VN Ren'Py Imperial Chronicles [v0.7] [Lazy Monkey]

[GeoffG]

Some of the comments here are naive. People don't seem to realise that stories can't have infinite branching.

The branching as it is is actually quite well designed to overlap as much as possible. I would've loved an option to romance cass and make her feel loved/valued and not coup the king, but clearly that would require massive amounts of extra content going forward. Hence why whichever of the 3 routes you choose wrt the coup all have basically the same outcome. It's a temporary branch that brings everything back together again. We already have game-long branches such as your affinity (mage, warrior etc), LIs etc to worry about.

The 'wives' are necessary for him to fulfil his role as the heir/regent. They need to be consummated for the same reason..... as explicitly stated in the game. There are 2 options. They didn't appear in the last update because it would've required a massive increase in the amount of content and they didn't really serve any narrative purpose.

I'd much rather have a game with 'guardrails' that occasionally irritated me than a game that gets way ahead of itself and takes years between updates... or even gets abandoned because it becomes too complex and slow to develop. I respect the dev for avoiding DrPinkCake-itis. I wish more devs would plan their games similarly. In fact in my review of this game (jun 15th) i even made the point of being careful to restrict branching/complexity, so i'd be a hypocrite if i said anything else.

 

[New Kid]

The 'wives' are necessary for him to fulfil his role as the heir/regent. They need to be consummated for the same reason..... as explicitly stated in the game. There are 2 options. They didn't appear in the last update because it would've required a massive increase in the amount of content and they didn't really serve any narrative purpose.

Isis can appear in this update if you are married to her and agree to be the regent while under arrest. In fact, she will kill Cass for you if you tell her to.

 

[claus001]

I'd much rather have a game with 'guardrails' that occasionally irritated me than a game that gets way ahead of itself and takes years between updates... or even gets abandoned because it becomes too complex and slow to develop. I respect the dev for avoiding DrPinkCake-itis. I wish more devs would plan their games similarly. In fact in my review of this game (jun 15th) i even made the point of being careful to restrict branching/complexity, so i'd be a hypocrite if i said anything else.

Probably the most underrated comment here. If the plot branches too much it is impossible to finish the game. Ravager is another perfect example of this how Devs can be too ambitious. Basically the error they made was to have something like 8 waifus and have various crossing interactions between them, instead of just finishing the main plot. No wonder Ravager has been stuck +2 years now and likely will never be completed.
If you want your favourite plot-twist or interaction to be included in this game then... just fund the Dev! Also it is important to remember that this essentially is a beta-product. Meaning if there is enough demand (and the Dev has not been burned out!), he can very well remaster this game with the most suitable recommendations.

 

[wizardcock]

Some of the comments here are naive. People don't seem to realise that stories can't have infinite branching.

The branching as it is is actually quite well designed to overlap as much as possible. I would've loved an option to romance cass and make her feel loved/valued and not coup the king, but clearly that would require massive amounts of extra content going forward. Hence why whichever of the 3 routes you choose wrt the coup all have basically the same outcome. It's a temporary branch that brings everything back together again. We already have game-long branches such as your affinity (mage, warrior etc), LIs etc to worry about.

If Cass had abandoned her plans and instead become consumed with romance, it wouldn't be Cass anymore. It's the most banal thing imaginable. She was living the idea and then all of a sudden fall in love and give up. Its boring shit. Well, in my opinion.

 

[Dustellar]

"Taming" her to keep her alive would be basically turning into her, like her route but with a more dominant role, killing her would also make the MC very Cass-like to other's eyes, to all the players that are trying to be a benevolent king but also want Cass as a LI... maybe it's time to accept that they aren't compatible, be evil and happy with her.

 

[GeoffG]

Isis can appear in this update if you are married to her and agree to be the regent while under arrest. In fact, she will kill Cass for you if you tell her to.

Kinda proves my point. I played all 3 'paths' with the other wife on a mage run. Not sure if your affinity changes anything, but that means there are possibly 6-18 different variations on just the coup plot.

