If you hate good storytelling, complex characters (including MC) political intrigue, historical Chinese settings and more plot than romance you will not have a good time. If on the other hand, you adore all these things like I do, you will love My Vow to My Liege.
I don't think I'd ever played a VN with a protagonist I liked and admired more than AhYu. She's naive at times, too lost in revenge at others, stuck between she was was and who she has to be, and yet follows through with her own convictions and tries to damn best to protect her people and country. She's such a realistic, believable, complex character with her own agency that I don't know how any other otoge protagonist will ever beat AhYu's place in my heart. I care more about AhYu's journey than I do the love interests. Not that the love interests were uninteresting. They're all well-written characters in their own right (mostly), with their own different dynamics with AhYu, and their own believable character motivations who grow throughout the routes. We even get a female side-character who is well written, just as badass as MC, and doesn't exist just to talk about boys with the MC!!!
I loved the setting. I eat up political intrigue and warfare. I read lots of Chinese WNs, I was very comfortable with the historical Chinese setting, Wuxia concepts and intimacy of nicknames. (AhYu and AhJiu ow my heart). For those new to the genre it may be a bit confusing but the in-game glossary should help some.
The only things there were issues were 1) translation quality and 2) Chenfang.
The translation is fine for the most part but I noticed lots of typos especially towards the end of the game. Nothing that ruins the game but they exist to blemish great writing otherwise.
Chenfeng. Oh boy. Why did they do my Chenfeng dirty like this? His route is the worst one out of the four due to plot reasons that lead to less romantic interactions between them. Chenfeng is my favourite LI. I love his design and his VA, and I adore the bodyguard trope. My kink is devotion and loyalty okay??? So it really hurts me that they didn't flesh him out fully and give us a route as well written as Goujian or Wu ZiXu. Wu ZiXu hands down has the best route. I personally didn't like Goujian as a LI because of the decisions he made and the consequences of them and I'm not as forgiving as the MC. YiGuang kind of came off as too perfect, his route too "easy" in comparison to the others, and his carefree personality kind of put me off (also because his good end hurt my Chenfeng loving heart).
Favourite routes: Wu ZiXu >>>>> Goujian > Chenfeng > YiGuang
I don't think I'd ever played a VN with a protagonist I liked and admired more than AhYu. She's naive at times, too lost in revenge at others, stuck between she was was and who she has to be, and yet follows through with her own convictions and tries to damn best to protect her people and country. She's such a realistic, believable, complex character with her own agency that I don't know how any other otoge protagonist will ever beat AhYu's place in my heart. I care more about AhYu's journey than I do the love interests. Not that the love interests were uninteresting. They're all well-written characters in their own right (mostly), with their own different dynamics with AhYu, and their own believable character motivations who grow throughout the routes. We even get a female side-character who is well written, just as badass as MC, and doesn't exist just to talk about boys with the MC!!!
I loved the setting. I eat up political intrigue and warfare. I read lots of Chinese WNs, I was very comfortable with the historical Chinese setting, Wuxia concepts and intimacy of nicknames. (AhYu and AhJiu ow my heart). For those new to the genre it may be a bit confusing but the in-game glossary should help some.
The only things there were issues were 1) translation quality and 2) Chenfang.
The translation is fine for the most part but I noticed lots of typos especially towards the end of the game. Nothing that ruins the game but they exist to blemish great writing otherwise.
Chenfeng. Oh boy. Why did they do my Chenfeng dirty like this? His route is the worst one out of the four due to plot reasons that lead to less romantic interactions between them. Chenfeng is my favourite LI. I love his design and his VA, and I adore the bodyguard trope. My kink is devotion and loyalty okay??? So it really hurts me that they didn't flesh him out fully and give us a route as well written as Goujian or Wu ZiXu. Wu ZiXu hands down has the best route. I personally didn't like Goujian as a LI because of the decisions he made and the consequences of them and I'm not as forgiving as the MC. YiGuang kind of came off as too perfect, his route too "easy" in comparison to the others, and his carefree personality kind of put me off (also because his good end hurt my Chenfeng loving heart).
Favourite routes: Wu ZiXu >>>>> Goujian > Chenfeng > YiGuang