A Maned Lioness

Hello!
Welcome back with a new review, this time I played "A Maned Lioness"! This is the second game from the Rainbow of Positivity event I played, and it's a fantasy short story about Raziya, the so called "maned lioness".

Ok, everyone knows (I think) that lionesses have no mane, in fact Raziya is a young transgender martial artist of the lionfolk race (I don't think that is ever named the race of humanoid lions, so I'll just say lionfolk, ok?). She lives in this small village where she only recently arrived, so since they do not kno her well, she fears prejudice and unacceptance, due to some past contrasts with some people in the past. This premise is then followed by a nice and short traditional fantasy scenario that sees Raziya fighting a goblin tribe, but I won't spoil the rest of the story.

Let's speak about the gameplay: basically you explore the various maps talking to people, listening to some inner monologues that tell Raziya's story and looking for items, but combat is also included, and it's quite simple but not too much to result boring. There are no random encounters, just some battles that aren't that easy. Raziya can attack, use her powers (a fireball and later also a healing spell), or she can focus while defending, in order to recover some hit points and mana points. So you cannot bash the attack command and expect to win, never!
There are also some little touches I liked a lot, like the little scene and dialogue if you decide to flee from an enemy encounter, it's something you rarely see.


The noble lioness does not fear the rude wolf!

Graphics are colorful and pretty, I liked the style used, it's very classic and reminiscent of old style jrpgs, mapping is simple but serviceable and has some nice tiny details like the moving waters. The lioness sprite is also very cute, and I liked the enemy sprite, style is coherent and retro.
Music is simple and adequate, I liked the choice of tunes.

Verdict
I liked the story and I liked Raziya very much, because her personal situation, her fears and her story merges perfectly with a little fantasy adventure that open and closes in a complete and satysfing way (even if I would like to see some further adventures of the maned lioness), creating a short entertaining tale with a meaningful message.
While most characters are just outlined, I like how the lioness is characterized: she's shy but sometimes she's also brash, she can be kind and merciful, but also strong and brave. She is a complex character (of course, she's the protagonist!) that the author in my opinion represented very well giving life to an original character (and being original when creating a fantasy adventure is very hard).

Ok, so this game is short, simple but pleasant linear story but has a bit of everything: inventory management, combat, and emotional scenes too, and everything fits perfectly the short time required to enjoy this adventure. I can't find any serious flaw (I just wished for more content, but ok, this is not exactly a flaw of course!) so it gets a 3.5 from me.

Happy gaming!