Parchments Please?
While I have never played the indie smash-hit Paper’s Please, I have heard about it and played many games that have tried to emulate its magic like the network TV satire game Not for Broadcast. In Papers Please players are working as a border officer and must decide if they should allow people into the country based on some deductive reasoning. The new game Lil Guardsman from Hilltop Studios evokes the same sort of setup, but instead of a more serious and grounded approach, they chose to embrace fantasy and magic.
MSRP: $19.99
Platforms: Xbox (reviewed), PlayStation, Switch, PC
Price I’d Pay: $19.99
Lil Guardsman puts players in the shoes of 12-year-old girl Lil, who lives above a bar with her father in the kingdom of Sprawl. As I said, this kingdom is full of magical and fantasy creatures such as trolls, goblins and the like. Lil’s dad decides he needs to go gamble and can’t go to work and instead gives his daughter a crash course in being the towns guardsman and the enormous responsibilities of deciding who can enter the Kingdom. If that wasn’t enough for our heroine, she also receives a time device which allows her to rewind the same day at least 3 times, of course in gameplay speak this means you have 3 tries to get a perfect run.
One of my favorite encounters involved a singing, Disney-like princess who while had a lovely singing voice, was more than what she seems. Lil has various tools that she can use to help deduce whether a person is trustworthy or not. Each of these devices is charged by a crystal, once these are used, they are gone for the day, which means players will have to decide if using a device is really needed. Players have 3 actions to use on each person, and this could be simply talking to them, using an aforementioned device or by calling one of three members of the castle group. Using a combination will ultimately provide enough information to the player to decide whether to allow entry.
A nice little morale wrinkle is added as players are given direct orders for each shift by way of the Royal Decree board, located in the guard shack. This list informs Lil, as to who is expected today and what they may have with them or who they are coming to see. Sometimes people will explain to Lil that they can provide some extra gold for admittance or some other reward. Each day is ended with results and players will be informed as to what the people did once they gained entry, I will honestly say that I laughed out loud at more of these than I figured I would.
Lil Guardsman is a perfect palate cleanser in this sea of bigger releases in early 2024. Its heartwarming and genuinely funny story and cast of characters make multiple playthroughs a joy and not a chore to replay. I have become a huge fan of indie games in the past few years, and developer Hilltop Studios have come out swinging with Lil Guardsman. Perfectly walking that line between cozy and comedy, I loved every minute of this one and if you need a smile; I highly recommend it.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.
