Marenian Tavern Story: Patty and the Hungry God

Genre: Turn-Based JRPG / Management Sim

Players: 1

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Review:

Marenian Tavern Story is a Turn-Based JRPG with innkeeper management sim elements baked into it in a way that’s somewhat comparable to Stardew Valley and Moonlighter. And much as in those games, the different elements at play here are symbiotic – the tavern management and cooking is needed to increase characters’ effectiveness in the field, and exploring dungeons and gathering ingredients in the field is needed to boost your success in the tavern.

The story of the game follows a woman whose young brother one day knocks over a statue and befriends a cute little bunny thing. However, it’s not long before they discover their home foreclosed on and their family in ruin because that cute little bunny thing happens to be the God of Poverty, and it has decided to stay with this family imparting its “blessing” of poverty until they can manage to work the local tavern up to success again.

It’s a delightful premise that’s unfortunately marred by a lacking localization and less than fantastic production values. This game was clearly created with a small budget, and it shows. It’s not bad enough to mar the gameplay, but it’s not doing the game any favors.

On the bright side, that gameplay is actually pretty good, and the loop of fighting monsters and gathering ingredients, taking them home to create recipes to sell in the tavern, and then taking the money to buy better equipment for fighting keeps the game interesting, especially because the game doesn’t just leave it at that.

One ingenious thing this game does is that characters get no experience or levels from fighting enemies. Instead, you level them up by feeding them the foods made with your ingredients, a fun twist that will have you judging whether to put the foods you cook for sale in the tavern, or greedily gobble them yourself for experience.

Other systems, such as a recipe system that tells you some, not all, or the ingredients you need for some foods, or lets you get recipes from other townspeople, all add interesting twists to the formula as well.

Make no mistake, Marenian Tavern Story has nowhere near the variety you can find in Stardew Valley, nor as much flexibility in managing your shop as Moonlighter, but it still manages to be an enjoyable, compelling experience despite its shortcomings, and fans of those games would do well to check out this one.

tl;dr – Marenian Tavern Story mixes a traditional JRPG with tavern management elements for a compelling game that’s surprisingly fun to play, despite its poor localization, presentation, and limited features. If you’ve played through games like Stardew Valley and are looking for something similar, this game is well worth a look.

Grade: B

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