Ren'Py - Completed - Marnie's Moment [v1.02] [Writefuck]

TLDR: I liked it. It tells a good story. The older version's love story was weaker, but the changes made improved it to the point to where there aren't really any glaring flaws.

We can never really have enough "what if pokemon was the real world" stories grounded in protagonists that aren't 11 year old god slayers- meeting brilliant but personally flawed gym trainers. Good stuff.

I think I still liked Olivine Lights a bit more, so you should check that out. That game played out like a movie, and this one played out like...well, I previously called it a "serialized manga series that got cancelled a few chapters too early for the author to prepare" and I'll call this one "a serialized manga that ended when the author wanted to end it" which, honestly, is good enough.

Disclosure: my hueristic is that you have to either be a good-enough game, tell a good-enough story or have good-enough porn. If we were to grade these games like we grade games with publishers, everything would be garbage and no score would be useful- anyway this is a fine story.

Because it's got everything, mystery, intrigue, some red herrings, and the addition of a wise cracking mystical pokemon was actually a genius twist, because it sets up a really excellent dramatalaguical triad.

1) You've got a mythic pokemon, who is in charge of, and failing, the one goal he's meant to do- and has to recruit people to do it. He never humanizes himself and always acts superior. His flaw is that he HAS to rely on people due to the plot because there ARE things he can't do.

2) The male lead, who succumbed to the terrible disease of being-a-male-lead. He's in town because his pokemon had a disease that needed surgery that wouldn't get fixed by a pokecenter shooting electricity through a ball (I did mention how great it is to world build pokemon like this.)

3) And Marnie. Someone who fails a lot because she hesitates and holds herself back. In a very real way, the story is crafted for HER. Time loops are happening and HER lesson is to get some confidence in herself through reset privilege. In order to learn her lesson, she HAS to get over herself and the story (and interactions with you) give her the narrative methods to do this.

So excellent set up!

And the changes really improved the relationship between the characters. I actually felt like Marnie gave a shit about the protagonist after beating the game.

There are allegedly 3 endings and 2 stat checks to pass, one for confidence (Marnie's) and love. With a system like that, it's usually hard to convince someone to NOT just get the best ending and assume it's the true one- but then the author outright tells you that there are other endings. A bit of a miss, if you ask me. This isn't the kind of game where you'd really WANT to have a love-struck but codependent heroine. The point is that everyone in the triad grows through this loop. To me, that just means there should basically be 1 good ending and 2 flavors of bad (or bittersweet) endings.

The ending did change quite a bit, and I'll tag that with spoilers on my feedback, but it certainly was passable:
Unlike before, the protagonist plays a bit more into being Celebi's trainer. Which only felt weird because it felt like the game was always set up to be this. You literally are in town because your Exeggutor is in surgery. Exeggutor has the distinction of being the ONLY evolutionary branch that is the same type as Celebi (outside special pokemon for protagonists only). It felt intentional, and then completely dropped. Playing the previous ending really made this stand out, as you becoming the de-facto trainer of Celebi felt so natural.

The ending is technically unchanged- Marnie goes back to Galar to fix the Pokemon league after growing as a character, leaving you behind. I say technically, because at least this time, it felt like she actually gave a shit about you, and would come back.

The author sort of cornered themselves. Celebi can fuck with time- we actually see a case where it happens. And the game revolves around another Celebi fucking with time to solve an impossible problem, and only being bad at it due to incompetence- incompetence our Celebi does not have. Celebi also mentions that rich people are akin to "gods" but Celebi demonstrates literal godlike power probably 15 minutes before that- and even goes so far as to imply the usage of that power to BECOME rich. Celebi is far more godlike than anything anyone has remotely shown, and would be a far more terrifying opponent to go up against than an abusive rich guy.

So there still isn't a reason for you to be unable to go- but as far as irratonal reasons go "I care about you too much" is up there, and at least it's shown this time, which was hugely missing from the previous version. And if we were to seriously reprimand authors for giving characters powers so strong that the plot sort of has to be broken for them to exist, I think that would be the literal end of all fiction.

Subjectively, I think the ending improves dramatically with just 2 extra lines, the first saying your phone rings and the second saying it's an unknown number with a Galarian area code- just to close that loop. That could just be me being a fan of Edge of Tomorrow's flavor of time-adjacent-open-ended-but-not-really ending.


Overall I enjoyed the previous version game, despite having pretty obvious flaws (I hesitate to use the term 'objectively'....but I felt they were pretty objective) and this one took care of them. So this is a huge recommend from me.

Marnie’s Moment

TIP: Add a +1 to the verdict if you're a PoKéMoN fan.

