Info about The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante:

Official game description:
JOIN THE COMMUNITY ON DISCORD
=============================
About the Game
==============
**The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante** is a narrative-driven RPG that comes to life on the pages of the protagonist's journal. Set in a ruthless world where any form of dissent is mercilessly crushed, the story follows a man who has dared to challenge the existing order. Set out on a lifelong journey and become an individual able to carve out their own destiny... But remember that freedom never comes cheap.  
_  
Life in the Great Arknian Empire is harsh and its hardest Lot is yours by the circumstance of birth. You are a commoner, holding no rights and no title. To seize your fate and become the rightful heir to the legacy of the Brante family you will have to come to grips with ossified tradition and prejudice. Embarking on a life-long journey from one's birth until true death, you will have to endure great upheavals, face adversity, and make many difficult choices. Every decision will affect not only the protagonist, his family, and loved ones, but may even topple the foundation of the Empire itself._  
Key features
------------
**  
At the turn of time**_  
Every imperial citizen's life is predetermined by their estate. The deities known as the Twin Gods have bestowed this truth to the world, dividing mortals into Lots. The nobles lead and rule over others, while the clergy guides people on the one true path, and the lowborn suffer, toiling away for the glory of the Empire. You may accept your fate without question, but it is also in your power to change the cosmic order that governs all.  
**  
Your choice is not an illusion**  
Divided into chapters, the game keeps track of the player's deeds, the skills they acquired, as well as other overlapping circumstances that shape a unique plotline for each playthrough. Every decision has its consequences and you will be held accountable throughout the entire journey. To protect your family and loved ones, to impose the rule of the Emperor and make a fortune, or to try and change the world as you see fit... Make your choice, but beware of the follies of pride and ambition.  
**  
Fight for your life**  
One man is anything but omnipotent in this realm yet under your guidance, Sir Brante may become a person who can endure every trial fate throws at him and rewrite the very laws that govern his world! Develop and train your character, leveling up such traits as determination, sensitivity, and endurance. All of the hero's skills, starting with those acquired in infancy, will affect his personality, worldview, and relationships, ultimately unlocking new talents and possible storylines.  
_  
**  
Find your own path**  
The first complete walkthrough can take you upwards of 15 hours! Numerous branching paths that affect the unfolding story will make every playthrough a unique experience: become a noble judge, learn the ways of the inquisition, plot a revolution as a member of a secret society, or embrace an entirely different purpose. Be brave and fate itself shall bend to your will!  
_  
**  
There and hereafter**  
Resurrection system allows the character to keep his experience upon death, letting the player reevaluate past steps and make adjustments to their strategy going forward. Take control not only of your life but also your demise, then put everything at stake in this cycle of death and rebirth!  
___

Release date: 4 Mar, 2021

Categories: Narrative Adventure, RPG, Choice-based Narrative, Character Progression, Multiple Endings, Resource Management, Single-player Story, Meta-Progression


- Hardware Profile: No data
Feature extractions:
- Community Price: No data
- Playtime Metrics: No data
- Time-to-fun: No data
- Player Archetypes: No data


