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“Explore, raid and conquer your way across the vast continent of Calradia, making friends and enemies along the way. Raise your own army and lead it into battle, commanding and fighting alongside your troops in the thick of the action.”

Basically it’s a game that lets you be whoever you want and do whatever you want within reason of course. Fair warning, Bannerlord is really light on story, this is the type of games where you make your own stories about the adventures and challenges that you face.

• What is it exactly that you do in the game?
  Like I mentioned before, Bannerlord is the type of game that is more focused on the sandbox and simulation side of their gameplay rather than in the RPG. Sure this game offers you a deep character customization with dozens of background stories and classes, each one with a play style associated with them. Along with this there is the classic stats, gear and crafting system expected in modern RPGs. But the whole point of the game is for you to look for your own fun looking for adventures and sometimes misadventures in the huge open world map that it has.
  
  I personally played as an archer, the charming son of a merchant, and I spent most of my time with the game going around raiding towns and castles in order to get more resources to raid bigger towns and castles. But I had seen people doing pacifist runs of this game or joining factions and climbing their ranks to become the emperor of the whole world. My point stands, this is the type of game where you make your own fun and the sky's the limit on what you can do with the mechanics that the game offers you.
  
  
• Will it make my eyes bleed?
  It looks a bit dated in some places and decent in others. For example, the top down view of the open-world map looks incredibly bland and simple. Maybe it’s just me who compares it to the Total War games, but the terrain textures and the map density feel like something from the early 2010’s. The game starts looking decent when you engage in 3rd person gameplay. The armors, NPCs and buildings don’t look so bad, a bit dated for modern standards but since this is an AA size game I will give it a pass.
  
  Something that I love from this game are the animations that the characters do during combat. You can feel the weight and impact behind all the attacks. It’s something hard to describe with just words but it helps the combat feel great and like I said before, it’s my favorite part of this game.
  
  Historically Mount & Blade games never were “good lookers” and this game is a huge improvement over the previous installment. But I honestly believe that for the $50 that this game asks for, it should have looked way better.
  
  
• Does it have a good story?
  Doesn’t apply. This game virtually has no story.
  
  
• Does it have a good soundtrack?
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_ksqhX_Rdc
  
  It’s all orchestral songs that aren’t that catchy or memorable. The OST is not particularly good or bad, but it gets the job done.
  
  
• Does it have replay value?
  Tons of it. From the multiple combinations of back stories and stats that you can get, to the random encounters that you can find in the open-world and the multiple weird and niche play styles and builds that this game supports. You easily can get dozens maybe hundreds of hours out of this game.
  
  
• Does it run well?
  No complains on this from me on this front. I maxed out all settings at 1080p and got a smooth 60 FPS all the time. I didn’t find any major bugs or glitches in my 30 hours play through of this game.
  
  
• Is it fun?
  Yes, but only if you are willing to tank through the inherent jankiness that his game has.

It’s probably the best medieval life simulation that lets you siege castles that exists on steam to date. But it is also a game that looks somewhat dated and has a huge learning curve. The amount of amazing and deep mechanics that Bannerlord offers you is sometimes overwhelming. From the whole banner system that gives buffs to you and your army, to how complex the diplomacy and trading systems are and how it lets you do all kinds of crazy and fun stuff… this game sometimes amazes me. There is simply too much to learn and do. This is a good problem to have in your game, Bannerlord luckily has a tutorial that explains the base mechanics of the game, but it is lacking in some aspects. I had to look for guides to understand enough of some mechanics to not get myself humiliated on starting areas.

Something that I hear a lot when someone mentions the Mount & Blade games is how “fantastic” the combat system is and well… it’s going to depend on what you expect of a modern RPG combat system. I can admit that (like most of the mechanics of this game) it has a somewhat stiff learning curve and it has a lot of complexities that makes it deep and strangely addictive. I also mentioned before how the animations give it an extra feeling of “weight” and “impact”, but I can’t ever shake up the feeling that it never really clicked with me. I think it’s because it’s slower than most modern action RPGs out there but I’m not quite sure.

For me, the moment that I understood why this game is so widely praised despite its shortcomings was when I was besieging a huge castle and I found myself in the middle of my army giving them orders and trying not to die. This is not the type of game where you can fight 5 to 10 enemies at once, in Bannerlord you have to be tactical and smart in order to beat just one enemy and watching the whole carnage around me… it felt real… it felt like I really was there. Bannerlord is probably the most immersive game that I have ever played. It encapsulated perfectly what it is to live in the middle ages with all their ups and downs and never forces you to do anything. This is a niche experience that you can’t find anywhere else.

• Deep combat system.
  
  
• Fun and complex sandbox mechanics
  
  
• It’s the best sieging simulator out there.
  
  
• Great RPG mechanics.
  
  
• Amazing mod support. Everything on my dislike list can be fixed with mods.

• It’s janky.
  
  
• No story at all.
  
  
• The graphics are a bit outdated.

Chances are that if you like the Mount & Blade series you already own this game and you have several hundreds of hours of play time in Bannerlord. So… If you like games like the Total War series and you don’t mind janky games that look like the early 2010’s… Buy Bannerlord on sale… It’s a game that offers you an experience like no other game on steam has but… $50 is a hard sale for me. At the time of writing this review, Bannerlord gets regularly updated and the devs constantly add more content.

