
Sound
I
don't usually write a separate section for game audio, which should tell you
everything you need to know. From the
opening rendition of Greensleeves over the title screen, played on a lute for
absolute time-period authenticity, the sounds in this game are wonderful. There are several musical accompaniments
throughout the action, which fit their respective scenes ideally, and effects
are spot on, too. Even animal
vocalisations are included, and they sound great.
I decided to put the coding to the test when the tune changed at the turn of a new caption, by immediately backstepping once. After a fleeting pause, sure enough, the previous tune kicked back in, only to be replaced again by the new one when I progressed forward once more. Again, attention to the tiniest detail. I was well impressed.
U/I
and accessibility
I
felt compelled to include "accessibility" into this subheading as it is so
thoroughly catered for. Anybody who
finds it difficult to read a typical VN is going to have a much easier time
with this one. Text size, spacing, font
style, assisted voicing – everything you may need is here for you, as can be
seen in the screenshot below.
For the other options, nothing is missing here either. All the regular features are available, including windowed/fullscreen, backstep, skip, plenty of save slots, history log, a multiple-feature gallery, and more.
Presentation is visually attractive and easy access. During the main gameplay screen (refer to the outdoor screenshot above), there are just three buttons, one which takes you to the log and title menu options (plus a glossary, more on that in a moment), a help button which lists all of the game controls, and a double arrow which is the skip button – and when you reach some text you have previously seen, this extends to include the word "Skip", so that you know the narrative is about to speed ahead. Nice.
More
Once
in-game with the story underway, a glossary button appears within the menu
options. This is well worth visiting, as apart from a list of all terms used
within the text, there are some suggested name pronunciations and, perhaps most
interestingly, a map drawn by a bard of the period which has some resemblance
to England and Wales as we know it today, and helps to put into context the
other "nations" referred to throughout.
There are some bad endings to be found in game in addition to two good alternatives for each route. If you should stumble upon an ending you weren't aiming for, afterwards you are given the opportunity to return directly to the last choice you took, whether you have saved or not. I cannot recall ever seeing this feature before in a VN, and (where the game structure allows it), I think it's a brilliant, innovative inclusion.
Positives
Everything. On top of all described above, the writing
itself deserves highlighting. Not a
single caption is wasted, and it's also written in first person perspective. Every single line adds value to the
whole. Typically, even the best visual
novels have little spells where some building has to take place to arrive at
the next point of high entertainment.
Not Made Marion. It never
lets up.
Negatives
Oh,
come on. Be reasonable, what do you want
from me?
OK, OK, if I can be really pernickety and try to find something – that suggested pronunciation of "Geoffrey". Really? My neighbour who shares the name might not be too thrilled. And, honestly there is nothing else I can pick out as not praiseworthy.
Value
for money and verdict
I
have seen it written that for a game with only one available route upon early
release, it is highly priced and this may temper people's will to jump in. Sure, I can appreciate waiting for the full
game to be completed, but I cannot imagine why anybody who enjoys these games
would not want to be a part of this.
To put into perspective the one route available, see my game time. None of that was idling in the background. Admittedly, many of you will read through more quickly than I choose to, but to give you an idea: I spent 7.7 hours on the prologue and common routes, a further 5.7 on Robin's first alternative, and 2.6 on the second. Additional time was used double checking things for review purposes, and once you have finished a route, there is an option to replay some sections from the LI's perspective. Yes, I've enjoyed some of that, too.
In summary, bearing in mind that there are five (and possibly six) more routes to come, the purchase of Made Marion should be a foregone conclusion. It hasn't so much met my expectations, as completely blown them away. And with this initial release being available in time for Christmas, it would make a fabulous gift for any Otome lover – including yourself.
Be sure to check out Otome Lovers other excellent reviews of this game by Amjara & Francisca
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