izigame.me

Reviewing (mostly) every game (or DLC) in my library, part 173:
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️☆ (9/10)
Suzerain is one of the most compelling political narrative RPGs ever made. Set in the fictional country of Sordland, a post-dictatorship republic teetering between reform and ruin, you take on the role of newly elected President Anton Rayne. What follows is a dense, choice-driven drama packed with constitutional crises, economic collapse, civil unrest, foreign manipulation, and personal dilemmas.
Despite being mostly text-based, Suzerain delivers a powerful, immersive experience that stays with you long after the credits roll. It’s a game that respects your intelligence and political curiosity—letting you craft your own presidential legacy with genuine consequences.
📘 Pros:

Masterful political worldbuilding and writing. The real genius of Suzerain lies in its ability to create a fictional world that feels more real than many actual historical simulators. Sordland is a mosaic of geopolitical tension, post-revolution trauma, and ideological clash. Every major faction—be it the conservative Old Guard, the radical reformers, the centrist technocrats, or the nationalistic Hawks—has coherent values and a place in the political ecosystem. in a living, breathing world filled with believable characters, detailed histories, and complex institutional constraints, the writing is consistently excellent, and never dips into parody or oversimplification.
Moral dilemmas with no easy outs. Do you grant amnesty to war criminals for national unity or pursue justice and risk civil unrest? Will you prioritize economic growth through foreign investment, or protect sovereignty and workers’ rights through nationalization? The game never rewards you with a clear "correct" option. Every choice has trade-offs, and the outcomes are not always predictable. The gray morality and interlocking consequences force you to define your own political identity—and sometimes compromise it. That tension is the core experience, and it’s executed beautifully.
High impact decision making and replay value. You will feel the weight of your decisions. The early game revolves around building your cabinet, addressing a massive budget crisis, and rewriting the constitution. Mid-and late-game arcs include nationalizing industries, reforming the justice system, or dealing with brewing revolts in the south. But here’s the real magic: these decisions don’t just create new dialogue options—they redefine your playthrough. Siding with one faction may close off entire questlines. Passing certain laws may make other reforms impossible. By the end, you’ll have sculpted a political story that’s unique to you, and you'll want to play again to explore the paths you missed.
Authentic internal and external pressures. Your presidency isn’t just about policy—it’s about survival. Parliament can block your bills. Party members may revolt. The military might stage a coup. The economy can spiral into hyperinflation. Foreign nations, especially Arcasia and Valgsland, attempt to manipulate your sovereignty through deals, aid, and threats. Balancing internal cohesion with foreign diplomacy, while also maintaining your moral compass (or not!), creates a dizzying sense of responsibility and fear. It’s like a pressure cooker that never lets up—and that’s what makes it so exhilarating.
Immersive UI and role playing format. Suzerain is text-heavy, but its clean UI—styled like a presidential dossier and policy log—makes the reading experience tactile and immersive. You flip through memos or notes, read newspapers, and consult maps. Dialogue is presented in crisp, tree-based choices that feel less like a "choose your own adventure" and more like navigating an intense debate.

📄 Cons:

Over-balancing hurts narrative creativity. One frustrating issue is the devs’ tendency to rebalance certain routes after launch in ways that discourage narrative experimentation. For example, specific reform paths or alliances that were once viable are now nearly impossible without laser-focused planning or luck. The devs might have added more debt or taken away resources. Rather than embracing all ideologies as valid choices with pros and cons, later patches have sometimes punished interesting but "unpopular" options in the name of realism or challenge. While understandable from a design perspective, it risks suffocating the game’s greatest strength: freedom of political expression. (See the game's subreddit or @patryk_wesierski16's review for more details.)
Limited visual feedback or dynamism. Aside from portraits and maps, there’s little visual representation of events or changes. You won't see riots break out, cities change hands, or even flags change—all of that exists only in the narrative text. It’s a very static presentation style, and while elegant, it might leave visual players wanting more.
Some routes and characters feel underdeveloped. Not all ideologies or character arcs get equal love. Paths involving monarchism or deep religious integration often feel thinner than centrist or technocratic choices. Similarly, a few cabinet members, like certain ministers or minor advisors, barely make an impact unless you go out of your way to involve them.
Player agency can be illusory at times. While most decisions feel impactful, some major plot points are railroaded or require extremely specific preconditions to unlock alternative outcomes. In certain story arcs—especially involving military events or late-game diplomacy—you may realize you were never really in control. Realistic, sure, but it can dampen the satisfaction.
No save scumming (unless manually backed up). A smaller issue, but due to the auto-save structure at the beginning of each turn and dense decision trees, it’s hard to "go back" without manually saving. This is a game where one poor choice can derail your entire playthrough, and the lack of a proper timeline or event log can make it hard to diagnose why something happened.
Hard to 100%. There are little guides, and many are outdated. Some achievements are opaque or bugged.