An original and interesting world, multi-layered characters, investing story and setting, choices which impact the game and most importantly exceptional writing. At times I was more invested in this game than in any other piece of media I engaged with in recent memory. It actually felt like I was forging my own path within the difficult world of the game, based off the principles and ideals I (Brante) acquired and I absoulutely loved that. What I love even more is how open-minded the game is if you decide to take a more questionable path or make an immoral choice - it doesn't judge you, but instead just alters the narrative in a way that would be respectful of your choices.
Long story short - this would have been the best game I've played this year. But then I tried to replay it.
It seriously baffles me how a game with so many possible outcomes can have such a fucked up save system. In the final chapter of the game I had 3 different paths to choose from. I initially went with one of them and finished the game. Then to play through the other two, I had to play through the ENTIRE CHAPTER twice as well. For some reason (presumably because it could make farming achievements too easy? but I honestly have no fucking clue) the game overwrites your save whenever a new event starts and then if you want to make other choices you can only do that by replaying the entire chapter from the start. Manual saves would easily fix the entire issue, so I don't know why the devs went for such a stupid choice. I would honestly replay the game a couple of times if I didn't have to sit through all of this stuff. There is so much content in it, but it somehow feels like the devs don't care enough to give you access to it.
Still, if you only do one playthrough (which is even somewhat thematically fitting - you know, every person has one life etc.) the game is definitely worth your attention - even with the lacking design. It's thought-provoking, it's original, it's very well-written and it's a very good game / interactive book.
Long story short - this would have been the best game I've played this year. But then I tried to replay it.
It seriously baffles me how a game with so many possible outcomes can have such a fucked up save system. In the final chapter of the game I had 3 different paths to choose from. I initially went with one of them and finished the game. Then to play through the other two, I had to play through the ENTIRE CHAPTER twice as well. For some reason (presumably because it could make farming achievements too easy? but I honestly have no fucking clue) the game overwrites your save whenever a new event starts and then if you want to make other choices you can only do that by replaying the entire chapter from the start. Manual saves would easily fix the entire issue, so I don't know why the devs went for such a stupid choice. I would honestly replay the game a couple of times if I didn't have to sit through all of this stuff. There is so much content in it, but it somehow feels like the devs don't care enough to give you access to it.
Still, if you only do one playthrough (which is even somewhat thematically fitting - you know, every person has one life etc.) the game is definitely worth your attention - even with the lacking design. It's thought-provoking, it's original, it's very well-written and it's a very good game / interactive book.
I honestly think this is one of my favorite games of all time. I hate when games that do the whole "choose your own adventure book" style have too much of a gamey aspect and feel. The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante manages to still feel like a game with something akin to skill checks without feeling like a ttrpg.
beautiful game
I have only played the noble path in game and need to get back to do the commoner and priest route but the game has its own original fantasy world with plenty to get immersed into. Just get ready to read... like.... a lot.
Dont like how the stats work
What a strange title ! I jumped in thinking I'd get to build and forge my own story from the ground, and be the brante which I'd like to be. Which I did , for the first 1-2 chapters. Starting from chapter 3 , it gets difficult to, choose your choices freely, there are multiple new stats introduced around this time, but it's still bearable. Chapter 4 was when I gave up , infuriated that the Brante I'd want to be , would never come to fruition. Locked behind stats my brante was heading towards an ending i never signed up for the game decided it for me. A very infuriating experience, can't believe I wasted like what 5 hours on this title. The story is good, I'll give them that. But damn , you needn't to do that much levels of horrible stats addition overall a title I'd say , you shouldn't play, if you care about free choice
Despite the intriguing opening chapters, the main game eventually devolves into counting numbers. You either live your life the way you want and suffer at the end, or you suffer the whole game for the sake of life at the end.
So so many choices.
Fiquei obcecado com isso
A well written text RPG that is held back a bit by your choice variety tending to be fairly limited for each event and being a more railroaded experience than many similar games.
