Noblesse Oblige: Legacy of the Sorcerer Kings

Progress at time of review: Chapter 9
---{ Art }---
☐ Gorgeous
☐ Beautiful
☑ Good
☐ Decent
☐ Bad
☐ Don‘t look too long at it
☐ MS-DOS
RPG Maker game is still an RPG maker game, but as far as they go, this one looks pretty good. Graphics aren't really much of a consideration when you pick up a game like this. And the custom art is rather good. I really only have one minor quibble: the style of the custom portraits by the user doesn't fully match with the generic RPG maker assets. It's hardly enough to be noticeable, outside of the title screen where it's more apparent, but the extra effort to either replace the generic assets in the custom style or for the custom assets to more mimic the generic style would be up the overall art quality. Granted, the latter would represent a monumental effort for a solo project for comparatively little payoff.
---{ Gameplay }---
☐ Very good
☑ Good
☐ It's just gameplay
☐ Mehh
☐ Watch paint dry instead
☐ Just don't
It's games like this that remind me just how customizable RPG maker is as an engine. There's a frankly dizzying array of status effects that all interact with the characters' abilities in remarkably clever ways. It's clear that a lot of care has gone into the combat system and the synergies a character has with her own skills but also with the larger party.
Outside of the combat system, the game has a few features that differentiate it from the crowd. There's a good amount of scenery customization. There plenty of statecraft options that feed into the choice system. It's neat how the party member influence system works with the larger story as well as combat at large.
Unfortunately, generic equipment is pretty pointless and we'd be better off without them at all.
Generic items, such as potions, are more important due to how certain party members interact with them. Additionally, they can be useful in a pinch if, for example, the healer goes down, is low on MP, or you need her to do something else with her action.
Additionally, walking speed could be faster. Particularly in the vault where you have to often loop to talk to the steward

---{ Audio }---
☐ Eargasm
☑ Very good
☐ Good
☐ Not too bad
☐ Bad
☐ I'm now deaf
Most of the audio are generic RPG Maker sound effects. And, in their defense, they work perfectly well. But where this game gets a high rank is that some of the songs in here are downright earworms and I'll catch myself humming as I go about that day. The main theme and Ariadne's theme (particularly the piano version) are particularly notable.
---{ Audience }---
☐ Kids
☑ Teens
☑ Adults
☐ Grandma
There's really nothing much objectionable here that would warrant a higher rating. Romance, and the elements thereof, play a pretty significant role in the story but the game avoids being very explicit. The game will fade to black rather than show or describe anything explicit. Overall, it's less explicit than many mainline books, but it also doesn't shy away from rather harsh topics that fit in with its subject matter.
---{ PC Requirements }---
☐ Check if you can run paint
☑ Potato
☐ Decent
☐ Fast
☐ Rich boi
☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer
I've played most of this game on a non-gaming, albeit rather good, laptop without a dedicated graphics card. However, I do experience some lag in more dense areas. This game is pretty heavy for an RPG maker game but that's a little like being the world's largest mouse. It's heavy for what it is, but practically any gaming computer built this decade or a decently strong daily driver will handle it fine.
---{ Game Size }---
☐ Floppy Disk
☑ Old Fashioned
☐ Workable
☐ Big
☐ Will eat 15% of your 1TB hard drive
☐ You will want an entire hard drive to hold it
☐ You will need to invest in a black hole to hold all the data
Around 2GB. Yet again, big for RPG maker but workable on every thing else
---{ Difficulty }---
☐ Just press 'W'
☐ Easy
☑ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☐ Significant brain usage
☐ Difficult
☐ Dark Souls
The game isn't particularly hard, but at the same time there's a lot of system mastery there if you go looking for it. The generous recovery systems, in and out of battle, help a lot as you almost always fight fresh
---{ Grind }---
☑ Nothing to grind
☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks
☐ Isn't necessary to progress
☐ Average grind level
☐ Too much grind
☐ You'll need a second life for grinding
It's recommended you fight everything you can but no enemies respawn so you can't really "grind" so to speak. I suppose if you went out of your way to avoid every find you'd end up underleveled, but just playing normally will keep you well on curve.
---{ Story }---
☐ No Story
☐ Some lore
☐ Average
☑ Good
☐ Lovely
☐ It'll replace your life
The game is rather linear but with a fair number of branching and impactful decision points
The story has clear themes, is well told, and has a good vision. This isn't really a game about politics as much as it is about rulership. It isn't a game about ideology, class conflict, the pitfalls of monarchy or even the logistics of kingdom management but does have elements of these. It is, mostly, a game about power, how people behave when they have it, as well as how they really ought to behave.
The main character, Alexander, is an idealized princely figure. He's honorable but practical, merciful but just, clever butbut hones, and dignified but approachable. He's a good balance of the qualities you'd want in an ideal prince. What he isn't however, is flawed.
I'm of the opinion that "flawed" characters are kind overrated, especially in videogames. Alexander is an active protagonist. He's a driving agent for a lot of the plot as he tries to take back his kingdom. This naturally leads him into conflict against those with conflicting interests, especially the myriad factions that populate the world. This keeps the plot churching and keeps it from getting stale.
It's clear that a lot of care has been put into the world building. The lore is surprisingly deep as well as sensibly thought out. If you like fantasy religions, history and politics there's a lot to enjoy here. There are lots of factions each with their old grudges. And dealing with these factions actually builds the overall plot quite a bit. The setting is a pretty well designed powder keg just waiting for all these ancient grudges to spiral out of control.
The party members themselves are all decently well written. They all have consistent characterizations and are likely to have a well informed (and well based) opinion on every decision. I like some of them more than others, but that's to be expected.
As far as criticism go, certain things feel a little anime, but admittedly my tolerance for that sort of thing is pretty high.
Overall, if you're the sort of person who likes the well thought out epic fantasy works full of scheming nobles and political debates then I think you'll enjoy the story quite a bit.
---{ Game Time }---
☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee
☐ Short
☐ Average
☑ Long
☐ To infinity and beyond
This is a very long game especially for a solo project and doubly so considering...
---{ Price }---
☑ It's free!
☐ Worth the price
☐ If it's on sale
☐ If u have some spare money left
☐ Not recommended
☐ You could also just burn your money
You're getting a lot here for literally nothing. This game would be worth the price even at a much higher price point.
---{ Bugs }---
☐ Never heard of
☑ Minor bugs
☐ Can get annoying
☐ ARK: Survival Evolved
☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs
As mentioned, I've experienced some lag issues and a few times where the AI pathfinding was broken but nothing to write home about. A pretty stable experience
---{ Author }---
☑