Below are summaries of things people say about the game per category.
Each point is assigned a weight that represents how often it is mentioned across all reviews.
What players like:
- High replay value, branching narrative (weight 0.93): The game offers high replay value due to its branching narrative, multiple endings, and different paths. Each playthrough reveals new information and perspectives, encouraging players to explore all possibilities. The game combines story, role-playing system, and role-playing elements.
- Engaging story and excellent writing (weight 0.73): The game features a captivating and immersive story with excellent writing, making it easy to connect with the characters and world. The plot is well-structured and engaging, drawing players in from start to finish. The narrative is often compared to reading a novel, highlighting its depth and quality.
- Meaningful choices, significant consequences (weight 0.46): Meaningful choices with significant consequences are a core element, shaping the story, character development, and relationships. The game rewards and punishes you for your choices. This encourages players to carefully consider their decisions and adapt to the ever-changing world.
- Immersive atmosphere, excellent art/music (weight 0.14): The game features a unique art style, excellent sound design, and atmospheric music that create a compelling and immersive experience. The visuals and audio complement the narrative effectively, enhancing the emotional impact and drawing players into the game's world.
- Well-developed and believable characters (weight 0.12): The game features well-developed, realistic, and relatable characters that evolve over time, enhancing the immersive experience. The characters' actions are consistent with their backgrounds, making them believable. Players grow alongside the characters, experiencing their joys and losses.
- Interesting and well-developed world-building (weight 0.09): The game features interesting and well-developed world-building, with a unique setting, rich lore, and detailed mythology. The world incorporates social and political dynamics, creating ample opportunities for conflict and exploration. The setting blends medieval realism with fantasy elements.
- Evokes strong emotions, relatable struggles (weight 0.08): The game effectively conveys the protagonist's struggles and emotions, creating a strong connection with the player. The narrative explores complex relationships and difficult decisions, making the player feel every joy and sorrow of the character's journey. The story is often described as tragic and unforgettable.
- High-quality writing and translation (weight 0.06): The game features high-quality writing and translation, making it accessible and immersive for players. The text is engaging and easy to read, creating an experience similar to reading a book with interactive elements. The localization is well-done, allowing players to understand subtle emotional nuances.
- Intuitive play, unpredictable outcomes (weight 0.06): The game encourages intuitive play and experimentation, emphasizing that life is unpredictable and not always under control. The limitations on choice feel natural, especially in a text-based game. The game is minimalistic yet impactful, offering an opportunity to look at life differently.
- Thought-provoking and emotionally resonant (weight 0.04): The game is thought-provoking and emotionally resonant, exploring themes of family, loss, and resilience. The game's events highlight real-life problems, exposing our weaknesses and showing ourselves from different perspectives. The game is described as unique, soulful, and full of heart.
- Unique and unparalleled immersion (weight 0.04): The game is unique and stands out from other titles in the genre, offering an unparalleled level of immersion. It is often described as a work of art with a distinctive style. The game sets a high standard for text-based games, serving as a benchmark for future titles.
- Inspired by historical events/themes (weight 0.03): The game is set in a fictional world inspired by historical events, such as the Protestant Reformation and bourgeois revolutions. It explores themes of class struggle, religious conflict, and the pursuit of freedom and equality. The game provides a three-dimensional depiction of the living conditions and mental outlook of various social classes.
- Unique religious system, twin gods (weight 0.03): The game features a unique religious system with twin gods, whose teachings sometimes contradict the current era. The protagonist's final choice before the Twin Gods allows them to stay true to their core values. The game explores themes of faith, individual powerlessness, and the nature of life.
- Strong connection to Sophia's character (weight 0.01): The character Sophia is described as fierce and willing to do anything for her cause, though her methods require careful management. The reviewer expresses a willingness to do anything for Sophia, including betraying others and making choices detrimental to his family. This point shows signs of review bombing due to the emotional language and lack of specific details, reducing the score by 90%.

Common complaints:
- Restrictive stats hinder role-playing (weight 0.66): The game's rigid stat checks and point system severely restrict player choices, forcing them to prioritize stat optimization over role-playing, especially in later chapters. This leads to frustration, a sense of being railroaded, and the need for multiple playthroughs or guides to achieve desired outcomes. The lack of a skip function for text exacerbates the tedium of replays.
- Inconsistent narrative, illogical choices (weight 0.6): The game's narrative and choices often feel disjointed and illogical, with consequences that don't align with player expectations or character motivations. This undermines immersion and makes it difficult to connect with the story and characters. Some reviewers also noted translation issues and grammatical errors.
- Endings require strict stat optimization (weight 0.57): Achieving specific endings requires precise stat management and often necessitates the use of external guides. This diminishes the sense of player agency and turns the game into a stat-raising simulator rather than a role-playing experience. The game's design actively discourages organic character growth and exploration.
- Negative outcomes, family disintegration (weight 0.1): Many reviewers expressed frustration with the game's tendency to lead to negative outcomes, such as family disintegration and character death, despite their best efforts. This can create a sense of helplessness and discouragement, making it difficult to find satisfaction in the game's choices and consequences.
- Arbitrary skill system, forced choices (weight 0.09): The game's skill system and stat checks often feel arbitrary and disconnected from the narrative, forcing players to make choices based on numerical gains rather than role-playing preferences. This can lead to situations where characters act incoherently or are unable to perform actions that should be within their capabilities.
- Disappointing final chapters (weight 0.04): The final chapters of the game are often criticized for being rushed, linear, and unsatisfying. They fail to provide a sense of closure or accomplishment, and can even contradict earlier events or character development.
- Forced roles, loss of agency (weight 0.02): The game can force players into unwanted roles or storylines, such as becoming an inquisitor against their will. This can lead to a sense of betrayal and a loss of player agency.
- Flawed willpower system (weight 0.02): The willpower system is often criticized for being frustrating and nonsensical. It depletes quickly, limiting player choices and forcing them to make undesirable decisions to recover it.
- Poorly written character storylines (weight 0.02): Some reviewers expressed disappointment with specific characters, such as Sophia, and the way their storylines were handled. They felt betrayed by their actions or that their character development was poorly written.

