Pigbert

[h3] F**k the Supreme Leader, all my homies hate the Supreme Leader [/h3] What can an ordinary worker do against an oppressive system? Will you rebel, regardless of the consequences, or will you bow your head and accept things as they are? Pigbert is THAT KIND OF RPG, set in a dictatorship based on labour, where we must confront injustices and ask ourselves what is fair, and what can (or cannot) be overlooked for the common "good". Wasn’t expecting much of it, but it was a nice surprise, enough to replay it several times to unlock all the endings and achievements, which says more than any adjective I might use to praise it. It’s quite short, and in each playthrough, you carry over items and XP, so you get through it faster each time than the last.

The graphics are what initially grabbed me with Pigbert. I felt like I was stepping back in time with a Gameboy Color and it captures the nostalgia quite well. I enjoyed the turn-based combat and exploration that this offered. It's a shorter game with about 2-3 hours to 100% and I would say that that's my only gripe with it. Not that it isn't good but rather I wanted more. So, I'm hoping this gives the dev confidence in making a longer game in the same vein as this one. One of my favorite aspects is being rewarded for exploration and for talking to everyone. If you want a thought provoking experience as well as a nostalgia trip then look no further.

We got Final Fantasy: North Korea Edition before a new Elderscrolls game.

This is a more casual approach to role-playing because you won’t be exploring a huge world, and the path forward is pretty much linear, with only the occasional side path leading to a treasure chest or optional interaction. In short, it takes less than one hour to reach the end. The interesting part is that the enemies on your path are regular people who just want to pick a fight with anyone who dares to approach them, either because they’re tired or because of some other reason. From this, you can see that the game’s world isn’t a very nice one, even though the reason for travelling to the palace is a joyous one because you’ll be receiving an award. You can avoid some fights simply by staying away from people, while others are mandatory, and the rest are consequences of your actions. For instance, if you step on a flower or snoop around inside a room, you will find yourself in a fight. Most of these encounters are justifiable, and they’re entirely your fault. Luckily, battles are easy. They’re turn based, and you can choose an attack, heal using your very limited supply of bandages, or run away. Another reason to fight is that you learn new attacks after winning battles. Not everyone gives you a new attack, but plenty of enemies do. However, you can get by pretty nicely just by using the ones you start with, while the rest are more specialized. For instance, you can cause bleeding while dealing low damage, lower an enemy’s speed, or deal very high damage with an equally high chance of missing. After gaining enough experience, you can invest it into four main stats at the save statues. These stats are attack and defense, health, and speed, but each time you use experience to upgrade one stat, the cost of upgrading all of them increases. This means you can’t upgrade all of them equally and have to make a choice right at the start about which stats to focus on. Healing is pretty much unnecessary because even if you die, you respawn at the last visited statue without losing any of the experience you’ve gathered so far. Statues also offer free healing, and most enemies respawn, so you can grind for as long as you want. Losing a fight is not an issue because you won’t lose any items either, since there’s no loot to gain from enemies or the world. The only things you can find are better weapons and armor in chests, which are easy to find if you stick your nose everywhere. If you want to find everything, you can try interacting with things inside every house or outside that look important. There are a lot of unique comments from your character, even when items and objects look the same. Some will earn you a secret achievement, while others give you more information or an item required for hidden endings. As far as I know, there are four possible outcomes. None of them are missable because you can always go back to previous locations. However, this isn’t necessary because each time you trigger an ending, you’re sent back to the start of the game with all your levels and items still belonging to you. The only exception is the ending requirements, which take just one extra step each time you restart, while enemies won’t pose much of a problem because you’ll gain even more levels with each restart.

The basic premise of Pigbert is that you've been given an award from the Supreme Leader which you must go collect. I won't spoil anything but definitely try and speak to as many people as you can on the way and interact with every object you can see. There's text for pretty much everything and it's astounding how much darkness and solemnity can be felt in Pigbert's short run time. This game is carried heavily by its excellent writing. As an example, I found two children playing with a ball, reciting phrases such as 'I seek no purpose beyond my duty'. I'd share more, but the vibe of this game needs to be felt for yourself. The world feels all-encompassingly bleak. What an enthralling game. I'm not sure how to summarize in words what it means to me, but this is what people talk about when they say games are an art form. I'm glad I stumbled upon it and I hope more people play it too.

Pigbert is a very short (~1 hour) focused JRPG. What makes Pigbert work is how tight it is. Combat's minimalistic and there's a little exploration - just enough to get a real feel for the gloomy, oppressive world, and the battle between individual freedom vs collective good. Really this is an interactive story that's unusually philosophical exploring authoritarianism vs freedom. For more niche curation, follow me at: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/27440015-CSH-Picone/ Want more honest niche & indie reviews? Check out: https://www.cshpicone.com/gaming

Pigbert is a pretty good RPG for a bargain price. So far, I've only played an hour, and have been fighting the same 6 or 7 enemies over and over. This RPG is comforting. Obviously, my attack is getting stronger, learning new attacks, gaining bandages for healing, and building up my defenses. Level up at the statue outside the castles. This is a very easy RPG to get into. The music seems like some sort of sleep music, so you're totally relaxed. Overall, well done. Update: Opened up a new portion of the map. It's beautiful! Full controller support.