I don't often write reviews for things, but I thought I would for this one as I feel it warrants some clarity before you buy it. This is my first impression moments after completing the game. I've played many games in this style, and there are some common pitfalls that authors can fall prey to in the writing of them.
-A lack of clarity of the intended result when it comes to choice selection.
-A skill/attribute system that doesn't seem to come into play very often.
-A story with a large cast, but relatively few interactions.
-Romances where the result of one's responses are unclear.
-Relationship gauges that barely seem to move regardless of the actions you take.
-Stories where you make decisions, but don't actually do anything, and other characters act out most scenes.
-Scenes where you are unsure if a certain response will end the scene, or if you can choose multiple responses.
-A story arc that indicates a longer story, but ends abruptly before that conclusion, indicating a sequel.

Unfortunately this story trips up on all of these at one point or another. In addition there are, at the time of writing this, quite a few spelling and formatting mistakes, mostly encountered in the latter portions of the game. The writing also begins to suffer in the latter half, with the prose becoming even more simplified and some of the characters stating things in a way that feels like a first pass in want of an edit. As an example, the line "Manipulation is the best method for controlling people." is uttered, and the simplistic delivery makes the character sound childish. Some of the world building feels simplistic as well. Pirates are a state enemy, but whether these are just random rogue sailors or represent some culture group is kind of vague. There are a few gods mentioned, but little real description of them, same thing with countries. This is unfortunate as the writing is more nuanced when it comes to aspects of leadership, personal and familial relationships, and how to navigate the burden of power and the matters of the heart.

The premise is interesting, and the characters, though somewhat shallow, were engaging enough that I had some favourites, but over all a lot of them feel sketched out and it was difficult to know what they wanted or what the likely result of any given response was going to be. And given how few interactions it is possible to have with some of them, and how little the relationship meters move it could be very difficult to know who liked my character and who didn't, with most of them barely moving from the baseline during the entirety of the game, in spite of being declared my closest ally. When it comes to the various attributes things could be even more confusing.

I was almost maxed in Charming and Confidence, but I have no idea what the effect of that was. I was an incredibly skilled swordsman and combatant, but in the only combat scenario I encountered outside of training (and I was looking for chances to put my skills on display), my character did nothing and some allies took care of things. Archery came up twice, and both times seemed important, and I failed both of those, but there was no indication it would be useful compared to the other two before hand. There is a point early on where you can learn another language, that seems pretty important later, and the chance never comes again and isn't really explained at the time. I raised my knowledge skill quite high, but I have no idea if that changed anything at all. Considering how many stats there are, it's unclear if there are tests regarding them or if they are just supposed to indicate your personality.

All of that said, I found the plot engaging, and the courtroom drama an interesting setting. The rigid society and the competition between you and your siblings was an interesting conceit, though again figuring out exactly what the standing between your siblings and you is determined by can be confusing, and it's unclear what, if anything, you should be trying to do to progress against them.

All in all, it is not a bad game. But it does show signs of needing some polish. Considering how intricate some of the plotting is, the delivery could use a little more grace, and the prose could be given a little more life instead of being so perfunctory. There were characters I liked, and choices that felt tense, but also many interactions that felt hollow and under cooked. It feels like an ambitious first entry, and while I'm interested in seeing the rest of the story, I hope the author can use their experience making this to refine their output for future stories. I recommend it, but with the admonishment that it feels like a first work, and may not be as polished as some other Text Adventure Games you may have played. I do however think there's a great deal of potential here.

This had a lot of potential but it never quite makes it to the height it could have.

- The attributes system seems to make very little difference to events, outside of a few comments here and there.
- The writing has a lot of vague 'the pirates, the enemy, the war' rather than fleshing out a well thought out world. Though it does with some things, not with others. Inconsistent and often overly simplistic.
- Seems rushed near the end. Mistakes creep in (referring to the wrong character or spelling errors) in the latter half.
- For a story with 750,000 words (allegedly) I found the epilogue jumped up and hit me in the face just as I thought we were getting into the real story...

Edit - After 2nd play through - Played very differently, one obvious major difference but quite a lot of the story remained very much exactly the same despite me learning different things/ having different attributes.


Overall: I love this time period style/ idea and this has a lot of promise, which this story sadly doesn't quite fulfil. It very much felt like I was 'on rails' and was just moved through the rather anti-climactic story, rather than truly changing it.

I have conflicting feelings on this game but my overall opinion is one of frustration, the story is interesting enough and I wanted it to be good. I still like it but I cannot recommend this game at its current pricing of £5.19, before I get into anything please do not purchase this unless it is discounted, it is not worth that much. I have played games of much higher quality and length that are cheaper than this. Lets get into the good and bad to explain, Any spoilers will be hidden.

