#“I cope with trauma through incredible violence” is so many of the tabletop characters I've played haha

[robindaydream]

I think one of the most impressive things about Small Saga for me is how well it balances tone. Like, looking at the plot as a whole and the kind of subjects it deals with, it's not a lighthearted game. You're waging a bloody war of revenge on the world and you kill plenty of people in the process.

But it never feels like it goes too far. It shows a lot of care in which foes you kill vs. which ones you beat up and scare off. I kept worrying about it at the beginning, cause you fight a few enemies that are just, like. A human's pet. And I kept feeling like "oh no I really hope I don't kill them that'd make me so sad" but it never happened. And through the whole game, I never saw the results of a fight and went "aw man that sucks." The game doesn't always give characters the fate they most deserve. Sometimes good people die and bad people live. But it always makes sense and feels appropriate.

And it's also a game full of goofy jokes and silly characters. One of the villains is a fascist dictator squirrel who vapes. At one point you find mouse porn on a bookcase and the characters discuss who they're into. You rescue a pigeon from a trash can. And it's a game full of hope, too. It's a game about making things better and not just letting things that suck keep on sucking.

In the end it left me feeling really happy.