Suzerain

nice one. but localizations and more customization of fonts/reading and accessibility features would be appreciated

One of the best game i have ever played with in depth economy guide and challenges, unique world design and decision making that leads to various result and with the new Rizia DLC I really recommend buying this one as it really is a dynamic game and you will not be disappointed and the added DLC not only tackle with economy and diplomacy but also add an in depth military experience where you can wage war and strategize really recommend this and I really hope with future dlc they will expand the map and added more countries to play with especially valgsland or galmsland

Really love Suzerain. Extremely fun and engaging CYOA/Visual Novel that can be really rewarding on replays, but will definitely be disappointing if you're looking for traditional country management mechanics.

I have been enthralled by the games story telling. Kudos to the developers

Suzerain is a visual novel where you take on the role of Anton Rayne, the newly elected president of the fictional nation of Sordland. Fraught with challenges, you have to deal with internal and external threats as you navigate your way through a world that parallels the Cold War era. Sordland is not a superpower and has to worry about its neighbors as well as influence from the superpowers of the world.

The story is engrossing and it draws you in, getting you eager to know what will happen and leave you in suspense as to what will happen in the highly tense world of Sordland politics. You have to manage the economy, the national budget, and the big personalities of Sordland, including its former dictator and the last president.

While you do have a lot of freedom to shape the nation, the game runs into a problem where if you want to run it a certain way, the game decides to run on some rails and lead you down a path that sometimes contradicts the information you're being presented by the game. For example, the projected growth was as high as I had seen it, but all of my ministers were talking about how dire the economic situation was. The only statistic that was negative was the national budget. The game often talks about situations that don't match the reality in the information that's displayed throughout the country. For example, I did a lot of investment in Bergia, one of the regions in Sordland. Late in the game, the region suffered from "Lack of Investment". Just not sure how much the game takes into account your choices and just runs off of certain triggers or numbers.

The game also has a disturbing lack of revenue generation ideas. Most of the opportunities for generating revenue for the government come from NOT investing in things, rather than generating actual revenue. It felt more like an austerity simulator more than a government simulator.

Overall, Suzerain is a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to doing other playthroughs. It will be nicer to do the non-Torpor mode, which allows you to manually save so you can more easily go back when decisions go wrong. In "Torpor Mode", you are restricted to autosaves and if you want to try to redo something, or just see a different immediate outcome, you have to go back a long way. I guess it's a way to keep you from "cheating" by trying to create the best outcome possible.

If you like visual novels, this game is certainly one of the better ones I've played, despite its limitations and shortcomings. Worth at full price, but if you're still on the fence about it, getting it on sale would 100% be worth it.

Great game. I have never played a better political game. The level of depth in character interaction and narrative is exceptional. If you like politics, government, and drama, play this game.

Impressive game with intricate scenarios. Though some actions have obscure consequences and unsatisfactory results, it shows instances where good intentions and public opinions run counter to each other.

So much replay value, multiple paths to take and great charachters

Good story, gotta try and think of all the consequences and keep yourself ready for what secret motivations others may have.

An amazing, rich experience which will suck you in for hours on end.

There are plenty of positive reviews, so I would write a negative one.

I understand that this is a story-driven game, rather than gameplay, but Jesus Christ, what a MORONIC government we have. Why the F*CK economic decisions, their consequences and synergies are not presented in a well documented, 50 list PDF format? Like can you imagine being a leader of a country(well-developed) and make economic decisions not backed up by any kind of complicated analysis pre, ongoing and post. Just take a russian roulette or trust what dude(or newspaper) "without" ulterior motives said to you. Proofs? Trust me bro.

You know your country is f*cked up when your president, to solve a depression, look for a solution in news paper.

In terms of a videogame, we should've had a dedicated economic tab with all our made economic decisions, with what consequences it has brought and synergies it created so I wouldn't need to go to some shady dark web forums presenting me a PDF guide(that my minister of Economics coudln't) so I could have all region in green in terms of economic situations.

