The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante

A well-constructed, most unflattering portrait of life as a lower noble in the Holy Roman Empire, sprinkled with a modest amount of high fantasy. The title of the game, as well as it's storefront description, is an excellent descriptor for it. It is brutal, it is harsh, and it is painful. It comes at you with force, and any attempt to soften the blow is met with more. Take note of this being a character RPG. This means that you get to play as an established character. Your choices will impact decisive moments in his life, but you do not have direct control of his actions. There are many paths to take, and many ways to take them, but they are all his, and only his. There are a few inconsistencies in the game, which mostly appears to stem from events firing before a previous event is resolved. A minor criticism, but it can be jarring. In the (just under) nine hours I have played it, I have completed a single path. I might return to it, and give Sir Brante another chance at life, but there's no rush. I will not spoil any more than that I got a rather anticlimactic ending, but even that was properly written and provided a sense of closure. For what it is, it comes recommended. And it is a choose-your-own-adventure-book taken to the extreme. It is not for everyone, but those it is for, it will impress. Addendum: I have now taken the time to replay the final chapter several times, and managed to achieve an ending that was bittersweet, rather than just sour. I feel finished with it now, and am happy enough with the outcome. In time, I might return again, guiding a much different Brante through life, and it will be a distinct experience. Therein lies the brilliance of the game; I have played much less than a third of the game, and it's enough. Not because I'm tired of it, or frustrated, or even bored, but because I have, to my own satisfaction, found _my_ path and _my_ ending to the story. When I return to it, it will be for curiosity, and not for closure. I already have that. The recommendation stands, with a word of guidance; allow yourself some do-overs. Since you cannot control every action, your decisions are inherently flawed. Give yourself the freedom to go back and force the action you seek.

Possibly the most baffling "Choices Matter" game I have ever had the displeasure of playing in my life. The choices you make matter, but they matter so much that it circles back around to the choices not mattering at all. You have two paths in this game- you can either choose to commit yourself to a very rigid path and do everything you can to specialize in it, and then you will get far more variety of options as long as you continue on that chosen path. But truly, this starts when you are a child- from your very first decision in the game. The game is honest about this, at least- much of the time you will have many choices available to you, but you won't be able to pick the ones you'd like to pick. Even if a choice seems like the perfect thing to do in the moment, if it deprives you of the necessary Willpower or Reputation or Unity, on and on, for a later choice, then you simply cannot pick it or else literally everything following it will crumble. Many of the decisions in this game also seem- odd. Many times talking people down is not determined by how eloquent you are, but rather how manipulative you are. The opposite is also true. The game is harsh, brutal, and unforgiving. Unfortunately it does not execute these principles in an appealing way- most of the time I found myself not questioning which choice would lead to a happier outcome, nor would I care much about which choice would result in a more interesting story or scene. Instead, roughly 70% of all choices I made in this game were solely about what resources they gave and took away from me. They did not appear as influencing my personality, nor the world around me, it only mattered if the choice wouldn't completely obliterate my playthrough. "Will this give me more Willpower? Will this give me more Unity? Will this give me more Wealth?" It was never a question of pursuing the story or reaching satisfying conclusions. Or even unsatisfying conclusions or dark endings. Roughly halfway through the game I didn't even feel like I was playing through a story at all anymore- the words had little meaning because all that mattered were what the choices would give or take away from my character. As I realized that, I also realized I didn't care about the story anymore. If I have to spend the entire game understanding that the actual interactions and scenes don't really matter, only the end screens where you pick your choice based on what resources you have available and what you don't, then why am I playing this game at all? I certainly didn't buy this game because I wanted to worry or stress over every single number, every single digit of my character's stats. I certainly didn't buy this game because I wanted to carefully and strategically manage resources. I wanted to buy this game to experience an enriching story, a powerful tale that I could shape with the choices I made, and see a well-written, well-executed ending to it all. Unfortunately, this game fulfills none of what I wanted from it. Perhaps that's my fault for not knowing truly what the game was about, but either way- I would not recommend this game to anyone I know, but especially not to someone seeking a story-driven, "choices matter" style experience. This game tells you about the Life and Suffering of Sir Brante. And you will either sit there and listen, stressed and hopeless and confused for much of it, or you will do as I've done and simply uninstall the game and go enjoy something else. This game would have been a wonderful book series- but as a video game trying to give player agency, it fails miserably.

A very amazing story! I'm addicted to this world... its so immersive. Les Miserables mixed with Elden Ring lol, that's what the setting is like.

