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.