Growing up in the VHS-era 90s, there were a lot of popular stories about mice and rats. The most notable ones were The Secret of NIMH, American Tail and the Redwall series of novels. There were countless other examples, so much so that it became a trend. These stories were popular enough to inspire many other works that continued the trend well into today. That has now continued into the world of RPGs with Small Saga.
Stories like NIMH blurred the lines between fantasy and reality and Small Saga appears to be no exception. It takes very small adventure ideas and makes them more grandiose through the perspective of a mouse named Verm. He, along with his brother Lance begin their adventure by sneaking into a supermarket to steal a package of seeds. Along the way, they have to battle other weapon-wielding mice and are warned about the wrath of the yellow god.
When Verm and Lance acquire the bag of seeds, it takes all their strength just to push it to the exit. Before they can make it, they are confronted by the yellow god, a man in a yellow exterminator outfit. When attempting to escape, Verm gets his tail caught in a mousetrap. Lance creates a diversion while Verm uses his sword to cut off his own tail. Verm narrowly escapes the yellow god, but Lance does not.
The fantastical element also extends to the weapons you use. Each character appears to use some kind of ordinary tool as their preferred weapon. These include a pocket knife, a lighter, a a pencil or a scalpel. Plenty of 2D games have implemented the use of real world weapons, RPGs included, but few have done so with this level of detail. Every weapon is clearly identifiable for its original purpose, and they seem to be repurposed to allow for a variety of character classes.
Small Saga was originally scheduled to come out sometime in 2021, but now it has an uncertain release date. I’m not surprised, because between the animations, design, writing and every other detail, it looks like it will require a lot of polish to complete. This is a game well worth waiting for, and I am willing to wait to see it at its best.
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