Lovely game!

The story is simple, but heartfelt. The storytelling has such a metal vibe, and it really sells the dramatic and triumphant moments. I really liked all the little storylines along the way, too. The whole party has some fun dynamics.

The art style is great. It feels inspired by old-school RPGs. There is a ton of 2D art, with a lot of 3D elements. The style and color palette are bleak and dark, but there’s still some striking imagery.

The world has a lot of cool details that make it feel more alive. In the hours I spent in these animal cities, I felt like I was slowly getting to know the citizens. There is a pretty good amount of dialogue in this game, there’s just so many scenarios where different characters react to events. Murida especially is a weirdly comforting dystopia. I liked interacting with the different characters, and seeing what small side quests would pop up.

Speaking of quests, there appears to be no quest markers or journal. There’s really no HUD at all outside of combat. There isn’t even a map. This is cool most of the time, as the different levels are distinct and memorable which makes navigating easy. Not having a journal/ quest log did make it a little tough at times, especially if I took a break from playing. Two times I had to reference a let’s play because I just didn’t know where to go or what to do.

Definitely worth looking in to if you want an RPG with a metal rat aesthetic.

One of the most endearing, humorous, and engaging JRPG games I have played in awhile. No grinding, no bullsh-t, just simple great gameplay, good story, lovable characters, and all around amazing experience. I did as much side content as I could in my run, and I do not regret a moment of it. I enjoy pretty much every element of this title and will be recommending it as a JRPG-Teasergame in the sense that it helps nail down the basics for players, but it doesn't get into the more negative sides of the genre, which is both good and refreshing.

My only very minor complaint is that the game is quite simple and easy, I only died once my entire run, and that was do to poor planning and bum-rushing a hard sideboss waaaay before I was properly prepared to take it on. However, the difficulty complaint is easily waived for me since the game makes up for that in so many fun and interesting ways that I don't really consider it a problem, but a more experienced JRPG player looking for strategic-style combat may be disappointed with the lack of gameplay merit.

Overall, fantastic title, had a great run with it, and highly recommend it.

A fantastic bite-sized RPG, perfectly representing its own name in mroe ways than one. It's pretty linear and not exactly the hardest experience if you're well-trained in the genre, but it's such a worth experience, with a story that's inspired off the Secret of NIMH without ending up as a mere copycat, smartly balancing light-hearted moments with the darker themes for the most part, the latter of which are tackled with a certain sense of introspective as the characters figure out the events around them.

Very compelling and likeable cast, with each character with their own small arc to go through, an art direction that makes brilliant use of its limitations in moments that made me just have the dumbest smile on my face, also thanks to a story that isn't afraid to lean into the hype now and then, partly because of an absolutely fantastic soundtrack and battle themes that I'll happily add to my playlist

It's a game that'll stay with me for a long time, for sure.

Non voglio che si creino aspettative troppe grosse, ma penso sia un rpg molto ben confezionato sotto alcuni aspetti importanti e meno sotto altri. Le lacune nella esplorazione, così come nell'assenza di una vera e propria sfida, smorzano un po' l'entusiasmo ma ciò non toglie alcun merito ai design e tanto meno alla scrittura. In particolare il confronto con lo scoiattolo dichiaratamente fascista nelle segrete è molto funzionale.
Un buon gioco che mi fa interessare ai prossimi progetti di chi se ne è occupato

The most fascinating thing Small Saga has to navigate is the idea of its own scale.

The opening hour of Small Saga sets its tone well. Anxious mouse Verm is traveling with his brother Lance to Heaven. A place where food is plentiful and sits out in the open. Where the Gods mingle and chat and live in their utopia. The grocery store.

There, the two brothers encounter an exterminator. A Yellow God, who effortlessly commits damage in the hundreds with even noticing, when your heroes have 12 health max at the time. The scale is clear. These are almighty beings that cannot be crossed. You are a mouse.

