Aviary Attorney dev’s Redwall-meets-Final Fantasy RPG Small Saga still looks incredible as it gets a release date

If you can believe it, we first wrote about Small Saga, the retro-flavoured turn-based RPG filled with penknife-wielding rodents and fireballs cast from cigarette lighters, a little over four years ago. Clearly inspired by the likes of Final Fantasy - albeit crossed with the ‘small animals on a big adventure’ feel of Brian Jacques' Redwall novels - it looked absolutely brilliant. That sentiment was only solidified by its Steam Next Fest demo last year, which left Katharine impressed by its compelling combat and rodent fantasy setting. It’s been quite the journey for the indie RPG, but we won’t have to wait much longer to see what Small Saga has to offer in full, as it finally has a release date.

Darya Noghani - they of co-creating Aviary Attorney fame - announced Small Saga’s release date with a gorgeously animated trailer showing mouse hero Verm taking on a fearsome-looking cat with a penknife, interspersed with some more snippets of Small Saga’s gameplay.

Said snippets include some overheard exploration as Verm, lighter-casting pyromancer Siobhan, squirrel bard Bruce and scalpel-wielding Gwenllian (who I think is a... rat?) wander the isometric world, dodging gushing pipes in dungeons and traversing what looks to be a vast forest for the small heroes (but is probably, like, a square metre of grass, all things considered).

There’s also a quick look at what appears to be the obligatory RPG fishing minigame, as Verm casts a hook into a 2D pile of trash, with treasure chests buried among shoes, coffee cups and mugs, and what I can only hope is a rhythm game with Bruce and a lute-playing rodent of some kind jamming in front of a Napoleon-like squirrel holding what looks like a vape pen on a throne.

There’s plenty more to be excited by besides, from flying over an overworld map in a basket carried by a pigeon and Verm taking on an octopus with a penknife to a line of rapier-wielding squirrels and some kind of Nazi-armbanded squirrel accompanied by an evil Aibo robot dog.

As a fan of cats, Redwall and old JRPGs, this is tickling every part of my interest, so the news that Small Saga will launch on November 16th is fast becoming the second most exciting RPG release of the year for me after Baldur’s Gate 3.

If you’re somehow looking to fill that wait, Noghani also tweeted out a pretty great list of indie games - many with similar themes and gameplay to Small Saga - that you should check out.