Suzerain: Kingdom of Rizia Review (Olter)
You are the rizzler
Now in all honesty I felt your daughters love interest plotline was far too obvious.
The introduction of the decree mechanics result in a 2nd or even 3rd playthrough being mandatory. Focusing on military at the beginning of the game is pointless from a minmax perspective there is no reason not focus your money on budget and energy. The ROI is simply far better that way. Problem with this is that it requires meta game knowledge. In fact most of the decrees require metagame knowledge. For example some degrees give negative buffs for no benefit. In the description it says something about it being worthwhile in the future but how worthwhile? I invest 3 budget points for 3 budget in the future? That is simply not a good deal.
Another issue is that while you are spending points on degrees, if you go to 0 authority or budget certain events and dialogue options will not be available. And there is no way for you to know when dialogue options or events that require these things happen. This makes following a guide or several playthroughs mandatory which is not what anyone wants.
And again, these are new mechanics so they take a while to learn (which means you need to play twice at the very least for good results probably more than twice and use a guide on top) and that takes away from the CYOA nature of the game.
The war strategy minigame is alright, the main issue is that the visuals are not clear enough as to whether or not you have selected a unit which leads you to fortifying on accident, which costs you a turn because there is no canceling moves. Add move canceling, simple as. Another issue is that despite losing pretty much no troops, if you dont conquer the objectives fast enough the game says the operation failed. 0 losses with consistent gains=failure? Makes no sense whatsoever. Just annoying.
Solution? Let the player choose from strategic goals. Destroy enemy units and capture 1 location VS Capture 2 locations for example.
Also, in the latest updates the dialogue has gotten REEEEAAALLY long winded to the point that it becomes silly. Blocks and blocks of text about something that is in no way relevant or interesting. It it isn't even particularly good dialogue im afraid.
They try to make religion into a big thing where one of your advisors wants to turn the country into a holy land or something which could be interesting as a concept but I don't believe it serves much benefit so I don't really care. Loads and loads of dialogue is related to it though and all the sections with Sal reeeeeeally drag on. If the religion had more impact on the story and the nation it could be interesting but as it stands all the theological discussions you have in the game are just wastes of time.
Also making speeches should not be something you do constantly. Picking dialogue option after dialogue option that in the end changes absolutely nothing is lame.
There are 2 romance options, but imho only one of them is in any way something I would be interested in, and I'm pretty sure the vast majority of people agree. In the future, I would hope for more romance options so that you would feel at least a little conflicted. Triss or Yennifer and so on
Overall this feels like suzerain 2 more than just a DLC recommended but some design decisions should be looked at and QOL improvements should be added especially in the war minigame
Also the ending feels a bit rushed. I just feel there should be another turn there to wrap things up instead