(Reviewed by Melody Werner)
Super Lesbian Animal RPG (also known as SLARPG for short) is a 2022 indie weird RPG courtesy of developer, ponett. Created by Bobby Schroeder (she/her pronouns), this RPG is currently available on Steam and itch.io. "Now, isn't that a goofy name? Why are you talking about this game?" Oh, sweet summer child thinking that to yourself, for you are unaware of what is swiftly becoming one of my favorite games ever, in my mind. No, that is not hyperbole. Super Lesbian Animal RPG is a bona fide instant classic and essentially perfect. Yes, really. (This is the last time I will acknowledge and deny any doubt of SLARPG's excellence in this review. It is tiresome.)
Being the not-so-secret admirer of snazzy pixel art that I am, it is of no surprise that I would adore SLARPG's marvelous pixel artistry. Furthermore, I am consistently astounded by the hand-drawn sprites and character portraits, all of whom boasting inspired character designs—often hilarious, adorable, or hilariously adorable. There is an omnipresent charm to SLARPG, and the visuals are no exception.
Beatrix Quinn brings exceptional tunes to SLARPG's OST (say that five times fast). A phenomenal soundtrack is a prerequisite for any would-be classic RPG, and this one is pristine. Varied, fun, and—well, yeah, charming too. As for how I'd describe the game's sound effects, I'd say that they're totally delightful as well. The game has no voice acting, which would be a tall order for a game that features so much dialogue.
Speaking of the game's bountiful dialogue, I gotta say that it's terrific. Every character has a clear voice, and the writing brilliantly balances humor and heart, without any tonal whiplash. Though the game is inspired by Undertale and its ilk, the ways in which SLARPG plays with genre conventions is less 4th wall breaking, and more 4th wall grazing. For instance, I laughed my ass off when one of the characters with a larger sprite told me to speak to her face instead of her armpit when I spoke to her from her side, expecting her to turn towards me, like NPC's typically do. There are other hysterical goofs and gags throughout, but you should see those for yourself.
But, as I dipped into the game deeper, I quickly found that—as much as I love its bubblier moments—SLARPG thrives just as well when it is being emotionally revealing or raw. It's not all giggles and grins, but the game never loses its thread and turns miserable either. There's always a spoonful of sugar to make the medicine go down, in other words. Do look up the content warnings though, if content warnings don't make you irrationally angery for no reason.
I'm not someone who buys into the whole "every story has to have a character focus" school of writing or critique, buuuuut, that doesn't preclude me acknowledging when a story rules largely in thanks to its characters. And yeah, every character in SLARPG is a cheer, even the baddies. But none more than Melody, the main character. Like, goddamn, Mel has to be one of my favorite video game characters now. At least top 5. She's adorable, yeah, but she's not some pristine person who has everything figured out, nor someone who likes feeling coddled. Her girlfriend, Allison (who, btw, is an absolute monster in battles), had been protecting Mel from bullies since they were kids and before either of them knew that Mel was a woman—let alone before they realized they had feelings for each other romantically—and feels like she's putting Mel into danger just so they can do everything together. So there's a lot of complex emotional conflict there. Conflict which never feels manufactured for drama because these are fully-formed personalities, and this alleviates the frustration I often have with romantic stories where it just feels like dull drudgery. (Looking at you, Alex + Ada.)
It's that potent emotional brew that forms the foundation of SLARPG's brilliant ending, which is incredibly resonant. I won't even spoil if it is a happy or sad ending, or anything besides. What I will say is that it had me on the verge of crying as the credits began to roll. Not for any possible sadness of its ending, but because that's when it really hit me how much I genuinely loved my experience with it. And how I will cherish my time in its kaleidoscopic, gay ass world for a long, long time.
If you think that maybe this game is written as though only women "should" enjoy it, that's not the case. This is not some treatise on how men suck—virtually every character in this is likeable in one sense or another, whether they be a gal, enby, or one of the dudely guys. Even the final boss has a ton of charm, personality, depth, and humor. Once upon a time, I thought the game did not come from a similar perspective of queerness to my own, but I have since realized that it is a lot closer than I'd anticipated. Admitting to myself that I am a trans woman has been so wonderful, and I cannot thank ponett enough for helping me to finally crack my egg. That being said, it should still be easy to celebrate what is a new watermark in the representations of sapphic romance* in this genre (and hell, the whole medium). I'm always happy to know that other queer folks are feeling seen. *something that still is not of personal interest of me, as an aromantic gal.
