Game: Lil’ Guardsman
Genre: Adventure, Casual, Indie
System: Steam (Windows, MacOS) (also available on Switch, Xbox One & Xbox Series & PS4 & PS5)
Developer|Publisher: Hilltop Studios | Versus Evil, tinyBuild
Controller Support: Yes
Price: US $17.99 | UK £15.99 | EU € 17,99
Release Date: January 23rd, 2024
The review code was provided with many thanks to Plan of Attack.
Lil’ Guardsman is a 2023 adventure deduction game developed by Hilltop Studios and released by Versus Evil and tinyBuild.
The Premise
In Lil’ Guardsman, we play Lil, a 12-year-old girl who repeatedly covers her dad’s shift as a guard at the South gate of the great city of Sprawl. Along the way, we pick up some curious artefacts and meet a cast of over 100 unique characters. We don’t just stay at the hour guard shed questioning humans, elves, goblins, cyclopes, and other fantasy creatures. Still, we also get to see quite a bit of the city of Sprawl.
Gameplay
Lil’ Guardsman consists of 12 levels, each level a day in the life and career of Lil, a 12-year-old guardsman in Sprawl. Her main duty is to the gate – deciding who gets to enter and not the town.
It’s easy to brand Lil’ Guardsman as a comedic version of Papers, Please (2013), but that just wouldn’t be true. While both games rely on social deduction to choose and let or deny passage, Lil’ Guardsman also has elements of the classic LucasArts point-and-click adventure games like the Monkey Island games.
While handling the guard shed, we start each day with the royal writ, which gives us instructions on the day’s happenings, who to expect, who to look for, and so on.
We have several tools at our disposal. We can use an X-ray to scan people’s clothing and belongings, a truth spray to get them to tell us the truth, a decoder ring to decode things, a metal detector, and a bullwhip, which you probably won’t need. Later in the game, Lil also gets the Chronometer3000, which allows us to go back if we make a horrible decision and try again. Each of these gadgets is powered by a crystal, but of course, crystals aren’t unlimited, so choose wisely. We start with one crystal slot, but we can buy more slots for crystals afterwards. One crystal is one use.
While doing her job as a guard, Lil can call some people for help: a cunning councilwoman, a brave captain of the guards, and a not-that-funny court jester. Each of them has a role to play and secrets to hide.
Lil has her own inventory, collecting things along the way, everything from a book on manners to a tasty pastry. The inventory is accessible at any point during the game by clicking the backpack in the corner of the screen.
When you finish judging a person, you choose whether to admit them into town by pressing some levers on the Wicket3000. Later in the game, you also get a lever to send them to jail.
At the end of the day, your work is judged, and you earn coins, which can be used to purchase more crystals and slots for your tools. Otherwise, you start each day with four crystals. You can also choose to use the Chronometer3000 for a particular case, or several, if you’ve saved up uses.
After your day guarding the gate, you still have some things to do: walk around town, visit different locations, watch a goblin ballgame, participate in a game show, or hang out in the Twisted Sisters Tavern with some of your new friends. You end a day by going to bed. Then, at the end of the day, we are given updates about what the people we let or denied entry did after their encounter with Lil.
The World of Lil’ Guardsman
Visually, Lil’ Guardsman is gorgeously bright and cheerful. The style is a mix of cartoons and more creatively different scenes, reminiscent of medieval tapestries, which is quite fitting considering the story. The game reminded me in some instances of the animated movie Wolfwalkers and others of the Monkey Island games.
The soundtrack is excellent. It sounds medieval and heroic but in a significantly updated way. It fits well. In the Twisted Sisters Tavern, if you manage to repair the jukebox, you can change the current track. The voice acting is also on point, and each of the characters we meet has its own voice and personality.
One of the most memorable things for me about the Monkey Island games, and indeed games in general, is humor, emotion, or both. I’ve played all of the Monkey Island games, and I don’t remember much about the puzzles, but I do remember the humor. Such is the case with Lil’ Guardsman. It’s a game that doesn’t take itself too seriously. It’s here to entertain. And it does that with aplomb while still somewhat rooted in reality. Lil understands perfectly how ridiculous it sounds that she should be the one to cover her dad’s shift, and she lets everyone around know it.
While the game serves funny moments one after the other, some subjects might need to be more suitable for younger children. The hero might be 12 years old, but the era is medieval. Each of the people we let in the town can have grave consequences- it might even lead to war. Some of the humor will be more understandable to adults than children, in any case.
The characters, the settings, and the situations are undoubtedly funny. There are plenty of inside jokes and easter eggs to various fandoms, most fantasy. Still, it’s not just about humor; plenty of emotion is also here. It can be seen in the relationships between the characters, especially between Lil and her father. I was reminded of another game reviewed last year, Mineko’s Night Market, where we saw a child working to support her dad. Yet, the relationship is heartfelt and pure despite the very ridiculous situation.
Settings and Some Sidenotes
In terms of settings, Lil’ Guardian gives us basic audio and video options and language support. One thing to note is Streamer settings, which allow us to toggle off and on voices for Lil and NPCs and the layout for the game screen. It’s set by default on Portrait. I admit, I haven’t seen such options in other games.
Lil’ Guardsman has no difficulty setting. You can “die” on a level, but you don’t have to start from the beginning; you have to replay your last choice. The Chronometer3000 gives players plenty of options to change decisions within a playthrough. Each decision we make affects the town and the story differently, which can change the ending. Because of that, the game has plenty of replay value.
Lil’ Guardsman has Steam achievements and trading cards.
Conclusion
I thoroughly enjoyed Lil’ Guardsman, and I’ll enjoy it for a while longer while I get more endings. Meanwhile, I’ll recommend it several times to the same people until they finally decide enough is enough and try it themselves. It’s that good.
Final Verdict: Two Thumbs Up: 