Noblesse Oblige is one of the best solo-dev RPGMaker games I have played - and I seek that genre out specifically, so for me this is real praise.
What this politics-and-war fantasy drama does best is world-building & "realism" - everything in the plot that happens is detailed with notable backstory to contextualize it, character motivations to justify it, and explicit discussions of logic & consequences to explore what is possible. This feels like how real people make decisions and how real history progresses. And stacked on top of that plot is actual character work with strong arcs - these are not uber-rational politics-bots, they have their own lives amid this civil war tale. All of this combines to give the story a lot of heft; the defeats and victories of the characters are brutally earned.
Gameplay-wise, this does lend itself to the experience being visual-novel esque - I like that, but that is up to your own taste. But the heavy plot is spiced up with lots of decisions of the "kingdom building" variant, which shapes how the story progresses and what challenges one overcomes vs fails. But it is not punishing, where you are "forced" to play with a guide; every choice has positives and negatives, and they mainly result in different routes as opposed to good or bad results, which gives it strong roleplaying elements. And pinning all of this together is a very solid turn-based combat system unique to the game - every character has unique mechanics that synergize with the team, you will use all of the units at different times, and enemy units have a variety of tactics. It is "what you expect" in an RPGMaker game combat-wise, but 20% cooler than normal.
The game isn't perfect, of course. It is a solo-dev RPG maker game, the NPC sprite art is inconsistent and all of that - you are either fine with that or you aren't. While the plotting is great, the prose itself is just "fine", and some of the main villains can be somewhat two-dimensional. And there is a bit too much combat for my taste, that may bother some (though there is an easy mode for those so inclined). For me, none of these are close to dealbreakers - once you settle into the game it is a very engaging story that is doing things in ways few other games in this genre are.
Also it's free! Just play it!

I usually don’t write reviews, but this game caught me off guard in a good way and it really clicked with me. The story is genuinely well crafted and pulled me in more than I expected. The combat isn’t just flashy, It rewards using each character’s skills thoughtfully, which makes every battle feel engaging. The art and worldbuilding also give the game a lot of personality.
There are moments of somewhat tedious reading for me, But i found the extra details really enrich the main story and make it worth it
There’s more I could say, but it’s best experienced firsthand.

I am 9 hrs in and so far i am really enjoying it.Wonderful writing and interesting combat mechanics.Keep up the great work devs.