But the way the game toys with that line is so endlessly intriguing to interrogate. The general twee trappings I expected are present. Magical mouse society living beneath the floorboards, mouse governments and mouse politics, all hidden from the mundane reality of the humans. The humans finish their normal day jobs, unaware of this hidden world beneath their feet. In a normal game, humans regarded as gods would be fun little background set dressing.

Small Saga is about a mouse planning to kill god.

Suddenly, the set dressing becomes gripping to unravel as the game whole-heartedly commits to its ideas. Secret of the NIMH or its other analogues put a clear disconnect between Humans and Mouse. These are different worlds, never to interact directly. By making this connection so direct, by making it clear these worlds can and will interact, the narrative world-building suddenly gets really difficult to square in my head. Not even in a negative sense! But the sheer implications of a mouse’s ability to murder a guy doing his banal 9 to 5 shocks you into truly thinking about this divide between the above and the floorboards. If a mouse could kill this guy, what if the mouse killed me?

It's this tension that helps fuel the game’s wider examination of institutions and oppression. There are several different territories in the mouse kingdom with their own systems of government. They all answer, broadly, to King James, but the King himself tends to let Barons and Dukes run the show any way they please. This provides an easy excuse for the settings to vary in aesthetics. Mole Town of peasants. Mouse Capital with medieval knights and warriors. Grey Squirrel Tree with Fascist Squirrels. Roman Lego Town with Shrews doing slaving and gladiator games. Evil Science Lab run by cultist rats. Variety! And the kind of variety where you get to topple some corrupt systems and dunk on despicable dorks. It’s a hoot.

The gameplay I can mostly just describe as serviceable. Turn based combat, skill trees, effect stacking. It's not complicated, but it's fun to play around without thinking too deeply. Progressing and improving your character build requires very little thought. Nearly every battle in Small Saga is story-required, with level ups plotted out along the same terms. But you also can reformat your skill points at any point. As such, the upgrade system very quickly becomes easy to manipulate to an ideal strategy. This doesn’t mean a lot in terms of challenge for main story or bonus bosses. But the core adventure is also just so tight and fun that it's kind of hard to be annoyed.

The game politics are about what I came into expecting. There was some Steam review bombing for daring to have a majority LGBT cast or frequent Nazi punching. One enemy screams “debate me bro” talking points. The British Hall of Commons is regarded as “Hell” by rodent kind. It's not subtle, but I’m not even really asking it to be. The non-binary mole gets to be besties with the gay squirrel and the bi punk rat. It's good shit. I don’t expect a more elaborate thesis from the cute, if dark, mouse game. At the same time, the character writing of the antagonists is often a little off to me. It sometimes feels like they know that they're villains. One call his empire a "bloody institution", albeit as a positive descriptor. They are perfectly aware that their institutions are corrupt, but they take pride that its corrupt. Corruption is the point. Which is the truth in such matters, but I don't expect the corrupt figures to beso self-aware about it. Just an odd sort of writing distinction that itches in a weird way.

Which is why I was caught so off-guard by my favorite, easy to miss segment in the game. I don’t want to go too deep into broader plot stuff, but I feel it's safe to say you get to topple one of the evil governments in the mid-game. The fascists get owned, it's great. A new society is built over it, determined to avoid the despots of the past by avoiding leadership entirely. The dungeons are freed, the laws are repealed, it's a bright new era.

But eventually, some hours later, you can visit the dungeons to find Captain Aiden. The other fascists chose exile or reform. Aiden refused either option. He demands to be killed or imprisoned. He keeps coming back when they try to exile him. He is a True Believer in The System that used to exist. So, he’s the only prisoner of the town’s new era.

And so, you can sit down and talk to him.

Unlike the Debate Me fascist, Aiden has tangible beliefs to interrogate. When he hears about the new “leaderless” system, he offers counterpoints. Who is running the society then? How are laws and rules going to be governed? How are they going to be enforced? The current New Era system is vague and ill-defined by little else than that it's better than what it used to be. But how long can that last, once the cast as we know it dies out and the seasons change? The existing conditions of the town seem to be largely unchanged. If those conditions breed inequality, Authority and Hierarchies will take control once again.

