Lil’ Guardsman is full of whimsy, fun, sterling voice acting and gameplay comparable to Papers Please, and it’s a delight to play.
There is a simple joy in the task of choosing who leaves and enters a town. Lil’ Guardsman certainly seems to fill the hole left in the wake of titles such as Papers, Please, which was one of the first games that allowed the player to discover their love of checking paperwork and questioning those attempting to enter a country or city. Lil’ Guardsman approaches the same brain itch with far more whimsy, having a more comedic tone as the player questions those trying to enter.
Made by Canadian developers Hilltop Studios, Lil’ Guardsman is a true passion project and definitely fulfills their aim of releasing games with no delays and with incredible polish. Playing even before release, the game suffers no bugs, no graphical glitches, and is polished amazingly. The release of this title will certainly be a clean one. Lil’ Guardsman is not only a polished game, however, it is also a fantastic game with a delightful story.
Lil’ Guardsman follows the story of young Lil, a 12-year-old who takes on her father’s shift at the gates of their Medieval town of Sprawl while he travels to the Goblinball Stadium to place bets. He accompanies Lil to the guardhouse and teaches her, along with the player, the ropes.
From there, it appears that the game will follow a very simple narrative- Follow the rules, decide who goes in and out, and pick up a paycheck at the end of each week. However, there is far more to the story of Lil’ Guardsman than initially meets the eye, with a story expanding far further and going far more in-depth than the player will expect when starting.
The first clue to this comes from the character cards at the end of the day, which tell the player exactly what the characters Lil has met have done after they have been allowed or denied entry into the town of Sprawl. These can be funny anecdotes about the characters. An example is Mrs. Abernathy, the first person Lil will process while working the booth who is the tutorial. While talking to her, the player learns she plans to meet Lil’s dad at the Goblinball gam,e but we learn from her card that she got caught up in two more tutorials on her way and was made very late.
Other examples of this can hold more meaning, showing a character to have different intentions to what they had first shown or even hinting at being a part of a bigger, ongoing narrative. There are also cards about the characters at the end of the night that can go on long, rambling stories describing everything they did that day in excruciating detail. This, along with Mrs. Abernathy being caught in several more tutorials throughout the day, is an early example of the fun tongue-in-cheek style humor that follows the game, particularly in the witty dialogue and the detail found in these cards at the end of each day.
The second major sign that there is far more to Lil’ Guardsman than the player will initially expect is during a cryptic phone call in the middle of the first day. While processing potential visitors to the Sprawl, Lil gets a call from a local scientist asking one of the Guardsmen to come to her lab straight after their shift before promptly hanging up the phone. Upon traveling there, Lil will be given a time machine that can be used to skip back in time to replay an interaction with a visitor to the Sprawl in order to change the manner in which Lil questions them or who she contacts to help her.
It is from this moment that the whole game is blown open. What was once a simple game of following the missives from the council and deciding who could enter the town is suddenly blown open into a world of time travel, political espionage, and a whole lot of gambling over Goblinball games. While it would be a great discredit to spoil what happens exactly in the story, there are some fun moments that can be pointed to to help you understand the sheer joy that you can encounter while playing Lil’ Guardsman.
A stand-out moment comes fairly early in the narrative when interacting with the three members of the king’s council. They are first introduced as “phone a friend” types that can help Lil decide who to let in, although they quickly become agents of chaos, causing Lil more problems than it seems worth. An example of this is when they call Lil to a secret meeting where they ask to discuss her helping them by letting those they deem worthy into the town.
This level of political corruption should be met with some level of sensibility. However, it quickly divulges into chaos as a Matrix reference, where if Lil picks the correct marble, she can go back to knowing nothing about the three somewhat useless council members; suddenly becomes a big joke as Malcome the Jester turns out to have said marble under his foot the whole time.
A similar moment of unsuspecting madness is found in the battle cry of one of the surrounding kingdoms, with the cry being Klingon in a clear Star Trek reference. A murderous Disney-style character also brings a great deal of hilarity as she approaches singing, the sheer vision of sunshine and rainbows, but soon pulls out a Molotov and swerves all expectations. All these events are met with the sarcastic Lil, who has some of the best comedic lines of the game with a deadpan performance that really adds to the excellent writing to make playing Lil’ Guardsman a very funny experience.
The gameplay is explained to both Lil and the player on her first shift in the guardhouse. Briefings are sent at the beginning of each day, letting you know the rules for that particular day. These can range from sensible rules, such as requiring anyone who is a speaker at the event from that day to be escorted from the gate by calling Councilwoman Ashe, to Malcome requesting anyone with a strange name be sent straight to him to cheer him up with the silliness of it all.
These missives that are posted are often in reaction to what has happened in the wider world, such as when the princess of Sprawl is kidnapped, and goblins are suspected of committing the crime. One of the rules for that day asks for all Goblins to be sent straight to the dungeon.
