The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante

If possible, play this before Baldur's Gate 3 to fully appreciate it.

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MOVIES

- No new movies watched in the last week, but a movie night with a friend did result in Bullet Train and Top Gun: Maverick being watched again.

- Deadpool & Wolverine may be an option this weekend though, which would be the first time in a cinema since Godzilla Minus One back at the start of the year.

GAMES

- The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante is a game that I really wish I'd played before Baldur's Gate 3, as I think I would've liked it a lot more then.

- While this games does have a lot of different choices that lead to a whole host of different experiences and endings, it's not quite as reactive to player actions as Larian's masterpiece.

- It's still impressive just how different your life as the titular Sir Brante can turn out considering what would have been a much, much smaller budget and (I'm assuming) much less time to make.

- The game is split into five chapters, although it's only really in chapter 3 as a young adult that playthroughs really begin to diverge.

- Even then, you'll still find a lot of similar moments cropping up regardless of how you play due to how the story unfolds, even if the context and different choices made earlier in life can make those moments feel different.

- As a heads-up, this is a fantasy world, with a blue-skinned race called Arknians, who lord it over humans; twin gods who made the world; and multiple deaths possible for your character.

- And by multiple deaths, I don't just mean the numerous ways you can die, but rather the fact that you can suffer three Lesser Deaths before a final True Death.

- Being able to die multiple times serve not only as a neat gameplay mechanic to encourage risk-taking, but are actually referred to often in-story, combining both aspects brilliantly.

- There's no real action in the game though, and neither is there any real exploration of the world as the game plays out almost entirely through text outside of a few brief cutscenes.

- The biggest issue I have is I feel there's a lot of content in the game that will go unseen by most due to requiring specific choices to unlock it all.

- I finished the game three times and each time ended up feeling like I had a time wasted because I'd picked a certain course for my character that led to scenarios with multiple choices to pick from at the end, but I could only pick one.

- That's fine as a one-off, but when you get 2-4 in a row where you don't have any choice, it does start to feel more like reading a book than playing a game.

- I do wish there had been just a bit more flexibility in how you could play out Sir Brante's life, as nuance seems to have been sacrificed to make the paths you can choose from in chapter 3 seem as different as possible.

- I don't want to sound too harsh though as it does feel unfair to compare this game to Baldur's Gate 3 and I genuinely did really enjoy my first two times through the game.

- The fact that you can start seeing a few weaker moments playing through the game multiple times is hardly unique either, but maybe just a little more noticeable than usual.

- Despite the issues I have, I really enjoyed the story, the characters and the setting, and am looking forward to the sequel I just learned is coming at some point.

- My advice to fully enjoy The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante is to soak everything up the first time through and maybe leave it a while before playing it again to keep those weaker moments from standing out so much. [7/10]

TV

- More of The West Wing's sixth season has been got through, and I'll be starting season two of House of the Dragon soon as well, thanks to waiting for the whole thing to come out before watching.

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