You cannot change Aiden’s perspective. And like, it goes without saying, fuck him. He would rather sit in jail in his Nazi cosplay than change his mind. But the game is asking you, as a player, to put forth your own political worldview. Saying Aiden is “technically right” allows you to offer counter-plans. You can choose to focus on combating inequality and consider building a system . You can choose to focus on combating institutions and suggest building a society with as few institutions as possible, presenting a community-focused framework instead. Saying Aiden is “completely wrong” builds broader discussion of why he’s wrong and why his philosophy is garbage. Or you can skip those steps and just choose to mock him for being a tool. All of these options are presented as equally valid. But it's your choice. Your beliefs. It won’t change the world or the ending or any gameplay event. It's just a single moment asking the player to truly think about the hows of building a new society.

It’s the kind of polish and consideration that makes this game really shine. Sometimes it's clumsy, sometimes it's simplistic, sometimes it misses the mark of its goals. But it strives and it swings and it goes for it. And it does it all without wasting my time or padding out the runtime. And for that alone, I just gotta adore it.

I adore this game. My first impressions were that the tone was cool but the graphics were kiddy groddy. I know not every indie game can look like Sea of Stars, but beyond the level of detail the actual style turned me off. However about 2 hours into the game I did a 180 and ended up being charmed by the art style.
The characters, writing, and story were all great imo. It takes the tropey story of a quest to kill a god and puts a unique spin on it. You are rodents and the "gods" are humans. The rodent society was interesting to learn about, you can tell the writer was interested in political philosophy. At one point I was surprised to find myself in a debate with a fascist about how egalitarianism is equally as fascist as fascism. Needless to say, this game does have some communist/liberal ideology.

If you have a problem with trans people then this is not the game for you. Many characters are gay/nonbinary/what-have-you. In that regard the moral of sexual freedom does seem pretty heavy-handed and forced. But hey, I was down with it. The dialogue is very well written, humorous, charming, etc. Some people may scoff at modern slang being used but I didn't. For example, there is an asshole dictator who is smoking an e-cig and says the word "cringe" and his lackey say "lol." However, you are not supposed to like them. So, mission accomplished.

The tone is so unique. Idk where this takes place exactly but perhaps Wales? The world map looks like a medieval map complete with crests representing places. One of the characters has a pretty thick accent (portrayed by the writing, it is not voiced), I am guessing Scottish.

The gameplay is pretty simplistic and easy. That is my only fault of the game is that a lot of the battles seem pretty trivial. I literally never died, not a single member of my party KOed or even came close to it. You don't level up by experience, you do so by completing story events and a few side quests. So, this could have easily been tuned to be a tad more challenging. I should mention that I actually don't even like difficult games but there still must be some tension in fights. The game is about 9 hours long if you do everything (which I did) and the bosses can be killed quite quickly until 7 hours in but even then it is because they are damage sponges.

I really enjoyed my time with this game. The pacing was great, the length was great, I felt fully satisfied like I had gone on an epic JRPG journey in a fraction of the time. Would highly recommend if this sounds at all interesting to you.

Overview: 4.5 (95/100)
- Small Saga is a beautiful pixel art, turn-based RPG where you play as a ragtag team of misfit rodents in a world where humans are gods, cats are titans, and palpable passion has gone into every nook and cranny.

