Ambition: A Minuet in Power is a revolutionary, romantic, visual novel where your choices change the course of history! I got to give the game a try and here are my thoughts!
A copy of this game was provided for the purposes of this review.
The premise of the game is this: It’s March 19th, 1789 and King Louis XVI rules over France from the gilded halls of Versailles. France is a country of elegance and poverty, of ancient tradition and unstoppable change. It is a country on the brink of revolution.
Attend parties, mingle with the rich and powerful, learn their secrets, and use this to get the wealth and power you deserve. Find true love in an opulent world of ever-shifting alliances, that grows more dangerous by the day.
Still, you must always keep your eye on the coming revolution. After all, it’s better to be on the right side of history, than the wrong side of the guillotine.
Throughout the game, you will be given choices of not only how to spend your day, be it selling gossip or attending parties, as well as how you approach the interactions you have. The latter is imperative and actually requires strategy to do well. And if you don’t do well in your endeavors, you’ll face the consequences of losing credibility or increasing peril. These stats will really make or break you.
The tutorials do an okay job of explaining the details of things, although I still ran into some questions during my game that I would have liked more clarity on. But for the most part, the game is straightforward, but also more intricate than you’d expect. Or at least I felt that way. Literally, every choice you make has an outcome or consequence, so you really do need to be on your mental toes.
One thing I didn’t expect but enjoyed is that the game has a story that you follow alongside your side quests for extra stats or developing relationships. You play as Yvette and you have just moved to Paris to be with your fiance Armand. However, he is nowhere to be found and certain people don’t take too kindly to him and thus you. So you’re searching for him while also striving to get more power and intel in order to find your missing fiance.
Overall there is a lot more than meets the eye with Ambition: A Minuet in Power. It succeeds as a visual novel with its story and choices matter in conversation, as well as a strategy game when it comes to building wealth, credibility, lowering peril, or influencing the political landscape. I feel like I barely scratched the surface with my game so that extra playability is a bonus. All in all, I recommend this game if you enjoy choice heavy games and/or visual novels.
Are you a fan of choices matter games? Tell me your favorites with a comment.
Dig the review! Out of curiosity, how much would you same the game is worth to a buyer, based on what you played?
I’d say that their price of $19.99 is perfect for it. I wouldn’t pay more than that for it though.