One could argue, well those times are kind of backwards so for sake of realism, taking into consideration historical context, it is quite possible that such analysis are not even invented! What a well-made point, here is a thing:
What is the difference between a game having it presented to a player in dedicated tab(allowing them to immerse into gameplay and management of economy) and a player making a google sheet and tracking down everything by themselves? Wasted time and immersion. I would rather enjoy my next playthroughs trying to make a best economy using game's tools(and be immersed) then google it on the internet(and not be immersed). + satisfaction from making everything good by your own power, rather than following someone else guide.
And the point doesn't sound so much powerful when we have a save option which can be easily explained as time traveling/seer abilities. And with such ability, who wouldn't want to try to have a perfect run? And what is better than a perfect run? An in-game tools allowing for you to reach your perfect ending by your powers alone.

This is literally one of the best games I've ever played, it has to be my favourite. It has fun mechanics, realistic scenarios, loads of content that you can play without ever getting bored and a great community. Only issues I have with it is that there isn't enough of the game for me to play, it's that good. Hands down, 15/10.

I will admit, I don't usually play strategy games. But Suzerain is fantastic. Still only a little bit in, but as a political organizer and politics nerd, this game has scratched an itch of managing the dynamics of political forces, faction management, and reliance on both market forces and global geopolitics in a way that I've never experienced in an interactive fashion. These developers are absolutely brilliant, highest marks from me.

Best game about politics there is. Very interesting world.

Suzerain has the potential to be a great game, but the level of frustration I've felt playing it, I simply cannot recommend it. Good narrative games do not leave you wondering why things ended out the way they did.

I have tried over and over again to like Suzerain. But as much text as the game throws at you, it tells you very little to help you understand the ramifications of your decisions or why events are taking place. I have done everything to keep my nation peaceful just to end up at war in the end. I have chosen to run a planned economy and not privatise any of our services, just to be told that I failed and ran a mixed economy. The game throws events at you and possibilities without giving you a timeline to understand what you may need to consider in future.

You'll see my hours dedicated to the game, but this is just repeated playthroughs trying to understand what I was doing wrong, to fix things I felt must have been mistakes I made in individual turns. But it takes hours upon hours to see things go wrong, and a single decision can be the reason that everything broke down. I love the idea of a political game where your decisions matter, but how do you know your decisions matter if the game does not explain to you why it ended up the way it ended up?

This is all made all the more frustrating by the overly verbose writing and often repeating dialogue options where you find yourself having to repeatedly state your decision before the game will move on. And then on the flip side, critical decisions that can send your country to its doom are skipped over. It's absolutely frustratingly inconsistent.

An exceptional game. A light politics simulator, driven by a solid story in a well written world. The systems have sufficient depth to keep a strategy player engaged, while not being so complex that someone more interested in roleplay will bounce off. An easy recommend for anyone interested in this sort of thing.

i really like the game. i try being comunist and capitalist. the military made a coup xP. jaja, next time i will be a dictartoship and finally declare war on rumbling

This game is just amazing, its a narrative driven politics RPG, I am argentinian and the story told is weirdly close to what happened with Peron, and many other things. The writting is supperb, the decision you make are weaven so well with the story. You can do so much, and betrayal, corruption, corruption of power, dealing with the many powerfull groups while trying to do some main objective in every chapter, pass a consitution for example. I cant recommend it more its delightfull.

Good game, and a lot of possibilities for replayability, dialogue is rich and every character has their own distinct personalities and aims. I've had some playthroughs and i still keep finding new things in dialogues i had never seen before. It also taught me that politics is a rough road and not everyone can be pleased. Absolute art. 10/10.

First run - worst outcome. Depression, war come to Capital, and i am dead, centrist run. 10/10. Best Visual Novel on the market. Will replay it a lot

Although this game appears daunting at first, the more time you invest in it, that much more you'll gain out of it. It is actually impressive how immersive this realistic fiction is. Although I have yet to finish the story, I can't wait to start again and see how your decisions affect the story.

The game starts off in a country, where girls are educated only in household fields and the player is told, that women still are mainly in their roles as mothers and can't even vote. Yet somehow, half of the elected politicians are women and most of them are all in on feminism. The only way, you can turn their pleas for feminist causes down, is by choosing literal a**hole options, no moderate options that would say no in a diplomatic way.