Rating: 8/10

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I’ve played a few indie VNs and thought they were pretty well made. Who knew that VNs that are extremely superior in overall quality existed? I didn’t. The “Being a ♥♥♥” gameplay experience was way beyond my expectations. Everything present in the game just screamed “Quality” at you. I was taken aback by the game’s stunning visuals, interesting plotline & amazing sound design accompanied by unique gameplay. It was truly a One-of-a-kind experience!



VNs are always story-driven. They rely heavily on the game’s narrative & visual aspects since there isn’t a lot of gameplay involved. The VNs I played before had a very short story that lasted for about 2-3ish hours. I was surprised to see that this game’s storyline could go up to 12 hours depending on your playing speed. Pretty rad if you ask me. You get a lot of content for the price you pay!

Here’s a short overview of the game without any spoilers:


When you launch the game for the first time, the developer & the mascot of the game, Jill (At least I think she is the mascot), ask you a couple of questions like if you are over 18, if you are depressed, etc. This will give you a fair amount of info on what the game’s plot would be like.

I jumped into this game thinking it would mostly revolve around making love & sex. I was completely wrong. There’s so much emotion. It felt as though I was watching an Ecchi anime with drama & a handful of Sex scenes. Unlike other VNs, Being a ♥♥♥ doesn’t throw all story contents at you in an instant. The entire plot unfolds slowly, giving you room to take in whatever is happening.

Sometimes, I forget I am playing an NSFW game. People usually play such games to get off of them. But here, you will get immersed in the story of the game. The game doesn’t fail in getting you emotionally attached to a character. And obviously, you have a ♥♥♥♥ tonne of choices to make. This enormously overarching storyline will intersect in an amazing manner. A lot of work & thought has been put into it!

To be honest, there’s nothing more to say. I recommend playing the game & experiencing it all for yourself!



It’s a VN Game. Such games usually rely on their plot rather than their overall gameplay mechanics. Let’s be honest, there’s nothing much to do in such games apart from clicking to go to the next scene. It’s a bit different in this game since it has something called “Mini-games”. Well, from the name, you can easily deduce that they are occasional small in-game games (I know, that’s a very childish way to refer to this) that act as an added source of entertainment apart from the storyline. When you start a new game, you get to choose whether you want to play these mini-games or not. They give you special renders, money & trigger some special events. I recommend you play them!

Apart from the Mini-games, ability to free-roam & access to a phone, there’s nothing really unique gameplay-wise. You’ll find everything that you see in other VNs; Auto-Save, auto-scroll between scenes, quick save, etc. In the settings, you have almost full control over the dialogues. This comes in handy as it allows you to alter the speed of the text as per your reading speed allowing you to play the game using auto-scroll & watch it like a movie!

To show that your choices play a major role, the game has a meter that shows your affinity to being a “Chick” or a “♥♥♥”, the former being the good one & vice versa. The scale’s order goes like this: Massive ♥♥♥, Huge ♥♥♥, ♥♥♥, Neutral, Chick, Huge Chick & Massive Chick. The ruder/colder your responses are, the more your affinity to being a ♥♥♥ increases. How do these affect your gameplay? Well, they change how certain characters approach you. This is vital if you’re trying to establish healthy relationships with all characters. You get the idea, right? So, be careful when making response-related choices.


This is the other charm of the game. This game has outstanding visuals. I couldn’t find any other better word to describe it. Like bro, the character models are so detailed. You can legit see the effort they put in each scene. It’s a high-quality VN for a reason! The animated sex scenes are elaborate & the minute details are what make them visually pleasing. And here I was, thinking the other VNs I played had amazing visuals… A real 10/10!

The sound design is flawless, ngl. I love the Soundtracks they used. It’s, by far, the best I’ve seen in any VN game I played. It’s so vibe-worthy. I usually listen to songs on Spotify when playing such games, but I was forced to close Spotify while playing this game since the soundtracks were amazing by themselves. I really love the main menu theme song! Good work on nailing every aspect possible!

• A very broad storyline that is not only focused on sex & love. It has a lot of drama & emotions infused in it.
  
• The character design is top-notch. All models & animations are very detailed & a feast to the eyes.
  
• The audio work is honestly amazing. I love the soundtracks they used!
  
• Each & every choice you make has an impact on your gameplay experience.
  
• It gives you more than you asked for. People come to this game for sexual pleasure but stay for the interesting storyline.
  
• The game is 9-12 hours long. It’s pretty lengthy when you compare it to other VNs.

I’ve not found anything bad in this game that affects your gameplay experience.


This game blew my mind. It showed me what a premium VN looks like. I always thought VN games were short & were carried by their story alone. Being a ♥♥♥ introduced so many elements I’ve not yet seen in a VN to date. Well, that may be because I’ve not played a lot of VNs, but still. This game is an easy 10/10. The price, right. I’d have paid more than the game’s base price. It’s worth it! Do not hesitate to spend money on this game even if it’s not on sale unless you have enough patience to wait for a sale.

Rating: 10/10

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