Have I been holding off on discussing the gameplay for this long because it's bad, you ask? No, you goddamn presumptuous weirdo I just made up. SLARPG boasts a satisfying riff on the classic active time battle system popularized by some of the most beloved Final Fantasy titles, but with the eclectic wrinkles one would expect of the weird RPG scene and its godparent, the Mother games. There is a ton of optional variety in battles, and you can really specialize in different builds. Mine were often focused on some variation of giving Allison a fuck ton of buffs and then helping the squeamish mage Claire to some protection (such as shields from Jodie or targeted heals from Melody if the enemies had started fixating on Claire in a given battle). But there are also builds centering on Claire more, making Jodie into an absolute beast of countering who will taunt enemies into focusing fire on her, only to get clotheslined by Jodie's counters. Melody isn't boring at all either, generally focusing on different sorts of healing and support spells, occasionally tossing out damaging spells that synergize with the secondary effects her pals have procced on their foes. Her ability to use her healing abilities outside of battle in an exchange for MP (essentially mana) also adds a nice layer of mini strategy. Do you use these abilities, or one of your health potions found during your journey in wayward chests or at the end of battles as loot (the only way other party members can use heals during battle)? Mel is usually who I went to for heals after battles, as this allowed me to preserve resources for battles and upgrades faster—but if you have an MP-exhaustive build for Mel, you may make other calls.
One of the subtly awesome things that SLARPG does with its combat is making everything feel cohesive ludonarratively. Yes, I know that ludonarratives have taken up a memelike status among the hardcore gaming peanut gallery due to what is admittedly an obsession with "ludonarrative dissonance" by stuffy reviewers. Literally all a ludonarrative is, is the story that the gameplay is telling. Every game has one, they're just not something you think about at first blush, unless the game is doing something especially interesting (or uneven) with its ludonarrative. If the game tells you that violence is bad, and the violence is clearly designed to be fun, that is ludonarrative dissonance. Which, much like a song can weaponize a jolly tune with morbid lyrics, games can use as a tool to create a tension for the player (but I digress). It is not a fatal flaw, in itself, for a game to be ludonarratively dissonant. Even when it impacts the game negatively, it's rarely ever a big deal. However, ludonarrative harmony is the order of the day with SLARPG, which encourages you as a player to let the party members kiss their respective girlfriends in battle for stat omniboosts. For a game which is often about fighting for love and beauty, it's a wise means of reinforcing such themes through the gameplay. And, obviously, it's also just really sweet.
SLARPG offers two difficulty modes: normal and easy. Which you can switch at any time outside of tussles. Normal never posed much danger to me for the bulk of my playthrough, so long as I had a strategy... except for one of the final, optional bosses as part of a four boss gauntlet. This dude busted my ass twice before I decided he won this time, but I'd come back for revenge during a later playthrough. I think I only wiped once besides that because I was relying on RNG unnecessarily. If you just want to blow past the story, aren't much into turn-based RPG's, just prefer games at their most lackadaisical difficulty, keep running into enemies unintentionally more than you'd prefer, or for literally any other reason, it's part of the devs' artistic vision that you can crank the difficulty down at any time, and I respect that.
SLARPG makes exploration edifying in two choice ways: the obvious, and the... nominally less obvious. The obvious being extra gear and suchlike in chesties. There are a few treasure maps and puzzles, but a lot of the time, just being perceptive of ramps uphill in the direction you weren't going in will lead to something tight. The latter being the game's mindboggling amounts of flavor text. It feels like I haven't even seen half of this game's script yet, and that it may very well have a dozen more secrets to uncover after the 16 hours I logged in. (So far. I am totally replaying this.)
If that wasn't all enough, this game has to have one of the funniest options menus I've seen in a good while, at least. You'll know what I mean when you see it. But it also has a coupla useful options worth checking out, like setting it so that you always sprint (an option I always appreciate in such RPG's).
To anyone questioning my ability to critique this game so far: 1) please, lighten up. Not everyone needs to be abrasively critical like Yahtzee. And 2) I do have a few critiques to level. Here they go: fullscreen makes the game a touch blurry on some larger monitors, and rebinding keyboard controls is a wee cumbersome. That's it. If these nitpicks are dealbreakers for you—man, I agree, you are so cool and interesting as a person.
After all I have said so far, and how glowing it has been, you already know what lies at the end of this paragraph. If I really "need" to substantiate why further, I'll say that this is a game I did not know would be so phenomenal, and now I am an eager beaver when it comes to recommending it to anyone who will hear me. On a less gleeful note, I am not shocked, but pissed all the same, that the typical pissbaby Gamers™ have targeted its developers with transphobic bile. Fuck that awfulness, and fuck the platforms that allow it to continue. No one deserves such vile hatred, least of all our trans brothers, sisters, and enby siblings, and it is revealing of anyone who is so bastardly to choose to go after people for making such a wonderful game. Y'all fuckers who do this shit ain't standing for anything more than impotent fury and wonder why no one cares if you come home at night. But yeah, I'm beyond confident in my conclusion that Super Lesbian Animal RPG deserves no less than a 10/10 here.
Masterpiece
Summary:
Writing SLARPG off is only gonna end up leaving you with egg on your face. It is one of the funniest games I've ever played, but also one that knows how to make the darker moments hit like a sledgehammer.
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