Small Saga is an adorable little rodent-based RPG set in a world mirroring our own world in modern times, but is also home to little anthropomorphic rodents living in a medieval/feudal society. The game features a colorful cast of characters, skill trees and collectibles, some of which may spawn their own sidequests later on, should you stumble across the right NPCs. The game touches on some darker themes like loss, regret and vengefulness, but also provides good humor, some puns, references to historical figures and people and good worldbuilding, giving hints on how the mundane world of the rodent society works as well as giving alternative explanations for some historical events. The game touches upon some modern themes by having a diverse cast as well as featuring different locations ruled by rodents with vastly different leadership styles. So social commentary should be expected, which maybe flares up the clearest near the finale of the game as the motivation of one of the end game bosses. Pros: - Graphics: Pixelart. No matter if you're into pixelart or not, the game certainly is beautifully rendered and lovely to look at. - Music: The soundtrack is amazing, certainly another highlight of the game. And the "catchy song" of the game (in-universe) is a catchy song indeed, I still have trouble getting it out of my head. - Humor: From playful banter, over puns to meta humor and player trolling, like a mostly empty skilltree for a character we only control for a short time (and therefore can't fully max out the skill tree), the game has many ways to make one smile. - Worldbuilding: The rodent society has their own alternative explanations for events happening in the history of the human world, as well as their own, unique way of dealing with day to day live and their own words for manmade objects. - Chemistry: The characters work great together and have great interactions with each other. Neutral: - Story: The story is a revenge-driven plot interspersed by sidequests and story elements that are added by the other party members. While revenge-driven plots aren't the most original and the game follows the JRPG formula of hunting down a god in the end, it's still told well enough to remain interesting and entertaining. Cons: - Controls: This is a bit nitpicky: Personally, as a PC gamer, I'd prefered to play with the usual WASD layout as well as with the mouse (the computer mouse, not the main character), but navigating through menus utilizing WASD feels too confusing for me, so I kept the original arrow keys. It's obvious that this game was designed with a controller in mind and I'd recommend to play it with a controller, as I feel a controller would be a more natural fit for this game, than a keyboard. My personal thoughts: The social commentary especially near the end of the game felt a bit judgemental and a tad preachy for my taste, but apart from that, it came from a villain who we shouldn't necessarily agree or side with and most of the things being mentioned should be well known to us and should concern us anyways, so it's not that big of a deal. A bit more subtlety might have worked better though. All in all the game has a certain charm and made me like some of the characters a lot, while it made me despise some of the others, who may not even be villains, but felt otherwise too harsh or misguided by their own judgement. At other times, some almost oppressive rules of societies encountered ingame made sense in context to the setting. Especially the "Old Way". I liked the game a lot and was able to put solid 20 hours into it, completing it. It can be completed a lot faster, but I love to linger around, explore and do sidequests, which obviously stretches out the playtime a bit. This game certainly is one of those indie-titles that will linger with a player for the better or worse and it has found a permanent place in my memories and heart. This game might entertain Furries as well as regular folks alike. EDIT: Found and corrected a typo.
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