History VideoGame / SmallSaga

* AnimalJingoism: A number of the bosses faced are natural predators of rodents, such as [[spoiler:a cat, a stoat, four young owls, and a cobra]]. There's also a major subplot about grey squirrels with an EageLand bent having deposed and replaced native red squirrels, representing how gray squirrels from the Americas have become invasive in Europe and started outcompeting the Eurasian red squirrel.

* WeirdCurrency: Seeds, though they're a fairly reasonable currency for rodents to have.

** The mythical character of Ratlas in Murida is a reference to ''Literature/MrsFrisbyAndTheRatsOfNIMH''.
** Sir Diego in his [[https://needleknight.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/SmallGuinea.jpg armor]] resembles [[VideoGame/DarkSouls Executioner Smough]], complete with hefting a gavel like a war hammer.

** Verm himself bears quite a close resemblance to Guts from ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'', from his clothing and the BFS that many characters marvel at him being able to use, to an arc of learning to accept and rely on the help of others and that there's life beyond revenge, to even his personality. He even says "As long as I was swinging my sword at a foe, I didn't have to think", and then there's [[https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3089642080 this moment]] that's a clear visual reference to Guts riding Zodd.

* {{BFS}}: The Titan Cleaver is nothing more than a pocket-knife, but when wielded by a little mouse such as [[TheHero Verm]], it becomes a god-weapon so massive it's wondered aloud by others how he can even swing it at all. It's slightly more proportionate in the hands of the rather large rat bandit leader that originally wielded it before dying to Verm and Lance.

* AnimalJingoism: A number of the bosses faced are natural predators of rodents, such as [[spoiler:a cat, a stoat, four young owls, and a cobra]].

* SlidingScaleOfAnthropomorphism: ''Small Saga'''s small mammals are mainly {{Civilized Animal}}s with a full MouseWorld. Some of the cast walk around mainly naked with a few accessories and basically look like bipedal rodents, some are more on the FunnyAnimal or even BeastMan side and have head hair and wear full human-style garb including pants and boots. The most anthropomorphic character is a bat that's basically a fuzzy human with batlike ears and a nose and finned upper arms, able to play a guitar and wear a T-shirt. Larger animals or "Titans" are on the PartiallyCivilizedAnimal, like the stoat Blademaster Lamia, or TalkingAnimal side. Titans are generally willing to eat rodents, while the smaller animals, including rats, don't go in for that sort of thing. There is also a FriendlyNeighborhoodSpider who doesn't speak but seems to understand the concept of trade.

* SlidingScaleOfAnthropomorphism: ''Small Saga'''s small mammals are mainly {{Civilized Animal}}s with a full MouseWorld. Some of the cast walk around mainly naked with a few accessories and basically look like bipedal rodents, some are more on the FunnyAnimal or even BeastMan side and have head hair and wear full human-style garb including pants and boots. The most anthropomorphic character is a bat that's basically a fuzzy human with batlike ears and a nose and finned upper arms, able to play a guitar and wear a T-shirt. Larger animals or "Titans" are on the PartiallyCivilizedAnimal, like the stoat Blademaster Lamia, or TalkingAnimal side. Titans are generally willing to eat rodents, while the smaller animals, including rats, don't go in for that sort of thing.

** Verm himself bears more than a passing resemblance to Guts from ''Manga/{{Berserk}}''.

** One location is a toy store that includes a doll of the witchy rabbit persona of Lilith Walther, the developer of [[VideoGame/BloodborneKart Bloodborn PSX and Kart]].

* OurWerebeastsAreDifferent: Mention is made of "Muswolves," but they're implied to just be a myth. "Ghosts and muswolves" is a Rodentian idiom that seems to basically mean "that sounds like superstitious nonsense."

* TerrifyingPetStoreRat: The "titan" Tiger is a regular, well-fed orange housecat. Unfortunately, you are ''mice''.

* AndTheAdventureContinues: The game ends with [[spoiler:Verm choosing to leave the kingdom in order to go adventuring and find new purpose now that he's no longer driven by vengeance, with his friends willingly accompanying him]].

* HazmatSuit: [[spoiler:The Yellow God of Death is, in actuality, just an ordinary human exterminator in a protective yellow suit so he isn't exposed to the DeadlyGas he uses for his job.]]

* LifeOrLimbDecision: [[spoiler:With Lance killed by the Yellow God]], Verm decides to cut his own tail to get out of the mouse trap and escape.

* ThePowerOfFriendship: The [[spoiler:Yellow God as the FinalBoss can grab a character and attempt to subject them to Lance's fate in the prologue by repeatedly crushing them... but this time round, you have allies and dealing enough damage (including bleed damage) to the hand that grabbed them will release the character, saving them]].

* SeeminglyHopelessBossFight: The final battle against [[spoiler:the Yellow God has Verm's party attacking the boss' feet, which have ??? HP each and damaging them doesn't put a dent in their health bar. Verm fortunately decides that the strategy isn't working and they need to get higher, causing the party to fight the boss' much more vulnerable hands]].

* DespairEventHorizon: [[spoiler:Plaguemaster Aquila]] crossed this long before the game's events, when [[spoiler:they read a book that detailed the irreparable destruction wreaked on the environment by humankind. It was this that convinced them that the both the human and rodent worlds were beyond salvation]].

* TimeLimitBoss: [[spoiler:The battle against Plaguemaster Aquila has a four-minute time limit before they launch Excalibur, killing a huge portion of Rodentia.]]

* CassandraTruth: When Verm and Lance first fight past the bandits blocking the way to Heaven, the bandit leader uses his final breaths to tell them that it's been taken over by a Yellow God of Death. Lance tells Verm to disregard the warning as the final ramblings of a villain that wants them to suffer, but it soon turns out to have been completely honest.