YMMV / Saurian

• Awesome Art:
  • The backgrounds in this game look absolutely gorgeous - pretty sunsets and dense, green forest, interspersed with rolling hills and rivers.
  • The concepts of each dinosaur, as lovingly drawn by Chris Masnaghetti and R.J. Palmer (of Realistic Pokémon fame), keeping true to modern paleontology while still drawing from extinct animals, such as plumage for Dakotaraptor that make it resemble various birds of prey.
• Awesome Music: The ambient soundtracks revealed so far, like "Ghost of the Floodplain Forest", "Intraspecific Combat", Functional Didactyly, and "Ficus Planiscotata".
• Broken Base:
  • Some fans during the April 14th livestream were not happy about the change from Acheroraptor to Dakotaraptor as the playable dromaeosaur. On the other hand, there are some who have accepted it with no qualms and noted that the devs' given reasoning for the replacement is understandable (see What Could Have Been under the game's Trivia page).
  • Inevitably, the decision to make Tyrannosaurus extensively feathered (with the original design having just a light covering of black ratite-like plumage over part of its back and tail) left quite a few people cold - further fanned by a paper in 2017 that claimed Tyrannosaurus may have been entirely covered in scales (with the possibility sparse feathering along the dorsum). The devs have eventually decided to redesign Tyrannosaurus with no feathers^note The games engine Unity is unable to render the very sparse feathering it could have had, which then understandably alienated fans of the feathered design.
  • Some fans were disappointed by the decision not to include feather-like "quills" on Triceratops - a highly popular hypothesis in paleoart and elsewhere due to the presence of such structures on Psittacosaurus, a very primitive ceratopsian. That the earlier designs for the animal did feature such quills didn't help matters. ^note The developers eventually removed them after the game's concept artist visited some skin impressions in a museum and decided that the structures would have been unlikely to be present in the manner shown in the original design. Others argue that restoring the dinosaurs as minimalistically as possible makes sense, because it makes the developers' jobs easier when they adjust the animals accordingly to new discoveries, and that there's no guarantee that Triceratops actually had any special integument in the first place.
  • Some were not amused by the "Montanaspinus" prank pulled by the devs during one of their livestreams (though it was initially just an inside joke never intended to be taken seriously, only becoming a prank once the game's followers decided to take it further), while others thought it was a hilarious Take That! to those who wanted Spinosaurus in the game despite it not living in the correct time or place.
  • Fans are already in debate over Anzu's Voice Changeling ability. Some find it overly speculative and not supported by any evidence, especially for a game aimed at accuracy. Others find it an interesting feature that makes the dinosaur's gameplay more unique, plus it's entirely plausible since this ability is common among modern birds.
  • There are also those who oppose to the devs' decision to refer to the Hell Creek hadrosaurid as Anatosaurus rather than Edmontosaurus annectens. Those who are in favor cite the fact that the other species in the Edmontosaurus genus, E.regalis went extinct two million years before E.annectens showed up, thereby creating quite a large time gap between them. They also talk about the noticeable differences in the skulls of both animals◊, saying that, in the end, Anatosaurus should be its own genus, while those who oppose say that time gaps between species don't really matter to make a creature a genus of its own, and that both E.regalis and E.annectens are similar enough to be part of the same genus. It's worth noting that most dinosaur genera/species are rather arbitrarily defined due to the fact that many factors in determining taxonomic divisions in present-day animals (such as genetics and behaviour) aren't preserved in the fossil record.
  • Many fans of Anatosaurus were not happy over Ankylosaurus winning the herbivore part of the poll, especially since some think it was voted for less because its gameplay would be interesting and more because it's a popular stock dinosaur. The main complaint mostly comes from its gameplay sounding identical to Triceratops other than the choice of weapons. (Triceratops using its horns and Ankylosaurus using its tail.) Some, however, find it refreshing that Anatosaurus didn't win, as evidence shows that the hadrosaur was migratory, which would've been a pain to program into a playable.
  • Fans of Dracorex, Stygimoloch and Nanotyrannus were disappointed by the team's decision to not include them as distinct genera but merely as growth stages for Pachycephalosaurus and Tyrannosaurus, respectively. It should be noted that while the study questioning the validity of Dracorex and Stygimoloch is controversial and has been contested by a number of researchers (including Dracorex's original discovery team), the only real hope for Nanotyrannus rests on a single undescribed specimen in a highly publicized fossil that is currently on the market to be sold to collectors rather than studied. The developers later cautiously adjusted their stance on Stygimoloch based on a new paper that indicated that it lived in separate strata from Pachycephalosaurus, possibly as a second species named Pachycephalosaurus spinifer, as well as basing a remodel of Pachycephalosaurus with all of its ontogeny under that name (contrasting the older Pachycephalosaurus wyomingensis model currently implemented in the game).
  • There is a lot of debate from fans which fossil formation would be best for a possible sequel. The most common suggestions have been the Morrison Formation of the Late Jurassic, the Chinle Formation of the Late Triassic, and the Western Interior Seaway/Niobrara Formation of the Late Cretaceous, since all three have been considered by the devs.
  • The lack of major updates to the game since launch became one by Spring of 2018; some say this is understandable given the small dev team, others are frustrated with the lack of real news on when new additions are going to be added to the game. This slowed down when there ended up being a major update at last in 2020, which implemented Triceratops as a playable dinosaur.
