Steam has been a letdown over the past two weeks. I eventually found this week’s game and so I am going to talk about it. This week I played as a llama worm in Mr. Saitou.

Mr. Saitou is a narrative game by Laura Shigihara. Mr. Saitou will release March 23, for the PC and Switch.

Mr. Saitou follows the story of an average man who has lost his will to live. He ends up in the hospital and meets a boy who talks to him about a world solely inhabited by “llama worms.” As Mr. Saitou falls asleep, he wakes in an office space run by llama worms.

Being a narrative game means little gameplay outside of talking to people and walking around. Both are on display in Mr. Saitou‘s demo when directed to find metrics for the boss to fuel innovation and talk and avoid the various staff members of the office.

Mr. Saitou is surprisingly a beautiful-looking game. Hand-drawn character portraits look really good and the sections that are not hand drawn are also incredibly good-looking. I honestly think that the real stars here are the characters. Though a majority of characters are llama worms, they have their own personality, especially the nerd.

The music is fantastic. There are a few solid melodies that are still lingering in my head, days after I played the demo.

Mr. Saitou was a fun demo. It has a certain charm that only narrative games can have. It tells a story of a man who has lost his way and it takes only a child’s ham-fisted business idea to make him realize that life is worth living.

Cute, funny, and emotional; my kind of narrative game.