• Add Review
  • Subscribe
  • Nominate
  • Submit Media
  • RSS

~~~~~
"Mariko, I love you.
But I can't do this anymore.
It's not your fault,
and there was nothing you could've done for me.
There's nothing you could've done about 'her'."

~~~~~
Dear Mariko is a short, simple game about a girl who comes home to find a goodbye letter from the one she loves.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Features
* 10 minutes of gameplay
* 3 Endings
* 3 Unlockable Images

Official Website

---
The RMXP RTP may be necessary to play the game. If you get an error along the lines of "RTP not found" please let me know so I can try to fix it again. Thanks!

Alternatively, if you encounter the "RGSS-RTP Standard not found." error when opening the game, all you need to do is opening the Game.ini file and delete the "Standard" in the "RTP1=" line.

---

Please consider supporting us on Patreon if you enjoyed this game and want to see more like this soon! Thank you so much for the support!

Latest Blog

Dear Mariko: Crimson - Released!



After a year, Dear Mariko: Crimson, the pay-what-you-want version has been released, thanks very much to the efforts of @baka-baru, who graciously helped with the game! This version has brand new character and CG art, and an additional short playable epilogue with 4 endings, shedding a little light on the overarching story as a whole, as a stinger towards a future game.

Feel free to think of this extension as a 'tip-jar' of sorts for everyone who has enjoyed the free games I have made so far. All proceeds will partly go to the lovely @baka-baru and to the development of Mica: Apoptosis. Everyone who has donated to Dear Mariko before Crimson's release will get a complimentary copy - just shoot me an email at coren.baili@gmail.com. Please do send all bug reports to that email as well. Thank you all once again for your support!

The Free version includes:
* The full main story
* 3 endings
* 3 CGs

The Crimson version ($0.50 or more) includes:
* Brand new character and CG art
* An additional epilogue
* Double the gameplay
* 7 endings

Download the Crimson Edition here!
  • Completed
  • Kirroha
  • RPG Maker XP
  • Puzzle RPG
  • 05/16/2015 11:08 PM
  • 03/16/2019 12:20 AM
  • 05/17/2015
  • 182455
  • 51
  • 10034

Posts

Pages: first prev 1234 last
After seeing the true ending, I kinda feel like the plot is contradictory. Specifically (spoilers):

author=Kirroha
You are not Mariko. Remember, the game never said you were...
Yes it does. The introduction says "'Mariko' / The way he said my name..."

And then the way Mariko acts is suspect. Supposedly Mariko knocks on the front door of her own house before entering - I don't know anyone who does that. And then she walks in openly brandishing a knife - which is illegal in most places I know of. When she reads the letter, she says "I'll kill you." And (if you hide in the bathroom) she breaks down the door. And then she actually murders you. Either Mariko herself is criminally insane, and Darien has a thing for yanderes, or this plot makes no sense.

It just feels like you made the game with the intention of the main character being Mariko, and then at the very end, when you were writing the true ending, you decided that the other girl should be Mariko instead.

Here's what I can buy:
-We hear Mariko before she enters the house. (makes sense)
-Mariko knocks on her own door (as long as it's explicit that she's hoping Darien will open it). I could buy it easier and better if instead of hearing Mariko knocking, we just her walking up the front steps.
-Mariko has a knife (since the protagonist can't see her, it could just be her imagination).
-Mariko says "I found you!" and the game ends (because the game is up - no pun intended).

Here's what I can't buy:
-The introduction being told from Mariko's point of view. It's confusing if you don't know the protagonist isn't Mariko, and it's pointless if you do know it. Removing the references to Mariko would fix that.
-Mariko says "I'll kill you." What the heck?! Just remove that.
-Mariko breaks down the bathroom door. WHAT?! I didn't even believe that when I thought she was the crazy girl. No one is breaking down a door with a knife. It should just be that she's still there when you want to leave, and there's no other exit besides the door.
-The screen flashes red if Mariko catches you, and it sounds like you're getting stabbed. The real Mariko shouldn't be a violent murderer like this game makes her out to be. Just remove it.
Hiya Miryafa! Thanks for the comments. Spoilers below the cut:


Hoping to explain a few things here :)
- Just to be clear, the game was always created with the full plot in mind. It's too short a game for me to suddenly want to pull something off halfway through, and it's made just in 3 days.
- There are several hints foreshadowing who Shinku is (in fact quite a few, that I've received a few complaints saying that the twist is way too obvious, heh), such as the fact that she doesn't like the flowers in the house and neither does Darien (so only Mariko would like them), Mariko's bed stinks, and she responds to Darien's letter about his 'stalker' with "so that's how you really feel".