Gameplay: 4
- Smooth and satisfying but lacking much depth or difficulty. The combat is a double-edged sword (a two pointed needle?). On the one hand, combat is overall very easy for those with those familiar with action economy, turn-based combat basics etc.. On the other, I think the style of combat suited the game. The combat does not seem to be the focus and reminds me of the purpose of the combat in Lisa--while not difficult, the combat is the tool through which the great characters and visuals are developed. I'm not playing Small Saga for the in-depth tactical systems, I'm playing for the aesthetics, writing, and characters. If the game was solely the combat mechanics without the added charm of the rest of the game, it would be more of a serviceable 3-3.5. But as the tool through which the stronger elements are able to shine, the combat/gameplay is great. The overall length of the game was a strong point for this as well--while not complicated, new tools were constantly being added (once again tying into the story) that kept the combat from tedious. The fact that combat is not required to grind exp is also greatly appreciated (the developer seemed to be keenly focused and aware of the strengths of the game. They did not attempt to provide something too large or grand in the systems).
Narrative: 4.5
- While the overarching story is not anything new, the setting and moment-to-moment writing ooze charm that makes the characters and narrative the highlight of the game. I found myself laughing out loud or with a silly grin on my face throughout the whole game. This odd mixture of current cultural influences with nostalgic elements from old-school RPGs was something entirely new to me.
Visuals: 4.5
- Great pixel art and animations. While not to the current top-end standards of fully funded pixel art games like Sea of Stars or Octopath, Small Saga has a more crunchy quality while maintaining great animations to capture the essence of each character. The set pieces of each kingdom and the main town of Muridia itself were an absolute joy to explore. Having played Tears of the Kingdom and a new Pokemon Title this year, I cannot express how refreshing Muridia was in comparison. Are you telling me a single developer was able to put more love and care into the details and world-building than these massively funded franchises? Outstanding work. I talked to every NPC more than 3 times just to make sure I did not miss a single new development. This isn't even related to the visuals, this game is so good and refreshing I'm just ranting. Final note, the idle hand animation for Gwen during combat is superb.
X-Factor: 5.0
- If you've read the rest, I don't know if I need to say anything here. Small Saga is a beautiful pixel art, turn-based RPG where you play as a ragtag team of misfit rodents in a world where humans are gods, cats are titans, and palpable passion has gone into every nook and cranny.
Overall: 4.5 (95/100)

Stunning art - world, rich and clever;
Renaissance mice and voles and more.
Charm recalls classics I adore,
90s Sam & Max, however
the dialogue became a chore.
The worldbuilding became ignored,
memes cheapen what was once clever;
my expectations were severed.

Small Saga parece pequeno, mas na realidade se revela um titã muito maior do que o título poderia transmitir

Introdução
Small Saga é um jogo simples, acho que não tenha outra palavra que possa descrever melhor a experiência do que "simples". Isso pode não parecer necessariamente um elogio na maioria dos casos, mas aqui é justamente onde o jogo brilha, por não tentar ser extremamente complexo e deixar muitas de suas mecânicas mais acessíveis ele se mostra um game muitíssimo divertido, com uma história muito cativante e personagens queridos.

O Combate
As mecânicas para derrotar suas ameaças aqui não poderiam ser mais formulaicas, tudo nesse combate é extremamente inspirados nos grandes JRPGs clássicos com algumas alterações ou outras, mas muito se engana se pensar que apesar dessa simplicidade ele não se mantém divertido até o fim do jogo, apesar de ser algo onde a maioria dos jogadores já está acostumado, ele ainda tem essa sensação de novidade pela criatividade das armas e das skills dos personagens, isso mantém o interesse e o entusiasmo a cada combate continua por horas a fio.
Algo a se pontuar é justamente a dificuldade, Small Saga definitivamente não é o que eu chamaria de um jogo difícil, durante minha aventura que durou cerca de 13 horas eu cheguei a perder apenas 1 luta e foi uma derrota por burrice. Mas apesar de não ser extremamente desafiador, alguns vários embates continuam sendo tensos deixando quem controla com picos de energia, apesar de ter me saído bem nessa parte do jogo eu continuava ansioso nos combates, pensando nas melhores estratégias e etc. Enfim usualmente eu chamaria a falta de um grande desafio de um defeito, mas nesse caso eu até gosto.

A História
Posso afirmar do fundo da minha alma que eu não estava preparado para o prólogo desse jogo, devo admitir que esperava um plano de fundo bobo, mas o que eu recebi durante a campanha foi uma história muito cativante, personagens super interessantes e reviravoltas que me deixaram genuinamente surpreso, o ponto alto de ambientação e lore do jogo é durante a missão em Sky Garden, mas apenas jogando para entender sobre o que eu estou falando. A escrita do jogo é muito boa, ela é engraçadinha quando precisa e bem punitiva e séria em outros momentos, isso traz uma dinâmica interessante pro jogo.

