Mafate is a delightful mash-up of a photography game, collectathon and mail carrier game. I had a lot of fun playing this demo! It’s quiet, slow and beautiful.
The Backstory of Mafate
According to the Steam page, a young Creole girl called Luna has been magically transformed into a camera. This allows her to take control of what is photographed in order to access hidden areas. This camera is carried by Elios, who is fulfilling his lifetime dream of becoming a mail character.
Combining the stories of these 2 characters creates a game about photography and a game about delivering mail to the locals while helping them and learning about them. It’s a charming mash-up of game types and is wildly successful!! It reminds me in some ways of Lake and Mail Time, and in other ways it reminds me of Toem and Alba. Mafate combines the best qualities of both game types into one smash-up game!
The Gameplay – The Photography Part
As mentioned, there are 2 main types of gameplay within the one game demo. One type is taking photographs of people, plants, animals, biomes and other forms of life. There’s a wonderfully easy-to-use camera which actually lets you know when an item you want to photograph is in front of the camera and also if you’ve already taken a picture of it before. I love that.
In this screenshot, the box around the word SNAP had turned from white to yellow, telling me I should photograph this bird. The name of the bird in the center does not have a check mark next to it, so I know this is my first photograph of it.
In the photography aspect of the game, there are lists of the various things you need to photograph to 100% the game, making it a collectathon too! The world includes interesting creatures called bibis. There are 12 to photograph in the demo. I didn’t find them all!! They are cute and imaginative, though. In addition to just snapping pictures, the camera has a zoom lens and filters to make my photos even more interesting.
I loved this game so much that I played the demo twice, and I did much better the second time around. As the game devs intended, I slowed down my gameplay a lot and really took in my surroundings. There are many hidden items that I need to photograph. In order to better find them, I needed to stop, open my camera and just scan the area. The camera would tell me if there was something to photograph.
There’s also another interesting feature to the camera. Because it is holding the spirit of Luna, she can possess the subject and have them take her places she could not otherwise go to. For example, in the demo, I needed to retrieve an object from a high spot which I could not reach. So through the camera, Luna possessed an animal that could reach that spot, and together they got the item for me.
Often, I need a lot of handholding when I begin a new game. Mafate was explained so well that I took off running. It was simple enough to easily understand, and yet really different and challenging too. Mafate provided me with a wonderful journal which kept track of the photographs I’d taken, quests I’d been on, people I’d met and much more! I thought that was very handy. It’s also important to point out that the game developers want players to use a controller to play this game.
The Gameplay – The Delivering Mail Part
Elios, my character, is a newly minted mail carrier. His father was one, and it was his lifetime goal to also deliver the mail. He is tasked with simply picking up and delivering packages, but along the way, the people he meets often ask him for help with things.
Some of these tasks are easy, but I will admit that a couple of the quests were difficult for me to figure out the first time I played, so I peeked at a walkthrough. I actually was on the right track in both cases, but wasn’t quite sure how to complete the tasks. I think once I spend more time playing the game and become more familiar with how things work, that will not be necessary. It’s a ME thing, not a game flaw for sure.
Like the photographs Luma took, there is a whole page in the journal to keep track of Elios’ quests. I appreciate that a lot! This part of the game played like so many other games I’ve loved. Quests, quests and more quests! All within the wonderful world that is Mafate.
In general, I don’t like platformer games. The demo has a little bit of platforming, but it was pretty easy, just a few simple jumps, so don’t be scared off if that tag is assigned to the game on Steam. Mostly, the gameplay was walking around, interacting with people and things.
The game includes a robot-like machine called the PAPANG300. In the demo, I had to get 4 pieces of outgoing mail from the villagers and give them to the machine for delivery. Once I had completed this task, the demo ended. I assume each new area of the game will open similarly, but it seems the PAPANG300 may play a larger part in the final game. We’ll see!
The Visuals and Feel of Mafate
Mafate is an actual place in France and is accessible only by foot or helicopter. It’s home to an incredible biodiversity and is full of rare and native species. Same as in the game!!
The game world is fun and whimsical, colorful and bright. It is set up in small sections, which you can reach by stepping on a star on the ground. It’s a 3D world with a lot to see and do.
The demo begins at Petunia’s Inn, which is the tutorial section. After that, you can proceed to Marla, another real-life place in France. The rest of the demo takes place there. There will be at least 4 more locations in the final game, and I expect they will all be different biomes. It seems that each area has a slightly different soundtrack. In some areas I heard a lot of birds, in some I heard music, in some I heard rushing water, and in some I heard all the sounds!
I need to tell you that there is no save function in the demo. I played slowly and took over an hour to complete it. You should budget at least that much time if you want to finish the demo. Once you leave, all your progress will be lost.
Final Thoughts
I loved the Mafate demo. It hit on the best parts of other games I’ve loved, such as Alba, Toem, and Lake. Delivering mail, meeting people, going on quests, collecting things and taking pictures!! Such fun. The game is meant to be played slowly so you can enjoy all the varied ecosystems, people and whimsical creatures. No need for speed. Blue Ramen Studios is developing Mafate, and the full game has not been released yet. I am definitely interested in playing the final game when it’s available.
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