The King's Dilemma: Chronicles
Big Trouble · 2023 · Simulation, RPG, Political Sim, Interactive Fiction, Strategy RPG
PC
Mostly Positive70% · 101 📉 Recent reviews down 59%
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About The King's Dilemma: Chronicles
Welcome to the Kingdom of Ankist: a place of daring expeditions, gruesome battles, and arcane mysteries. You play as the Head of the Council, the leader of the King’s inner circle. Listen to the advice of your Council of Houses, or overrule their decisions. 
Face hundreds of dilemmas where every choice you make may affect your relationship with the other Houses, influence the well-being and resources of the kingdom, and change the course of history itself. Discover the lands of Ankist over a story spanning across tens of generations. Form alliances, survive betrayals, and prepare for the final uprising foretold by an ancient prophecy.
Will you act for the greater good, or will you think only of yourself?
Explore the map of Ankist and see the Kindom’s problems currently at hand. Choose one, and the Council will be summoned to make a decision: do we send help to people hit by famine? Should we wage war against that northern tribe raiding the villages across our border? The Houses will cast their vote: “Aye” or “Nay” based on their personal interest and political stance. At that point, you might decide to influence the vote, spending your House’s finances to corrupt members of the council, or consuming some fo the limited “power” points you are given for the rule of each King.
Each decision you make has consequences both on your relations with the other Houses and on the Kingdom’s resources, which in turn might result in the King abdicating or being overthrown. But they will also make more dilemmas become available on the map. Based on the resources standing at the end of the current King’s rule and your moral alignment, you will be awarded “greed” and “influence” points, which you’ll be able to spend to research technology, start expeditions, or build structures. Which of these will become available depends on the choices you made.
Each of the above will award you money and resources during the rule of each King, in addition to changing the events of the final uprising you will be preparing for.
- Play as one of twelve different houses, each with their own narrative goal
- Discover 300+ story-driven dilemmas through Ankist and its neighboring kingdoms
- Choose branching narrative paths across six intertwined storylines
- Explore multiple endings, with each playthrough lasting 3 to 4 hours
- Use influence or corruption to control the Council
- Invest in research, technology and buildings
- Play across generations, choose your heir as well as their personality and goals
- Always be preparing for the final battle
The King’s Dilemma: Chronicles tells the story of Ankist, a fictional medieval kingdom in the continent of Lywik. The structure of the kingdom is feudal: the Duchies and the Marks are managed by their ruling Houses, many of which also have their representatives sitting at the Council, a governing body ruling in the name of the King located in Lybra, the capital city of the Kingdom. As the leader of the Council, all social classes will come asking for your help: Merchants, Scholars, the Army, the Cult of the Mother, and of course, the People. It will be your task to drive the choices of the Council and satisfy their requests… but you’ll also have to manage the resources of the Kingdom, and keeping everyone happy won’t be easy.
Your main interest is obviously to make Ankist prosper; however, you are also trying to increase the power and the prestige of your own family over the others. The campaign spans decades and generations, and you will assume the role of different representatives of your House over the course of the game.
What Steam players say
Recent verbatim reviews from Steam — separate from playze.io community reviews below.
I played the board game years ago and I've already forgotten how disappointing the ending sequence was. The main story is fine, and the choices are interesting, while the gameplay is pretty tedious and repetitive. But the ending is so bad and it actually makes the whole story pointless.1 found this helpful
I originally played The King’s Dilemma as a full campaign in its board game version, and it was an unforgettable experience. The long debates, bribing, convincing, taking sides — and yes, even being a little mad at each other after the game — that’s what made it so special. I picked up the digital version hoping to relive some of that magic, but I have to say I was extremely disappointed. It just doesn’t capture the feeling at all. The game tells you outright when you’re getting a “sticker” that affects your choices, there’s no room for bribery, no heated back-and-forth discussions, and none of the real-life dynamics that make the board game shine. Sure, you can go through the storylines, but it all feels dry, rushed, and ultimately pointless without the human element. If you’re curious about The King’s Dilemma, do yourself a favor and go for the board game instead. Gather some friends, roleplay, argue, laugh, snack — that’s the real experience. The digital version just isn’t worth it.
Ready for a story-rich, "decisions matter" game. Looked like it was going to be a fun balance of managing resources while maintaining (or compromising) moral and ethical codes. Seemed very complicated; something that perhaps I'd have to run through two or three times before getting right. There is only the illusion of choice...you'll get to the same end of the narrative one way or another. There aren't really any resources to manage, as it doesn't matter how many times your King dies or is dethroned. Keeping the territories of the kingdom happy prior to the endgame is all that seems to have an affect on anything, and even then you can ultimately work through it. Some cool art, ambiance was fine. Might use some of the story plots for a DnD campaign, but ultimately...this game is not worth it.
It took a while and a couple failed playthroughs to fully understand the mechanics but once I did the game became very enjoyable.
It's good, only lacking at the very end, which is a bit disappointing. Still, the premise of each dilemma's narrative that leads us to pick one of the two choices is engaging and keeps me tied to follow through until the end. All in all, I would say it's an [h1]8.0/10[/h1]
If you are a fan of The King's Dilemma board game then you'll enjoy this. Its a very exact port of the game. However it is single player so the bargaining, backstabbing and general debate that comes from playing the board game is gone. If you have played the kings dilemma and want to explore other story arcs, outcomes or great houses then this is for you. If you haven't played it but love story rich narrative experiences then this is also for you. Choices matter and they affect they affect the outcome, same as the board game. I will caution players though if you plan on (or currently are) playing the board game with friends then this will ruin a lot of the narrative and outcomes I'd recommend finishing the board game before playing this. Worth a few plays to experience all story arcs and outcomes. But I will stress once you know the major plot events it easy to tailor the outcome to what you prefer so there is a diminishing return on replay-ability. Very worth it though and a great narrative game. If you haven't played the board game the mechanics can be a lil daunting and confusing, but its not too hard to get your head around.
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