Imagine being a PoKéMoN trainer from Galar having enough of their life as a Gym Leader. Marnie’s Moment is a fanfic about Gen 8’s rival living her own life - and together, you get swept into a crazy story where you explore time relativity. No, that's not a joke.

STORY
Before we talk story, know that my understanding of PoKéMon extends to Generation 2. I left after Johto. Why is this important? This story combines a lot of things from different seasons - all the way from Generation 2 to Generation 8. The VN isn't unplayable if you don’t have all the knowledge, but you will need to google a few times. That said, it’s a testament of great writing that the VN mostly holds up without having current PoKéMoN info.

You live with your cousin and aunt in Kalos while helping your PoKéMon through an operation. While your friend is in the hospital, the craziest thing happens to you which coincidentally puts you on a path with Marnie, the girl from Galar. She’s a cute girl with her unwanted fanclub Team Yell and from what I understand of fans, criminally underused by PoKéMon.

The developer has made a lot of effort to keep this story connected with the complex PoKéMon universe and the actions in both the games and other media. This story happens after the original PoKéMon Sword/Shield game and deals with her opening up to strangers.

Overall, the story is a nice arc where a PoKéMoN causes trouble for both you and Marnie. During this story, you learn to appreciate each other and it’s up to the player how that plays out. It’s a text heavy game and it frequently repeats itself, not just because of the story. Slowly, the VN draws in more recognizable characters from the universe until the plot of your adventure finally unfolds.

In all honesty, I found the justification and ending to be quite underwhelming - but in PoKéMon, this is usually the case. Spending time with Marnie is fine and the PoKéMon have different personalities that stand out, helping the story keep it’s dynamic. That said, there are quite a few story branches that are abandoned - which feel like they could have amounted to a better ending. The moment-to-moment writing is great, although Marnie’s Galarian accent might be a bit too much of a stereotype to me. The idea is nice and I’m not sure if it’s original to the developer or adapted from PoKémedia.

Marnie’s Moment is more than a moment and won’t sweep you off your feet, but is an enjoyable ride and expands on Marnie’s world. If you crave more Marnie, this is a must-play. It serves as a cut deepening to a character that the series kept too shallow if I’m to believe the stories.

PRESENTATION
The game looks great in my opinion, utilizing 2D sprites over AI-generated backgrounds. While not 100% true to the original style, it works to sell the characters well. Since the game has so many scenes, I probably would have loved a bit more variety to Marnie’s sprites. The text describes her acting out, while sometimes the sprites won't show it. It works because the PoKéMoN games have always been like that, but makes the game feel absolutely narrative driven.

Across the many locations, you learn to appreciate the little details the developer adds - at times even feeling like a PoKéMoN game on rails. All of the cameo characters are instantly recognizable and handle fairly consistent to how they would in official media. The fact backgrounds are AI won’t bother you too much, even if you’re being picky about locations potentially not being accurate.

There is a lewd scene - and it’s far too little for what the VN could offer. While I realize it’s hard work to create them and the one that's in there is actually good, Marnie had far more lewd potential before diving in deep. It’s a missed opportunity and I would gladly have sacrificed one or two entire locations in order to mess with Marnie more. This is her moment, after all.

GAMEPLAY
It’s a Visual Novel, but with a little twist. Not only does the developer question your PoKéMoN knowledge (for which you can google), but there are two active attributes - ‘confidence’ and ‘love’ - that your story choices attribute to.

There are branching stories, but the branches are in-scene and fairly short. The game does callback to earlier choices which is a nice feature, giving you the idea of a continuous story.

OVERALL
Marnie’s Moment is a fun ride, especially if you’re a PoKéMoN fan. The game could have been even more accessible if the developer had gone through the trouble of educating players to the context, but does focus on it’s core group by keeping the explanation light.

Play this if you like a nice story and don’t care about NSFW content. There hardly is any in it, and while it is good, it’s not worth running through hours of content for if you don’t care about the story. If you do care, this game will set you up nicely for a timely adventure.

Verdict: 7/10
Developer: Writefuck

Without spoiling much, it's a nice story that focuses on Marnie and time travel.
The art is okay—nothing remarkable, but not bad either. The story is engaging enough to keep you entertained for a few hours. Even though there are some choices here and there, the story feels mostly kinetic.

Now, the thing that matters most considering what this site is about—the gooning: don't expect much. There's just one scene with adult content—no more, no less. The art in that scene is okay too, but honestly, nothing special.

It's not a bad game, but it's not a great one either—just okay. If you're in it because you want to see some Marnie's "action"... well, you'll be disappointed.