Visuais
LINDO! Small Saga é extremamente bem feito, sua trilha sonora e visuais são impressionantes, tudo é muito lindo e feito com carinho e enquanto jogava meus olhos brilhavam pois tudo parecia muito mágico, tenho diversos momentos em mente que gostaria de descrever aqui ou mostrar para todos que conheço, mas eu na verdade oriento vocês a jogarem e verem por conta própria.

Conclusão
Em geral Small Saga é FASCINANTE, ele é um jogo que mira nas pequenas coisas (literalmente) e acerta em cheio, ele sabe dos seus pontos fortes e usa disso ao seu favor, tudo é cheio de carinho e esmero. Para mim que sou um grande fã de roedores e ratos principalmente foi um prato cheio, me emocionei enquanto jogava e foi extremamente gratificante e ter essa experiência, Small Saga se tornou um dos meus jogos favoritos e com toda certeza um favorito de 2023.
Receber esse jogo de presente também foi muito legal, eu estava de olho desde o lançamento, mas ainda não havia tido a chance de adquirir, receber esse jogo de um amigo querido fez tudo ficar melhor, vou manter essa experiência pra sempre no meu coração. (obrigado zettel lindo <3)

Nota Geral: 100/10

I think one of my favorite things in fantasy fiction is when very small beings exist alongside modern humanity with their own society, religious beliefs, and terminology for ordinary concepts. Stuff like the Borrowers and an Ant's Life was my shit as a kid and getting into Redwall as an adult was only an extension of that. So when I first saw a gif of a small mouse wielding a human pocket knife like a greatsword facing off against an imperious looking house cat I was instantly hooked into whatever Small Saga was cooking up and getting a chance to play the demo made it a day one buy.

Small Saga is close to perfect as a bite-sized RPG with well thought out mechanics, clever writing, and a realized world that really sells the concept of you being a little guy in a world much larger than you and the cities and towns of rodentia you scamper through. A whole capitol of rodent folk existing beneath the floorboards of the royal palace, a greek styled city settled within a toy store going out of business, most characters wielding weapons fashioned from needles, scissors, and, at point, a lego brick (+2 dmg), and more and more.

Gameplay is your expected four peeps in a row turn-based action with every party member getting their own skill tree and skills limited based on the energy cost rather than straight MP cost. What Small Saga does very different is how it handles non-equip items, instead of being one use consumables they only run out during fights and are instantly refilled after a fight meaning you essentially have infinite health and energy items. In a tougher RPG this would probably be a boon but Small Saga is a game without random encounters with every fight being a part of the story meaning the difficulty ranges from easy to just above middle of the road until the endgame sidequests where the difficulty goes sicko mode for one fight in particular. It's not a real dent to the experience but it does feel unnecessary especially since all health and energy is recovered post-battle.

The writing easily stands above a good majority of indie RPGs but it does have an unexpected amount of real world politics inserted into it in a way that feels clumsy and heavy handed. Before I go on I do have to say politically I lean closer to the game's core politics than not, so happily gay rats and fascist bashing messaging is all up my alley but I also prefer--when modern day politics are interwoven into a fantasy tale--for said messaging to at least be ingrained into the world so it doesn't feel like the author is speaking instead of a random npc. Like keep the pro-revolution anti-fascism messaging but at least have the characters who carry these beliefs feel less like author inserts? It gets better by the end when the writing around this matter starts gaining substance but its jarring for much of the game's runtime and hits with all the subtlety of a brick.

This also applies to weird slips from the medievalish rodent society vibes. The demo/first two hours had a clear and consistent tone but once you get to Murida that goes out the window with a hype beast mouse asking you to check out its fit in a clothing shop and several townsfolk dressed in modern punk wear and random bits of modern slang tossed into conversations. From there the writing dips in and out of this which is funny once or twice but I really would have preferred the style of the opening to stick for much of the rest of the game. Yeah I know its beneath the veil of the modern human world but it's something that felt a bit cringe whenever it happened.

