Fool!
By Ben Rovik
☆☆ (8/10)
What a lovely gem. Wow. Fool! is just pure fun. As you might imagine, you play as a fool. Not an idiot, no, but a real true court fool: a licensed troublemaker in motley, armed with wit instead of steel, free to say what everyone else is thinking and survive precisely because no one quite takes you seriously. You tumble through courtly intrigue, bad decisions, and sharp dialogue where you can become the Royal Family’s trusted advisor or stir up the rabble. While light on the romance, and with a slightly confusing stat system, Fool! is such a joy to read.
Pros:
Early Modern English/Shakespearean English. Not only is the style eye-catching, but Fool! is wonderfully written. My high school English teacher always me Shakespeare was meant to be said aloud instead of read. Now I understand why! Ben Rovik employs a slightly inverted sentence structure—verbs arriving late, clauses unfolding before their point becomes clear—which is just odd enough you’re forced to slow down and cherish the prose. As strange as it sounds, Rovik’s prose is downright musical. Long, winding clauses build momentum—then snap shut with a short, blunt phrase. Elevated diction stretches the line; a plainspoken or cynical ending cuts it clean. The vocabulary itself is tuned for sound. Early Modern English favors strong stresses, hard consonants, and vowel-heavy words. Alliteration, internal rhyme, and parallel phrasing show up constantly. Constantly!!!
For example, I’ve picked this paragraph for your reading pleasure. If you struggle with this paragraph, know the rest of the game is in this style, if not more dense"However, your father discovered that some quirk of moisture, minerals, and sunlight makes your acreage suited to bumper crops of deadly nightshade, crab’s eye, foxglove, and more of nature’s fatal foliage. Ever enterprising, he established your farm as the premier supplier of thoroughly toxic vegetation to all the nobly minded souls in the region with interest in such things: physicians, game hunters, and natural philosophers.When pressed on whether or not he was also likely supporting Brenton’s assassins, murderers, horse-thieves, and suicides, he was wont to answer, “Don’t mind who they are, long as their coins clink.” The clinking of coins being notably connected, of course, to salvation in the hereafter."
Plot balance. As one might imagine from a royal fool, you’ll have to deal with court gossip, politics from neighboring lands, and discontent. Each issue gets its own chapter(s) to shine, and every path given seems well-balanced. Some IFs sometimes show their hand by supporting revolution, but I’m glad I choose to play as a loyal monarchist and was rewarded for it.
Ape companion. Destiny truly is unpredictable. Tell me why I was traveling in a cart and adopted an ape because no one else wanted him. Tell me why I befinded this ape and taught him tricks! Tell me why I made him by best bud and taught him tricks.
Mixed:
Stat system. First, you have two main stat bars: Blood/Melancholy and Phlegm/Bile. These are explained with a sentence each. Second, there’s also five skills you have: Wit, Conditioning, Repertoire, Sagacity, or Stagecraft. Third, you have four bars for your Reputation: Renown, Knavery, Bawdiness, and Surety. The problem is these two stat systems aren’t explained. By the end of the game, I knew what Bawdiness was, but not if it had consequences to being high. Was it better to keep it low, completely? Additionally, the stat checks themselves are difficult to parse. Sometimes, I thought a choice would test my Wit, but it tested my Sagacity instead. Lastly, there’s a new bent to the aptitude system. While your skills determine success or failure, in some cases, your mood determines the overall outcome. So, if your attitude doesn’t align with what you say, it’ll color the action and could count as a fail, even if you have a high percentage. So for example, I have a high Blood stat over Melancholy. If during a check, I choose calm, stoic dialogue, I would fail because I have 60% Blood. It’s interesting! You may want to take stranger decisions just because they are “in-character” and therefore more likely to succeed. However, at times I did feel constrained. It doesn’t help I wasn’t certain what each choice would check.
Cons:
Not recommend for beginners. I adore the dialect, but the Shakespearean English may be off putting at times. The medieval dialect is a little hard to understand sometimes, but it really helps with immersion. I personally had to look up quite a few words, and even the good ole context clues didn’t help much.
Little/confusing romance. I’m still not sure how many romance options there technically are. Four, perhaps. I romance Aubrey, a maid, and it was fine? We exchanged banter, kisses, and hurried rendezvous, but that was literally it. No character development, no actual talking, just … some click to romance buttons. There’s also Tom Fletcher, the male equivalent, who works as a stablehand or blacksmith of some sort. There was one introduction scene with him, and he pretty much disappeared from the narrative. There’s Gwendell, your rival, but the lock-in point of the romance comes rather late. And finally, my biggest problem, Prinxe Hail. I had a high relationship with them. I impressed them after their argument with the king, and choose to run away with them, even! So when trying to kiss them twice, I got rejected—both times! What the hell? It was in a very humiliating way, as well. This is not a game where being rejected is an interesting narrative or design choice; it just feels like somehow I chose the “wrong” option (while somehow having a high relationship).