SLARPG is a game that is made with a specific demographic in mind (i mean look at the title!). It's got specific humor and a writing style that resonates particularly with a queer audience like me, but I don't think someone who is straight and/or cis can't enjoy it either. I think ultimately you should decide whether this is something you'd enjoy by reading the prologue comic, The Offer[slarpg.com], or by trying out the demo[ponett.itch.io].

For me personally, I absolutely love it. Start to finish I was fully invested in all the characters and story, the writing is phenomenal and is genuinely some of the most funny and heartfelt dialogue I've seen in a game to date. Their personalities, their relationships, their feelings and struggles... It's all so real and relatable too. The writing is also great in the lore department! I actually really really love the world of Reverie like a lot, it was an interesting world to explore and learn about. I desperately hope that ponett will make more stories with these characters and this world, because it's all so genuinely well written and interesting to me.

The gameplay is really fun, it's never too difficult and almost never too easy too. You got lots of variety in how you can approach combat based on loadouts and the diverse Spellbook system. I never played in one specific way the whole way through, so that's saying something. I especially love that despite the way that the party members are obvious typical RPG party archetypes, they feel natural and like they make sense in the context of their personalities. A poorly done RPG makes them their role first and a personality second, this game does a great job at writing a character first and it just seeming natural that they'd fit the role they end up fulfilling. Melody being a timid healer makes sense, Claire being a crazy powerful spell caster flinging fire and ice at enemies feels distinctly Claire, if you've played it before you'll know exactly what I mean.

I also can't write a review about this game without mentioning the soundtrack. I've never heard work from the composer, beatrix quinn[beatrixquinn.bandcamp.com], until her work on this game. And holy man! It's one of the contenders for my favourite video game ost. The tracks are a perfect rollercoaster of emotions that left me feeling the highs of bopping battle themes and beautiful locales, to the melancholic lows of sad scenes and dark twists. It features some fantastic use of instruments to represent specific characters, and some awesome use of leitmotifs to drive home the growth of the characters, ending it all with a beautiful ending sequence song (if you know, you know) that had me in full on tears by the end of the game. I highly recommend just listening to it after you beat the game and seeing if you can hear the familiar leitmotifs scattered about, it's almost a whole new way to experience the game when you get to appreciate how awesome the tracks are!

I also have to admit that I heard about this game and played it at a... Particular time in my life. I've been a cis bisexual man for awhile, but this year I've been seriously thinking that I am on the nonbinary spectrum to some degree? But I digress. The point I am making is that I got to play through this game in a part of my life where I, personally am trying to discover myself, and it really like... Left me emotional and seriously impacted by it's story as a result. Like, it resonated with me a lot. I've been thinking about this game nonstop since I played it and have been listening to the ost on repeat. It's a really important game to me, and I don't think it needed to be relatable on this level for me to think that. It's just how much of a truly heartfelt game it can be, and why I think it's one of my favourite games ever.

Again, if the comic[slarpg.com] or demo[ponett.itch.io] resonate with you, you'll probably love this game a lot like I did too.



update: march 12th 2025, i have started hrt. thank you SLARPG for being the single most important video game i have ever played, i think about it all the time and listen to the ost all the time still to this day.

update 2: december 17th 2025, i can't pinpoint the exact date it happened, probably some time in may, but hi, my name is Melody now