As rpg maker games go, "Noblesse Oblige- LotSK" together with "The Last Solvereign" are in a league of their own.
Noblesse Oblige provides you with an intrincate political opera, mature writing, love interests and intimate sceenes (adult content included optional ). It will pull you in with excelent world building and different plot options with real consequences getting you deeper into it the further you go. If you enjoyed TLS, you'll enjoy this. If you are an rpg fan, chances are you will enjoy this.
It's a win. Great game.

I'm only 4 hours in but I'm having a blast already, can't believe you can get this for free. I'm not even a jrpg fan, give it a go, you can't go wrong

Progress at time of review: Chapter 15
---{ Art }---
☐ Van Gogh tier
☑ Good
☐ Decent
☐ Bad
☐ My eyes!
RPG Maker game... but as far as they go, this one looks pretty good on the overworld. But you probably don't pick an RPG maker for graphics (unless por—). And the custom art is rather good (mixed with borrowed art). I really hate the art, it looks nice (the custom ones: Alaxander, Ligaea, Despoina, ...)
---{ Gameplay }---
☐ Addicting
☑ Good
☐ It's there... as expected...
☐ Bad even for it's genre
☐ Mental torture
Games like this really show how customizable RPG maker is as an engine. There's a frankly dizzying array of status effects that all interact with the characters' abilities in remarkably clever ways. It's clear that a lot of care has gone into the combat system and the synergies a character has with her own skills but also with the larger party. The only way I can think of improving it would be to have even more mechanics but since this is free game made by a small group/person. This is already enough.
Outside of the combat system, the game has a few features that differentiate it from the crowd. There's a good amount of scenery customization. There plenty of statecraft options that feed into the choice system, even small investment can have quite an impact.
Generic items, such as potions, are more important due to how certain party members interact with them. Additionally, they can be useful in a pinch if, for example, the healer goes down, is low on MP, or you need her to do something else with her action (I rarely use this unless the fight is extra hard, and only use revive/smelling salts).
---{ Audio }---
☐ Eargasm
☑ Very good
☐ Good
☐ It's there...
☐ Ears gone
Some of the musics REALLY set the mood.
---{ Audience }---
☐ Kids
☑ Teens
☑ Adults
☐ Grandma
There's really nothing much objectionable here that would warrant a higher rating. Romance, and the elements thereof, play a pretty significant role in the story but the game avoids being very explicit. The game will fade to black rather than show or describe anything explicit (You can download the text por—).
---{ PC Requirements }---
☑ Potato
☐ Decent
☐ Good
☐ NASA tier
It's an RPG maker game... might be a little heavy for most RPG maker but still light compared to most games.
---{ Game Size }---
☐ Floppy Disk
☑ Quite light
☐ Workable
☐ Big
☐ Your mom
Around 2GB. Not that bad
---{ Difficulty }---
☐ Just spam
☐ Easy
☑ Use your brain
☐ Difficult
The game isn't hard most of the time, there is plenty recovery, it will warn you if it get hard though.
---{ Grind }---
☐ Nothing to grind
☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks
☑ Isn't necessary to progress
☐ Expected
☐ Too much grind
It's recommended you fight everything you can since they don't respawn for you to "grind". It is quite grindy if you are lazy and don't want to spend time explore and talk to every NPC though, you will miss out a lot of content that way as well as EXP if you avoid enemies and optional quests.
---{ Story }---
☐ No Story
☐ Bad
☐ Average
☑ Good
☐ Shakesphere
The game is quite linear but with a fair number of branching and impactful decision points
The story has clear themes, is well told, and has a good vision. This isn't really a game about politics as much as it is about rulership (this I like). It is a game about "Noblesse Oblige".
The main character, Alexander, is an idealized princely figure. He's honorable but practical, merciful but just and knows when to be strict, clever but understandable, strong but gentle, and dignified but approachable. He's a good balance of the qualities you'd want in an ideal prince. He is not really flawed, because there is not really a reason for him to be. He does love more than one women so you can say that is a flaw, I guess...
It's clear that a lot of care has been put into the world building. The lore is quite deep and sensibly thought out. If you like fantasy religions, history and politics (I really like the Order of Alivaea since it is basically free medication).
The party members themselves are all decently well written. They all have consistent characterizations and their opinions are helpful (to me).
---{ Game Time }---
☐ Don't blink
☐ Short
☐ Average
☑ Long
☐ To infinity and beyond
This is a very long game, as long as your coc—
---{ Price }---
☑ It's free!
☐ Worth the price
☐ If it's on sale
☐ If you are rich and want to
I am willing to pay at least 10 US hamburgers
---{ Bugs }---
☑ Never seen
☐ Minor bugs
☐ Can get annoying
☐ Beta test? What's that?
I am either very predictable or just lucky but no bugs (so far)