If Cass had abandoned her plans and instead become consumed with romance, it wouldn't be Cass anymore. It's the most banal thing imaginable. She was living the idea and then all of a sudden fall in love and give up. Its boring shit. Well, in my opinion.

Right, but the coup plot ends up in the exact same place regardless.

Don't forget there's a scene near the start where you can promise to marry Cass. There's an alternate timeline where she realises that she doesn't need to hate the world and doesn't have to be evil (maybe it will still happen ofc), but her aunt poisons the king anyway. Same end result of MC being regent, just that Cass isn't responsible. You should be able to talk her out of it if you've got enough affinity towards her.

However that plotline is not to be and i'm ok with that.

 

[Cazzan]

Kinda proves my point. I played all 3 'paths' with the other wife on a mage run. Not sure if your affinity changes anything, but that means there are possibly 6-18 different variations on just the coup plot.

The affinity is generally just a check here and there for how a scene progresses, and sometimes for whether a scene is available. it doesn't really branch the plot - just give different ways to resolve some issues and a number of variant scenes, but they don't branch.

But there are plenty of branches in the coup plot even without the affinity. In fact so many that it worries me as I posted before.

Right, but the coup plot ends up in the exact same place regardless.

Uh say what now? Cass, Akar and Ludwig can all be alive or dead - that's not the same place. And that's just the most glaring difference between some of the coup plots.

 

[hampsure]

If the plot branches too much it is impossible to finish the game. Ravager is another perfect example of this how Devs can be too ambitious.

It's not even a problem specific to games with branching narratives. There are plenty of games that don't even have specific routes that still end up in stuck being development seemingly indefinitely due to being/getting over-ambitious with the scope. It's a really important thing to manage properly in any project to be able to be able to deliver a completed product.

I played all 3 'paths' with the other wife on a mage run. Not sure if your affinity changes anything, but that means there are possibly 6-18 different variations on just the coup plot.

While it doesn't really split things off into new branches, affinity completely changes at least the starting scene (and which girl it's with) in the variation where either Cass didn't tell you about or didn't go along with the coup but didn't kill her. For you, there was a scene with Alaina since you were a mage but there's one with Lia for Bookworm and Elin for Warrior. I find the branching really interesting (if a tad much sometimes) but I'm not sure if I'm such a fan of the way affinity is implemented. It's often just used to restrict content to specific affinities throughout the game rather than to give different options/variations. It may be okay for some dialogue, the way situations are handled, and maybe side-character interactions but when it affects main story knowledge and LI scenes it can be frustrating.

 

[777889]

it looks good

 

[Sossse]

just for understanding: there is not a lingle path where cass just ourright kills the MC, right? she always tries to use him for whatever her main goal may be. cound this not be a sign that deep down she never intended to inflict any long term harm on the MC as in the end she was still clinching onto her brohter(exspecially if he promised to marry her) to somehow make things right fot her. kind of makes it more believeable for me that in the end she was kind of like a lost, stupid child that threw a tantrom and totally knew she has put herself into a corner, hoping her brorher couls somehow make it (all better) for her

 

[Lord Kata]

just for understanding: there is not a lingle path where cass just ourright kills the MC, right? she always tries to use him for whatever her main goal may be. cound this not be a sign that deep down she never intended to inflict any long term harm on the MC as in the end she was still clinching onto her brohter(exspecially if he promised to marry her) to somehow make things right fot her. kind of makes it more believeable for me that in the end she was kind of like a lost, stupid child that threw a tantrom and totally knew she has put herself into a corner, hoping her brorher couls somehow make it (all better) for her

Yes maybe we can fix her at the end

 

[Raziel_8]

just for understanding: there is not a lingle path where cass just ourright kills the MC, right? she always tries to use him for whatever her main goal may be. cound this not be a sign that deep down she never intended to inflict any long term harm on the MC as in the end she was still clinching onto her brohter(exspecially if he promised to marry her) to somehow make things right fot her. kind of makes it more believeable for me that in the end she was kind of like a lost, stupid child that threw a tantrom and totally knew she has put herself into a corner, hoping her brorher couls somehow make it (all better) for her

She doesn't kill the king either, despite hating him. Apparently regicide is a bit risky and why do it when you have a better alternative at hand. As for the MC she needs him, why would she kill him, it wouldn't help her at all.
The kingdom doesn't accept a woman as ruler, if she would think she could take (and keep) the crown for herself she would have done it.