Apart from that, the game is pretty good.

the game is 95% Text-RPG and likes to surprise with unexpected outcomes ... I would need more predictable mechanics to enjoy this game

Great game, stories and such. I would have liked though more ranked options in dealing with budgets with more concrete changes to the story. Something a little more in-depth.

One of the most comprehensive and meticulous games of political simulation and foreign policy on the steam marketplace, driven by the locomotive of a rich and beautiful narrative.

I bought this yesterday, loaded it up, and promptly lost fifteen and a half hours to it that I don't regret in the slightest. I was a miserable failure of a president on my first try and spent seven years in prison after a military coup. It was a depressing, bleak, stressful haul that perfectly illustrated a fiery idealist being broken by the very system he wanted to change for the better. I couldn't have asked for a more perfect introduction to suzerain...and I immediately started a second playthrough.

10/10 game, laser targeted to appeal to the intersection of political nerds x strategy gamers x visual novel lovers.

A 8/10 text adventure game, probably the best political simulation game on Steam

+ Excellent writing
+ Interesting plot
+ Great UI design

- The economic part is confusing, no clear indicator of growth trend and limited policy tool, everything seems fine then suddenly you are in a deep recession
- While it's a good thing to have many in-game geopolitical events that mirror the 20th century in our world, it breaks my suspension of disbelief when there's a cold war stand off between the East and West, a League of Nations/UN like international organization, but there are no fictional WWI and WWII equivalent that leads to such scenario just like in our world. It feels like forcing a 1950 world setting onto a 19th century Europe

Suzerain has a unique implementation of internal political mechanics. On top of that, the player has to deal with a precarious position on the international political stage. Your choices matter both domestically and internationally.

An interesting and diverse range of characters, combined with difficult decisions, makes this game enjoyable whether you're playing it for the first time or replaying to explore a different path for Sordland.

Love this Game the mixture of Story and political Gameplay is really fun and i want more love the DLC

An excellent choice-based story-narrative game about the struggles of leading a third-world nation where neo-colonial interests want a piece of you and how leaders often have to make tough or unethical decisions for the good of their country.

This game is not for everyone. It's more a title that history buffs would appreciate if you have ever studied geopolitics.

Game was a bit of a disappointment after my first time through. You are given very limited options to actually govern your nation in a successful way. How does investing in your economy do so little to stimulate it? Why are you not given the opportunity to campaign and lobby for re-election in any meaningful way? It's as if every thing is pre-decided to stop you from governing in a way that isn't exactly one or two paths. There is very little freedom to follow your own path without Sordland ending up in shambles. Idk just want more versatility I suppose.

Honestly my main issue of this game is it feels like it wants to be a strategy game with alot of choices, but by the very nature of a text based visual novel essentially they can't help but be railroady. Like i enjoy the story, i love how characters bounce off one another as well. However this is a visual novel with strategic and political decisions. Not a traditional game with actual gameplay.
The rizia expansion did alot of help change that with more choices, and actual strategy involved, but its still not there yet.
For example replacing cabinet members with people you specifically find should be a thing, and in the sordland part you should have options for your vice president prior to taking office.

Overall this at the very least has a fun engaging story. However on rails it is.

Probably the most unique political simulator out there at the moment. It's a blend of political sim with visual novel that brought some level of freshness to the genre. Although the game has a foundation for the story per se, you have a lot of freedom to choose your path and navigate the realm of politics. While the base game is focused on a "semi-democracy", the DLC is focused on a monarchy and both have their unique perspectives and challenges. This game is a must-have for anyone interest in political sims

This game is so good and the dlc is basically a whole other game for half the price

Brilliant story-based political simulator. The writing is excellent and you have a lot of choices as president to shape Sordland into the country you want it to be - with a lot of replayability due to different ideologies and character interactions. Also the Rizia DLC is amazing too if you want to play as a monarch.
My only criticism would be the lack of transparency sometimes around what effects your decisions will have on the world and characters around you. In general it's pretty obvious what effect choices will have, but some can be more ambiguous - especially economic decisions/synergies.
Aside from that I would highly recommend the game if you like politics and visual novels!

This is a Visual Novel with a Political theme to it, not an actual Political Simulator. Once you've accepted that, it's a very good Visual Novel about building the "Story" of the character you take charge of.