- Has a decent enough story for most of the game
- Written competently to a point
- Characters are engaging enough to be interesting

- Really short story considering the price
- Falls apart in the last chapter and Epilogue especially (At least in the path that you don't become king/queen). The last chapter throws a curve ball at you and suddenly everyone is poisoned which is contagious...lemme say that again. A Contagious poison is killing your people. That is not how poisons work they are not contagious, viruses and diseases are so how in the hell does this make any sense to call it a poison? The Epilogue then completely and utterly destroys the overall story by being a rushed mess. After all these people dying and the king making a terrible speech to his people it suddenly does a 180 and goes happy and joyful. The people loved the kings speech, nothing is wrong now! They celebrate a "victory" when so many people died and IN THE MIDDLE OF A WAR. They already spent a lot of the kingdoms gold to buy the cure for the "poison" and are now wasting money on a party at a wildly inappropriate time! Instead of trying to arrange funerals or supporting the people who suffered they throw a damn party the hell?? When the epilogue started I actually thought it was a delirious dream or something in the story because of how out of place the entire thing felt. But no that's how it actually ends, it doesn't even deal with any plot threads just the immediate thing that happened at the end of the story.

- Build up for a confrontation that doesn't happen
- Sequel baiting in that it doesn't conclude anything and does a "tune in next time" to truly get to anything
- Attributes that don't seem to play any part in choices or the story. I had 90% Knowledge and at no point did it seem to contribute to anything. The only stats that seemed to do something was Archery and Close combat (ONCE).
- Side characters that wildly changed between characterisation. Queen Isabella went from someone that seemed to care about the PC to suddenly going "Oh actually I hate your mother and you so bye!" ????
- Very little world building. There's a sword that was made with magic, is it actual magic? Are their mages? How come its never mentioned or explained? What year is it? What country is this? Why is the economy bad years after a year? Nothing gets explained or elaborated on and you barely know anything about the world other than snippets here and there that get randomly tossed at you.

- The most worst thing in the entire game was the hidden dialogue that some choices had, completely changing what the option said it was going to say to something else. For example there were two choices that came up "I forgive you" and "I don't want you to die". I chose the 2nd one cuz I felt my character wouldn't forgive them so easily and they would need to earn that forgiveness, YET when I chose the option it then says I forgave them?? Why would you make a separate option if you're just going to make it have the same outcome? It infuriates me when that happens and its almost EVERY SINGLE OPTION THAT THIS HAPPENS. To show what this is like here is a video to better show what it does Here

- Whoever wrote this has no ideas how monarchies work. For example who in their right mind would BULLY A PRINCESS/PRINCE?? Why are we only learning how to fight and read books? What about etiquette, laws, how to attend political meetings and more? There is like 1-2 scenes that briefly shows them learning history but it never happens again.


I am harsh with this game because I like it, but the issues are too large to ignore and it actively worsens the experience. I was hopeful for this game, when something like this has a bigger price tag you expect it to have high quality and it does not reach it at all, I have played cheaper games from Hosted games that are MUCH higher quality and it aggravates me that this is priced higher than them. I really wanted this to be good as the first few chapters are fine, but the way it ends is just so out of left field that it killed any enjoyment I had. A huge disappointment.

Recommended with caveats. Tl;dr your royal screwup of a dad dies and you have to make hard choices and clean up his mess. Low fantasy European-inspired world featuring a large cast of characters and complex relationships. I felt it was worth my money, but there are some definite fair criticisms.

Gameplay and Choices
Often, you're given at least four choices about your thoughts or feelings, helping you to establish your character and become immersed in the story. You can be a leader or stay out of the spotlight like your sister Freya. At times you're allowed to not care about an issue or a character or to do nothing about them. I appreciate these options in particular because a major appeal of interactive fiction for me is seeing how things could go wrong thanks to a "bad" choice or two.

This game doesn't play out like a typical HG/CoG where skill tests are the primary determinant of your success; it's more reliant on the facts of the story and how they will affect people's reactions to your choices. This ended up giving me the impression that your stats and skills don't feel relevant to gameplay, which may be a negative to some people.

Plot-related choices are unfortunately not so great. Some things are scripted to happen regardless of your earlier choices, like the mass poisoning and the rebellion if you become king/queen. The game also sometimes wrongfully assumes your intentions behind one action; for example, I spared the man who poisoned the king because I want to blackmail him and I'm in a bit of a shortage of allies, what with the people planning to revolt against me... and yet the game tells me I've forgiven him. Things like this detract from my roleplaying experience.

