The act of game preservation and localizing games that were previously exclusive to other regions feels like a dying art nowadays. More often than not, developers are content to leave certain titles in the past, rather than re-releasing them for modern audiences. While there have been successful examples of great localizations recently, there are just as many that have turned out to be a disaster due to strange design choices or a lack of polish.
As such, when it came time for me to play Milano’s Odd Job Collection, I was admittedly a little nervous. A game that was initially released in 1999 is finally making its way to modern consoles worldwide, the ultimate act of preservation. At the same time, it could demonstrate the game’s age and potentially highlight flaws that are unacceptable in the modern gaming landscape. As a whole, Milano’s Odd Job Collection is somewhere in between both extremes, as it’s a successful localization for a game that sometimes shows its age.
Become The Ultimate Junior Capitalist
Milano’s Odd Job Collection focuses on a little girl named Milano whose parents are away on a trip to the hospital. They send her to her uncle, but her uncle is on vacation, and asks Milano to take care of the house. In order to do so, Milano resolves to get herself a job. In fact, she attempts to get as many jobs as possible so she can decorate the house, buy new items, and keep herself busy until her parents get back.
The premise of the game is, for lack of a better phrase, absolutely insane. The sheer absurdity of a little girl trying to get as many jobs as she can so she can take care of a house left to her by her absentee family is so weird, yet somehow, kind of charming. Immediately, I was all in on Milano’s journey, and I found it very easy to get invested in her determination to get a job, make money, and buy new things for her house.
This leads to the biggest question related to Milano’s Odd Job Collection: how does it function as a localization? Thankfully, the port itself faithfully recreates the original game while featuring essentially quality-of-life updates. The main thing is that, aside from some text in the opening cutscene, all of the dialogue and written text has been translated into English. I didn’t notice any particularly odd lines that seemed to be mistranslated, so it seems like it succeeded at its goal.
Further, the visuals have also been lovingly done. It maintains the graphics of the PS1 version, but far smoother. It helps that the graphics haven’t been meaninglessly upscaled for no reason, and instead, it keeps the original style intact with very few compromises. The music is also great, albeit slightly repetitive, since you’re often going to be doing the same things over and over again.
In terms of the overall gameplay foundation, it’s exactly as you might expect. You’re going to be doing a lot of minigames back to back, and with each successful task, you get a little bit of money. You can then use that money to buy new items at the store and customize your house further. As you progress, you will unlock new jobs by raising your stats.
The premise, on paper, works well. It’s unique and feels like the right kind of cozy adventure for players who really want to take their time with the game. It helps that, once you beat the title for the first time, there’s actually an arcade mode that adds some replay value if you want to experience the minigames in a more focused setting. However, even if the setup is good in theory doesn’t mean it’s good in execution.
So, how is the gameplay of Milano’s Odd Job Collection? Does it stand the test of time after over twenty-five years? For the most part, yes, it does, but it can sometimes feel repetitive.
Work, Work, Work!
There are quite a few minigames to play through in Milano’s Odd Job Collection. Each job has a unique gameplay hook and concept that it asks you to master. In one minigame, you’ll be washing dishes at a restaurant, while in another, you’ll milk a bunch of floating cows. There’s a job where you bake cakes, one where you deliver pizza, and one where you work at a fast food restaurant.
At first, the controls for these minigames can take a while to get used to, and some of them are more difficult to understand than others. Thankfully, if there are certain jobs you prefer to others, you can spend most of the runtime playing those instead of others. Certain shifts are only open on certain days, so there’s an element of strategy in which jobs you choose to take on.
The act of undertaking different jobs and earning money is kind of satisfying for the first few days. I personally ended up playing the milking and fast food minigames the most, and that served me well throughout my runtime. Further, I enjoyed the process of saving up to buy more expensive items like a TV, a radio, and a gaming console (even if it did hit a little bit too close to home at times).
A lot of times, though, especially as you continue, the act of doing the same things every day can feel extremely repetitive. Regardless of whether you choose to do the same few jobs or try to add more variety, each day follows the same pattern. You wake up, choose which job to do, play through a short minigame, then go back home to do chores and eventually go to sleep. While it starts as a cozy life sim, it quickly feels monotonous due to a lack of variety in things you can do beyond minigames, shopping, and chores.
The actual moment-to-moment gameplay feels great, don’t get me wrong. Perhaps my issues would’ve been mitigated if I had chosen to stretch out my playtime, rather than trying to complete it in one setting. However, I can’t deny that it would’ve been nice to have more to do during each day, though I understand that this is an unintended consequence of faithfully recreating a game from 1999.
That presents a conundrum that most localizations/ports have to take into consideration: how to bring a potentially dated game into the modern day. The issues with repetition may not have been an issue back in the 90s, but nowadays, when life sims and minigame collections are far more common, it feels a lot more noticeable. In the end, the biggest issue with Milano’s Odd Job Collection is that while it functions as a great port, it’s not a very fun game to play in the modern day.
Not The Most Graceful Aging (But Not The Worst Either)
There is arguably nothing more important in this day and age than the act of preservation. Preserving forgotten movies, TV shows, and, of course, video games is a noble art that is frequently being overlooked in favor of releasing the next new thing. Sometimes, though, the reason that certain games are left behind by time is due to their visible age and a lack of staying power in the modern day. Milano’s Odd Job Collection walks the line between still being fun today and suffering from issues unique to its age.
On the one hand, the charming concept makes each of the minigames feel satisfying to play through. In general, each job is great, and the actual controls of each are smooth as butter. That said, the fact that you’ll be doing the same thing over and over again, whether it’s doing a job, customizing your house, or doing chores, will quickly get repetitive, even if those actual tasks are fun.
As a whole, though, Milano’s Odd Job Collection succeeds at its main goal of localizing a forgotten experience that would’ve been forever lost to time if not for the developers. In that sense, even if the design choices from 1999 are frustrating, I understand why these issues couldn’t be entirely fixed. After all, if all of the game’s blemishes were removed, then it wouldn’t be a particularly good localization.
Even still, I find myself struggling to recommend this game to everyone. If you are someone who likes short bite-sized life sims, then for $14.99, then you will probably get a kick out of Milano’s Odd Job Collection. Otherwise, this may not be the experience for you. Either way, the overall package is still an impressive work of game preservation that is needed in the modern day.
Disclaimer: Marvelous (XSEED Games) provided a PlayStation 5 copy of Milano’s Odd Job Collection for review purposes.