If you come in with the expectation that you'll be able to do your own thing the way you want them to, like any PoliSim, then prepare to be disappointed. Choices are limited to a select number of options with little degree of variance and you can only tackle issues as they come up, as the story demands. You do not have the ability to proactively decide when or how to handle various issues because as mentioned before, this is a Visual Novel, not a Political Simulator.

As a Visual Novel, is it any good? It's okay, but nothing extraordinary. More variety in routes and endings stemming from past choices would make this more memorable, but the variations are only mild, enough to see some change, but not significant enough to completely alter the trajectory. That, and the story has tendencies to throw "gotcha" moments near the end that force you to steer your character in a specific direction very early on unless you like repeating the same ending for a dozen playthroughs.

TL;DR get it on sale

An amazing game, my only issue is that it seems to be the only game of its type and quality in existence. Had to take my time finishing this game and Rizia because I knew I would be suffering withdrawal symptoms afterwards.

This game scratches my geopolitical simulator itch, it just needs a sandbox version that plays less like an interactive novel and more like a grand strategy game. If you're looking for a great story-driven political game, this is for you.

Complex story driven decisions. Make you feel like a leader of a country at a pivotal point in its history.

This is a lovely game, in fact, it is one of the best ones I've played. It's an amazing visual novel, and it continues to prove difficult to me. It's a challenge to get anything done, and that's amazing!

genuinely such a good fleshed out visual novel political simulator, need to try the dlc but this is cementing itself as one of my favorite games of all time.

This game has been an amazing adventure. I first encountered the game when I was kid not knowing what it was at first, when i got older and that i got me PC and my love for politics grew the game intrigued me so i played it. This game has showed me a wide perspective of politics and allows players to understand a system of government ( a parliamentary/Presidential republic ). Though the game quirky and weird as it is has so much potential and i cant wait to see the reformist to come "A Morgna wes core, Vectern sis da!"

much better politics simulator than other politics simulators because u are always interracting with people and managing personal relations in order to get policy done

Suzerain is a wonderfully complex political sim that is surprisingly maybe one of the most realistic politically, while simultaneously being very fun, with a wonderfully unique world and lots of interesting choices and characters. Highly recommend to anyone interested or on the fence

First and foremost, this is NOT a political sim in the commonly implied sense. While reading the review, bear this in mind. It is important because you shouldn't expect and clamor for what the game never actually promised nor offered.

Now, I'm writing the review just the minutes after I finished the DLC so I'm under strong impression of that which is notably different from the main game. I will get back to this later on.

If I were to define it in a single word, it'd be 'story'. Essentially, you buy a visual novel. A book (a well executed one, I must add) that you forge the narrative of on your own. You don't just get a sim like HOI4 (great game, don't take me wrong) where you simple gain controls over a piece of land and all you get is stats and a sandbox to fuss around with in a most godly, playish, or pragmatic manner with the clear and unambiguous feeling you remain a player.

Suzerain takes the approach of, I suppose, House of Cards which it even references a handful of times and, mostly likely, takes a grain of inspiration from. You talk. You talk a lot. Even more, you listen. Some characters can yap for lengths of text amounting to stacks of literal A4 sheets, no shit. And it's really good, throughout the game I haven't once experienced irritation from bad writing. If I experienced irritation from a charcter, it was only due to them being convincingly stubborn as they should be. As politicians, you know.

So, as I've mentioned, in this book, you fill in the blanks on the main character's political beliefs and traits, visual and of temper, but he does have his background, his past, his family, his unprofessional and intimate relationships. All of this, yet again, you're given the liberty to touch upon and react to anyhow you wish. The developers put their emphasis on how unimaginably severely emotions, backdoor dealings or simply unwise choice of words in random conversations that happened two eternities ago affect politics. This is what the game is precisely about and what you should await if you settle on buying.

The Rizia DLC expands on that idea even further while, I think, undoubtedly successfully implementing new mechanics. I didn't try going to war , by the way, so I don't know about that one but royal decrees and new budget/energy system was super fun. Family squabbles, palace gossips and rumors, broader take on religious questions - it all fit the core of Suzerain perfectly.

