Roadwarden reminds me a lot of the best parts of what I loved about Disco Elysium and Citizen Sleeper. The richness and diversity of characterizations in all three games makes their comparatively small game worlds feel deep and alive, filled with tons of uniquely memorable characters, and also notably empathetic without needing to be soft or cozy. Amazingly, Roadwarden pulls this off without even giving visual depictions of its characters, relying entirely on thoughtfully written text instead of the notably cool character portraits that Disco and Sleeper have.

Like those other two games, Roadwarden asks you to read a lot, but I’m glad to read as much in any game with similarly evocative detail and a selective word count; nothing ever feels like filler I’m tempted to skip through.

Beyond its great writing, the sparse acoustic soundtrack is beautiful in many different moods; I particularly loved the emotional impact of hearing an area’s background song change after one of the few transformational plot events occurs. The pixel graphic landscapes are just as smart as the writing in what they choose to include, and I love how exploration offers unfolding blankness as choices are made.