How to best describe strategy game Be the Ruler: Britannia when its alchemic reduction of traditionally full-on genres is what drew me to its free Steam prologue in the first place?
A less demanding Manor Lords? A more casual Crusader Kings III? Total War with training wheels? It’s got shades of all these games, but thrown together with a wonderfully vibrant wood craft art style.
It ends up as something I feel is going to be a lot more approachable for players who like the idea of massive medieval simulations but don’t care to spend time reading a Magna Carta-fat wiki to learn exactly what pop growth percentage is.
I know what it is, and most days I wish I’d saved that brain space to e.g learn how to keep house plants alive instead. That I’m still very interested in Be the Ruler: Britannia after playing what's honestly quite a rough demo speaks to just how neatly all these elements look to slot together in a hypothetical final package.
In it, you’re given glimpses of your ruler’s individual family members, their territory as part of a larger kingdom, and how resource and management play into making your own slice of it thrive.