*Note that 1 achievement is broken in the latest build.

My Playtime: 23h (86/87 achievement, finished the game)
My First Playthrough: 7.4h
Grindy Achievement(s): Yes (14 achievements).
Optional Achievement(s): Yes (80 achievements).
Difficult Achievement(s): No.

Saturday Morning RPG is a turn-based RPG that takes homage to old cartoons, shown in an episodic style with a bad guy that you need to beat in each of them. There are 5 episodes in total.

Pros:
- 5 episodes
- Customizable enemy level
- Main quest and side quest markers make it easier to track quests

Cons:
- Scratching stickers become annoying as you continue playing the game
- The game always shows keyboard controls despite you choosing controller controls at the beginning
- No skip cutscene options for episode replays

Specs
Intel Core i5-9300H 2.40GHz, 8GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650

Yes.
If you grow up with the 80s-90s cartoon and don't mind the visuals and grind, buy it when it's on sale.

---

The visuals need some time to get used to. It tries to combine 3D environments with 2D, pixelated sprites, which obviously look weird whenever the game tries to show the character from up close - you'll only see them in a more pixelated, "blurry" state. The environments are also not particularly engaging, but again, you'll get used to it.

As I said before, the game takes inspiration from old weekly cartoons, which might be where the title comes from. It is episodic in nature; you'll have a bad guy of the "week" and some repeated plot about the final boss that wants to crush our main protagonist at the end of the episode. However, the plot takes a weird turn in the last episode, forcing some bad guys to be good and giving us a wall of text to explain their reasoning. This feels weird and forced as a result; the shows that they take homage to are always meant to be light in nature, and it doesn't match with the intended audience this way.

The game also has a lot of references to other works. I don't think I catch everything since I didn't grow up in the same area as the intended audience, but I could find some homage to shows like Transformers and Dragon Ball. The notebook with stickers and baseball cards might also hold some value to some extent, but since there is never such a thing in my place, I couldn't be sure whether it was truly the case.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=491489275

Gameplay
The game was an RPG at its core. You will have the main objective and some optional side quests that you can get from talking to other people. It's mostly linear, although areas are huge enough with some episodes giving you some room for exploration. Some enemies will also be placed in the area, but they are limited in number and don't respawn. This makes it easier to focus on the other aspects of the game once; some areas can be confusing to navigate unless you paid full attention to them. Points of returns are also clearly specified, making it easy to navigate without worrying about missing out.

Quests have a direction marker to them. Sometimes, it's hard to figure out where to go next, especially the side quests since you need to remember who everyone is to progress. The addition of the marker helps to circumvent that issue, although sadly, it's kinda buggy. Some quests, especially those in episode 5, don't have any markers, and sometimes they don't even point in the right direction.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=642171846

Scratching stickers might look cool at first, but it will just tire you out as you progress. You have a list of stickers that you can collect, which will give you bonuses in battle whenever you manage to scratch it. Scratching is done by circling your left analog button, but since you need to do it quickly to scratch the difficult ones, it can be hard to do it on the keyboard. Moreover, it also can be tiring to keep on scratching it after a few battles and the stat boosts aren't needed to beat the enemies.

There are a lot of weapons in the game, but most of them are useless. Status effects like paralyze and stun might help to prevent a lot of enemies from attacking you, but they prove to be of no value once you find out that enemies die in 2-3 hits. Weapons with multi-hits and multi-targets have low accuracy and/or damage, making it hard to find their uses. There seem to be only a few weapons that work properly, forcing you to play in a specific playstyle to beat the game.

Combat
Combat depends on your weapon choice. Some weapons will force you to do QTE, but you also can choose the ones without it with the risk of losing some damage. There is also a multiplier that you can boost by charging, which again, is more effective with QTE. You'll find yourself being in a repetitive loop of increasing your multiplier and unleashing your highest damaging move due to its simplicity.

Enemies might hit you, but you can time your defense at the right time to reduce it. The window to perfectly defend against the attack is small, but the game is kind enough to give some sort of protection even if you press the button very early. Some enemies might give you some trouble, forcing you to prioritize them. However, I only found one enemy of that kind in the game. On the good side, your HP and MP will be restored after each fight, so you don't have to worry about healing.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=885485188

Length and Difficulty
I finished all episodes in 7.4h. The rest of my playtime was spent obtaining all achievements, although sadly, one of them is broken - it unlocked in the game for me, but not in Steam. As for difficulty, the game isn't hard if you don't mind grinding. You might be able to screw yourself up if you build your status recklessly, but there are always the sticker powerups that can help you. Plus, there is one weapon that can make you invisible by spending some in-game money.

Issues
There is no skip cutscene for second replays. The game seems to enforce you to replay the game to experience all choices in some of its side quests, but you have to deal with the cutscenes over and over again. Luckily, they are short and you just need to spam the interact button to skip them. Moreover, the game doesn't show the controller controls despite choosing such at the beginning. There is also no minimap, and enemies can trigger a battle whenever you are interacting with other things.

I don't feel much excitement from Saturday Morning RPG, which might be happening because I'm not the intended audience. It doesn't mean that it's bad, though. It's still a nice RPG game if you don't mind the cons, although you can't expect it to be a game-changer or something. It's pretty much mediocre, which makes me in a bind about whether to recommend it or not. You can try playing the game if you think that you'll get some nostalgia, and that's if you can spare some extra money. Don't buy it at full price, though. The story isn't even finished yet.