Just dropping my 2 cents on the story. I bought and finished this just a few days ago and saw all of the criticisms which some I do agree with, in particular, the story just railroads you most of the time with some important choices not being impactful on the plot which in my opinion seriously harmed the story and I don’t feel motivated enough to continue reading the next book in this series.
The characters? I thought most of them was written just fine but there are quite a few that I didn’t like but I won’t get into it since it’ll just derail what I’d like to say.
Or a guillotine for show of our internal enemies. And take the head in our hands and show it to the crowd. If you want a stern and determined leader to defend the kingdom from him, that will be my way of confirming that I am the one.
Exactly Machiavelli points it out in the Prince. The art of governing is to protect your subordinates from danger even if you are not charitable because that is an obligation of every good leader.
But now King Charles’s sons are paying for their stupidities. We his children must pay their broken dishes and debts with the universe. It will be difficult, a road full of blood, sweat and tears but it is to prevent our Kingdom from becoming a miserable failed state at the mercy of our enemies. (A destroyed dynasty and a miserable people who now no longer enjoy any kind of protection from what remains of our old army becoming merely corrupt)
As well as becoming miserable warlords who fight each other for the power of what was once the kingdom that governed the magic sword while normal people continue to suffer for these struggles
I think that’s why we should have some more added backstory and established world-building that can explain why the people of Rhivenia feel this way. At least up until a certain extent!
But yes, PLEASE have the people of Rhivenia have some more common sense. And if they aren’t intended to, actually acknowledge it in the story and not put the blame on mc? Like I don’t think that seems to be the authors intent, but it does come off across like that!
Well seeing that Rhivenia’s society is not as complex as ours and more is in the Middle Ages adding the basic knowledge of political science that every anthropologist learns and my love of the history of rulers and nations is that this story had me with high expectations.
Do you also want to hear a phrase from my reflection on the art of governing? Governing a people is like learning to tame a tiger.
And seeing how Richard and Atheris are at the time of governing are the extremes of a bad government. On the one hand we have a monarch who, aware of this wild tiger and makes him spoiled that when he does not have something he wanted the animal would devour him alive.
And Atheris is a ruler who from the beginning poses to be someone who exercises a domain over the tiger but applies more punishments than can legitimately make the tiger so he holds grudges from his tamer for when Atheris is turned around this wild tiger in his death for mistreating him a lot.
What one must do as King being a figure that is associated with being the father or mother of a nation must act as such. A father who educates not only his children but his subjects so that in this social contract of monarchy government based on a sword he knows from the beginning the limits that they have as a people and us as their ruler and the rest of the class noble and military.
If there is any disagreement related to our way of governing and that if a rebellion of disagreement is unleashed, we will simply assert our rights as a monarch chosen by the sword and when we defeat rebellions or purge opposition elements, nobody will say anything because those who remain alive will say that that happens to them for opposing the will of the chosen one of the sword
With all the internal affairs of the Kingdom calmer, we will be able to go to war more safely with the loyalty of the people, the army and the noble Aristocrats or bourgeois. And if with this we win a war, then we would have more support since the war that we all faced in the kingdom was for the defense of the interests of our kingdom (Everyone in society benefiting from the victory) Planting bases for a more lasting peace for our next descendants will succeed our turn when we die.
And because of that she’s going to try to incite a rebellion amidst a war? Charles talked big about being pragmatic, and yet he allowed a woman who clearly hated over half his heirs to remain - and it’s not like he was completely sure Richard was going to be the heir, he shows time and time again he did care about you.
Fucking hell, man. It’s like there are exactly five sane people in this entire kingdom, and one of them is my bartender.
Okay we really need to organize exactly what we want to see improved for either/both an update to the first game, and for the second game. I am quite interested in compartmentalizing them into a clear list!
I agree with what you said, but it would certainly be good if the people were less ridiculously biased for Richard - if there were still tens of thousands of loyalists for decades after the death of Louis XVI, is it really so unrealistic that there’d be people who would support the “quite literally and undeniably supported by the lord of the swords, our religious deity” monarch when he has done nothing wrong in the little time he’s ruled?
Does anyone know why Atheris and Freya act like you killed Mother when you execute the guard? After you release Xavier and imprison the guard.
I mean I understand Freya’s reaction but Atheris? Why is she so affected? Wouldn’t she do the same thing, confronted with losing your people respect?
Atheris is clearly not the queen as the MC and many times it happens in real life that others can easily judge your decisions but they don’t really understand it by not being in your shoes. But at the end of the day, every decision has consequences that we must face responsibly.
The only way to establish a government more loyal to us would be through a coup that requires the support of important figures like us, the MC monarch or one of the pretenders to the crown. Then give a reason for the blow to the established government tarnishing the reputation of our enemies and those who support them such as King Oliver’s daughter as well as our secret cousin. And while society is still in shock from the political coup, we should mobilize our loyal forces at key points in our government so that any opposition to our regime is fruitless. We have already got rid of our enemies and now we the King of Rhivenia rule as an absolute monarch with greater stability to external problems as well as greater loyalty to our authority and that of the selecting sword.
Overall the main issues that need fixing are :
*Railroading, give us more options with different results because the game is coming out as this
(Switch Fascist with Ruthless and Communism with Idealistic)
*Skill checks, the only two skill checks the game has are “Shooting the Deer” and “Who Get’s the Throne?” Why couldn’t we have some skill checks relating to combat or knowledge? They kinda just get inflated for no reason and they are just there, hell manipulation is very hard to acquire yet we can’t do anything
*Make the people more reasonable and impressionable, they hate you when you try to be kind but they also hate you if you try to go full Caligula
*A glossary for us to understand the world and more explanation on things like what is the Rhivenian Culture, why they hate us when we are kind but go all over their heels when Richard does the same thing?
(PERSONAL CHANGES I WOULD DO)
*Astryn’s Poison ordeal should have more variations, she comes off as unsympathetic since she hardly feels any remorse when trying to kill us and our family with poison, that kinda makes me lose my interest on romancing her so why couldn’t she feel guilty when poisoning us if we are friendly or why not make the Maresians poison the keep instead and blame her as a scapegoat?
*Personally I would say to tone down Richard “loving image” appeal, it just becomes hypocritcal that the Population loves Richard being kind but when we do the same they want our heads
Astryn being an unreasonable, backstabbing asshat is completely understandable, not every character’s going to be good. If you’re dumb enough to still romance her, sure, you can, and you can also save her, and people should righteously call you stupid for doing such a thing.
Personally, i just wish the game was a bit less biased against the main character.
Yeah that’s why i putted in the “Personal change” section" lol, but i feel like she should have felt at least slightly bad about it to give us a reason to make the decision on what to do with her more conflicting instead of an almost clear answer of “yeah this bitch is going down and for a good reason” lol
Not in this book, but i believe it is planned for you to have children in later sequels. Of course, realistically speaking, you’d probably be having them extremely quickly, due to the health dangers to the mother that would only grow with age.
However, it seems doubtful it would happen in this story.
