Marlin

Marlin
Pronouns	he/him
Occupation	Ranked Coach (former) Shopkeeper

Marlin is a major NPC in Beastieball. He is the coach of the Rutile All-stars, the former Ranked Team of Rutile.

Appearance

Marlin wears an outfit very similar to that of Red from Pokémon, with a red and white cap, red vest, white t-shirt, and cargo shorts. He wears sandals.

He has spiky hair, thick eyebrows, a big nose, lightly unkept hair on his face and legs.

Personality

Marlin is often sarcastic and pessimistic, doubtful of the player's ability to save the Preserve by playing along with the Sports King's wishes. Still, he thinks the player is "a great kid," and trusts them to take over as Rutile's head coach.

At some point between the past and present scenes during the tutorial portion of the game, Marlin made up an "Assistant Coach" position so that the player could live in the storage room above the Beastieball Center.

Background

Marlin was once the Champion of the Beastieball League. Over time, however, he became disillusioned in the sport, and his team plummeted in the rankings.

Story

When the Riley and the player find out about the construction in the Rutile Nature Preserve, they rush to ask Marlin what is going on. After playing dumb for a moment, he explains that the League is building a stadium there, and that there isn't much he can do due to his low rank.

Riley suggests that the player take over as Rutile's coach, and Marlin gives the player two jerseys to try to recruit some Beasties with.

After returning the Beastieball Center with their new Beasties, the player meets Marlin outside. He challenges the player to a Beastieball match, declaring that if they can beat him, they can take over as Rutile's Ranked coach.

Despite Marlin and his team clearly being stronger than the player, he coaches them through the fight, letting them score free points against him and deliberately throwing the match, seemingly not wanting to coach anymore. The player then officially takes over as Rutile's coach, earning a Gold-level sponsorship from the Rutile Town Board. He stops the player again on the way out and warns them about the trials to come, telling them of the many ranked coaches all competing in the league and wishing them good luck.

After playing him, Marlin will now appear in the shop inside of Rutile's Beastieball Center. He also appears in various phone calls along with Riley later on, giving the player advice from afar.

Some time after achieving three ranked wins, the player will encounter an error with their post-game payouts. Marlin will call and inform them that the Rutile Town Board account has somehow been overdrawn, and that payouts will need to be reduced until it is built back up. The player's sponsorship with the Rutile Town Board is then demoted to Silver level.

SPOILER WARNING This section contains endgame spoilers for Beastieball! Consider yourself warned.

When the player and Riley reach Geo City and register for the Crown Series, the Sports King informs them that he cannot actually get the Rutile stadium project canceled if the player wins, because Marlin already approved the project long ago. Riley is furious and leaves in disbelief, and Marlin calls the player shortly after to explain himself; he had carelessly approved the project in a desperate effort to get Rutile back on the map, and now deeply regrets his decision. He states that he does not blame the player if they hate him now, before hanging up.

During the Crown Series, the player encounters Marlin and the Rutile All-stars as their final opponent in the playoffs. Wishing to atone for his actions, he entered the Crown Series for the same reason as the player: to try and get the stadium project canceled. After the player defeats him, he implores them to win the series and become champion, so they could possibly save Rutile.

Before the final match, Marlin arrives alongside Reese and Celia and urges the player to forfeit the match, stressing that it is the only way to get the Beastieball League's attention and potentially get them to listen. If the player follows this path, Marlin joins the other Ranked coaches in rebelling against the Sports King and the League during the climax of the match.

Trivia

• In the original version of the demo, Marlin’s name was Redd.
• All of Marlin’s known Beasties are named in reference to a Pokémon game, and their numbers represent the year in which that game came out.
  • In release order, these are Bluey(#96) the Yamyth, Goldie(#99) the Servace, Ruby(#02) the Cherrily, and Pearl(#06) the Diggum, who are on his team, as well as Noir(#10) the Shooga and, presumably, X(#13) the Platenna, Sunny(#16) the Sefren, and Blade(#19) the Sprecko, who are encountered as Guardians in the area around Rutile.
  • Marlin’s own outfit and former name are in reference to Red, the player character in Pokémon Red and Blue, who also becomes champion of his respective league.

Gallery

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  Art of Marlin competing in his prime, from the game's opening sequence