The Sagittarian is a series of online "Choose Your Own Adventure" zombie games by Newgrounds user Hyptosis.
Lighter and Softer than most zombie-themed games, the game follows a normal, everyday person (A.K.A. you) that wakes one morning to a zombie infection, and thus leaves home with what little supplies he can gather to try and survive.
The first game can be found here.
A short spin-off game called Riverside was also released.
The Sagittarian Provides examples of:
- All Bikers are Hells Angels: A gang of bikers serve as the main antagonists of the "Man In The Wilderness" branch of the third game.
- Anyone Can Die:
- In all the different story branches its possible for every companion to be killed. In one story branch the player is the sole survivor after everyone else dies. The follow up to that branch ends with the player dying not long after.
- Like the main game, one of the endings in Riverside has only the player character survive. Also, two members of your group die in the first half regardless of the choices you made.
- Big Bad: Nate in one part 2 and the Berger route,a smart zombie able to use zombies with special ability to do his bidding.Sage: That.Fucker.Dies. He has been there every fucking time something horrible happens.
- Black Comedy: Lots of it, and most notably, Shane being ripped apart and the narrator noting that he "still has that stupid look on his face".
- Blood Knight: Sage. When the player first meets him every other dialog choice has him kill the player for pissing him off. This cause a problem in one branch as his joy wile he slaughters zombies and him killing Shane over an insult leads to half the group splitting.
- Dead Weight: The player and Anna can come across a deformed fat zombie during one of the story branches.
- Didn't Think This Through: There is a disarm the mine option that resolves in death because you can't disarm mines and there was no reason to assume your character knew how to do it.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Sage has been known to kill people in cold blood just for talking back to or insulting him.
- Elite Zombie: The zombies get several variants, both common in fiction and a few, more unique ones:
- Drifters are your average shambling, moaning zombies, with no frills.
- Sleepers are largely the same as the former, the difference being that instead of wandering about, they just wait idly in dark places to someone to come by (and eat their face).
- Runners are Exactly What It Says on the Tin: zombies that run very fast and maul survivors, similar to your average Feral variant. They hang out in roads, presumably because it's nice and flat for them to run in and stumble onto the occasional traveler. Scenarios where they appear are usually more likely to end up with you dead.
- Exploders are, well, zombies that explode when you hit them. They are passive and they just drift about without attacking anyone, so they're not really a threat, unless some bored survivor is dumb enough to try and kill it up close. Although they've been used as artillery by at least one horde commanded by a Smart zombie, see below.
- There is one particular zombie, known only as "Nate", who's a Smart zombie. He's the only one seen so far, and he acts as an Arc Villain for the second game, chasing you and the other survivors commanding other zombies as a Horde Master. He is a great strategist, and he even figured out how to uses Exploders to break open your stadium/fortress at the beginning of the second game.
- Failure Is the Only Option: The cabin with Anna died route only has Downer Ending. Your character went mad from being alone in a cabin.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: Nate is an exceptionally smart zombie that commands a horde, and a recurring villain. We know his name is Nate because he's still wearing what's clearly meant to be a Best Buy employee uniform, complete with a name tag.
- Hypercompetent Sidekick: Sage is pretty much your do everything soldier and also the person with survival experience that gives advice. Only reason you are the leader is that he is not a people person and will slit the throat of anyone that questions your authority.
- Love Triangle: Defied, while both your character and Sage loves Anna and she seems to prefer Sage, there is no tension for it either because you end up with more female survivors and she choses Sage, Sage dies and she ends up with you or there is the three of you left but Sage refuses this trope to cause tension and leaves once you are to safety.
- Morality Chain: Sage cares only about the core members of the group (you, Dusty and Anna), and even says at one point that they better not die on him as they are the only persons he ever protected beside himself.
- Pet the Dog: Sage may be a remorseless killing machine, but he'll draw the line at letting a sick little girl die when he can help or leaving a bunch of animals to starve in cages.
- Shout-Out: A few accidental ones to The Walking Dead. It's set in the South and has a character named Shane, although
Word of God said that those similarities were unintentional, and he had never watched the show until he made chapter 4. - Undead Child: A zombie girl appears in chapter 1 and depending on the player's choices in chapter 2 a baby sleeper zombie will ambush them from the top of a gas station.
- Zombie Infectee:
- Sometimes a survivor will be bit and request to be put down before they turn. This also serves as a minor plot point in the first chapter but ultimately ends up subverted with the person in question just being ill.
- Phil gets bitten near the beginning of Riverside and turns shortly after. Depending on the choices the player makes he can also end up killing one of the other group members when it happens.
