Bit sad to have to say no here but the game is not well balanced. It's SO CLOSE to being a 5/5 but this one issue makes it straight up a 1/5. I know you are meant to die a lot but it gets super repetitive to try and do anything when the choices remove/add so many points, and the duels are straight up nonsense.
The later games seem no better at this.

Reigns is honestly a pretty fun, simple management sim where you've gotta try your best to balance the four estates of your power as King to prevent your untimely demise at practically every turn. The game is easy to pickup and get into, as well as a having a nice artstyle that makes seeing all the cards (and deaths) a fun thing to do.

The main plot of the game is also pretty cool, though I wish some of the side plot lines had a greater impact on the main plotline (such as the Senator side plot) and I wish it was made a tad bit more intuitive on how to get the best ending. The Frozen Blood objective in particular also seems to be broken, as you can get it via alternative means then the main way to get it, but the game only counts the main way as completing the objective.

Overall, Reigns is a pretty good game that you can spend a couple hours on and have fun doing so for a pretty great price (particularly if you get it on sale like I did). I'd give it an 8/10!

At first the game felt funny enough to be compelling ! Even had a few laughs and smiles regarding the various endings.
Then you adopt the gamer mindset, inviting you to challenge Reigns and break records.

Unfortunatly though, the more you play, the more you realize none of your choices really makes sense. Nor do their consequences.
In this game, you are always trying to keep a balance between church/people/army/bank, and making sure none of them go too high or too low.
And yet, for each answer you give, their is somehow a solid 60% chance the outcome is not gonna be what you thought it'd be.

Pick a side to favor the people, of course it will lower the very meter you were trying to raise. Because why not ?
Developer obviously has his own logic, that I couldn't quite crack after 30 attempts.
You can even die or lose without proper warning, despite the fact you were doing well up to that point.

This leads to an interesting and good concept, which sadly falls short of relevance, as if RNG was the real ruler here.

But if you can't control or guess any of what's happening in the game with logical intuitive thinking, you'll pile up failures after failures, and eventually lose interest to keep playing. Because the game doesn't care and will throw his own logic at you regardless.

The fun in a game is an alchemy not everyone can develop properly. Here, it only shows at the first few runs. Afterward, you begin to see it only consists of nonsense, and relies on the player good will to endure this masquerade further.

Should this game have been what it was meant to be, could have been great ! Moral and cold decisions to take, for or in spite of forthcoming scenarios, in order to extend your reign as a despot or an idol, and punctuated by random events to subvert expectations from time to time. That sounds simple enough.
Shame it didn't deliver.