I really appreciate the ambition. I really, really respect the idea of tackling a fascinating genre that is occupied by basically one major player, Crusader Kings. But there's just too many missteps. Performance is bad, the game is quite laggy. The UI is opaque and confusing. The game moves too quick. Too little is explained, the game itself is quite hard.

I understand wanting to add depth to Crusader Kings' non-war related events. Really lean into the roleplay and social drama, the intrigue and backstabbing of medieval politics. The finagling for favors that wound up putting the most unexpected courtiers on the thrones of Europe's most prestigious courts.

But we don't quite get that here. Managing an entire family instead of mainly focusing a single character is just too unwieldy. The live travel system makes it hard for small families to traverse the map while still managing their fief. Managing large families is far too much of a micromanage-y hassle. The events that come with navigating social attempts like marriage or paying tribute are a cool idea but their execution is more than lacking.

It can take years and years and years for you to find a suitable marriage. Each time a courtship with various pitfall events where one failure could end the courting. Then you must follow it up with a marriage proposal which might not be accepted. Then if they do accept it you have to play a tedious, difficulty and high stakes auto-battler combat game to decide which of the betrothed will join which of the marrying houses. Meaning you can lose your household head or heir to another house in a blink via a silly minigame. There are also very few possible marriage candidates on the map at any time unlike Crusader Kings where you can always at least secure a bad marriage in lieu of going heirless while searching for the perfect one.

Basically every other major social and political decision is held by similar means. There are a ton of mundane and rote activities you'll undertake, each punctuated by one of these prolonged civil-social combats. The game grinds to a halt for these and losses in them are often steeply punishing.

And then there's an abundance of annoying video game logic in which everything happens to the player character and not just happening amidst the world. Which feels tremendously punishing in a 4x or grand strategy game. A particular example is being offered trades by neighboring counts and barons. When they offer a trade, they're offended if you decline. And they will offer bad trades. They will offer bad trades that they spam. And you incur a malus every single time you reject them. However, when you offer a trade to someone you will also suffer a malus when they reject it. Even if you offer a very generous offer, if the opposing ruler rejects it you're punished still. At every turn these things befall you but seem to scarcely affect the AI.

It's just a mess. The game is all a bit of a mess. Graphically it's nice, there are a few neat ideas. But not enough. The lore to the fake continent is left terribly wanting, with virtually no detail as to regions, counties, baronies, cultures or anything. The distinctions of family crests and coats of arms are artificial in all ways with no meat behind them. There's no reason to innately like or dislike anyone else or any means to roleplay such feelings. You don't get cultures and languages like in Crusader Kings, you don't get different species and traditions and ethos like in Stellaris, you don't even get interesting medieval lore like in The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante. There's just nothing. A map devoid of meaning with characters devoid of character.

It's a shame. I'd keep an eye out for a sequel if the devs ever persisted with such an effort. Maybe lessons learned could help create a better game. The bones here are better than in most attempts at such a game. The execution is just dire.