The Nine Lives of Nim: Fortune's Fool

An indie Long Live The Queen/Princess Maker style life sim/visual novel, with unique art and a literary flair? I had to try this, and it didn't disappoint. This game oozes charm, and is a must-try if you like the genre. Pros - Gorgeous art style - the hand-painted backgrounds and character sprites are all beautiful, and special endings and achievements have their own full illustration - The game's stats system is straightforward to get into, while still having some depth (especially with some of the more complicated endings) - The writing is fantastic, and there are a lot of fun and clever takes on Shakespearean characters and plots - As well as different endings, there are storylines woven through the game that give repeat playthroughs a bit of variety - Very charming music - Cats Cons - As is typical for the genre, you will have to replay the game's mundane parts a lot if you want to see all the endings, especially if you aren't using a guide - If you have never had even a passing contact with Shakespeare's work or characters, some of the game's charm will probably be lost on you If you do pick the game up, the game's creators have posted an ending hints guide in the community…

A very charming SIM/Visual Novel hybrid about a cat faerie called Nim who is tasked to search for her prince in a city called Valora. You have 1 month to increase your stats than can trigger storylines of different Shakespeare characters and get several endings that shapes the fate of Nim. 1 month doesn't seem like a lot but this game has a lot of storylines, which actually made me interested with Shakespeare's works. Not to mention a lot of endings and different ending variations that gives this a high replay value. It was enjoyable and addiction to the end. Admittedly I was a bit taken back by the artwork, but it grew on me and I find it quite nice. Overall a nice game!

I really enjoyed my playthroughs. It was cool how they each took quite different storylines, related to choices I made in the game. The music builds the mood of each scene well. Fortunately you don't need to be a Shakespearean expert; even just knowing a couple of characters helps build the atmosphere.

I've played through this game twice now and I have to say that I love it! There is no shortage of what you can do and there are so many scenarios that trying to play them all out is a fun challenge. In that sense there is a lot of replay value. As far as the writing is concerned I think it could flesh out the character interactions a little bit more, especially since quite a few of the characters are romance options. Other than that I really enjoyed the story as well as all of the nods to Shakespeare's plays. This game is just so charming! The art is nice enough. It's certainly not hard to look at but I think the lack of hard lines makes the characters look a little blurry. I don't mind it too much though. I thought the music was really well done. Not much else to say on that front. All in all, I absolutely recommend this game to Shakespeare nerds, cat lovers, people who enjoy dating sims, and anyone who just wants a fun magical story!

A traditional stat-raising life simulation game with interesting new approaches. The mechanics are very simple, but there is a lot of depth to be found in the different plotlines and how actions affect the game and endings. The protagonist's three forms as cat, spirit, and human adds a unique layer of complexity. I definitively recommend this game for fans of the genre.

Good looking, interesting plots (and a lot of them!)