Summer in Mara
Main game
3.13 average rating based on 31 ratings
- Platforms
- Nintendo Switch, PC (Microsoft Windows), PlayStation 4, Xbox One
- Genres
- Adventure, Indie, Role-playing (RPG), Simulator, Visual Novel
- Themes
- Sandbox
- Steam
- View on Steam
Release Dates
User Stats
How Long Is Summer in Mara?
Related Content
Excellent game overshadowed by its slow start
In this game, we play as Koa, a girl who was found as a baby among the wreckage of a burning ship in the middle of the ocean by an elderly, alien-like woman. After the passing of her adoptive grandmother and finding herself alone in the world, Koa, with an innocent mindset incapable of grasping the concept of death, spends her days playing, fishing, and wondering where her grandmother is. One night, a small creature visits her island home and helps her repair her grandmother's old boat, leading her to embark on a journey throughout the archipelago of Mara. In Mara, you can fish, mine, make stuff, grow veggies and fruits, spruce up your island and even build structures for the animals encountered floating in the ocean. There are 30 explorable islands, from your home island to the great ice wall that covers the boundaries of Mara. There are 300 quests with 128 being main quests. As you complete quests, you will learn more about the lives of the various characters inhabiting Mara. Koa does not have a health bar, but she does have hunger and stamina bars, so it is important to always carry food and a sleeping bag …
Read MoreIn this game, we play as Koa, a girl who was found as a baby among the wreckage of a burning ship in the middle of the ocean by an elderly, alien-like woman. After the passing of her adoptive grandmother and finding herself alone in the world, Koa, with an innocent mindset incapable of grasping the concept of death, spends her days playing, fishing, and wondering where her grandmother is. One night, a small creature visits her island home and helps her repair her grandmother's old boat, leading her to embark on a journey throughout the archipelago of Mara. In Mara, you can fish, mine, make stuff, grow veggies and fruits, spruce up your island and even build structures for the animals encountered floating in the ocean. There are 30 explorable islands, from your home island to the great ice wall that covers the boundaries of Mara. There are 300 quests with 128 being main quests. As you complete quests, you will learn more about the lives of the various characters inhabiting Mara. Koa does not have a health bar, but she does have hunger and stamina bars, so it is important to always carry food and a sleeping bag if planning to be away from home for an extended period. There's no character customization, but finishing quests gets you different outfits and backpacks. The cute art style reminds me of Lilo and Stitch. The game starts off a bit slow the first couple hours, but once you get into it, you won't stop playing.
Lazy mobile game
Playtime: 83 minutes
Played: 2025
Expectation: Mixed. Lots of worthless games in this genre
Intro
This is a very barren and basic farm life sim.
Review
I have played well over 500 bad games and Summer in Mara still managed to surprise me with some its design elements. There are no graphics options, just a single slider labelled "Quality". The map doesn't show your location. To confirm actions it shows the left mouse button highlighted with "Accept" next to it. Clicking doesn't confirm, you actually have to click on Accept (lol).
There are also more familiar bad design elements. There is a completely pointless crafting timer despite time being paused. To change the handful of setting you have to quit to the main menu. Controls cannot be changed, which is especially annoying because i wanted to use left-click to interact (i.e. cut trees) instead of E. Cutting trees also involves press E and waiting several seconds three times per tree. And then you have to pick up the wood manually too. There is also no run toggle so you have to hold Shift for the entire game. Finally, even the translation is flawed; you "eat" drinks.
The story and quests …
Playtime: 83 minutes
Played: 2025
Expectation: Mixed. Lots of worthless games in this genre
Intro
This is a very barren and basic farm life sim.
Review
I have played well over 500 bad games and Summer in Mara still managed to surprise me with some its design elements. There are no graphics options, just a single slider labelled "Quality". The map doesn't show your location. To confirm actions it shows the left mouse button highlighted with "Accept" next to it. Clicking doesn't confirm, you actually have to click on Accept (lol).
There are also more familiar bad design elements. There is a completely pointless crafting timer despite time being paused. To change the handful of setting you have to quit to the main menu. Controls cannot be changed, which is especially annoying because i wanted to use left-click to interact (i.e. cut trees) instead of E. Cutting trees also involves press E and waiting several seconds three times per tree. And then you have to pick up the wood manually too. There is also no run toggle so you have to hold Shift for the entire game. Finally, even the translation is flawed; you "eat" drinks.
The story and quests are also impressively bad. Right after the tutorial part there is a timeskip which is not indicated at all. You wake up and suddenly it's years later? Literally nothing showed the passage of time. Then at some point your character goes "wow look at the light on the beach" and you have to find it. There is no light, just a tiny octopus in the water. The next night the game tells you to talk to "Napopo" with no indication who that is or where they are.
I haven't even mentioned how this looks like an asset flip from at least 15 years ago, with irrelevant music and no voice acting. I wouldn't recommend this even if you got it for free.
For a long time, I have wanted to play this game, and finally the time has come. All I have heard about it are negative things, but as a Harvest Moon fan, I couldn't resist trying this game. A game inspired by Hawaii with farming mechanics, where you can explore over 30 islands? Where do I sign?
I backed this like a year ago, and I got my early access code two days ago. Haven't had a chance to play, so I'm gonna try to do so today.
I played their other game Deiland, which was charming but lacking, so I'm excited to see how they've grown as devs.