The ending also felt flat after the epic boss encounters before it (oh yeah this game has some bomb ass bosses, like 12/10 presentation and concepts). It probably all had to be cut short for budget reasons but a few slides of the aftermath would have been nice.

TLDR; great short RPG, witty and creative, would smite titans and gods with a pocket knife again.

Small Saga really surprised me! What I expected to be a small, silly game that I'd forget about ended up being a small, silly game filled with writing and soul that speaks to the heart. While not free of rough edges, it's the equivalent of an overlooked indie film at a local viewing with some awkward acting and choppy dialogue but brings out topics you've never seen before in media. I often felt like the writer themself was speaking to me directly through Small Saga, and decorated it in a nostalgic yet fresh atmosphere.

Queerness, Irish culture and identity, anti-fascism, Small Saga brings out the big guns about topics relevant in a modern age, fitting for what feels like a classic JRPG made in the 2020s. It's so refreshing and euphoric to see a story this bold and in celebration of what makes us human in the current reactionary climate rising worldwide.

Small Saga eschews much of the in-between of a typical RPG, however, railroading you from plot point to plot point. This can make the game feel quite rushed, but in my opinion this impacts the combat the most. With such small runtime, battles don't evolve much and make you feel like you're playing the beginning 2 hours of a typical Final Fantasy game or Chrono Trigger over the course of around 10 hours. This isn't exactly a downside as the battles are fun, but you won't exactly be getting any serious turn-based gameplay or any semblance of challenge.

Despite praising its bold themes, I feel that sometimes it can be a little too in your face or opaque about them. Very little is left open for interpretation which can be a bit unsatisfying for some players. Overall, Small Saga was a fantastic time and I will cherish and love these gay little rats (and Siobhan, my beloved!) for years to come!

I think this game is a really cute, memorable, solid entry in the current renaissance of western-developed "JRPG"-style indies. It's a really impressive project for one main dev to have come up with, and it's clearly brimming with love and passion. But at the same time, I almost sometimes feel like it tries too hard, for lack of a better term. It goes really hard on the boss battles and story moments, to the point it feels like it's aggressively trying to compress a 15 or 20 hour JRPG into a 10-hour package by cutting out fluff, with very little in the way of dungeons or normal enemies to fight. Like many games in the aforementioned emerging indie Pseudo-JRPG subgenre, it tries very hard to fight negative conceptions of the genre as "too grindy" at the cost of having overly brisk pacing that makes it hard to fully appreciate the nuances of the game's combat. While I'm sure this was in large part motivated by an honest assessment of the developer's time and resources, which I understand and respect, I do feel like they seem a bit too afraid of including content that feels like padding, which makes the many different interesting setpieces they developed feel a bit underutilized.

The story nicely synthesizes a decidedly queer perspective with the common emotional tone of JRPGs about raging against fate and both literally and metaphorically slaying gods. The game is packed with characters that exude personality, even down to minor NPCs, and the game's aesthetic of cutesified mirror image of our world of real people with real issues goes a long way towards creating emotional investment. It's very upfront and unapologetic about it's political messaging, and while I really hate the idea of seeming like someone who would whine about devs shoving social justice politics down consumers' throats, I do also feel like it comes across at times as a bit didactic and unsubtle in it's real world allusions in a way that I fear detracts from the messages it is trying to convey by way of sounding potentially preachy. And yes, I know we live in a world of people saying there should be no politics in games while in the same breath praising Metal Gear Solid 2, but I don't think the solution is to just throw all subtlety out the window. I think the act in Sky Garden really epitomizes the highs and lows of the game all at once - creating emotional investment and the thrill of an epic struggle against fascism, while at the same time being packed with really specific and eyeroll-inducing references to things idiots on the internet say that already feel dated to use for humor. Regardless, the game certainly has more highs than lows, and even if I feel like it could have done more to spread those highs out and conveyed it's themes a bit better, it definitely is a ride I would recommend taking.

