Kidnapped! A Royal Birthday

This is very entertaining title from Choice of Games.

It's a self-aware farce with characters drawn from broad fantasy/fairytale stereotypes.

You play as a royal heir who is constantly surviving kidnapping attempts. The bulk of the game concerns one kidnapping attempt, which involves you and four heroes (a bold knight, a proud Amazon, a peasant, and human raised by faeries) descending layer by layer through an enormous tower full of traps.

One compelling thing about this game is that it rewards bad behavior. Being a helpless drama magnet is one of the strongest ways to make it through the game. So is being selfish and mean, but being kind is okay.

It even makes good use of bad relationship stats. You have plenty of opportunities to decide who to throw in the mix of danger.

Some people have expressed difficulty knowing which stats connect to what. I admit to being a little unclear on the use of strategy vs intuition (neither of which I maxed out), and I stayed almost exactly 50% on 'ready for the ball' vs 'ready to fight'. I think one issue is that much of the humor relies on you making specific choices, so it can feel forced at times because it IS forced due to the humor requirements. I also found it a bit hard to get started.

I received a review copy of this game.