Atara B

This was a fantastic, amazing game that Im so glad I picked up. (Switch release) You play as Eryk, a king tasked with weekly petitioners and caring for his family, his wife and three daughters. You're presented with various options to aid the petitioners, each petition has consequences that reach through the entire story. In order to meet these requests, you must balance your resources wisely, build allies and keep your family happy and safe. The story is fantastic. The longer you play, the deeper it goes, twists that I was not expecting, but made sense and -fit- through the whole thing. I am not kidding when I say it made me laugh, get mad, and cry at various points. Any story that can draw me along and stir up emotions like that is more than worth it in my opinion. As expected, your choices in how you tend to your petitioners have impact that's felt all along the way. There's influence from eastern european lore that as someone with family roots there, I certainly appreciated, and it added a wonderful undertone to the whole thing. There are multiple endings depending on what you chose to do, as these games are wont to have. I to a degree felt bad that I didnt get this game on Steam for the achievements, since the Switch has none, that would allow me a better opportunity to track what achievements and endings I obtained. Some may not like how you are fairly firmly drawn along a particular story path, but it kept the narriative together this way, and where your choices came in, you still saw their touch later. The graphics are as if 'Kingdom' and 'Reigns' crossed together, very beautiful and detailed pixel style animation that still presents unique characters. I wish the bgm were a little more varied within the story, what I mean is that each week in the throne room watching petitioners had no real variety in music, and I was never quite clear on why it would sometimes swell with the full band during particular sequences. It's wonderful music, I would have enjoyed hearing it a bit more. I really don't often review things in this sort of fashion, especially if I'm playing it on a private console rather than on my pc through one of the game services, but this game was so satisfying in what I got that I needed to say something about it. Full stars!