As for the game itself:
- The introduction is from Mariko's point of view. The scene switches to Shinku after, and remains so. The intro won't make sense from Shinku's point of view, since the intro's protagonist is clearly Darien's real girlfriend and is trying to figure out what's wrong.
- Mariko from the introduction is from a while ago, and she is determined to find out who Darien's stalker is (the timeline will be clearer in the sequel, Crystallised Latitude).
- Mariko was fiddling with the stuck doorknob before she came in, not knocking. Can understand if the sound effects were ambiguous though- that was the best I could find heh.
- Mariko has been living knowing her boyfriend's been stalked and she herself has been endlessly harassed and threatened by this point. She feels a need to arm herself, but I do understand that it seems weird for her to go stabby. I'll fix that to be more ambiguous.
- Hopefully the real Mariko will be clearer personality-wise in the sequel!



Thanks for the comments - really appreciate them! :)
I'm glad you're still open to comments! I'll respond too:


Yeah, there are a bunch of hints about the true ending, and I realized them after I found it (I went back and played it again from the start). It doesn't change my comments one bit. Even knowing you had the plot planned out the whole time, it still felt like you did the ending last and went back and added those in afterwards, because everything else is so confusing as it stands.

I can tell you're not open to changes because you're defending your decisions. But I'm just making suggestions because I care, because I actually liked something about the game, and want to make it better. To that end:
-The part of the introduction with "I met Darien 2 years ago" could be Shinku as easily as Mariko. Same with the part about something being wrong with Darien, because Shinku obviously is not getting that Darien doesn't want to be with her.
-As I understand it, the idea that "Mariko has been endlessly harassed and threatened" is impossible because until she read the letter, she had no idea that Darien had a previous girlfriend, or that he was being stalked. The intro makes it clear that she only knows "something is wrong between Darien and me." That's not enough for someone to feel a need to arm herself, or be determined to find out who Darien's stalker is. Basically, it seems like you wrote Mariko's lines as though she had no knowledge of a stalker (but the way she reacted to that letter was pretty stalker-ish herself), but wrote Mariko's actions as though she is being chased by a monster at this very moment, and it doesn't mesh together. That's why I suggested the changes I did.
Hmm I understand fully why it'll be confusing! I might make some changes in a mext release. Currently yup there's meant to be a time gap between the intro and the main story though - just not too sure how to make that apparent, heh. There's a plot related reason for this, which is why I can't just simply change it unfortunately.

A clearer official explanation below the cut:

The formal timeline is as follows:
-> Darien is being endlessly stalked and harassed by Shinku, but doesn't tell Mariko
-> Mariko is determined to find out what's going on (Intro)
-> Mariko finds out about Shinku and her stalking and is extremely frightened and defensive of Darien. (In Crystallised Latitude it's shown that she did approach the police about it, but they ended up chasing after the wrong culprit all this while.)
-> Mariko carries around a knife to defend herself.
-> She comes home looking for Darien, but finds a letter instead telling her he's left her. She breaks down and is determined to get back at the stalker.

I understand that in a 5 minute long story, this timeline can't really be as clear as it otherwise should've. But for the sake of following with this timeline, I can't exactly change things other than to make the timeline more apparent in hindsight. It's not that I'm defensive to changes or critique - it's always very welcome to know what confuses players that I'll probably have to keep in mind - it's just that in the current situation I'm not sure if the kind of changes you're suggesting can be kept within this canon timeline.

Hope that helps! :)

I don't quite get why the first thought of any loss or bad event happening is to "get back at her", grabbing a knife and being out to kill someone. I know it's an animu thing to do, and happening a lot in horror .. still seems so odd.
author=Kylaila

I don't quite get why the first thought of any loss or bad event happening is to "get back at her", grabbing a knife and being out to kill someone. I know it's an animu thing to do, and happening a lot in horror .. still seems so odd.

Hmm I see what you mean! If I ever upload a next version, I'll change the bad ending to

simply stop at a game over before the red splatter shows, like Miryafa suggested. Thanks for the suggestion!
Kool :) Gl with it if you do get to it.
Nice little suspense horror game with some kawaii portraits. :D
Will play the sequel if it comes!
Mini game with the typical story about a broken couple and a yandere girl who wants so bad the boy. Nothing new, indeed It's all very OK. This doesn´t seem to be bad. Really loved the yandere girl CG (only that). Difficulty lower than opening a door and the story is very short. It's ok if you're bored as hell.

Only played the normal version. Total Time Played: About 20 minutes
5/10
Pages: first prev 1234 last