The pacing is a little uneven and I’d say its too easy, but ultimately one of the rare RPGs that comes along and is just all gas without all the genre baggage.

The combat system is pretty simple, but a satisfying enough little optimization puzzle that the bosses still felt like I was playing the game and not just hitting A. The Skill progression being milestone based with some branching paths available was really neat, and cutting out grinding entirely for a game that wants you to be in set-pieces was the right choice.

The narrative itself borrows themes from a lot of places, but iterative real themes is still a healthy step ahead of most games writing. The writing is humorous with occasionally brilliant moments, at least enough to not ever make me wish I could skip past it.

To bury and unbury the lede deep in, the game looks absolutely gorgeous and cozy. It’s how I imagined GBA games in my dreams. It brought me back to a different era of my life in some really cozy ways, and the personal attachment is what art is all about

A charming turn based rpg where you play as a mouse set on a path of vengeance. Over the course of the game you gather a merry band of other rodents and creatures and try to save your homeland from the evil Yellow God. Combat uses action points instead of mana so you can’t just spam specials all the time. It’s a fairly easy game and I would recommend it to people who do not play many turn-based rpgs. The writing is clever and there were quite a few locales to visit. It is on the short side but it honestly did not overstay its welcome.

Backed the original kickstarter and finally got to play this over the last few days.

I enjoyed this game a whole lot, to the point where I consider it a GOTY contender. The pixel art is gorgeous and the music is beautiful. The story's deliberate usage of comedy and anachronism might be jarring to some but I found it to remind me of the highlights of tabletop roleplaying with friends.

The game is unabashedly the product of online queers and as an online queer it was perfect for me.

I was so excited to play Small Saga; the ideia of a RPG with gorgeous pixel art, cool little rats and a setting similiar of Redwall and Secret of NIHM instantly sold me.

While I do love some aspects of its story, the game starts to throw some random internet slang for no reason whatsoever, weaking some serious scenes with chronically online dialogues.

Small Saga does oversimplify the RPG aspects to a point where you don't need to think to any strategies other than charging your attacks with Verm and Siobhan and attack at the next turn for every single battle. The exploration is very lackluster too.

I find the word ‘perspective’ to be an ever fascinating one, a noun with two meanings that conjure up such strong imagery, imagination and long thought processes.

On the more clinical side, perspective is simply art representing three-dimensions in two-dimensional ways so that you can see how things relate… which is interesting.
Interesting because the deeper version of the word encompasses feelings, people’s attitudes and point of views on anything and everything, life if we want to boil it down to a single word.

Small Saga has a lot of interesting perspectives.
Visually it shows a world that we as humans live in but from the view of a few inches tall, that of rodents - mice, rats, moles and more.
This perspective is not just visual but asks the question how would these animals view the rest of the world, if they had the cognition of a human - including not only other animals and their surroundings but also humans themselves.

This is the simple and smart appeal of Small Saga. A JRPG-lite with classic fantasy archetypes, kings, warriors, knights, mages, bards and more but with mice, rats and other small creatures.
Much like some of the best JRPGs of the past, our protagonist Verm’s goal is to, in search of revenge, kill a god!
The Yellow God, here however, is a human in yellow coveralls and a mask. This yellow god filled a land, seemingly heaven, full of all the seeds and grain a mouse could want full of a terrible fog and nasty traps - as a human being playing this game however, you realise that heaven is a supermarket aisle and this Yellow God and his fog are simply - pest control.

The different perspectives Small Saga uses though are not all world building, they don’t just pose questions about “what does a mouse think a cat is?” but brings in conversations about a whole host of much more serious matters, minorities, diversities, class, gender, sexuality and how these things are perceived and looked at by different views.

