What did you like best about "Game of Thrones": the flirting or the political intrigue? Was it even better when combined with the harsh realities of medieval politics?

Well, "Imperial Grace" may just be the visual novel for you. Combining dating sim, visual novel, and resource management political strategy, the game asks you to choose whether to rule with your head or your heart as the protagonist who has just ascended the imperial throne in a fictional medieval world.

Imperial Grace has a demo, currently available on itch.io (opens in new tab) and Steam (opens in new tab). It will be released "when the empire is ready," which the developer hopes to be in winter 2023.

In addition to the relationship building that one might expect from a visual novel, "Imperial Grace" also seems to have a light resource management aspect to navigate the politics of the territory. One screenshot shows a series of policies, allowing players to choose the economic direction, the amount of money sent to religious groups, and how heavily to tax subjects. These choices appear to be reflected in a series of incomes: people, nobility, money, faith, army, resources, and influence.

This is not the first visual novel from developer Synstria: their previous work, Ballads at Midnight, was released for free on itch.io (open in new tab) and Steam (open in new tab) in 2021. It tells the story of a musician banished to a castle as vampire bait, only to find that the vampire is not only hungry, but also very bored and (apparently) very attractive. Symstoria is also working on a novel about falling in love with a ghost called Autumn Spirit for the game jam.

"Imperial Grace" can be found on itch.io (opens in a new tab) and Steam (opens in a new tab), and on Symstoria's website (opens in a new tab). Here is the trailer in French, but the game is available in both French and English.