At last, I'll walk the mile to say the DLC is even better and more enjoyable than the main game. Though, you still have to do the main game first. Personally, I did 3 runs on the main one: 1) my vision of a perfect State and my feelings towards issues; 2) my Stalin run (super fun); 3) my Hitler run (super fun).

Overall, I had an amazing time. I may be too sensitive of a person but still, worth mentioning that the game managed to squeeze a tear or two out of me. I look forward to seeing more titles from the developers. Perhaps, another DLC for Suzerain?

I thought the game was fun and well thought out until I found out it simply judges you on a standard political compass with no nuance whatsoever. The time I spent in this game ended with the game implying I had done something wrong after losing a war with an expansionist monarchy? Waste of time.

Picked this up expecting just a standard political simulator, was instead tricked into playing a text-based game, and thoroughly loved it. The worldbuilding is fantastic, the different paths and choices you make sometimes hinging on a single sentence, and the investment into the story and doing right by the characters is brilliant.

Would thoroughly recommend.

This is a rather difficult to master but very interesting game to play and can have a lot more DLCs in the future, maybe one wants to play Wehlen or some other powers except the 2 super powers and Rumburg who start off way too powerful.

There is some enjoyable aspects to the game and it passes the time but I wouldn't recommend it. It is quite difficult to get things to go your way and you don't get any in game tools to help you make decisions besides a lot of reading. It is a good example of how difficult politics are though, so I appreciate it for that. It would be great if it had a skip option with a simple choice selection where one was required instead of reading through all the dialogue, especially for subsequent playthroughs.

Unlike other political sims, this game functions more as an interactive novel with numerous choices that can influence the outcome of the story and the country you reign over. Basically, imagine a Telltale game but with text walls instead of animated characters and voice acting.
A lot of this game does revolve around creating synergy with different industries and policies so be aware of that going into this game. I disagree sometimes with the extent that this game leans into synergies.

This is the type of game where you have to plan ahead from the very beginning of the story and decide what type of country you want to lead VERY early on. Improvised planning will NOT work out in this game.
I will say that one complaint I personally have with this game is the lack of an ability to choose corporatism as the type of economy your country can have but I can't really fault the devs for not including it since most people don't even know what corporatism is (no, it doesn't have to do with big business).

This game has an insane amount of replayability. You can be communist, libertarian, fascist, conservative, liberal, centrist, social democrat, or just about almost any modern ideology you can imagine. There will ALWAYS be characters who agree with you and disagree with you and I have never encountered moments in this game where it felt too preachy. The game doesn't tell you that you're a great or horrible human being based off your political stances, but rather some characters will love you and some characters will hate you. You can't be friends with everyone in this game so you have to pick an approach and stick with it. I am genuinely impressed how unbiased this game managed to be and will forever praise this game for that. You will either lead your country to victory or ruins, and that very concept is exiting. Your choices truly do matter in this game and I love that.

I will however say that this game doesn't allow you to tackle problems in very many ways, meaning that the way you approach politics is VERY limiting. You can only tackle each problem in the game about 2 to 3 ways, which really sucks. You also cannot make decisions about the country in any order you want, nor can you change any of your policies once they have been enacted. I feel as though these restrictions on player choice will result in many players unrightfully not succeeding at this game due to being unable to find alternatives to their plans. Also, the government budget is extremely small for some reason, which makes this game very challenging. Apparently this wasn't really a problem until the 2.0 update, which means the game wasn't originally supposed to be like this. Like, you're telling me that your government gets billions of dollars a year and is the 16th largest country in terms of GDP, yet they can't afford to adequately fund the military, healthcare, education, AND police at the same time? I find that difficult to believe.

Also, the war with Rumberg scenerio is basically impossible to win unless you do EVERYTHING perfectly and your sole objective is to win the war with Rumberg from the start of your game. You are VERY unlikely to win so you might as well just not even try unless you believe that spending 20 hours on a new save file over and over again until you win is a good use of your time.

This game is overall a mixed bag. I can't really say that you should or shouldn't get this game. It's an incredibly solid game, but I doubt that it's worth everyone's time. You may enjoy it or you may not.