Set in a world where twin deities have given people their role "lot" in life as a lowborn, clergy member, or noble where the lowborn are dedicated to suffering and living for the nobles while the nobles are able to become soldiers or pursue writings and the arts. Through deeds some lowborns can be granted nobility and another somewhat blue skinned race that is stronger and faster than humans are shown to be seen as far superior to even the nobles with one of their race acting as the emperor. You were born to a noble man and the lowborn woman that he married after the death of his first wife, your father's other son is considered a noble, while your mother's daughter has no claim to the family name. For you and a brother born after you it is possible through your deeds or education and job to become nobles. Each person in the world is also able to die four times, the first three deaths causing them to be resurrected shortly after with the fourth death leading to a true death where they are then judged before the twins.
The game is broken up into five chapters where the first two cover your childhood as you are introduced to world, meet characters and family members that will become or remain important later, and build your skills in different areas from the decisions you make. The third chapter sees you traveling away from home once you become an adult for the remainder of your education and splits the way that your story will go as you can become a judge like your father, a priest and inquisitor, or stick to your lowborn lot where you can become more directly involved with a growing rebel faction. The skills you have been building up also combine to give you a total in diplomacy, manipulation, theology, valor, scheming, and eloquence that decide on whether actions are open to you or not, with choices started to require a 10+, 14+, 17+, and one act somewhere in the game needing a 20 to be able to choose. You will also be dealing with other values that can go up or down like your relationship levels with other characters, family unity, family reputation, family wealth, and things relating to your job. Your willpower also has to be managed where having a value you of 0 or more can be required for certain choices that will take 5 or 10 points, possibly taking you into the negatives, where the only way to recover can be to gain willpower by choosing to ignore stressful events or getting involved with later situations. Reaching certain levels will create new events or will open or lock decisions. The forth chapter is the longest and sees you dealing with your career and family in ways that allow for a lot more branching paths as opposed to the more linear starting chapter. The finale takes place over a single day as your stats and other choices determine what kind of ending you get.
Gameplay involves going through a series of events for each chapter where choices or hitting certain levels of relationships and stat levels or making agreements with other characters can cause an event to take place. Each event is given a title, shows you what you did to unlock it if it was not one you get by default, and involves you reading what happened before being presented a list of choices to choose from where options can be available or locked off for a variety of reasons that are all shown to you if you hover over the choice. The start of every chapter will also show you a list of important events that can occur if certain conditions are met.
It's a good well written RPG that is held back a bit by your choice variety tending to be fairly limited for each event, usually only one or two skills are available as an option in each event, and there is a good chance you will never really be able to use a particular skill in the way you originally envisioned or where you might rank up skills much higher than you will ever need them to be on the path you happen to be on. The game can also make it difficult to see what you are trying to accomplish get done just by how it is set up or when you suddenly get an event that adds or removes a lot more than you would want from certain stats, especially if you are trying to maintain certain levels above or below the caps. While the forth chapter is both the longest and the one that will be very different depending on your career choice, you aren't really spending that much time in the game once your character is really set up and going before before you reach the endgame. You are also basically just answering pop up, fairly linear sequenced, events without wider world exploration style option many of these kind of games have.
Screenshots: https://twitter.com/Legolas_Katarn/status/1667741188835930115
Set in a world where twin deities have given people their role "lot" in life as a lowborn, clergy member, or noble where the lowborn are dedicated to suffering and living for the nobles while the nobles are able to become soldiers or pursue writings and the arts. Through deeds some lowborns can be granted nobility and another somewhat blue skinned race that is stronger and faster than humans are shown to be seen as far superior to even the nobles with one of their race acting as the emperor. You were born to a noble man and the lowborn woman that he married after the death of his first wife, your father's other son is considered a noble, while your mother's daughter has no claim to the family name. For you and a brother born after you it is possible through your deeds or education and job to become nobles. Each person in the world is also able to die four times, the first three deaths causing them to be resurrected shortly after with the fourth death leading to a true death where they are then judged before the twins.
