The Life and Suffering of Prince Jerian

Overall I enjoyed this game, to me it has a great story but I will admit you definitely need to do more Min-Maxing with stats then the previous game. Because if you don't then you'll easily lock yourself out of future choices and end up failing early. Still there's a fair amount of content here with multiple routes to choose, so purely for replayability and for the decent story it's good.

The developers are so desperate to make sure the player is never in control. I cannot make my own decisions -- most choices are level gated behind arbitrary stats. Moreover, I am incentivized to min-max these arbitrary stats rather than just driving the outcome myself through dialogue choices. I reached a failure state in Chapter 3; why is there even a failure state?!? I'm sorry I didn't want to make the same choices the devs intended I guess. Ultimately, I'm just not even going to bother finishing it. This is just more sequel slop that didn't iterate on its predecessor at all.

Very good, although falls apart a bit in chapter 5 with choices feeling like they have little impact, and the rebellion mechanic could use a big rework

Story: good Choices and consequences: good Immersiveness: good Replayability: good Content: lots, for this kind of game. 31 hours for one play-through. This should be thought of as primarily a survival game. Stuff keeps coming at you from all directions and you have to find ways of not being devoured by circumstances.

I sunk a surprising amount of time into this game's predecessor The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante. It was a game I picked up on a whim, and was surprised by the atmosphere of its world, the breath of paths you could take and the engaging storybook mechanics. I loved how choices compounded through chapters, e.g. your bravery in childhood affecting your martial prowess in adulthood. I also picked up Jerian on a whim. Brante had turned into a game I would compulsively pick up from time to time and grind for a specific outcome. Eventually, the thought struck me whether the devs might have made another game. Lo and behold, a sequel was on its way. Jerian is largely the same game. Same world, same mechanics. Any added intricacies is lost on me and after my first run through the story felt very concluding. Brante offered 3 distinct routes through the game, each split into a endings based on compassion and ambition. Beating the game immediately left me with the thought of what would have happened if i had picked something else. What if I hadn't become a noble, and instead pursued a career in the clergy instead? What if I had become friends with this character instead of abandoning…

Mostly a min-maxxing issue, which limit the exposure. While raw play gives you an initial enjoyment, the forced optimisation just means you are going in one of two paths and with the save file as it is, it is just clicking through the same text repeatedly - which is a kill-joy. To really join the game, it is best to wait for different optimised pathways guides to come out. Play the first run naturally - enjoy that and then use guides to lead and experience the other pathways