Writing and Content
There's plenty of good storytelling to see here, full of tension, intrigue, and, unreliable narrators. We see characters with complex motivations, who think they're the hero of their story even as they make ruthless choices (Charles and his wives, Daemir, arguably Matteo, to name a few). Some of the plot twists were nicely foreshadowed and not predictable, which made for an interesting surprise as I learned them.

The game is all about making hard decisions and certainly lives up to that premise. You will need to consider whether ensuring the safety of your people is worth ruining your longstanding relationships with your family. Show too much mercy and people will decry you as weak and spineless. Be heartless and you may make powerful enemies in the future.

However, I'm sorry to say that the prose isn't of the best quality; sometimes it feels like I'm reading a film script that relies on to-the-point descriptions and dialogue, and not so much evocative imagery or a distinct narrative voice. Efforts into worldbuilding have clearly been made, and I appreciate them. Still, the setting itself doesn't stray very far from the usual Western Europe, just with more gender equality and acceptance for same-sex and polyamorous relationships. The world isn't so much a living, breathing thing so much as it is a backdrop to the characters and their actions.

And yes, sad to say that the game ends on a cliffhanger, which might be annoying if you're looking for a complete story.

I've been watching the development of this game for years but after playing it, I can say I'm incredibly disappointed. It had so much potential and good plot threads but a bunch of them just get dropped without getting finished properly. The game barely went longer than the previous WIP demo it had, you didn't get a chance to actually be king or anything. You become king, get poisoned then give a speech.

Complete and utter disappointment.

Spoilers ahead.
It was good, however I was agitated with the fact that with the twist at the end revolving around who poisoned the King, I chose to let that person live, but the game decided for me that I forgave them, that was far from my intention nor was the prospect of forgiveness written in the choice, my intention was to expose and then execute for their crime, I believe that needs to be fixed as it is somewhat important.

I really, really liked the first 90% of this, but then it jumps abruptly to an epilogue and a bunch of plotlines just hit the ground with a resounding thud. Feels like a "finish your story in the next two hours or we'll shoot this dog" situation...?

Generally, games from Choice of Games or Hosted Games that let one guide a character from birth allow one at least some control over how one's character feels, and the choices spell this out accordingly. This game, however, does not. Generally, one takes an action, and then is informed how one feels about it - often with little connection to the text one actually selected. Further, quite frequently, many choices will lead to the same outcome, thus making them false choices, and beyond this, the writing is dull and inconsistent. Is the monarch all-powerful, or just a figurehead? Is it a constitutional monarchy? An absolute monarchy? A coalition government with a figurehead? Exactly what this appears to be varies wildly as the plot demands - the king was some manner of man who could just execute his brother when he decided he wanted to, but as soon as one tries to do anything, there are negative consequences. Minutia about the rather dry background is prioritized over the actual mechanisms of rule, which, when one is playing a game as a ruler, is rather essential, The setting is generally uninteresting, essentially that of a mid-grade fantasy author. Nothing about this book is offensive - nothing about this book raises one's hackles. But it nonetheless is rather dull, and overall not a tremendously good example of the genre.

TL;DR: The game is bland. Choices are bland. The role of the monarch is ill-defined, beyond it being selected by the sword. For a better "You play as a monarch" CYOA series, try The Lost Heir trilogy by Mike Walter.

The game has interesting characters, a story with good potential, and solid world-building. But two things made the game problematic for me.
-There is no conclusion, there is a rising tension but there is no resolution.
-Stats doesn't matter much.
In normal circumstances, these two are deal breakers for me, but as a person who loves medieval genre, I will probably give a chance to the next game.

I've played a number of Choice games and I've rarely been disappointed.
Unfortunately I cant say the same about this one.
Pros:
- Writing is decent, only noticed 2 typos/grammatical errors.
- The worldbuilding is interesting, characters were mostly well developed.

Cons:
- Choices felt empty, it never really felt like there was a major impact to the story based on the choices that were made.
- Lack of ending, I reached the ending and there were more loose ends than resolutions. Even the main conflict of the story doesn't really finish. I'm not sure if the author intends to release a sequel that carries your data over, but honestly I wouldn't bother getting it anyway.

Neutrals:
- The story is very text heavy and less gamey than other choice books I've read, if you want to read a book but like to be able to insert yourself as the main character than you might enjoy it.

TLDR: I would only recommend getting this if you are looking for a book where you can insert yourself as the character and not a "choose your own adventure". Also, if you don't like not having a definitive ending, don't get it.
NOTE: I left the game open by accident, the actual length is 12 chapters and probably less than 8 hours depending on your reading speed.