The game is broken up into five chapters where the first two cover your childhood as you are introduced to world, meet characters and family members that will become or remain important later, and build your skills in different areas from the decisions you make. The third chapter sees you traveling away from home once you become an adult for the remainder of your education and splits the way that your story will go as you can become a judge like your father, a priest and inquisitor, or stick to your lowborn lot where you can become more directly involved with a growing rebel faction. The skills you have been building up also combine to give you a total in diplomacy, manipulation, theology, valor, scheming, and eloquence that decide on whether actions are open to you or not, with choices started to require a 10+, 14+, 17+, and one act somewhere in the game needing a 20 to be able to choose. You will also be dealing with other values that can go up or down like your relationship levels with other characters, family unity, family reputation, family wealth, and things relating to your job. Your willpower also has to be managed where having a value you of 0 or more can be required for certain choices that will take 5 or 10 points, possibly taking you into the negatives, where the only way to recover can be to gain willpower by choosing to ignore stressful events or getting involved with later situations. Reaching certain levels will create new events or will open or lock decisions. The forth chapter is the longest and sees you dealing with your career and family in ways that allow for a lot more branching paths as opposed to the more linear starting chapter. The finale takes place over a single day as your stats and other choices determine what kind of ending you get.
Gameplay involves going through a series of events for each chapter where choices or hitting certain levels of relationships and stat levels or making agreements with other characters can cause an event to take place. Each event is given a title, shows you what you did to unlock it if it was not one you get by default, and involves you reading what happened before being presented a list of choices to choose from where options can be available or locked off for a variety of reasons that are all shown to you if you hover over the choice. The start of every chapter will also show you a list of important events that can occur if certain conditions are met.
It's a good well written RPG that is held back a bit by your choice variety tending to be fairly limited for each event, usually only one or two skills are available as an option in each event, and there is a good chance you will never really be able to use a particular skill in the way you originally envisioned or where you might rank up skills much higher than you will ever need them to be on the path you happen to be on. The game can also make it difficult to see what you are trying to accomplish get done just by how it is set up or when you suddenly get an event that adds or removes a lot more than you would want from certain stats, especially if you are trying to maintain certain levels above or below the caps. While the forth chapter is both the longest and the one that will be very different depending on your career choice, you aren't really spending that much time in the game once your character is really set up and going before before you reach the endgame. You are also basically just answering pop up, fairly linear sequenced, events without wider world exploration style option many of these kind of games have.
Screenshots: https://twitter.com/Legolas_Katarn/status/1667741188835930115
Sinceramente, não sei exatamente o que dizer sobre este jogo. O jogo é bonito, tem uma história que te trás ânimo para ver até onde irá. Porém, após o início dá juventude, eu sinto que o jogo acaba por se perder um bocado. Muitos personagens sendo introduzidos ao mesmo tempo, escolhas, talvez grandes demais, além de imprevisíveis.
Além do principal: Em determinado momento, eu simplesmente não tinha mais escolhas, não possuia opções.
Após o adoecimento materno, eu simplesmente não tinha mais o que fazer, ajudar a família, o povo, nada. Eu simplesmente fiquei fadado a ler por mais de meia hora como tudo que eu queria fazer deu errado, como minha familia se separou, o povo entrou em revolta, e eu literalmente só podia escolher observar tudo.
O jogo é bem produzido sim, mas não ter a opção de voltar pra escolha passada, aliadas aos níveis exorbitantes de requerimentos para qualquer escolha late game, me desapontou bastante.
Além do principal: Em determinado momento, eu simplesmente não tinha mais escolhas, não possuia opções.
Após o adoecimento materno, eu simplesmente não tinha mais o que fazer, ajudar a família, o povo, nada. Eu simplesmente fiquei fadado a ler por mais de meia hora como tudo que eu queria fazer deu errado, como minha familia se separou, o povo entrou em revolta, e eu literalmente só podia escolher observar tudo.