Excellent choose-your-own-path about life, its choices, and class struggle in an alternative fantasy universe. More of a visual novel as the paths are pretty rigid but absolutely worth playing.

Really refreshing game that's how Id describe it. I enjoyed the different paths. Nice change of pace from the stuff I usually play, and I give it its flowers for that.

As one of the most well-written and engaging narrative games I've played in recent years, this should be a must-buy for anyone interested in the genre. I've played several text-based narrative games over the years, and few have compared to The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante over time. Many of these games struggle to interwine the actual game mechanics they create into the large, branching stories they tell, but this game manages to combine the story it hopes to tell with some of the most polished mechanics and stats I've seen. Every single choice you make in this game feels important and weighted; not only for narrative purposes, but for the fact that you must play an incredibly tight balancing game, navigating every aspect of your life in order to MAYBE pull off the outcome you hope to achieve. This game is hard but rewarding, and you will not achieve a fulfilling ending without an understanding of the game's systems, and the fact that you can't have everything you want. I'm incredibly excited to see how the developers expand upon the game's systems and the Arknian Empire in their next title, and I really hope we get more news soon! My only wish for the next game is that deaths and the endings have more weight to them, as it felt like the dialogue with the twins served minimal in-game purpose, and my choices didn't impact my available choices or ending in any way. I think it would've added layers of depth had I started being more family driven had I chosen "family" as my driving purpose, or more in-depth choices towards nobility had I chose status, etc..

If you're into choose-your-own-adventure style of storytelling with high emotional stakes and odds that are stacked against you, this is definitely the game for you. I personally loved the story and the characters and played the game slow on my first playthrough, reading through the writing which was definitely better than I expected. I didn't get the ending I really wanted, but that just encouraged me into replaying the game again and again to see if I could get the different endings. A few playthroughs I went through just to see what happens when you are nice to certain characters and vice versa and some of the endings and outcomes really surprised me in a good way. Bear in mind, no matter what, you'll not be able to please everyone and you'll end up making sacrifices depending on the choices you've made. The resources you're balancing on the paths you choose can be unforgiving and some checks can have really rough requirements that you just can't meet, because of choices you made years before. It is, after all, a game about the life and -suffering- of Sir Brante, and the world is grim and your circumstances in life in some ways unforgiving. I loved the story and the worldbuilding and think the game's an amazing buy for such a cheap price if you're into these kinds of games!

Fun but depressing. The game literally opens with a warning that you can't do everything you want to do. If you're into that, this is great. I really enjoy it.

Great game, forced me to make hard choices by asking me what I'm willing to sacrifice without being too overly difficult to accomplish the things I did choose to prioritize; enjoyed the world building, did not feel like I simply entered a painted over version of medieval ages but instead a medieval era society with its own unique culture

Great game though not a normal choose your advanture and more of a resource managment however was worth the money. Also DONT BELIEVE THE HATE ON CHAPTER 5. if you have the right stats you can get a okay ending though it is very hard. i beleive thats the point of the game though.

Highly recommend this game to people who live visual novels. It is a great game for players who like that style of games. It is not for everyone but in its category it is one of the top 10 games you will find.

25 yaşımda derin devletin adamları tarafından öldürüldüm. Belki çakma polat alemdar olabilirdim, ama bizden büyük balıklar vardı suda kardeşşş

Not in the mood to write an essay but I had a blast playing this over and over and I think it is well worth the buy.

Friends, Family, Religion. These are the three demons you must slay if you wish to succeed as a judiciary.

It is an interactive novel. You read some of the novel and are then asked to choose what your character does next from a short list of options. This all takes place in an imaginary somewhat dystopian historic fantasy world. The screen displays text and some art in still images. I played it through from birth to death once. I found the early childhood stage of decisions somewhat tedious, but pleasant enough. The later choices seemed more likely to have consequences. My character became a judge and became disliked by an aristocrat who eventually killed my character when in his 30s. Having seen my character through his relatively short but good life I felt no desire to go through again making different decisions for him. I don't know why. It took 8 hours to live that one life.

Tries too hard to have freedom of choice while ultimately rendering decisions meaningless and railroading into dull endings that fail to acknowledge anything you did.

不信邪坚持玩了九小时没打出一个好结局，这下我真怒了

An excellent cyoa set in a world I'm excited to learn more about in the upcoming sequel

very good game

good

ResidentSleeper

Игра хуйня

died a sad and anonymous death