Small Saga

This was genuinely one of the best RPG's I've had the pleasure to play. This review is both my recommendation to you and a love letter to the devs.
Spoiler free review: (TLDR - 10/10 unjoking, try the demo and see!)
(To be free of spoilers I'll be vague)
The story was engaging immediately and never really stopped. Everyone you meet (good guy or bad) was charming and either fun to love or fun to hate. I enjoyed checking every corner and talking to every NPC, which is usually a chore in most games!
Gameplay is solid and fun, which is more than most games can say these days. Nothing that feels.... forced or unneeded. Just very well made, and very well executed turn based RPG system (big Super Mario RPG legend of the seven stars vibes for me in combat and world exploring).
Items can be a stat upgrade or have a special usage, and are gained at a very solid rate. I will say, without spoilers, re-visit points of interest from time to time.... never know when a new face might show up or someone has something to say!
Secrets are fun and easy to find without a guide so long as you're willing to read and explore. Special moves are used in interesting ways during different fights (I.E. Rage is used in a special way during a fight around... I'll say mid game. Again vague to avoid spoilers)
I had an absolute blast playing this! I got this as a gift for the holidays and let me tell you just how good it is.... I beat it in one sitting. I planned on playing a little then packing it in for bed and I just wanted to keep going!
Its the perfect length for a thrilling, well made, polished, and clearly made with love game. My only regret..... now that I've 100%ed the game.... I can't experience it again, not blind anyway. That first playthrough was damn special.... Hell I'm so glad to have played it and yet so sad that its over!
SO HELP ME THERE BETTER BE A SEQUEL ON THE WAY OR DLC OR SOMETHING!
The best compliment I can give is this. I would pay full price for this. And I would pay more money for more content. AND I would recommend that you do too.
Thank you for this game, it's been a long time since I've had this much fun.
(EDIT) P.S. At my pace of, enjoying the game and doing the side content, the game took me just shy of 9 hours!

What Small Saga lacks in mechanical depth and tactical complexity it more than makes up for in stellar spritework, catchy and unique songs, a charming setting to lose yourself in, and most importantly a wonderful story about queerness, power, rebellion and self-determination.
Every set piece and character sprite is eye candy: even one-liner NPCs exude personality and help paint a better picture of the sort of people that inhabit the capital of Murida, the damp tunnels of the Underriver, and the many other settlements under the Rat King's crown. Every song invites you to nod along and let yourself be swept away by pristine infinite vibes, be they tied to the exploration of a whimsical miniature town, or to the frenzy of a battle you can't afford to lose. The world of Rodentia is familiar (ha!) yet unfamiliar enough to make you wonder just what's around the corner, what crazy facet of the gods' society have the rodents adapted as their own; this world simply begets more stories, and desires to tell of itself.
The sweetest cherry on top is the story: who wouldn't find themselves falling in love with the motley crew that makes up the game's party, after learning of their stories and struggles? They're woven deeply into the fabric of the world they inhabit, and all clash with its rotten core. Small Saga decides to do away with subtleties and show how truly horrible some aspects of life can be, and how wonderful it is when people come together to break the bonds of tyranny. It also doesn't refrain from realizing that yes, nobody has it all figured out, but that's no reason not to try to make the world a better place. Perhaps by going against such fickle things as "logic" and "tradition", carving a new world out of the shell of the old one.
Also, there's gay rodents. And the most dangerous game, KNIFE-DARTS! Just play this videogame already!!

15% of the npc's in this game are probably the fursonas of different people. it is extremely blunt about its queer, trans, and/or anti-fascist themes. the entire game takes place in all the picori dwellings and other such shrunken areas from zelda minish cap.
it's honestly very peak. i quite like it.
it's an RPG that is pretty light on numbers. items aren't really consumables, but rather, things you equip that can be used once per battle, which i haven't really seen before.
the battle screen visually reminds me a lot of golden sun.
the humor is pretty good and i like the environment design. it has a good balance of "haha the mouse protagonist is just guts berserk" and "this is actually pretty serious to these people"
it isn't very long but it was a good time. i enjoy the battle system. it would be cool if they added a hard mode.
i highly recommend this

First of all, I really loved the game! This is one of my favorites yet and I have explored a lot of indie games! There is a lot of extremely fun moments in the game, but I really do not want to spoil it, go play the game!
Small Saga is much more a visual novel than a JRPG, which is fine. This is the story of a mouse fighter (a very cute one), which is heavily inspired by Redwall and Berserk (what? yes!), but with a twist of setting being rodent society living under the modern London. The writing itself is very witty, and the mix of the inspirations produces a great a really fun 10 or so hours of gameplay. The author has a great optics and values, and there are not much games/medias that can offer the same perspective.
Contrary to some of the comments, I think the duration of the game is completely okay - the game is developed by sole developer and there is only so much of writing that can be done by a single person (it is not a collection of writers like Disco Elysium, alright?).
Finally, I grew reading Redwall and feel like it really heavily influenced me. Playing Small Saga satisfied my deep yearning for something of the same vibe, but written for grown up me, facing the modern world with its challenges.
Looking forward for new games!

I am late (3 years in fact) to the accolade party train for this game, but nonetheless I feel deeply compelled to share my love for this game! I was one of the folks who was part of this kickstarter and upon its release started and then life snatched me away. So I'm thankful to finally be able to share wonderful words about my playthrough.
This game reminds me of playing a polished & modern version of a Gameboy Advance Hamtaro game. I say this with the HIGHEST POSITIVE MEANING when I write this. It is inherently fun to explore the suprisingly vast and detailed world, and meet the dastardly charming, hilarious, and well designed side characters. And to top it off you have an RPG fight system that is refreshing, can be challenging but not overly diffilcult and clever in how it combines items you find in the world and use them in fights.
And ontop of the brilliant gameplay is just mountains of wonderful plot and writing! The characters dialogues and development make you care so much about them and are fiendishly endearing. And within all that is a masterclass way to talk about fighting against fascist systems and people and holding onto the power of hope and the ability for people to change and grow.
This dev put so much love into this game and it runs smooth as heck. I don't have ANY complaints about this game. If anything I'd love more stories like this! Especially about the small and unloved creatures of our world.
This game stole my heart and stole the show all in one go.
Please let these little rodents into your heart and play this game.

If you come to this game for deep mechanics and challenging combat, this isn't going to be the game for you.
However, if you're invested in narratives (and I'd hope you would be if you're looking at RPGs!) this is an incredibly well written game that manages to give full arcs to its main cast in a pretty small amount of time. I've seen complaints about it being too easy, and there were indeed very few fights that felt like a challenge.
However, there are so many boss fights that have perfect narrative framing and a killer soundtrack that I didn't really care that I wasn't working with a deep progression system. The narrative is so well put together and the characters are so likeable (with perhaps a few moments that are a bit on-the-nose, but what RPG doesn't have those frankly) that I would strongly recommend this to anyone with an even passing interest in narrative-focused RPGs.
I look at Small Saga as basically a "short film" of a video game; it's a phenomenal showcase of the developer's talents that makes me long for them to get a budget and a larger team for their next project. They have a real talent for storytelling, and I'd love to see more RPGs in this vein.

Quite possibly the most immaculately-paced game I've ever played, punches unbelievably far above its weight class (15 professional roles, 38 thanks according to Mobygames) with lovely art direction, a wicked OST and no real punches held back. There's no room for beating around the bush when you're dealing with fascists.