Gameplay feedback:
- Life-spanning, choice-driven narrative (weight 0.26): The game is a text-based adventure where players make choices that significantly impact the protagonist's life from birth to death, shaping their stats, relationships, and the world around them. It's structured like an interactive book, focusing on narrative choices, resource management, and strategic planning. The game is divided into stages representing different life phases.
- Stat management impacts choice availability (weight 0.2): Choices in the game affect character stats, relationships, and destinies, often unlocking or locking future options. Players must manage these parameters strategically to achieve desired outcomes, sometimes requiring specific stat levels to progress or access certain content. This system emphasizes optimizing choices based on numerical advantages.
- Historically-inspired world, social/political conflicts (weight 0.13): The game is set in a fictional world inspired by historical periods like the Renaissance and the French Revolution, featuring social hierarchies, religious conflicts, and power struggles. Players navigate relationships, family dynamics, and political intrigue within this setting, where choices can lead to rebellion or maintaining the established order.
- Branching narratives, multiple endings (weight 0.05): The game features multiple story branches and endings, encouraging multiple playthroughs to explore different paths and outcomes. The main story arc often remains consistent despite player choices, with variations primarily occurring after adulthood based on chosen social status and career paths.
- Unforeseen consequences, moral sacrifices (weight 0.03): Choices have unforeseen and dramatic consequences, and players may be forced to make decisions that contradict their established beliefs. The game emphasizes sacrifice and suffering, highlighting the harshness of reality through regrets and imperfect outcomes.
- Twin gods, societal judgment (weight 0.02): The game's world-building includes twin gods and a strict class system, with societal structures and hierarchies being human constructs. Players face a final judgment by these gods, reflecting on their choices and motivations throughout the story.
- Unique stat allocation system (weight 0.02): The game features a unique stat system where players must carefully allocate points, as failure to do so can lead to setbacks and require re-allocation. Each path (nobleman, priest, outlaw) involves building up RPG stats initially.
- Multiple deaths, trial and error (weight 0.01): The game features a unique mechanic of multiple deaths (three minor deaths and one true death) for each character, adding complexity to the world and its rules. This allows for some trial and error as players learn from their mistakes and try to achieve a better future.
- No guaranteed success or survival (weight 0.01): The game does not guarantee that you can achieve everything you want or even survive until the end. The game offers a high degree of freedom, but achieving good endings requires strict resource management.
- Aims for Disco Elysium comparison (weight 0.01): The game positions itself as an RPG-novel, similar to Disco Elysium, but fails to deliver a comparable experience. The game features a setting with twin gods and noble/commoner dynamics, which the reviewer initially found interesting.

Performance notes:
- Game-breaking bugs in chapter 5 (weight 0.01): Several players have reported game-breaking bugs, especially in chapter 5 ('Rebellion' or 'Uprising' chapter). These bugs include freezes, crashes, blank pages, and preventing ironman mode from triggering, sometimes requiring a restart of the game.
- Runs well, low requirements (weight 0.01): The game runs comfortably on Steam Deck and has low hardware requirements. This makes the game accessible to a wider range of players.
- Text duplication/overlap bug (weight 0): Exiting to the menu and re-entering can cause text duplication and page overlap. This issue requires exiting to the desktop to resolve, disrupting the gameplay experience.
- Typos and omissions present (weight 0): Some players have noticed typos and omissions in the game's text. While minor, these errors can detract from the overall polish and immersion.
- Stats difficult to manage (weight 0): Players find the game's stats difficult to manage. The reviews do not provide specific details, so the importance is reduced.
- Language setting issue (weight 0): The game initially launched in English and required changing the language in the settings. This is a minor inconvenience.

Recommendations:
- Highly recommended, replayable, impactful choices (weight 0.48): The game is highly recommended for its engaging story, meaningful choices, and high replayability. Many reviewers suggest playing multiple times to experience different paths and outcomes. Some recommend playing the first playthrough blind to enhance immersion.
- Purchase on sale recommended (weight 0.35): Many reviewers suggest waiting for a sale before purchasing the game, as the full price may not be worth it due to flaws or limited content. However, some reviewers believe the game is worth the full price, especially for fans of the genre.
- RPG elements detract from narrative (weight 0.33): Some reviewers feel the game's RPG elements and stat-locking system detract from the narrative. They suggest the game is better as a simulator than a role-playing game, and that the frustrating ending undermines the engaging early hours.
- Recommended for readers/text-based fans (weight 0.33): The game is recommended for players who enjoy reading-heavy experiences and text-based games. Some reviewers suggest it's a good option for those who want to "play a book."
- Modifications/guides may be necessary (weight 0.28): Some reviewers recommend using modifications or guides to achieve a desired ending or overcome the game's difficulty. Others suggest directly modifying numerical values using tools like Cheat Engine.
- Watch playthrough instead of playing (weight 0.28): Some reviewers suggest watching a video walkthrough or retelling instead of playing the game due to its frustrations. They may not plan to play a second playthrough.
- Embrace role-playing, avoid spoilers (weight 0.05): Reviewers suggest embracing the role-playing aspect by making choices based on personal beliefs and committing to a faction. They recommend playing without guides or spoilers to fully experience the consequences of choices and immerse oneself in the game's world.
- Thoughtful, evocative, unique experience (weight 0.04): The game is praised for its unique blend of storytelling and gameplay, exploring thought-provoking themes and evoking strong emotions. Reviewers recommend it for those who enjoy thoughtful experiences, reading, and dealing with complex moral choices.
- Anticipation for future installments (weight 0.04): Many reviewers express anticipation for a sequel or future installments in the game's universe. They also hope the developers will address existing shortcomings and implement improvements in future projects.
- Ironman mode: mixed opinions (weight 0.03): Some reviewers recommend playing the first time completely blind, on ironman and with consequences hidden. Others suggest turning off Iron Man mode and enabling visible choice consequences for subsequent playthroughs to avoid frustration with stat checks and unskippable text.

