The immense stress of running a kingdom is just the tip of the iceberg in this management simulator. While its harsh choices will mostly leave you paralyzed with indecision, Yes, Your Grace shines all the way through.
Yes, Your Grace is a kingdom management simulator developed by Brave At Night and published by No More Robots. You play as Eryk, the king of Davern, who struggles between juggling his family life and managing his kingdom.
Through the game, you will be faced with petitioners that seek your help, and different quests that take you through the main story. Every encounter will challenge you with a choice that will impact you, your family, or your kingdom in the coming weeks or later in the story.
Kinghood is Stressful
Yes, Your Grace focuses on a multi-layered story. Each act is centered around different aspects of running a kingdom, like castle upgrades or army recruitment, and adds an extra layer. These unique features are always welcome, mainly due to the fresh gameplay they insert to their respective part of the story. The main catalyst for every act is a looming battle or a wedding that is to come, and you will need to prepare for it.
When juggling between looking to make your family happy and bring prosperity to your kingdom, you come across many choices that will affect both. Choosing to marry off one of your daughters to a king for his army, or confronting a lord who deals drugs in your kingdom is almost an impossible choice. But that’s what this game is all about.
It’s a lot of fun running into the jokes and references in the dialogue, many based on biblical or Slavic folklore. One example is an obvious reference to “The Judgment of Solomon.” In the original tale from the bible, two women came to king Solomon pleading him to choose who will raise a baby they both claim to be its mother. In the game, you are faced with the same decision, and you can choose whether to follow Solomon’s wise example or try something else. This little Easter Egg is an excellent example of how the writers did their research about kinghood and its heavy responsibilities.
Throughout the story, you come across many rumors and tales of mythical beasts and witches who perform magic. You don’t get any proof of anything – even the court witch says she is a woman of science and mostly a healer. The game leaves it to you to decide whether you believe these rumors or not, and reflect your views in the actions and decisions you make – for better or worse.
Not for the Indecisive
As you probably figured out, Yes, Your Grace’s main gameplay mechanic is making choices. Difficult choices. In fact, that is the first thing you are faced with when booting up the game.
Yes, your Grace opens with a chilling sentence, foreshadowing the imminent harsh choices you will be forced to make. After already having my fun with the demo, I knew approximately what I’m getting into, but the game kept surprising me nonetheless.
The first harsh choice you come across is actually a flash-forward from the end that forces you to make a decision with no background or reasoning. Eventually, you get back to that very scene after playing through the game and getting to know the characters involved and how they got there. Trust me, making that choice again is way harder, and the game does a great job of showing you that.
Sadly, the game is over-reliant on the weight of each choice, and that feeling doesn’t last until the very end. You may encounter more serious decisions towards the end, but they won’t hit you as hard as the ones in the acts before. It may be because of experience or the dread of what’s to come, but you will eventually have to be more decisive, or you might become bored.
You’re Looking Sharp Today, Your Grace
Coming from next to zero background in pixel-art, the developers worked for five years to get amazing results. Each scenery is beautifully drawn, and the overall map seems like a real part of Europe.
With a few interactable objects laid around, most of the rooms don’t feel very “alive.” There could be more or at least a few animated objects that give each room more flavor. Maybe a highlight on those that do exist could help distinguish what is just the background and what is fully interactable.
Is Simlish a Slavic Language?
Yes, Your Grace has a fitting musical atmosphere for every scene, and Merfolk‘s great soundtrack sets the mood throughout the game.
Each track is timed perfectly with the level and atmosphere the game is currently going for. However, tracks do tend to reappear later on, and not always as fitting as they were the first time. But even though it can be repetitive at times, the soundtrack’s contribution to the overall experience overshadows that repetition.
The character sounds are more of a collection of random human noises than a good representation of the conversation they portrayed. They resemble the made-up language the Sims use, which can be either very annoying or very funny depending on your mood. The voices could’ve been better matched with the atmosphere because, at times, it just feels like the characters are happy to talk about a grizzly murder or sad when they should sound happy.
Yes, Your Grace is for those who are eager to rule and experience all the responsibility that comes with it. You need to be ready to make harsh choices and face even harsher consequences. Dive into the imaginative dialogues and scenarios, and try to ignore the gibberish. Yes, Your Grace is a management simulator fit for a king.
Developer: Brave At Night
Publisher: No More Robots
Release Date: Mar. 6, 2020
Our Yes, Your Grace review copy was provided by the publisher.
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