I’m finally back! It’s been several weeks filled with adventures, work, and an alarming number of notable game releases (like Starfield, Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty, Super Mario Wonder, the Metal Gear Solid Master Collection, with Alan Wake 2 right around the corner).
That said, while I’ve played SOME of that stuff (though not as much as I’d like) I still have to find time for the indie games that I love so much. One such game is 2021’s The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante.
TLaSoSB, which is an abbreviation I intend to never use again after right now, it’s a highly-stylized black-and-white-ish RPG and visual novel with most interactions made through drawings and writings in the protagonist’s journal.
The story takes place in the 1100s and walks you through <Your Name Here> Brante’s life, one year at a time essentially from birth to adulthood. Along the way, you are introduced to various members of your family including parents, siblings, and grandparents, as well as other people from around your town, and make choices leading to different levels of friendships and relationships among the people that you meet. That’s the “life” part.
The “suffering” comes by way of dozens and dozens of difficult choices you’re asked to make as you work through your life. Your decisions may influence things like your relationship with another character, or may lead to an increase or decrease in certain stats, attributes, or skills. Your decisions may even lead to someone dying, including your <Your Name Here> Brante character.
However, that’s where one of the twists happens. In this world, there are essentially Earthly gods known as “The Twins” who grant you the opportunity to live up to three lives. However, it is also possible to experience “True Death” in some cases, and the additional lives may not always be available in every situation.
This leads to some interesting choices because ultimately dying, or causing someone else to die doesn’t necessarily mean their story ends. It may be necessary for them to die so you can meet up with them later, or you may not have a choice in their death. You may find that suffering your own death could lead to a rise in your “nobility” or “spirituality” stats, and may actually serve to improve others’ opinions of you.
Like most RPGs, your decisions can have a strong influence on the direction of the story including whether or not certain choices are made available at a given time. In nearly every situation, you’re given a largely passive option that will increase your Willpower stat, which is essentially the amount of “energy” you have to make certain choices. In some situations, it may be necessary to avoid a certain option to gain more willpower so you can make a larger impact later.
Because of all this, there is a massive amount of cause and effect, and quite a few choices to be made. The early theme and story are largely the same on most playthroughs, but there are several different resulting paths that Sir Brante might eventually follow.
I only have a very small number of criticisms for the game as a whole. The first is that the story is a little wordy at times, but given the branching narrative and the amount of lore and worldbuilding that takes place, this is pretty unavoidable. The other is that the voice acting is minimal, occurring only in the very limited number of cutscenes (the story is told largely through text which can get a little tiresome with the game taking around 9-10 hours to complete) and that voice acting tends to be pretty corny and dramatic. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that it’s bad, but it comes across a bit jarring.
With all that said, I’m not a huge RPG guy, but I found the concept to be pretty interesting, and I’ve enjoyed what I’ve played, and I’m definitely not against another playthrough or two. It’s available on quite a few platforms, including PC, Xbox, PlayStation, and Switch (as far as I can tell) and there’s a demo on Steam so definitely give it a look if you’re interested.
How much?
$20-25
Is it good?
Is it fun?