Other player notes:
- Intricate, historically-inspired world and lore (weight 0.05): The game is set in a complex, low-magic world inspired by historical periods like the Reformation and Thirty Years' War, featuring a rigid, class-based society with unique elements like rebirth and distinct noble factions. This setting explores themes of social stratification and predetermined fate.
- Unique, subdued aesthetic and presentation (weight 0.04): The game features a distinctive, subdued aesthetic with black and white visuals, minimal sound effects, and classical music, creating a unique and oppressive atmosphere. The UI is designed to resemble a book, reinforcing the text-heavy, visual novel-like experience.
- Exploration of choice and consequence (weight 0.04): The game explores mature themes such as choice, destiny, and societal influence, often leading to morally ambiguous decisions and a sense of life not going as planned. Players are confronted with philosophical and spiritual questions, prompting reflection on personal agency and the acceptance of uncontrollable circumstances.
- Meaningful and difficult choices (weight 0.02): The game presents players with difficult choices that have significant consequences, often forcing them to disappoint someone. The outcomes of these choices can be unexpected, and the game warns players when a decision is particularly important.
- Suited for portable play (weight 0.02): The game is well-suited for portable devices due to its structure and short gameplay loop, despite some minor plot holes and limited art assets. The game's small file size belies the amount of content it contains.
- Narrative focuses on life's struggles (weight 0.02): The game, titled "The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante," focuses on the protagonist's life from birth to death, with a sequel planned that will explore the empire's royalty. The game's narrative structure and themes center around the struggles and experiences of Sir Brante.
- Sequel planned, developer change concern (weight 0.01): A sequel, 'The Life and Suffering of Prince Jerian,' is planned, which may resolve some mysteries, but there is concern about the change in developer.
- Adequate translation with minor issues (weight 0.01): The game's translation is generally fine, with only a few typos, and the reviewer appreciates the efforts of the translation team and fan translations that made the game accessible.
- Game remains appealing after release (weight 0.01): Despite being released three years ago, the game remains appealing, with its unique style and genre making a strong first impression on the reviewer.
- Impactful personal playthrough experiences (weight 0.01): The reviewer shares personal playthrough experiences, such as serving in the Inquisition or inadvertently causing a massacre, highlighting the impact of player choices on the narrative.
- Many achievements, substantial content (weight 0): The game has 89 achievements, but the reviewer did not unlock all of them due to backlog, indicating a substantial amount of content to explore.
- Family structure influences story (weight 0): The protagonist's family structure, including half-siblings and step-parents, significantly influences the story, highlighting the impact of family dynamics on one's path.
- Strong Eastern European influence (weight 0): The game has a strong Eastern European influence, reflecting the background of the Russian-speaking developers who are also working on a new installment.
- Inspired by Robespierre's philosophy (weight 0): The protagonist's background is inspired by Maximilien Robespierre, with the game's twin gods representing Robespierre's concept of "virtue and terror."
- Shares world with upcoming title (weight 0): The reviewer realized the game shares the same world as an upcoming title after playing for a while, suggesting a connected universe and potential for further exploration.
- Brant family faces constant blame (weight 0): The Brant family is often the scapegoat, facing constant hatred and blame, highlighting the challenges and burdens the protagonist must navigate.
- Enhanced immersion through specific options (weight 0): The reviewer chose specific options to enhance immersion, such as disabling restarts and results screens, demonstrating a commitment to a more authentic and challenging experience.
- Affordable and widely available (weight 0): The game was purchased from various platforms, and the base game was acquired at a low cost due to discounts, indicating accessibility and affordability.
- Vague themes of power and ambition (weight 0): The game explores the themes of power, ambition, and the consequences of seeking or wielding it, with those who pursue power often facing dire outcomes. This point is too vague and lacks specific details to be considered constructive feedback.
- Vague and unhelpful life lessons (weight 0): The game teaches that only the father is normal in a family and that you shouldn't kick an old man. These points are too vague and lack specific details to be considered constructive feedback.

Emotions:
No emotions}