Becoming Saint puts you on a challenging, micro-skirmish crusade for canonization

Dominate the Italian Peninsula as you quest for canonization in Becoming Saint.

There have been some excellent small-scale skirmish games released over the last decade, from Bad North through Into The Breach to the fantastic, and recently delisted, John Wick Hex. Their latest bedfellow is Becoming Saint, but unlike the rest, it’s less about defending against invaders, aliens or assassins. Instead its about bullying your way around Renaissance-era Italian city states with a hodgepodge of misfit followers as you attempt, and likely fail, to spread what likely amounts to heresy.

Despite being a non-violent — in fact, the only person who will die is… probably… you and/or the Pope — it’s certainly neither easy nor forgiving. Followers, whether they travel with you to convert others or not, require feeding and while some follower groups will only include one unit, some contain half-a-dozen, and each individual requires food at the end of your conquests. Take along two dozen units (Four groups of Naked Fanatics, for instance) and you’ll pay a bunch while enroute, and again (at double the minimum of the travel cost) once the battle is over. Becoming Saint gives you few resources and plenty of ways to use them up.

In fact, the only other resource (aside from followers, believers and bread) is authority, which you’ll shed in droves if you can’t quite feed people, as well as almost certainly losing all the followers you’ve taken with you for the conquest.

Bread, then, is your core resource. You’ll gain it from conquering towns, holding towns (with your income dependent on economical choices) and through begging — if you have any of the troops that do beg. You’ll spend it far too easily, through feeding on route, feeding after battles as well as feeding any troops you conquer (as sometimes that can soften them up to your cause). In addition to that there’re a handful of mid-journey events that you can spend some bread to possibly gain items, new followers or authority. Once you’ve locked in the bread — by carefully picking towns that produce it, or keeping your units cheap — it all gets a little easier as you can hurl curses at your enemies in exchange for authority, which’ll easily turn most battles in your favour.

Other sticklers include the inability to change distribution of bread mid-journey, and the prominence of the auto-play options during combat; Which have often left me in the lurch.

Now that we’ve discussed the biggest, dominating element of Becoming Saint — which, I’m sure you’ve realised is also the biggest problem I have with it. I should discuss everything else, which is absolutely fantastic.

It oozes style, everything from the between-mission moments where you refine your heresy by choosing between three options, the spinning wheel that reveals your current political orientation, the map, the battle map and all of the units — it’s all absolutely fantastic. I love the animations, from your saint-to-be’s cape flowing in the wind, the flames flickering and the bobbing-walk of your followers.

I even enjoy the awkwardly translated text, which, for the most case is easy to interpret… even if it’s just a little rough around the edge. It gives it a strange charm, like an old-media silent movie. And, while the tutorial, and briefing on your actual purpose, is incredibly light on the ground, it’s incredibly satisfying to get previews of your choice reactions based on your previous playthroughs. You can even see troop synergies and strengths before you set out to claim a city.

Becoming Saint‘s balance is fragile. It’s far too easy to over-recruit followers and spend more bread than you can afford, with little progression (besides the previously mentioned unlocking of tool-tips) between runs. However, it can really get its claws in and it’s something best enjoyed through repeated, sequential runs. I’ve flipped the cardinals and converted Roma, but it keeps pulling me back in.

Becoming Saint is available now for Windows, Mac and Linux.