It is strange, because in 2023 it is not rare for a game to “be woke” as morons may say, by including queer relationships, characters with disabilities and to make anti-fascist statements but something about how it is written and how it is woven into this world made it stick with me more personally than many of these more outright queer etc. games do.
Perhaps it’s because the game isn’t trying to be about these things, these things just are.
Perhaps because Small Saga’s world feels closer to home, the world (and it’s map) are actually London and because of that the cast has a great diverse range of character voices written with quality dialogue that includes, English, Welsh and Scottish slang, amongst more, that makes it all feel that much more real for me - an English lad, with Scottish family and friends, Welsh pals and a diverse range of people I call friends from all of the pre-mentioned groups.

Although as an aside, do Scottish people actually say “Bampot”? It’s a term I know of and heard, but only really as a joke, usually of a Scot doing an exaggerated impression of a specific kind of Scot.

Before I move to more granular and mechanical impressions, I need to stop and state that Small Saga’s world, characters and ideas within that setting are excellent and the true selling point of this game. Games are not always about what you are doing, but I appreciate that simply enjoying a story isn’t always enough for some when taking part in this medium.
Small Saga’s tale is great, it is somewhat of a simple hero's journey but it makes great points and has inventive ideas along the way. Any time the word “simple” comes to mind in terms of story, it is maybe better read as “nice and digestible” - the game never becomes bloated, it respects you but also has a few optional moments if you would like more from the world and your runtime.

JRPG is the short-hand for how I’ve explained what genre this game is. @SketchyJeremy the games developer is evidently not Japanese so turn-based, is a more accurate description but clear inspiration has been taken from the JRPG genre, Mario RPG and Final Fantasy: The Four Heroes of Light and more.

The Turn-based combat system is one that is simple to grasp, heroes have hit points and action points, moves take action points to use and hit points are as always your life.
Turns start from your team, starting right and moving left until your actions are made and the enemies respond. Within this your heroes can aid each other with buffs, more AP, more HP and even extra turns and you quickly find yourself following a formula to efficiently defeat the opposing side.
The characters you gain access to include, a warrior, a pyromancer, a bard and more. These work exactly how you’d expect if you’ve ever played a game like this which is comforting but a little too frictionless.

Small Saga forgoes any potential “grinding” as there are no random encounters and levelling up happens at specific points and after particular battles.
When you do get to level you have access to a grid that does branch into different areas allowing you a choice of not just do you want attack strength or more HP but also which abilities you would like your characters to learn. The other nice thing about this grid is you can respec at any time so there is no stress if you wish you went down a different path.
Lastly on the character customisation front, each hero has a weapon, armour (just one set) and two accessories which are consumable which refill after each fight.

Overall this combat is clean and simple, which is good, the fights look great - some brilliant use of visual perspective, fonts, and even some fun additions later so not all fights are exactly the same but within this combat is one of Small Saga’s biggest issues and that is lack of challenge.

To be so frictionless makes any encounters outside of bosses quite boring, and even within some they are over so quickly you don’t get a chance to appreciate them.
Over my entire playthrough I saw the game over screen twice. Once was due to a mis click in a timed event and the second was a poor attempt at an optional boss that really was down to me running even this impressive looking encounter on auto-pilot and not engaging with it fully.
I hope in the future there is a patch for some difficulty sliders because whilst having a sub-8 hour game feel quite frictionless is nice the complete lack of challenge almost makes you question what is the point.

Outside of combat, mechanically there are a few side-objectives. Most of which are sadly just fetch quests, there is some good storytelling within but the variety is somewhat lacking, a maze and a couple of rhythm game bits and that is your lot.
It’s a shame because I don’t think Small Saga “needs” anything more, but it is hard to praise the game from this side of things when really there is nothing new or interesting to prop it up in discussion.

Really, Small Saga is about the experience in art, music and writing. The combat and any “gameplay” functions are more a way to keep you engaged outside of just walking about and reading and this is fine.
I thoroughly enjoyed Small Saga and would heartily recommend it, but I cannot rate it so high especially when even this year other small studios (maybe not as small) have released more full and interesting games in the JRPG space. It is all remarkably close and for the asking price this game should still be on your Steam Wishlist after reading this.
Just don’t expect a GOTY, mind-blowing, world altering time - expect a very nice, very enjoyable little tale about a mouse with a penknife and go from there.