• Fandom Rivalry:
  • Between this game and pretty much every other dinosaur game in development, including (but not limited to) ARK: Survival Evolved, The Stomping Land, The Isle, Mesozoica and especially the incredibly similar Dinosaur Battlegrounds. Most of this comes from the fact that Saurian is more focused on accuracy than the other games listed, which focus on Rule of Cool with Artistic License – Paleontology (other than Dinosaur Battlegrounds). The official Discord had to make "no bashing ARK or The Isle" a rule, with devs pointing out The Isle and Saurian shared assets and are completely different games (RPG-esque survival PVP sandbox with heavy inspiration from Jurassic Park versus a single-player realistic-ish survival simulator of a ecological zone).
  • Though not exactly pertaining to the fandom itself, the developers of Mesozoica have praised Saurian for its innovation and accuracy. Max, a Mesozoica dev, even suggested for his viewers and fans to go and back Saurian while in a Twitch livestream. Prehistoric Kingdom's developers also show support for the game, even linking to the Kickstarter page on their Facebook.
• Goddamned Bats: The Chamops lizards during the Dakotaraptor's hatchling stage are a non-enemy example. They are the main source of food that can be feasibly hunted during this stage, but move extremely fast, are extremely small, and are easy to lose in any kind of grass or foliage or run out of stamina chasing.
• Hype Backlash:
  • Despite the game's mostly positive comments from paleofans, there have been a vocal minority claiming that the dinosaurs are not as accurate as the team advertises. Common complaints depending on the individual include the Tyrannosaurus and Ornithomimus having too many feathers, the dromaeosaurs not having bald, vulture-like heads^note Current evidence suggests that Ornithomimus and Dromaeosaurs were fully feathered, so these complaints likely stem from personal opinions rather than accuracy, and the small to medium-sized ornithischians like Pachycephalosaurus lacking feathers.
  • The game's current restoration of Tyrannosaurus portrays it with lips covering its teeth, similar to those of a monitor lizard. While the possibility of lizard lips in dinos is truly likely, this article from the blog Antediluvian Salad talks about the probability of T.rex and other theropods having more superficially mammalian-like lips in nature. Needless to say, this has caused quite a stir about how dinosaur lips should be restored.
  • Over the years, several dinosaur enthusiasts and those generally excited about the game during its inception and Kickstarter backup have been disappointed and disgruntled in Saurian for not being able to meet an official release date despite plans for a 2018/2019 official release and the game still being in Early Access version with several missing features and bugs. The fact that the game's development log is slow and hardly much has been updated about the game hasn't helped matters for many players and reviewers.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • "Montanaspinus". Created as a joke response to clueless queries about whether Spinosaurus would appear in the game. Predictably, the joke went too far and led to people asking if the genus really existed and trying to create Wikipedia articles for it, resulting in complaints from real palaeontologists and calls from the developers to stop spreading the joke around. Eventually, it turned out Montanaspinus was also the internal file name for DePalma's Ornithuran.
  • "Nonotyrannus", referring to the question over whether highly contested genus Nanotyrannus would feature in the game. (The very general consensus among researchers is that its fossils are actually juvenile specimens of Tyrannosaurus, though new studies in 2024 have ignited renewed debate here.)
• Older Than They Think: This game's Anzu isn't the first time a dinosaur was given the speculative ability to mimic calls. The Rahonavis from Dinosaur Revolution was given a similar and equally speculative ability.
• Scrappy Mechanic: Par the course for an early access, but trying to eat as a baby Dakotaraptor is way harder than it should be. You have potentially five options: Chamops lizards, the marsupial relative Didelphodon, Bone Butte birds, the gar Lepisosteus occidentalis, and, until it was patched out in the same update that added Triceratops, your own siblings. The first two are fast and nearly impossible to see (though Didelphodon is slightly larger and easier to catch), the third will fly away immediately if you're not careful, the fourth, being an aquatic animal, will be harder to hit, and the fifth will almost certainly get separated from you early in the game and when they do, you'll never see them again. Nothing else is edible at this stage. Your character can die just by touching another animal that's bigger than it. And if your food meter runs out, you'll start to lose health and once your health runs out, you'll die.
• Tear Jerker: Finding a dead mosasaur. The most powerful creature you can find in the game, and yet it too is not invincible forever.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: Dakotaraptor replacing Acheroraptor as a playable (see Broken Base above) and the Tyrannosaurus Rex and Pachycephalosaurus's redesigns got this reaction from some fans (especially the former since it received what was perhaps the most drastic change from its original design of any animal in the game so far). Averted with the Quetzalcoatlus, whose redesign was warmly embraced due to looking more menacing than the original.
• Ugly Cute: The hatchling Pachycephalosaurus. While currently in the concept art only, they do not have the distinctive dome, and yet they still are cute.
• Unintentional Uncanny Valley: Creature artist RJ Palmer seemingly feels this way about the Triceratops hatchling, claiming it looks like "a dinosaur trying to be a person".
• Unexpected Character: An interesting example as the identity of the character in question is not made clear during its announcement—this devlog reveals that a new maniraptoran dinosaur is being added as an NPC, with no prior indication at all that any new animals were going to be added to the cast roster.

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