WARNING: this is yet another writeup in the series of "holy shit, waverider37 is playing another video game three or so years too late and it hasn't been written up yet, so here it is". As a result, there are spoilers ahead. Not quite as bad as some of my previous writeups, but there's still spoilers. Proceed with caution.
I still have all of my combat skills, you know. If that Dark Wizard ever came back, I'd let him have it!!!
Littlewood is a role-playing, world-building game developed by Sean Young and published in 2020 by SmashGames. The player assumes the role of the hero of Solemn, a floating continent which has recently been the victim of collateral damage in The Fight To End All FightsTM between the Dark Wizard and... you. Pity you don't remember any of it. But you do know that the world needs to be rebuilt, and you have been chosen as the new mayor prime minister grand high poobah whatever the hell you want to call the position. With blueprints that you obtain from your friends and other NPCs, resources from the Forest and the Mines, and a whole lotta time on your hands, you begin to rebuild your town. The game was released exclusively for PC after a Kickstarter campaign successfully funded its development.
Let's get this out of the way right now: it doesn't compare to Stardew Valley. They're both chill RPGs-that-pretend-they're-farming-sims-but-actually-aren't, but they each require very different skillsets. Whereas Stardew gives you some mechanical skills and subtly suggests that you keep meticulous notes and plans in order to do well in the early- and middle- game and minmax in the late game, Littlewood asks only for your patience, stacked on top of a small helping of interior decorating and town planning á la Animal Crossing. In fact, I go so far as to say that the skill ceiling for Littlewood is so low you're more likely to bump your head than you are to do badly at this game. It's super easy. It's super chill. Its also going to steal a whole bunch of your time if you like RPGs and/or town planning sims that don't take themselves terribly seriously. Not that Littlewood doesn't try to do the latter - it's just that the overarching plot is greatly overshadowed by the Pokémon-esque "Gotta do all the things!" idea that is central to what the game entails. It's not particularly spoilery to say that one of your main objectives is collecting thirty different bugs, thirty different fish, two dozen different fruits and vegetables (none of which go mouldy, thanks to MagicTM), and a random assortment of leaves, frogs, rocks, and goo. It's also not particularly spoilery to say that your limiting factors are town facilities available (at first), seasons (which follow the Stardew Valley model of one season per every 28 in-game days), and time taken during the day (which is measured by actions, not real-world time - another reason the skill ceiling is a building code violation waiting to happen).
It's also not particularly spoilery to discuss the plot. Why? There is basically none. The core idea of the plot is that the plot... has already happened. The world has been saved and the cataclysmic battle between you and what is probably "evil" has already happened, with you as the victor. You slowly meet the villagers, one of whom is the character you wrecked during the cataclysmic battle, but in about the only piece of character development in the entire game, turns out he was Possessed By An Evil SpiritTM. And you build him a house. Ain't you a naïve little hero. You can't even hurt him - you can't take any actions whatsoever to hurt anyone or anything within the game, unless you believe that trees feel pain. The coldest thing you could do is refuse to build him a house, but that just means he'll stay in the village complaining - which is somehow worse than being Possessed By An Evil SpiritTM. It's not even satisfying to see him caught in the pouring rain, because he just doesn't care. Oh, and as for the other fourteen characters in the game: second through fifteenth verse, same as the first!
The incredibly simplistic nature of the game does give rise to a few positives. It's cutesy, making it a perfect escape from life, the universe, and everything, especially after a long day at work (or a long 2020 in lockdown). It's an achievement hunter's dream, given there are sixty to collect and almost all of those require collecting a lot of in-game objects. It's good for kids - there's no swears, no combats, and the only adult theme in the game is (gasp!) kissing and cuddling. And finally, it's good for just being a single player game in a world dominated by Counterstrike, League Of Legends, and the latest Activision Blizzard game controversy. There are embarrassingly few such games that are actually any good anymore (coughCYBERPUNK2077cough) and fewer still that appeal to a wide variety of audiences for very different reasons.
I do also have a few gripes about the game, because what good would a waverider37 video game review be if I didn't? I'm not too fond of the graphics - the overall design is cool in a nostalgic way, kinda like a SNES cross-bred with a 16-million colour device and spat out chibis. But there's not much room for diversity in these graphics. And no, I don't mean "characters of different races and genders" because this game has it somewhat well-covered - I mean diversity in design of the mineral and plant sprites. Pretty much all the rocks look alike, just with differently-coloured pokey bits sticking out of them representing magicite, orichalcum, and dragalium. The trees look like they are all Christmas ornaments that have been wood-turned and spray-painted slightly different shades of green. And with one notable exception, all the birds look the same - like bloody seagulls. I can hear their "AWWWWK"s even as I play the game.
(What do you mean, there are chickens in the game? ...What the hell would you need chickens for in a farming game?)
And I have to gripe about the story's endpoint. You can go on dates and marry pretty much whoever you want in this game, but... the credits only roll when you get married. I'm not too fond of the idea that marriage is the endgame, at least goal-wise. Aside from the message it potentially sends, nothing really leads up to it - the game really isn't a love story. And what kind of reward do you get for getting married? Your spouse's house is now abandoned (if you even built them one, you heartless SOB) and they give you daily kisses and cuddles whether you want them to or not. Other than that the game progresses like it does before you got married, meaning that it's a goal that's over as soon as it starts and is very much forgotten afterwards. And so are the other romantic pairings that happen in the credits cutscenes. It almost feels like everyone boned for one night after the joyous occasion of a marriage, and never called each other again the next morning; only with 1000% less awkwardness in the town. The whole thing woulda been better if the credits rolled when you reached the Edge of Solemn and remembered The Fight To End All FightsTM.
All that said, here are my numbers.
- Graphics: 7/10 They're cute and uniquely-designed, but they're still 2D chibi-like sprites.
- Sound: 7/10 Very little variation in the SFX, but the music is more than halfway decent.
- Playability: 10/10 I wasn't kidding about "super easy". It's literally WASD and two other keys. You could play it on an original Game Boy.
- Lastability: 9/10 If you fit into one of the categories mentioned above, that is. Otherwise, forget it.
- Plot: 3/10 Harsh, I know, but there's precious little of it, and even the character-developing Special Moments are victims of "Gotta collect 'em all!"
- Overall: 36/50 = 7.2/10, but it's a good example of "the scoreboard doesn't tell the whole story".
Did you know... There could be worlds BEYOND Solemn? Explorers have traveled to the edges of the ocean, only to find darkness below. I wonder what could be down there...