Not sure if she would have killed the sisters and queen, but seeing what happens if you follow the white coronation, i think she would have done it, if she had the time and deemed it necessary.

 

[Sossse]

i think she would have done it, if she had the time and deemed it necessary.

i dont believe her to be this cruel. i mean, she does bring lia to the MCs cell to trie and force him to cooperate by implying she will hurt lia. but in the end, if you refuse, all she does is say she will come back in another month to try again. never really harming lia. i firmly believe she still has a good chunk of simpathy left inside her for the only family she has left in this world...

 

[markleon]

more mom please !!

 

[Raziel_8]

i dont believe her to be this cruel

She doesn't have the time cause he escaped before, neither is she close with Lia or Elin and she seems to activly dislike the queen.
But she has zero issues to burn down the city, which would have cost who knows how many thousands of lives, if it didn't start to rain and Conrad needed to protect Lia from her men at the end.

 

[D4rkK1ng]

Nice update, cant wait for the next one.
Right now its my favorite VN and i believe its one of the best you can find in this site.

 

[JJJ84]

Just played the update (late to it given I've recently been on a holiday lol), and played through 2 variations; Cass route, Elin/Queen mother route.

Something I noticed - Cass's route (i.e. Green Crown) felt...... far too short, compared to the Loyalist route (i.e. White Crown; Elin, Queen mother)?
It almost felt like the dev put majority of his efforts into Loyalist route, and Cass route felt like a.......second fiddle.
Honestly, I expected more things to happen with Cass's route.
Not sure whether this will balance out with next update (more Cass route content, and less Loyalist route content?), but whether that happens or not, it is what it is.

As a player I really enjoy branches, but I do hope the dev doesn't get too lost or burnt out with all these several branches created.

 

[BrothersKeeper]

Yes maybe we can fix her at the end

Fr, harem route with Cass under control is the end goal for me

 

[Dubbed Tales]

Just played the update (late to it given I've recently been on a holiday lol), and played through 2 variations; Cass route, Elin/Queen mother route.

Something I noticed - Cass's route (i.e. Green Crown) felt...... far too short, compared to the Loyalist route (i.e. White Crown; Elin, Queen mother)?
It almost felt like the dev put majority of his efforts into Loyalist route, and Cass route felt like a.......second fiddle.
Honestly, I expected more things to happen with Cass's route.
Not sure whether this will balance out with next update (more Cass route content, and less Loyalist route content?), but whether that happens or not, it is what it is.

As a player I really enjoy branches, but I do hope the dev doesn't get too lost or burnt out with all these several branches created.

there were elf queen content??? where? i didnt find any. it felt like all the contents were for cass. and there werent any content with elf queen

 

[JJJ84]

there were elf queen content??? where? i didnt find any. it felt like all the contents were for cass. and there werent any content with elf queen

If you didn't see any, that's because you probably only played the Cass route, that's why.

The update was split into 2 big branches;

1) Join the coup; aka "Green Crown route"
which is branched out into smaller sub branches into whether MC keep Cass as his regent or gets her killed and have her replaced with someone else, there's variations I haven't tried kill Cass and replace her route, so that could be different color crown route )

or there's

2) Remain loyal to the crown - reject Cass when she asks you to join her coup; aka "White Crown route"
this I'd say is the route for Elin, Queen mother and Lia.
Out of them three, Elin and Queen mother have lewd content (for Elin, there's the handjob. with Queen mother there's is an option to fuck her, but not recommended given it's pretty much negative consequnce afterwards )