The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante (in the times of the fall of the Blessed Arknian Empire) is a small indie text-based, narrative-driven fantasy RPG / visual novel, developed by Sever and published by 101XP, with Fyodor Slusarchuk being the author of the original concept and setting, Sergey “Chip” Aksenov, the Lead Game Designer, and Anton Kolomiets, the illustrator.
You play as a male character, from birth to death, born into a family that’s trying to get ennobled. Your home city is Anizotte, in the province of Magra, a part of the Arknian Empire. Arknians are a sort of otherworldly creatures that established an empire about 1000 years ago; they are human-looking, but taller, stronger, and have a blueish tint to their skin. This world has a caste system, here called Lots: nobleman (judge), priest (inquisitor), or lowborn commoner / lotless (conspirator). The family (especially your father) wants you to become a nobleman, but you can choose your path in life however you want. You also get three deaths (and three resurrections) before your final one, granted by “the Twins,” the holy figures around whom the religion of this world is formed. The Empire is going through some serious social and religious unrest over the course of your lifetime and you can influence the changes for the better or for the worst, through your choices in the game. You can also influence the life of your own family and of your region.
The gameplay is very simple: you have to read and make a choice (although that choice might not be as easy as you might think). You go through several stages that lead to a revolt in the city. You have childhood skills/attributes (determination, perception, willpower), which later combine with your adolescence skills (nobility, ingenuity, spirituality, willpower), to give you your adulthood skills (diplomacy, manipulation, theology, valor, scheming, eloquence). There are also family attributes, reputation, relations, region attributes (wealth of Magra, order, power, church, tolerance of faiths, etc.) – depending also on your career choice.
But this is nothing new. What differentiates this game from other ones of its kind (and what I love about it) is its overall vision – it’s trying to make you think about several questions. The choice you made at the beginning will be challenged at the end of the game. It asks some interesting questions – is there free will, or rather can you really influence society, or is it just luck? Also, how much the events around you influence your actions? Is everything predetermined? And even with the best intentions you can still fail.
The writing is okay; not great, but it is engaging. There is a lot of text to read, but it’s very concise and easy to understand. What draws you in is more the overall ideas, the concept, and the world that is familiar and strange at the same time.
The music is good, but I can’t say it’s memorable – it’s serviceable as background music.
In regards to the artwork, I liked it. The years say it’s the Middle Ages (your character is born in 1118), but the design of the clothes and the architecture reminds me more of mid-to-late 18th century. In fact, it’s really a combination of various centuries and European cultures. Overall, I think they did a good job with the creation of this world, from the artwork to the writing / lore. The world is complex, but they make it easy to understand, drawing their inspiration from history. The art for the characters really helps you understand them right away, just by looking at them. They don’t really need to talk, the quasi-static artwork helps the game more, paradoxically (or not). They were able to focus more on the details, instead of animating them, which would have been harder (and more expensive), and some details/ features (facial or otherwise) would have been lost or simplified. It’s not cinematic in any way, but it’s still compelling (there are some sort-of animations, but they can’t be really called cinematic like the usual cut-scenes in video games)
My only major problem with the game is that it doesn’t develop enough its own lore. There is actual magic in this world, for instance, which is only touched briefly; there’s an ancient race, the La-Tari that is also very briefly discussed, and if you participate in their ritual, you don’t really get anything out of it, except maybe some visions, but that doesn’t help you at all; Father Ulrich’s Willism doctrine is the only thing that actually gives you something (more willpower), but, again, it is not explored enough – there are multiple interesting nuggets that are not developed enough.
There were some Steam reviewers who complained that you lose no matter what, but that’s not true. I think it’s tied to the philosophy behind it, that you need to be flexible, that you need to make hard choices in order to get the desired outcome – to save the people of the city (and possibly of the Empire) by bringing a new order – or, on the contrary, to keep the current order, but to save your family and ennoble it. I think the point that the game is trying to make is that you can’t have everything, you always have to make sacrifices. I found that to be really close to life, and it made me enjoy this game very much.
P.S. This review can be found also on my blog: https://asynonymforrambling.wordpress.com/2022/01/30/some-thoughts-on-the-life-and-suffering-of-sir-brante/