izigame.me

Disclaimer: I have never mad a steam review before and only make this one because I love this series. It is to 'Not Recommend' the DLC. This is due to a specific problem which I feel really lets the game down. It may be a problem which was specific to my choices, however, it also appears to be felt by people who played quite radically different to me and therefore I wanted to offer this review as feedback to the dev team more so than to influence anyones purchasing choice! In fact, some story spoilers below, so don't read if you don't want em.
If I had made this review prior to the final couple of hours of the game it would have been glowing. Not perfect, as there are some issues with internal policies and especially the 'Situations' mechanic - more below - but that aside, as a narrative game which aims to represent the life of a governing king it was brilliant. Characters are memorable and fun to interact with. The dialogue and general writing is, largely, top tier. The 'Choose your own adventure' paths are clear, I did not once find myself choosing a dialogue option and then getting something else, as can often happen with these games. There is a lot of really really great stuff here, that in large part surpasses the base game.
And then it ends. not like "Oh I'm so sad it's over", as in, it really does just end.
After a whole game of antagonising (and beating!) Lespia I received pretty strong notice from their president that it was totally on between us and that they were going to go for me. Here we go! I thought - here comes the end game crises! One I'm going to bloody win. Pales was coming home - peacefully - the south Merkopia alliance was in the works. Pretty much the world loved me, minus Lespia and an annoyed by my alliance sister in law - bring it on, let's finally see this war mechanic maybe...
But nope, went absolutely nowhere. Before I know it the game is over with a pretty perfunctory round up, and no drama whatsoever. Lespia and it's threats just vanished, I never heard from them again. the last couple of events I got (by the last three or so chapters I was getting one event per turn - I think I even just had a sole event in one of the final chapters!) were just me chatting with the Duke of Pales and future son in law where he just gave me everything I wanted on a plate, so smitten was he with Vina, who was handily smitten with him back! Ladies and gentlemen, the prince and princess of convenience!
Ok, well, that's what you get for "Winning" I guess, it can be justified. My alliance was too strong for Lespia to mess with me, those crazy kids an their hormones, etc. but I didn't even really get to experience that victory.
I would have loved to have had just a couple turns of enjoying my peaceful unification of Rizia. Events and reports around the reintegration of the lost territories, choosing the future direction of the country, my marriage alliance paying off with a child and frankly spending loads of money, becoming an energy super exporter, dumping tons of resources into the military my young solider king always dreamed of.. just some sort of pay off to all the decisions that had got me to this place of success, a chance to steer the prosperous Rizia I had toiled to create!
As it was, the end was so anticlimactic I didn't even realise it was happening.
In fact, the only thing that happened in the end game that suggested any kind of excitement was some sudden news that citizens were very unhappy (This came somewhat out of the blue, as I had always thrown a bit of money into reforms and was starting to pick up the pace as my budget increased) and one event even gave me the option to announce my abdication - which I refused. Again, I thought "aha, end game crisis".
But on the final turn of the game I got reports that the protests had dissipated. I honestly cant think that I did anything between the abdication event and the protests ending. I've no idea why they started, and no idea why they finished. I've also no idea if it could have popped up at any time in the game? I was spending a lot of authority in those last turns (attempting that "Look what a monster economy I've created payoff) was it linked to this?
Anyway, all of sudden - that's it. Prince and Princess convenience, (I don't hate this bit of the story at all, by the way. I was delighted when I first pulled it off, but it is just a bit too easy to get there in the first place, too easy to get the Duke to become a Torras and happily ever after once the deal is done - what no cold feet at the wedding about marrying a dynastic rival? The Duke previously mentions pressure on him from his family - no kidnap or murder attempt on him? In that convo he just says "Don't worry about it"... and you don't have too! Not very Suzerain at all...) anyway, they walk down the aisle and it's all done and you get some notes about your councillors and very little else of anything at all, onto the political compass, thanks for playing.
The game ending so abruptly actually made me think I had miss clicked during that protest event and actually abdicated! So abruptly that I'm now questioning my own recollection. It's about the only thing that would make real sense considering the quality of the story telling elsewhere! "Oh, huh, he's clicked the abdicate button, didn't really expect anyone would ever do that, um..." But I'm telling you, clear as day I see myself clicking the other option, and no mention of abdication either in remaining turns, or the ending text. So I don't think I can take the blame for this one!
So Ok... so, my ending was a big old flop, but can I justify it? Maybe I can, I'd won literally every conflict, that can be a bit dull in the end, right?
So I'd planned to do a run through where I was a bit less of a Monarchical genius (a.k.a having a knack for knowing what choice will lead to what). Let's be a warmonger, let's tank the economy, let's knock up the duchess, let's let chaos reign! I rekon I still will - after dipping back into Sordland, Sordish culture famously partial to a explosive ending, but then I started reading reviews from people who had done exactly that and still found themselves feeling exactly the way I do now.
So I wanted to add my voice to theirs. Perhaps I'm a victim of my own expectations. I loved the first iteration so much that one of my most searched terms is "Games like Suzerien". But I don't think so, because the dev team here got SO close. If the whole DLC was bad, well, ok, that's a shame. But an even bigger shame is to meet those expectations, even to exceed those expectations for so much of the game - the first half really is phenomenal - and then to fluff the landing so badly, that's heartbreaking.
But perhaps it's not beyond repair. I honestly have no idea what is or isn't possible, what budgets are like, what timescales are like, what can actually be done.
But I believe in love, and I believe that the developers of Suzerain truly love their game and love the world that they have created. And I hope that if they are aware that there may be some work left to do, that they might do it.
And if they are humble enough to take suggestions I'll offer one - for my money stories about Kings can only end on their death beds, natural or unnatural, in old age or tragically young, it's not over for a king until it's over.