Although the court jester wishes for one to be sent through just to annoy the other members of the council, another of these is seen when the princess is expected to marry, and the suitors have arrived to ask for her hand in marriage. The bulletin of rules states that two, not one or three, two suitors are allowed in. Another reference, this one being to Monty Python.
The bulletin in Lil’ Guardsman is also a fun way to learn about the wider world, another being during the radio sections at the beginning of each day. Every morning, as Lil sleeps, she can listen to the radio, and the player can learn what is happening in the world through the local news station.
As well as the rules posted each day, the gameplay in Lil’ Guardsman extends to other tools Lil can use in the guardshed to help decide who can enter the Sprawl. The first of these is a phone that allows Lil to speak to either the head of the military, Stryker, Ashe, who is a councilwoman with a more democratic approach, and Malcome, the court jester, who rarely has anything worthwhile to say but will say it anyway.
Along with this, there is a cabinet of items that can also help with finding the intentions of each character. Each item is powered by a crystal, of which Lil has three at the start of each day, although more can be bought at a shop, as well as fake crystals that only have a small chance of working but cost far less.
The instrument that can be used in Lil’ Guardsman is a Decoding Ring that can decode messages in other languages or work out what creature someone is. A Truth Spray that doesn’t work on all creatures, meaning the player has to be careful when to use it. A Bullwhip that can be used to uncover the truth, although in a far more aggressive way that will obviously upset many characters. The other items are an X-ray machine and a Metal Detector that really just does what they say on the tin.
These items can also be used in tandem with just talking to each individual throughout Lil’ Guardsman to gather information. Lil only has three actions in each turn, so the player has to choose wisely to decide which method to use to find the truth and then use the Wicket3000 to decide to admit, deny, or, later in the game, arrest those who come to the gate.
At the end of each interaction, Lil is given a star rating on how well she used her action points and whether she made the right decision to allow or deny certain characters. While choosing correctly on the admit or deny can get a solid two to three stars, the real test comes in picking the correct way of probing further; in some cases, it is even better to not use all of the actions and instead hurry someone through, like the stressed cyclops mother at the start of Day 1 who is on her way to pick up her children from their apparently useless cyclops dad.
It should be noted that it is sometimes very unclear how to improve this score, and in a few cases, if the player should listen to the council, which can be said not to let someone in or the person who may have a very convincing argument. Once the choice has been made, Lil has the ability to go back in time with the information she now knows, although it can be hard to work out how exactly to use that information when questioning as the speech options are limited to Trust, Doubt, and Tease making it hard to know what exactly will offer more information.
On the surface, it appears that Lil’ Guardsman is a more whimsical version of Papers Please, with the player having to decide who is and isn’t allowed to enter the city. However, as Lil’ Guardsman progresses, it becomes clear that not only is it tonally very different, but it also is very different in terms of the gameplay. The choices are not limited to just who you let in and who is denied admission.
These choices can include renaming the goblinball stadium, helping the princess decide which suitor to match with, deciding which athletes to let into rig games in a certain way, and betting on them. You can even choose who goes to save the lost princess while accidentally killing one if you end up choosing in a very unique, and some would say stupid, way.
The art style of Lil’ Guardsman matches the whimsy of the rest of the game. The characters are animated with large features that help them express emotions. When each character is talking, their avatar pops up at the side of the screen with their text dialogue, as well as every line being fully voiced and their emotions expressed clearly in both their tone of voice and expression. It should be noted that this game aims to be streamer-friendly, allowing a mode with all characters appearing on one side of the screen with space for a face cam on the other. The environments are suitably silly and interesting and can change depending on the choices made by the player.
While Lil’ Guardsman doesn’t focus on realism, the in-game art is cartoonish and full of life as each character is represented first in their appearance and then through their voice. Every character is voiced, and every line of dialogue is spoken, as well as appearing in speech bubbles at the bottom of the screen. The voice acting is amazing; Lil could have easily been annoyed with the sarcastic personality and childish voice., Instead, she is a delight and tons of fun to follow around as she and the player explore the mad world she lives in.
The rest of the voice acting in Lil’ Guardsman is really good. One fun example is Councilwoman Ashe, who is mature and sophisticated while also being very exasperated by the chaos around her. Many of the goblins have fun gravel to their tone that is very fun, and one goblin, in particular, is created from 8-bit style graphics and speaks in an era-appropriate atari style voice to match. The blend of voices works fantastically,, and the sound and music in the game are also very well placed and add still more to the atmosphere.
Lil’ Guardsman is a fantastic, fun story with a whimsical tone that allows the voice acting and art direction to shine in the fully developed world that has been created. The gameplay is polished, although there is a little confusion about how certain characters should be questioned. If you are a fan of characters full of life and fun, a story with choices that have lasting effects, and a fascinating cast of characters, then Lil’ Guardsman is undoubtedly a game for you.
