Märchen Forest: Mylne and the Forest Gift Review – Atelier Mylne and the Dungeon Crawl

Today’s review comes from a request by one of my lovely readers over in Facebookland. Märchen Forest is an odd little slice-of-life indie game which begins as a lighthearted nod towards the Atelier series with a very simple crafting-based narrative arc to start, before the games shifts into something else entirely. Some folks had mixed feelings about this mechanical shift, feeling like the game was essentially two or three mini games stuck together.

Introduction

Märchen Forest: Mylne and the Forest Gift is an enhanced remake of the smartphone game of the same name, originally released in 2015. It is primarily a dungeon-crawler JRPG, but periodically introduces additional mechanics and temporary gameplay changes as the narrative requires. This updated version contains all-new content, released on PS4 in January 2021.

The game is once again developed by PrimaryOrbit and published by Clouded Leopard Entertainment. The narrative is centered around the adventures of the adorable, young, animal-girl Mylne (not “Mylen” as some other reviewers call her – Should’ve gone to Specsavers) as she learns new skills and braves the intimidating world beyond her borders.

Story

Mylne is a young, apprentice apothecary who lives deep in the Mysterious Forest with her grandfather. She’s very young at heart which has made her beloved by the forest’s enchanted residents. However, her bubbly personality also means she struggles to keep her attention focused at learning the family trade, though she genuinely does want to be a great apothecary and make her loving grandfather proud.

Dedicating herself to learning to brew basic potions, Mylne studies hard under her grandfather’s teachings. Mylne begins to make progress and her popularity around the forest grows larger than ever, until she eventually successfully brews a magical potion which brings snow to the Mysterious Forest. As the snow thaws, Mylne discovers the entrance to the forest’s secret Underground Ruins, along with a letter from her long-lost mother which suggests she may still be alive down in the ruins.

Overcome by hope and a need for answers, Mylne sneaks away to explore the ruins. Here, her new skills will be put to the test sooner than expected. Fortunately, Mylne isn’t alone for long; She meets another young girl named Rosetta while exploring the cave network. Rosetta reveals she has lost her memory and is trying to survive by trading with explorers and the ruin’s other inhabitants. Rosetta soon accompanies Mylne on her journey as the pair form an unusual partnership.

Gameplay

Mylne, the protagonist, explores the Mysterious Forest and the Underground Ruins in this 3-part story. Gameplay will change significantly from chapter to chapter. The first chapter will see Mylne go ingredient hunting for her potions, impressing her grandfather and the forest’s residents along the way with basic adventure-style gameplay and simple puzzle-solving.

The second chapter will have Mylne explore the Underground Ruins beneath the forest. Here, the gameplay shifts to an action-RPG dungeon crawler. Mylne will battle her way through enemies while also collecting loot. To survive, the player will need to monitor Mylne’s health and hunger, replenishing both by consuming their limited supplies wisely.

Combat commands are issued in real-time, and require the player to make both offensive and defensive moves to keep Mylne safe. By taking a moment to observe the enemy’s attacks, we’ll find windows to evade and counterattack, delivering extra damage by parrying and using Secret Skills. The game’s third and final act advances the combat challenge, variety, and options. Mylne will now be able to rest at camps, and also unleash new abilities in combat.

Graphics/Sound

Märchen Forest’s visual upgrade for this remastered edition certainly doesn’t go unnoticed. Particular attention to detail has been added to Mylne and Rosetta, with them boasting impressive detail for somewhat chibi-style anime characters. Their facial expressions and animations are subtle yet effective, emphasising their adorable childishness.

There’s a bright and varied colour palette on show, more so with the characters and their vibrant forest home, bursting with diverse flora and fauna. Sadly, the budget doesn’t seem to stretch to overhauling the NPCs, who are often so basic in design that they wouldn’t look out of place on PS2, maybe even PS1.

Everyone is voiced, though sadly only in Japanese, another design choice which mirrors the Atelier series. There’s an enchanting soundtrack twinkling away in the background which is consistently atmospheric throughout, maintaining the game’s very welcoming high fantasy vibe.

Conclusion

Credit where credit is due, Märchen Forest makes a great first impression. Pottering around the Mysterious Forest and meeting all of the quirky inhabitants is cute, witty, and rewarding as we’re gifted with an assortment of very random items which, sooner or later, become key ingredients in our potion making. Creating each potion is key in raising Mylne’s Apothecary Rank and clearing the first chapter.

It all feels very Atelier, which is clearly the game’s inspiration, but this also brings with it some significant problems by mirroring Atelier’s good and bad points. Like Atelier, the game simply doesn’t provide enough helpful guidance as we’re not told which ingredients we need, where to find them, why we need them, or how to get them.

It can take maybe three or four hours to trial-and-error our way through potion-brewing in the first chapter when realistically there’s only about an hour’s worth of gameplay here. Despite stumbling into a fun, quirky boss battle with an alien, I spent hours fumbling around, hoping the collection of bits and pieces I found around the forest was enough to make the next potion, and usually I was wrong.

Eventually, I had to admit defeat and follow an online walkthrough guide. I really thought the days of poor guidance in games were behind us now. The killing blow, or rather blows, were still to come, as after having us learn turn-based combat, the game then spends an absolute age teaching us real-time combat and switches the gameplay entirely, urging us to forget everything we’d previously learned.

Märchen Forest throws a lot of mechanics at us, and many are only used once or twice throughout the whole game. Add to this a lot of repetition in our exploration and we’re left with a very unfulfilling package. Sure, the first hour makes for a lovely, simple, slice-of-life adventure, but then we hit that Atelier-esque progression wall and either have no idea what to do next or don’t care enough about the new mechanics to try.

Hours of repetitive guesswork and confusing labyrinthine dungeon-crawling make up the bulk of this adventure. There are occasional great moments here, but in a 10-15-hour game, we aren’t getting nearly enough of them to cancel out all the low points, some of which are real game-breakers. It could have some value as a cheap, experimental indie title, but its current asking price of a little under £30 is outrageous for such a fragmented, unrefined game.