O jogo é bem produzido sim, mas não ter a opção de voltar pra escolha passada, aliadas aos níveis exorbitantes de requerimentos para qualquer escolha late game, me desapontou bastante.
This game is currently in the Humble Choice for April 2023, and this is part of my coverage of the bundle. If you are interested in the game and it's before May 2nd, 2023, consider picking up the game as part of the current monthly bundle.
A slow, dark story-based adventure.
The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante is a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure. There’s a little more strategy than a typical visual novel, stat-based choices, and relationship systems, but as I played the game I remembered all those times I picked up a Choose-Your-Own-Adventurebook and picked a bunch of different options to work my way through the story. Sir Brante does the same thing with more stats and stories. This also is a dark story, in a rather troubled time.
The problem is I dislike how heavy-handed the story is. A good story usually gives players hope before dashing it in front of them, but in Sir Brante, everything is bad. The world is pain and suffering and then more pain and suffering. Hell, your grandfather might just kill you early on because…. reasons. This is made by a Russian studio and Russian literature tends to be darker and depressing but man this was a bit frustrating because rather than give the player happiness and steal it, this is just a pain for most of the game so far.
Pick this up if you like story-based games, there’s no voice acting, and most of the game is just flipping through pages and making choices. If you can get over the dark, dreary story there are interesting choices, and gameplay, but there’s also a feeling that you may be min-maxing your results, more than enjoying a story. You can disable the game from displaying those results but that’s not the intended way to play the game.
If you enjoyed this review or want to know what I think of other games in the bundle, check out the full review on or subscribe to my Youtube channel: https://youtu.be/NoQjv8lnYiY
A slow, dark story-based adventure.
The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante is a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure. There’s a little more strategy than a typical visual novel, stat-based choices, and relationship systems, but as I played the game I remembered all those times I picked up a Choose-Your-Own-Adventurebook and picked a bunch of different options to work my way through the story. Sir Brante does the same thing with more stats and stories. This also is a dark story, in a rather troubled time.
The problem is I dislike how heavy-handed the story is. A good story usually gives players hope before dashing it in front of them, but in Sir Brante, everything is bad. The world is pain and suffering and then more pain and suffering. Hell, your grandfather might just kill you early on because…. reasons. This is made by a Russian studio and Russian literature tends to be darker and depressing but man this was a bit frustrating because rather than give the player happiness and steal it, this is just a pain for most of the game so far.
Pick this up if you like story-based games, there’s no voice acting, and most of the game is just flipping through pages and making choices. If you can get over the dark, dreary story there are interesting choices, and gameplay, but there’s also a feeling that you may be min-maxing your results, more than enjoying a story. You can disable the game from displaying those results but that’s not the intended way to play the game.
If you enjoyed this review or want to know what I think of other games in the bundle, check out the full review on or subscribe to my Youtube channel: https://youtu.be/NoQjv8lnYiY
This review contains spoilers
I got the bloodbath ending despite doing everything right until then, except I hadn't made ONE of the correct choices as a kid and because of that, even though the entire city was ready and willing to face the Empire, Sophia, who barely appeared in the entire game, just took control and went ham. And folks followed along.
Pretty fucking stupid if you ask me, even if the writing until then was fine. The worldbuilding is kinda sucky and way too bleak though.
Look forward to what the devs will do after this, they're clearly talented.
Pretty fucking stupid if you ask me, even if the writing until then was fine. The worldbuilding is kinda sucky and way too bleak though.
Look forward to what the devs will do after this, they're clearly talented.
Finished with three main scenario branches but can't be arsed to do the diverging faction sub-branches; the game's really hurt by the lack of text skip or qol feature to easily revisit branching decisions.
