Cthulhu Saves Christmas

The millennial writing & humour have aged rather poorly, but there is still a good JRPG here with some unique (afaik) & interesting mechanics, & fairly decent art. It's interesting to note that the previous title in the series won't run through Steam any more, requiring you to run the game directly from the .exe, while this game has no such problem. Positives: Has attractive female characters. Created before millennials started making all their games insufferably woke. Final Verdict: Overall it's OK, but nothing special. Get it on deep sale.

GG

Features an alien cat.

Works great on Steam Deck! This game is made for me. The combat is quick, and there's no grinding needed. I love that the game forces you to experiment with different skills instead of simply using the same skills over and over. There are no towns to explore, just menus and fun encounters to choose from, so the game is mostly focused on combat and dungeons.

Cthulhu Saves Christmas, I bought this charming little game a few years ago to be honest, but finally in the year 2025 (as Christmas is around the corner) I've played it. While short, it has been very fun. One night as iconic Eldritch horror, Cthulhu himself sleeps in his sunken city, he receives an unexpected gift, unfortunately it saps his powers and so he must save Santa Claus from the League of Christmas Evil. Joining great Cthulhu on his quest are Crystal Claus, granddaughter of Santa who indulges in Christmas oriented puns and word play, the young chicken obsessed witch, Baba-Yaga and Belsnickel, an old friend of Santa who loves candy... and attacking naughty children. The writing for this game is, as with most other Zeboyd RPGs, witty and self-aware with the mixture of Lovecraftian madness and Christmas cheer adding to the charm this game is stuffed to the brim with. On the gameplay side of things, it is turn-based but each dungeon has a set number of encounters to prevent overwhelm (With the option of the battle button in the menu if you want more EXP). Battles take notes from Cosmic Star Heroine in that each party member has elements like powers that need recharging and hyper modes that boost your powers, combined with different enemy types often synergizing rather well with one another making most combat encounters rather engaging (I played on Insane difficulty BTW). Another aspect of the game is the 'Life-sim Lite' element. Instead of traversing across a big world map going to one town or dungeon after another, you spend time in Christmas Town, where the party rests while they find leads on Santa's whereabouts. You have a couple days between dungeons to decide which places Cthulhu spends his days, giving different rewards based on the locale. As with the rest of the game's writing, these sections embrace its strange premise for comedy gold. It's short, it's jolly, It's funny and Lovecraftian. If you want something to blaze through this holiday season (Or perhaps the next one), you can't go wrong with Cthulhu Saves Christmas :)

x-- 7/10 --x Super charming and meta.