DO NOT ATTEMPT TO 100% FROM THE GET GO IT GETS FUCKING BORING
One of the best examples of what these choose-your-own-adventure games have to offer. A believable world that you learn about the way an actual child does - some things are explained to you very simply, but you will learn a lot about society through observation only to understand why the world works that way when you're much older. While a world where people can die multiple times is pretty interesting, I don’t feel like they took full advantage of this bit of lore in my first playthrough despite being almost constantly surrounded by death. Of course, it plays a significant role in the part of the game centered around the revolt (a fixed part of the timeline?) but most of the time it came up in my playthroughs, it was related to executions or people who just happened to be due for their “True Death” anyway. The mechanics of being reborn still make dying undesirable, but I may have to do a couple more replays to see if they use this in a more interesting way in other routes.
Unlike many other “Choose your own adventure” games I’m unable to level my usual complaint at it - many of these games grant you outcomes based on a single button press, making them feel unearned. Sir Brante does an excellent job of making all the outcomes in the game feel like natural consequences of your decisions, and trying to juggle all the sources of tension present in the game becomes quite a challenge. Even with the immediate effects of your actions shown, this is by no means an easy game, as each decision has increasing weight as the story goes on, each feeling like it could be the one that comes back to bite you in the end. Characters are given agency, moving their own pieces around and even people who share your goal may take approaches that conflict with yours. Supporting the upheaval of the current order feels just as tense as it should, and while Brante experiences far more excitement than the average person would, he never feels like a superhuman in his fictional context.
This isn’t to say the game is perfect. While the game generally does a good job of making you feel like there’s a diverse pool of possible outcomes, there are a few endings for the Brante family in particular that feel detached from their context in the story. There are also quite a few typos - nothing that really prevents you from understanding a sentence, but there are enough that I had to go back and do a repeat read more than once. Additionally, I feel like showing the possible events at the beginning of the chapter is the game tipping its hand a bit too much at the expense of the story. This would be a little better if the requirements to trigger the events weren’t displayed here, so that you still know what’s possible without knowing what exact stat threshold will guide you to the desired ending.
All that being said, I still think this is the best game of its type on the Steam store right now. It’s got a setting with enough interesting idiosyncrasies that you want to know more, but it's never weighed down with lore dumps. The decisions can be genuinely tough and the NPCs feel like they have real agency in the story, making great use of it by working towards understandable goals. It’s paced well, respects the player’s time, and doesn’t try to drown you in minutiae.
Unlike many other “Choose your own adventure” games I’m unable to level my usual complaint at it - many of these games grant you outcomes based on a single button press, making them feel unearned. Sir Brante does an excellent job of making all the outcomes in the game feel like natural consequences of your decisions, and trying to juggle all the sources of tension present in the game becomes quite a challenge. Even with the immediate effects of your actions shown, this is by no means an easy game, as each decision has increasing weight as the story goes on, each feeling like it could be the one that comes back to bite you in the end. Characters are given agency, moving their own pieces around and even people who share your goal may take approaches that conflict with yours. Supporting the upheaval of the current order feels just as tense as it should, and while Brante experiences far more excitement than the average person would, he never feels like a superhuman in his fictional context.
This isn’t to say the game is perfect. While the game generally does a good job of making you feel like there’s a diverse pool of possible outcomes, there are a few endings for the Brante family in particular that feel detached from their context in the story. There are also quite a few typos - nothing that really prevents you from understanding a sentence, but there are enough that I had to go back and do a repeat read more than once. Additionally, I feel like showing the possible events at the beginning of the chapter is the game tipping its hand a bit too much at the expense of the story. This would be a little better if the requirements to trigger the events weren’t displayed here, so that you still know what’s possible without knowing what exact stat threshold will guide you to the desired ending.
All that being said, I still think this is the best game of its type on the Steam store right now. It’s got a setting with enough interesting idiosyncrasies that you want to know more, but it's never weighed down with lore dumps. The decisions can be genuinely tough and the NPCs feel like they have real agency in the story, making great use of it by working towards understandable goals. It’s paced well, respects the player’s time, and doesn’t try to drown you in minutiae.